Hola, Field Gulls! I'm Brian from over at Dawgs by Nature. Somewhere around 60 days from now, I'll be packing up my trusty Saturn SL1 (Joanna is her name) and trekking out west to my new home of...you guessed it, Seattle. I plan to celebrate my first day in the city by walking around and showering skittles on unsuspecting pedestrians because Marshawn Lynch won me a fantasy championship this past season. He's a boss.

Why am I here, you ask? Besides making lame jokes, witty remarks and occasional color commentary, I want to know about your city. I've done a bit of searching online, but I would much rather hear things from real people and seeing as how I'm a football nut, I'm probably going to be posting here a lot once I get settled

Anyway, my plan is to take I-90 to I-94, back to I-90 again. I'll be traveling through Chicago and Minneapolis/St. Paul, staying with friends in both places, and then through the upper midwest - North Dakota, Montana and Idaho - before reaching Washington.

Here's a link to my guesstimated route (Google maps) - http://g.co/maps/mh8dk

I would love some advice on how to plan a trip of this magnitude. The furthest I've ever driven is to Nashville, an eight hour drive. This one will be close to 40 hours total.

Here's some things I could use some ideas on:

• Things I should bring with me on the drive itself. I have an iPod stuffed with over 50 hours of music and audio books. I'm planning on making many sandwiches, bringing a lot of water and juice and I know I'll end up consuming a large amount of coffee on the way. I just bought a AAA membership. I'll also have a big jug to pee in on the way, hopefully I can find a car with a Steelers bumper sticker to dump it on when it's full.
• Places to stay after Minneapolis. Like I said, I have friends to crash with in Chicago and Minny but after that I know of nothing and no one until I hit Seattle. If anyone knows of a decent motel, a random couch on the side of the road or places to specifically avoid staying (probably that same random couch?), please let me know. I definitely need a place to stop between Bismarck and the Rockies.
  
• What the heck is this "Seattle Freeze" thing I keep reading about? I understand it, but I don't understand it.
  

Also, about Seattle...I'll be staying in the 98126 zip code. Good restaurants (I'm a foodie, but allergic to shellfish), bars, Browns Backers clubs, non-denominational Christian churches, anyone who attends or has attended the University of Washington, good volunteer opportunities, anything at all would be highly appreciated.

Also, a specific question. Like many college students, I lack health insurance. I'm covered here through a hospital that has a sliding scale community health program that has really inexpensive co-pays and prescriptions. Is there something similar out there?

Thanks everyone. If I think of anything else, I'll just post in the comments. Looking forward to getting out there this summer!