Don't want to double-post, but made some progress over the last two days.
Veilstone City:
Got here late Monday. Route 215 was kinda rough to get through. Spent much of the night and a few hours yesterday grinding coins at the Game Corner to get U-Turn, and gave it to my Vespiquen, but only after finishing the gym (totally didn't know it was there). It was going to make the best use of it.
I totally spaced on the gym being Fighting-type...my Bugs are squishy so they kept knocking my mons out. In the end, however, I'm happy Wormadam has Confusion and Vespiquen has Gust. Between the tw of them, that's how I got through the gym. Trainer by Trainer, one by one, healing as needed. It wasn't too bad, but after that, I spent some time going through and grinding all of my team up to 28 or 29. Also took the opportunity to earn some money and buy more Super Potions but also some vitamins to boost the main attacking stat of each of my team. I'm going to be continuing that. The gym was way too rough for my taste - I can tell that I totally did not restart for good stats...nor did I correctly EV train like I planned to.
Pastoria City:
The path south from Veilstone on the way to Pastroia was kinda interesting. Some battles were easy, and some were slogs. I skipped a number of them, figuring that since Crusher Wake was only a lowly Water type, I should be fine at level 30. Nope. He absolutely was wiping the floor with me (which was a shock to my system since all the trainers were relatively easy to knock to the side).
Gyarados took some doing to knock out. I got it down to about 20/25% HP with my Vespiquen using Power Gem over and over, then Vespiquen was out for the count. After that, my Beautifly and Dustox went down before Gyarados did. I was using HP/Dragon and Tackle, trying to hold on for using Kricketune and Wormadam against Quagsire and Floatzel. Floatzel was next, and I...hate...Brine. It took out my Wormadam, because I forgot it doubles its Base Power when my health is low. Kricketune took it out with X-Scissor. And then I just spammed X-Scissor against Quagsire, hoping to knock it out. Thankfully, I did.
At this point, I need to focus on trying to start a gym at the level of the highest Pokemon in the gym. Starting anywhere below that is a problem when I get to the gym leader. For me, that means I need to focus the rest of my training on EVs. Sure, I'm behind a little, but I need to do more in-depth study and not just pick up the game and go "let's do this!" I need to get some of those stat-reducing Berries.
For now, here's where I'm at:
Cricket (Kricketune)
L 31 / 99 HP / 64 Atk / 41 Def / 44 SAtk / 45 SDef / 52 Spd
Fury Cutter / Bide / Sing / X-Scissor
T-Mobile (Vespiquen)
L 31 / 90 HP / 65 Atk / 68 Def / 58 SAtk / 76 SDef / 46 Spd
U-turn / Slash / Power Gem / Heal Order
Sprint (Beautifly)
L 30 / 85 HP / 56 Atk / 49 Def / 59 SAtk / 40 SDef / 51 Spd
Mega Drain / Hidden Power (Dragon) / Stun Spore / Morning Sun
Cellular (Dustox)
L 30 / 77 HP / 35 Atk / 56 Def / 46 SAtk / 59 SDef / 55 Spd
Tackle / Moonlight / Psybeam / Protect
Verizon (Wormadam/Steel)
L 31 / HP 88 / 49 Atk / 70 Def / 48 SAtk / 67 SDef / 36 Spd
Metal Sound / Mirror Shot / Hidden Power (Ice) / Confusion