Well, we made it the whole way there and back. It was a truely amazing experience. I wish we could have stayed longer in Gatlinburg and experienced the Smokey Mountains more. The weather had just cleared up as we got there and the next day looked like it was gonna be beautiful. But we had to keep on movin.
The ride back was actually pretty nice, up until the end of Virginia. Then the rain started to come. It was absolutely pouring by the time we got to NY. I was actually kind of getting nervous. But when it seemed at its worst and almost undriveable... it let up almost immediately. It was still raining by the time we got back but not like it had been.
I wanted to post more pictures than I did. It just became to hard to load them and resize them, save them and then post them. We sually got in pretty late and we didn't want to do much more than sleep when we did. And in places like San Francisco and Las Vegas where we had more time... we were generally out and about and didn't have much time to do the photo stuff then either. So what I plan to do is find a way I can just load all my pictures onto a site and put the link here so people can click on it and see all the pictures. I'll try to write something about each picture to tell you what it is all about, depending on the site. Maybe FlickR would be best. I'll do that later though.
Trip was great... kind of mad-cap and not really as expensive as I thought it would be. Can't wait till out next adventure.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Monday, April 20, 2009
Home Again
We've arrived back home. It was pouring rain for the vast majority of today and we're mostly just glad to be out of the rain.
I kind of wanted to just keep going - maybe up to Canada and then down to Vermont and then back to Gatlinburg and then who knows... but sadly our funds are not bottomless and I have to return to work tomorrow. :(
That was the best adventure I've had and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. The things I saw and experienced made me speechless and I'm so so so glad that we went on this trip.
I'm not sure what will happen to this blog now that we're home, we might post more photos once we sort them, or just leave it until our next adventure and then blog that. We'll just have to see. Matt may want to add something later, but for now - g'nite all.
I kind of wanted to just keep going - maybe up to Canada and then down to Vermont and then back to Gatlinburg and then who knows... but sadly our funds are not bottomless and I have to return to work tomorrow. :(
That was the best adventure I've had and I would do it all again in a heartbeat. The things I saw and experienced made me speechless and I'm so so so glad that we went on this trip.
I'm not sure what will happen to this blog now that we're home, we might post more photos once we sort them, or just leave it until our next adventure and then blog that. We'll just have to see. Matt may want to add something later, but for now - g'nite all.
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Brinkley, AR to Gatlinburg, TN
Touched down in the pouring rain...
We're heading out from Brinkley, Arkansas towards Graceland and of course it's pouring rain. We already listened to "Walking In Memphis" and noted the comment about pouring rain. Now we're listening to Paul Simon's "Graceland", although I'm thinking more and more I may not even be getting out of the car because damn it's raining hard. We don't really have time to go in anyway, I just wanted to see the gates - but I hope I can get some kind of decent photo. At least maybe the rain is washing the dead bugs off my car.
-- So apparently Graceland does not open until 9. It's 8:15. We were going to just park and take a photo of the gates except the gates are open and there are a bunch of cops around - there was a tent out and it looked like there was something going on. The biggest problem for me is the rain. It's absolutely pouring and in combination with everything else it just seemed ridiculous. So we saw the gates, snagged a couple postcards at a gas station and took a photo of the more official looking sign across the street. And now we're driving through the rain to Gatlinburg. I really hope it stops raining by the time we get there because I'd really like to see the town. Memphis I could give or take - it seemed silly to not try since we were passing through - but we're staying in Gatlinburg and I've heard so much about it from Matt I've been kind of excited for this all week.
We missed the Tennesse State Line because it was in the middle of the Mississippi River and I wasn't paying attention. We've missed other state lines so I guess it's okay, but I was on a role this half of the trip so it's a little sad. Ah well. Maybe we can get it on the way out or something.
-- drove through a crazy rainstorm in Tennessee... but it cleared up almost as soon as we entered town... and boy what a town.
I describe Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge as Las Vegas, the New York State fair and a Renaissance Faire all rolled into one. Bright flashy signs and lights, tiny little shopping villages and mini golf/arcades/haunted houses etc etc etc galore. Tons of Old Tyme Photo stands, fried dough and corn dogs for sale and a Ripley's museum or two. Thankfully the rain ended as we checked in so we had a wonderfully perfect evening walking around town and looking in shops and playing mini-golf with a wonderful view of the mountains. The weather was perfect, I wore jeans but didn't need a coat. Here's hoping we get good weather for tomorrow too... maybe the storm is done.
There are also - we counted - 9 Pancake houses within a 3 minute driving distance on a main road through Pigeon Forge. There are more we missed, we're pretty sure. But try to go to these pancake houses and you discover that they are only open until 2pm. Had to go to this fantabulous 50's diner for some pancakes as it was after 9pm. They were aaaamazing though.
signing out for the night - back home soon, :(
We're heading out from Brinkley, Arkansas towards Graceland and of course it's pouring rain. We already listened to "Walking In Memphis" and noted the comment about pouring rain. Now we're listening to Paul Simon's "Graceland", although I'm thinking more and more I may not even be getting out of the car because damn it's raining hard. We don't really have time to go in anyway, I just wanted to see the gates - but I hope I can get some kind of decent photo. At least maybe the rain is washing the dead bugs off my car.
-- So apparently Graceland does not open until 9. It's 8:15. We were going to just park and take a photo of the gates except the gates are open and there are a bunch of cops around - there was a tent out and it looked like there was something going on. The biggest problem for me is the rain. It's absolutely pouring and in combination with everything else it just seemed ridiculous. So we saw the gates, snagged a couple postcards at a gas station and took a photo of the more official looking sign across the street. And now we're driving through the rain to Gatlinburg. I really hope it stops raining by the time we get there because I'd really like to see the town. Memphis I could give or take - it seemed silly to not try since we were passing through - but we're staying in Gatlinburg and I've heard so much about it from Matt I've been kind of excited for this all week.
We missed the Tennesse State Line because it was in the middle of the Mississippi River and I wasn't paying attention. We've missed other state lines so I guess it's okay, but I was on a role this half of the trip so it's a little sad. Ah well. Maybe we can get it on the way out or something.
-- drove through a crazy rainstorm in Tennessee... but it cleared up almost as soon as we entered town... and boy what a town.
I describe Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge as Las Vegas, the New York State fair and a Renaissance Faire all rolled into one. Bright flashy signs and lights, tiny little shopping villages and mini golf/arcades/haunted houses etc etc etc galore. Tons of Old Tyme Photo stands, fried dough and corn dogs for sale and a Ripley's museum or two. Thankfully the rain ended as we checked in so we had a wonderfully perfect evening walking around town and looking in shops and playing mini-golf with a wonderful view of the mountains. The weather was perfect, I wore jeans but didn't need a coat. Here's hoping we get good weather for tomorrow too... maybe the storm is done.
There are also - we counted - 9 Pancake houses within a 3 minute driving distance on a main road through Pigeon Forge. There are more we missed, we're pretty sure. But try to go to these pancake houses and you discover that they are only open until 2pm. Had to go to this fantabulous 50's diner for some pancakes as it was after 9pm. They were aaaamazing though.
signing out for the night - back home soon, :(
Tucumcari to Brinkley from Lindsey
Day 10 - Technology Rebels
Yesterday we had continuing problems with Jareth (the laptop) who refused to turn on because the battery was dying and we kept turning off his power source. Today I ran out of battery for both my cameras and ran out of room on my camera cards. I need a CVS and we're in the middle of nowhere - having just entered northern Texas from New Mexico. I also noticed this morning that the "F" key on my keyboard is missing. I'm not sure if it ran away in the hotel or in the car, so we'll have to do a quick search for it later, or when we get home.
We stayed in Tucumcari New Mexico which was supposed to have like 5 Route 66 roadside attractions to photograph, but we only saw two. Route 66 is running parallel with the interstate 40 that we're traveling on, so occasionally we see signs for things like Meteor Craters and Native American Travel Plazas and Dinosaur Museums. We haven't seen anything that sparks our interest enough yet, but we're also kind of on a tight schedule. It's sad. Someday I think I'd like to just drive Route 66 and see everything I want to on it. Take the time to stop etc. We're seeing a few things, but not as much as I think I'd like to.
It's really bright out and we're driving East again - so right into the sun. Thankfully we're past the snow and hopefully past rain for a little while. Our next stop is supposed to be 70 and beautiful, but we're not getting there till after dark so we'll see how the day goes.
-- Didn't really type much today as we were constantly on the move - only stopped for gas and postcards today and it worked in our favor because we got in early for us. It'll be good to get a little more sleep.
Yesterday we had continuing problems with Jareth (the laptop) who refused to turn on because the battery was dying and we kept turning off his power source. Today I ran out of battery for both my cameras and ran out of room on my camera cards. I need a CVS and we're in the middle of nowhere - having just entered northern Texas from New Mexico. I also noticed this morning that the "F" key on my keyboard is missing. I'm not sure if it ran away in the hotel or in the car, so we'll have to do a quick search for it later, or when we get home.
We stayed in Tucumcari New Mexico which was supposed to have like 5 Route 66 roadside attractions to photograph, but we only saw two. Route 66 is running parallel with the interstate 40 that we're traveling on, so occasionally we see signs for things like Meteor Craters and Native American Travel Plazas and Dinosaur Museums. We haven't seen anything that sparks our interest enough yet, but we're also kind of on a tight schedule. It's sad. Someday I think I'd like to just drive Route 66 and see everything I want to on it. Take the time to stop etc. We're seeing a few things, but not as much as I think I'd like to.
It's really bright out and we're driving East again - so right into the sun. Thankfully we're past the snow and hopefully past rain for a little while. Our next stop is supposed to be 70 and beautiful, but we're not getting there till after dark so we'll see how the day goes.
-- Didn't really type much today as we were constantly on the move - only stopped for gas and postcards today and it worked in our favor because we got in early for us. It'll be good to get a little more sleep.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
April 18th
Drove from Tucumcari New Mexico to Brinkley Arkansas, took about 11 hours with stops and things to refuel and get post cards and all that. The change from Oklahoma to Arkansas seemed pretty dramatic, like from basically flat flat farmland to a hilly forested landscape, kinda like New England. the spring is in full force down here though. I don't know what its like at home. It was about 70 most of the drive.
From Vegas to Tucumcari was ok, not too much too look at. We did stop by a place that had petrified wood and we got a free sample of it. Also saw alot of fake tee-pees outside "trading posts" along the highway. Oh yeah, we've been riding along side rt. 66 for a long ways also... yesterday and most of today. We went to a small rt. 66 museum yesterday also.
So now here we are toward the end of Arkansas. On to Gatlinburg TN tomorrow and the Smokey Mountains. Too bad we can't stay longer there. Missing everyone back home... sorry I didn't call today, was driving most of the day... Only like 2 hours off today. Tomorrow is a short driving day though so I'm looking forward to that. Tell you about Vegas when I have more time. Mattavina, out!
From Vegas to Tucumcari was ok, not too much too look at. We did stop by a place that had petrified wood and we got a free sample of it. Also saw alot of fake tee-pees outside "trading posts" along the highway. Oh yeah, we've been riding along side rt. 66 for a long ways also... yesterday and most of today. We went to a small rt. 66 museum yesterday also.
So now here we are toward the end of Arkansas. On to Gatlinburg TN tomorrow and the Smokey Mountains. Too bad we can't stay longer there. Missing everyone back home... sorry I didn't call today, was driving most of the day... Only like 2 hours off today. Tomorrow is a short driving day though so I'm looking forward to that. Tell you about Vegas when I have more time. Mattavina, out!
a couple of days behind
Didn't have internets in Vegas and forgot to post last night. Here is what I wrote on the way to Vegas:
April 15th.
I'll just say that yesterday was really, really amazing! Lindsey wrote more on the subject so I'll just do a little synopsis here. First off, we left San Francisco. It was nice and I was sad to see it go. But we had the Pacific Coast highway, which is Rt. 1. but before that we wanted to see if we could see what kind of redwoods we might be able to see below San Francisco. We saw some Parks while we were looking online that said there were some Redwoods around there. Since it wasn't in Redwoods National Forest, I figured we wern't gonna see much. But we started driving up the Mountain and the Trees were getting bigger and bigger looking. Finall we got to the park and the headquarters we were astounded by the trees. There was no doubt that these were certified redwoods, and it blew us away.
Next we went down the Coast Line almost instantly after and were then, once more blown away, this time by the pacific ocean and its deep blue aquamarine color and the size of the waves crashing against the rocks and cliff walls. I can't imagine seeing so many majestic and beautiful things in such a short period ever again.
Now, after a quick stay at Bakersfield, CA, we are on our way to Las Vegas. We will be getting in around 2. So I imagine when we get there, it will be absolute insanity in the middle of the desert, which we are currently driving through. The desert isn't just flat and boring though. There are pleanty of mountains and clouds and distant rains showers to look at. Its actually quite beautiful in it's own right. Ok I'll post later and let you know what I think of Vegas.
April 15th.
I'll just say that yesterday was really, really amazing! Lindsey wrote more on the subject so I'll just do a little synopsis here. First off, we left San Francisco. It was nice and I was sad to see it go. But we had the Pacific Coast highway, which is Rt. 1. but before that we wanted to see if we could see what kind of redwoods we might be able to see below San Francisco. We saw some Parks while we were looking online that said there were some Redwoods around there. Since it wasn't in Redwoods National Forest, I figured we wern't gonna see much. But we started driving up the Mountain and the Trees were getting bigger and bigger looking. Finall we got to the park and the headquarters we were astounded by the trees. There was no doubt that these were certified redwoods, and it blew us away.
Next we went down the Coast Line almost instantly after and were then, once more blown away, this time by the pacific ocean and its deep blue aquamarine color and the size of the waves crashing against the rocks and cliff walls. I can't imagine seeing so many majestic and beautiful things in such a short period ever again.
Now, after a quick stay at Bakersfield, CA, we are on our way to Las Vegas. We will be getting in around 2. So I imagine when we get there, it will be absolute insanity in the middle of the desert, which we are currently driving through. The desert isn't just flat and boring though. There are pleanty of mountains and clouds and distant rains showers to look at. Its actually quite beautiful in it's own right. Ok I'll post later and let you know what I think of Vegas.
Las Vegas TO Tucamcari, New Mexico
Day 9 ? Friday April 17th, 2009
Amusingly enough the most high class place we've stayed yet and we didn't have internet - except it was because it cost $14 a day and it really didn't seem worth the money. Hopefully we'll be good tonight in some cheap hotel in New Mexico.
Tuesday night we drove into a pre-chosen but also slightly random town in California and found a place to sleep for the night. We had breakfast for dinner at a place that was across the parking lot, but service was terrible. It took at least 40 minutes to get our food and we were starving by that point because we hadn't eaten for a while that day. Checked the car oil and stuff in the morning and headed off to Vegas for our shortest drive yet, only about 5 hours. There was a crazy amount of construction to drive through going in to the city and we couldn't seem to find the Welcome to Vegas sign, but once we got ourselves situated we checked in with my parents and crashed for a little bit. A couple showers, a short walk around a few hotels and dinner later we took a taxi down to Freemont Street.
Las Vegas essentially has two sections - the Strip and Freemont Street. They're about 6 miles apart and sort of very different worlds with similar elements. The Vegas Strip is all the casino/hotel's you've heard about - Bellagio, Monte Carlo, Luxor (the pyramid), etc. it's a bit classy in parts and trashy in others, but that's Vegas. Freemont Street is Old Vegas - the Golden Nugget is one of the main casino hotels there and everything is neon and bright. What makes it seem brighter than the strip is that they put a half tunnel across the top of Freemont Street covered to the brim with LED Lights. Every hour or half hour they have shows on this giant screen above the street. That night they played Don Mclean's American Pie and illustrated it with photographs and illustrations and dancing girls. Later they had a tribute to Queen which wasn't quite as impressive, but was still cool. The last time I was in Vegas they had this weird animated Alien thing. The aliens were like looking down on you with their experiemental tools and stuff. It's really a cool experience no matter what they're showing.
Back at the strip we crashed for the night. We were up at a decent hour and went walking down the strip and in and out of more hotels. Hit up shopping centers in Planet Hollywood and Caesars and had an amazing lunch at a restaurant called Serendipity 3 in the courtyard at Caesars. We must have walked a few miles in just the morning, so we took a break and hit the pool at our hotel which felt really really good until you got OUT of the water and then the wind hit you. At the Venetian I bought a mask from Venice that I had wanted to buy the last time I was here and it's beautiful. It's one of the smaller ones that I could afford, but it'll look great hanging. Next we saw Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. The animals were beautiful but I couldn't help notice that they were in very small spaces and the cats were pacing a lot. It made me a bit sad. There's so much space behind all these hotels, I feel like they could have given these animals a lot more space.
Finally, what I've been waiting for for probably a year now - we went to see the Cirque du Soliel Beatle's show LOVE. The theater was in the round and incredibly small - all the seats were great no matter where you were. Everything was amazing. The sets and costumes were so incredible and detailed. The acrobatics were amazing - a lot of aeriel work as well as roller blading and awesome awesome use of trampolines. The songs were beautifully interpreted and I was singing and dancing the whole show on the edge of my seat. Favorite bits include these little kids wearing blank face heads with mop tops and the 1964 suits, also pulling a huge sheet of white fabric over almost the entire audience and shaking it so that the bed at on top looked like it was floating on the clouds. Simple dancing and aerial work with the help of a ladder attached to a giant wheel during Lucy in the SKy - when they could have done a lot of visuals they stayed simple it was good. They also had characters for Eleanor Rigby, Father Mckenzie and Lady Madonna that were featured and also on stage at other points. During Lady Madonna there was a cool video of rain boots dancing in the rain. And the people on stage had TAP DANCE YELLOW RAIN BOOTS. .. they were awesome. Everything was amazing and made me so so happy. It was too short.
We saw the Bellagio fountain show twice - once during the day to "Lady Luck" and then again at night to "Viva Las Vegas". I love watching that - it's always fun. We tried to find fuzzy dice to add to the mirror after Vegas, but the only ones we could find were too big. We got a small keychain with dice in it instead and it's hanging with my crystal currently.
Today we started out from Las Vegas and saw the Welcome to sign... well, the thanks for coming part anyway, and i got a photo of the welcome part through the back window as we passed. We noticed somewhere in Arizona that our camera had stopped working, so we pulled off the highway - and as fortune would have it landed at the Route 66 Museum! I bought postcards and Matt bought a travel mug and we both chatted with the older gentleman manning the museum in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome.
Back on route, we're still driving through Arizona towards New Mexico.
-- Hit a bitty snowstorm in the upper elevations of New Mexico, of course just when I needed to get out adn get gas. But we got here okay and the room is really nice so we're going to figure out tomorrow and crash for the night.
Signing off till next internet time :)
Amusingly enough the most high class place we've stayed yet and we didn't have internet - except it was because it cost $14 a day and it really didn't seem worth the money. Hopefully we'll be good tonight in some cheap hotel in New Mexico.
Tuesday night we drove into a pre-chosen but also slightly random town in California and found a place to sleep for the night. We had breakfast for dinner at a place that was across the parking lot, but service was terrible. It took at least 40 minutes to get our food and we were starving by that point because we hadn't eaten for a while that day. Checked the car oil and stuff in the morning and headed off to Vegas for our shortest drive yet, only about 5 hours. There was a crazy amount of construction to drive through going in to the city and we couldn't seem to find the Welcome to Vegas sign, but once we got ourselves situated we checked in with my parents and crashed for a little bit. A couple showers, a short walk around a few hotels and dinner later we took a taxi down to Freemont Street.
Las Vegas essentially has two sections - the Strip and Freemont Street. They're about 6 miles apart and sort of very different worlds with similar elements. The Vegas Strip is all the casino/hotel's you've heard about - Bellagio, Monte Carlo, Luxor (the pyramid), etc. it's a bit classy in parts and trashy in others, but that's Vegas. Freemont Street is Old Vegas - the Golden Nugget is one of the main casino hotels there and everything is neon and bright. What makes it seem brighter than the strip is that they put a half tunnel across the top of Freemont Street covered to the brim with LED Lights. Every hour or half hour they have shows on this giant screen above the street. That night they played Don Mclean's American Pie and illustrated it with photographs and illustrations and dancing girls. Later they had a tribute to Queen which wasn't quite as impressive, but was still cool. The last time I was in Vegas they had this weird animated Alien thing. The aliens were like looking down on you with their experiemental tools and stuff. It's really a cool experience no matter what they're showing.
Back at the strip we crashed for the night. We were up at a decent hour and went walking down the strip and in and out of more hotels. Hit up shopping centers in Planet Hollywood and Caesars and had an amazing lunch at a restaurant called Serendipity 3 in the courtyard at Caesars. We must have walked a few miles in just the morning, so we took a break and hit the pool at our hotel which felt really really good until you got OUT of the water and then the wind hit you. At the Venetian I bought a mask from Venice that I had wanted to buy the last time I was here and it's beautiful. It's one of the smaller ones that I could afford, but it'll look great hanging. Next we saw Sigfried and Roy's Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat at the Mirage. The animals were beautiful but I couldn't help notice that they were in very small spaces and the cats were pacing a lot. It made me a bit sad. There's so much space behind all these hotels, I feel like they could have given these animals a lot more space.
Finally, what I've been waiting for for probably a year now - we went to see the Cirque du Soliel Beatle's show LOVE. The theater was in the round and incredibly small - all the seats were great no matter where you were. Everything was amazing. The sets and costumes were so incredible and detailed. The acrobatics were amazing - a lot of aeriel work as well as roller blading and awesome awesome use of trampolines. The songs were beautifully interpreted and I was singing and dancing the whole show on the edge of my seat. Favorite bits include these little kids wearing blank face heads with mop tops and the 1964 suits, also pulling a huge sheet of white fabric over almost the entire audience and shaking it so that the bed at on top looked like it was floating on the clouds. Simple dancing and aerial work with the help of a ladder attached to a giant wheel during Lucy in the SKy - when they could have done a lot of visuals they stayed simple it was good. They also had characters for Eleanor Rigby, Father Mckenzie and Lady Madonna that were featured and also on stage at other points. During Lady Madonna there was a cool video of rain boots dancing in the rain. And the people on stage had TAP DANCE YELLOW RAIN BOOTS. .. they were awesome. Everything was amazing and made me so so happy. It was too short.
We saw the Bellagio fountain show twice - once during the day to "Lady Luck" and then again at night to "Viva Las Vegas". I love watching that - it's always fun. We tried to find fuzzy dice to add to the mirror after Vegas, but the only ones we could find were too big. We got a small keychain with dice in it instead and it's hanging with my crystal currently.
Today we started out from Las Vegas and saw the Welcome to sign... well, the thanks for coming part anyway, and i got a photo of the welcome part through the back window as we passed. We noticed somewhere in Arizona that our camera had stopped working, so we pulled off the highway - and as fortune would have it landed at the Route 66 Museum! I bought postcards and Matt bought a travel mug and we both chatted with the older gentleman manning the museum in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome.
Back on route, we're still driving through Arizona towards New Mexico.
-- Hit a bitty snowstorm in the upper elevations of New Mexico, of course just when I needed to get out adn get gas. But we got here okay and the room is really nice so we're going to figure out tomorrow and crash for the night.
Signing off till next internet time :)
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Day I Don't Know: San Francisco to Bakersfield, CA
Day i don't know Tuesday April 14th
Losing track of days, which is fine. I know it's Tuesday and we've been on the road a week tomorrow. We left San Francisco behind around 9 this morning and started our drive south. We took this amazing road that curved up a mountain for something like 12 miles. It was an incredible experience and the trees just kept getting bigger and bigger. We reached a vista point and stopped the car for a breathtaking view of the mountains from the top of one. There was a quirky dirt trail that we both kind of really wanted to walk on but we didn't have time really to explore just then. We continued our curvy route up the mountain and eventually entered Big Basic Redwoods State Park just south of San Francisco California.
Driving through the park we both kept getting distracted because the trees were just so big and so so beautiful. Arriving at the Headquarters we saw that they were having a controlled fire which smelled amazing. From there we took their shortest path through the woods - Redwood Loop - which took us maybe half an hour to 45 minutes including the billion times we stopped to take photos. While this wasn't the main northern redwood park, these were pretty incredible in and of themselves. We also were able to see the biggest trees in that particular state park which are the biggest both around and height wise that I've ever seen. It was awesome. While it wasn't a hike, in fact the path was completely flat, it was a really nice walk through the forest and the redwoods were awe inspiring. I want to take of one of the photos of us there and write across it " On Endor, lookin fur ur Ewoks" because after being completely in awe and fascinated by the sheer size of everything around us, we realized that we were totally on Endor. I feel like, in this particular case, photos can tell better than words how incredible this was, but basically we were just grinning ear to ear the entire time and I was jumping up and down a lot. I'm so so glad that we were able to take that path and see the Redwoods.
From there we went down the mountain, found some lunch at a local place and continued south. We're currently on Rt 1, or the Pacific Coast Highway - which will soon start to directly follow the ocean and is supposed to be an incredibly beautiful drive. So far we've caught glimpses of the Pacific Ocean, but we're still kind of driving through towns. I think a little ways after Monterey we'll hit the actual coastal drive which is supposed to be incredible. We both changed into pants for the chill of the forest, but hopefully we'll hit warmer weather soon. I think it's around 55 still right now. Just saw a boar crossing sign :) I think so far we've seen horse crossing, goat, bull, cow, tractor, deer, elk, and I think that's it.
We just got our first space to pull over and view the ocean and it is incredible. The wind is really high so it's cold out, but the waves are crashing and the water is so so so blue/green. I've never seen water that color really. I think the closest I've come is Cape Ann which has pretty water tendencies. This is going to be such a beautiful drive. I just hope it gets warmer.
This drive is more incredible than I ever imagined. We are driving on curvy roads on the edge of a mountain - we go up and down alternatively as we drive the coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It's beautiful and sort of terrifying. There seem to be a lot of "falling rock" areas that make me nervous - especially when I see the rocks in the middle of the road that fell. There are a lot of stopping points by the side of the road to stop and take pictures but we've only stopped once or twice because the wind is so ridiculous. Occasionally there are random houses perched on the cliff below us. Sometimes all we can see is the mailbox. There are also occasional inns and lodges, and I would totally add one of them to the list of off-beat places to stop on another road trip - along with that place by Walker Lake in the middle of nowhere Nevada desert. All slightly scary places to stay - but beautiful nonetheless.
Also of note - there are farms on this cliff as well - some including cows. Just grazing by the side of the cliff overlooking the ocean. It's bizarre. At the end of the route is Cambrai - which has this little street full of everything you could imagine a small town needing. Right at the bottom of another mountain cliff where I think I saw houses perched. There are art galleries, ice cream parlors, restaurants, gas station, book store etc. Tiny little seaside type buildings. It was really cute. The only downside to all of this is the crazy wind and the fact that it's still 50 degrees. We want to know what the hell is going on if California is cold and windy. But we're heading to Vegas which should be 70 and beautiful.
Every day competes with the day before for amazing things that we've seen. Best idea we ever had, I'm loving every minute.
----
Found a hotel for the night, walked across the parking lot for a late dinner and almost fell asleep during the 35 minutes it took to get our food. Going to set up the route for tomorrow and get some sleep.
Losing track of days, which is fine. I know it's Tuesday and we've been on the road a week tomorrow. We left San Francisco behind around 9 this morning and started our drive south. We took this amazing road that curved up a mountain for something like 12 miles. It was an incredible experience and the trees just kept getting bigger and bigger. We reached a vista point and stopped the car for a breathtaking view of the mountains from the top of one. There was a quirky dirt trail that we both kind of really wanted to walk on but we didn't have time really to explore just then. We continued our curvy route up the mountain and eventually entered Big Basic Redwoods State Park just south of San Francisco California.
Driving through the park we both kept getting distracted because the trees were just so big and so so beautiful. Arriving at the Headquarters we saw that they were having a controlled fire which smelled amazing. From there we took their shortest path through the woods - Redwood Loop - which took us maybe half an hour to 45 minutes including the billion times we stopped to take photos. While this wasn't the main northern redwood park, these were pretty incredible in and of themselves. We also were able to see the biggest trees in that particular state park which are the biggest both around and height wise that I've ever seen. It was awesome. While it wasn't a hike, in fact the path was completely flat, it was a really nice walk through the forest and the redwoods were awe inspiring. I want to take of one of the photos of us there and write across it " On Endor, lookin fur ur Ewoks" because after being completely in awe and fascinated by the sheer size of everything around us, we realized that we were totally on Endor. I feel like, in this particular case, photos can tell better than words how incredible this was, but basically we were just grinning ear to ear the entire time and I was jumping up and down a lot. I'm so so glad that we were able to take that path and see the Redwoods.
From there we went down the mountain, found some lunch at a local place and continued south. We're currently on Rt 1, or the Pacific Coast Highway - which will soon start to directly follow the ocean and is supposed to be an incredibly beautiful drive. So far we've caught glimpses of the Pacific Ocean, but we're still kind of driving through towns. I think a little ways after Monterey we'll hit the actual coastal drive which is supposed to be incredible. We both changed into pants for the chill of the forest, but hopefully we'll hit warmer weather soon. I think it's around 55 still right now. Just saw a boar crossing sign :) I think so far we've seen horse crossing, goat, bull, cow, tractor, deer, elk, and I think that's it.
We just got our first space to pull over and view the ocean and it is incredible. The wind is really high so it's cold out, but the waves are crashing and the water is so so so blue/green. I've never seen water that color really. I think the closest I've come is Cape Ann which has pretty water tendencies. This is going to be such a beautiful drive. I just hope it gets warmer.
This drive is more incredible than I ever imagined. We are driving on curvy roads on the edge of a mountain - we go up and down alternatively as we drive the coast overlooking the Pacific Ocean. It's beautiful and sort of terrifying. There seem to be a lot of "falling rock" areas that make me nervous - especially when I see the rocks in the middle of the road that fell. There are a lot of stopping points by the side of the road to stop and take pictures but we've only stopped once or twice because the wind is so ridiculous. Occasionally there are random houses perched on the cliff below us. Sometimes all we can see is the mailbox. There are also occasional inns and lodges, and I would totally add one of them to the list of off-beat places to stop on another road trip - along with that place by Walker Lake in the middle of nowhere Nevada desert. All slightly scary places to stay - but beautiful nonetheless.
Also of note - there are farms on this cliff as well - some including cows. Just grazing by the side of the cliff overlooking the ocean. It's bizarre. At the end of the route is Cambrai - which has this little street full of everything you could imagine a small town needing. Right at the bottom of another mountain cliff where I think I saw houses perched. There are art galleries, ice cream parlors, restaurants, gas station, book store etc. Tiny little seaside type buildings. It was really cute. The only downside to all of this is the crazy wind and the fact that it's still 50 degrees. We want to know what the hell is going on if California is cold and windy. But we're heading to Vegas which should be 70 and beautiful.
Every day competes with the day before for amazing things that we've seen. Best idea we ever had, I'm loving every minute.
----
Found a hotel for the night, walked across the parking lot for a late dinner and almost fell asleep during the 35 minutes it took to get our food. Going to set up the route for tomorrow and get some sleep.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday April 13th - San Francisco
Monday April 13th - San Francisco
Deciding to stay a full day in San Francisco was a good decision. We started our day with a walk up the steepest hill that one can drive up I've ever seen in my life (I like to say it's another World's Largest even if it might not be). Discussing it later, we think that it must be at least a 45 degree angle, it's ridiculous and very hard to capture in a photograph though we certainly tried. Next we encountered the Crookedest Street (I also like to consider this a World's .. in this case Crookedest Street) which was windy with hedges around the curves and brick laid. Very beautiful and also very steep.
We continued our journey towards Pier 39 which is like a cross between Savannah's waterfront and the New Jersey boardwalk. A lot of touristy shops, some art galleries and a ton of restuarants start off your journey down the road. Once you hit the piers there is also a slew of museums (ripley's, a wax museum and i believe more intellectual ones as well) and I think an aquarium though I didn't see the entrance anywhere.
From there is a boardwalk type path that runs towards the water, not along it with more shopping, restuarants and entertainment including a carousel. I found a store called Lefties that has stuff made for left handers in it and thought of my parents who are both left handed. One of the coolest things, though, was the sea lions. Apparently sea lions just started showing up and now camp out on rafts in the bay by the boats. We saw several of them fighting over a certain spot and there was a lot of sun bathing going on as well. Kind of awesome to see them in a more natural environment in a way. They are there by choice.
But, the thing that beats out the sea lions has to be the Musee Mecanique. We discovered this completely by accident and ended up spending at least 30 minutes inside, maybe more. It's a warehouse FULL of original working mechanical attraction things. Like fortune tellers and video games. From the 1800's through now - everything was represented but the pure scope of seeing all those early 20th century coin operated mechanicals was so so cool. And what was cooler is that they all worked. You could put in a quarter and see "what the belly dancer does on her day off" or an English Execution with puppets or a Barber Shop Quartet with puppets. There were some of the creepiest puppets I'd ever seen in these machines and I think Matt captured the creepiness perfectly. I kept getting a glare, and getting freaked out. We even found an old photo booth and now have a set of 4 black and white photos of us 1930's style. So so cool.
After a brief return to the hotel we drove to Golden Gate Park and from there a new adventure started. Golden Gate Park is harder to navigate than Central Park in my opinion. It has a lot more major roads that run through it and everything is guarded closely by a wall of plant life that you can't see past. It makes it hard to see where you are and where you are going. There are also a strange lack of street signs, though street names are carved into the sidewalk. Other than that the park was pretty and there were some interesting flowers (some of which ended up in my hair, because we sort of had to, this being San Francisco and all). There were also bizarre crooked palm trees that sort of fascinated us.
From the park we walked up Haight street to the famous cross-street of Ashbury. I imagined Haight Ashbury to be more musical, I guess, more creative considering it's history as a center for hippies and music in the 1960's, but I saw a scant 2 guitarist panhandlers and the street was pretty sketchy to walk down. A lot of panhandlers, some more brazen than others, a lot of people too. Some shops looked
interesting, but by that point it was getting late and the area was kind of getting to me. I took a photo of the street signs, but I'm not sure if it came out very well. The sky was very white and there were people in my way sort of. Either way, I went and I can say I've been, but I wish that the area had stayed creative and not become a sort of ghetto for the desperate.
On our way back into the park a youngish guy asked us if we wanted any herbals, at which point I realized the experience was complete.
We walked back through the park, retrieved the car and headed back to the hotel. Another short break later we were out and about in search of dinner back on Pier 39. I bought a SF shirt because it kind of called to me despite the colors, or perhaps because of them. A final stop at Ghiradelli's for an amazing chocolate chip cookie sunday completed a long but amazing day.
We did a lot of hiking up and down a lot of hills. You can't go anywhere in SF without going up or down a hill and it's going to be extreme either way. My feet sort of hurt and I think I got a small tan if not sunburn, which I wasn't expecting until Vegas. Guess we'll have to invest in some suntan lotion soon.
My posts just get longer and longer. I feel like maybe I should compile all this into a book with my photos and have it made. I would probably extend the entries more too. Okay, time to figure out tomorrow so we can get some sleep.
Scroll down for more from Matt as well as a few photos :)
Deciding to stay a full day in San Francisco was a good decision. We started our day with a walk up the steepest hill that one can drive up I've ever seen in my life (I like to say it's another World's Largest even if it might not be). Discussing it later, we think that it must be at least a 45 degree angle, it's ridiculous and very hard to capture in a photograph though we certainly tried. Next we encountered the Crookedest Street (I also like to consider this a World's .. in this case Crookedest Street) which was windy with hedges around the curves and brick laid. Very beautiful and also very steep.
We continued our journey towards Pier 39 which is like a cross between Savannah's waterfront and the New Jersey boardwalk. A lot of touristy shops, some art galleries and a ton of restuarants start off your journey down the road. Once you hit the piers there is also a slew of museums (ripley's, a wax museum and i believe more intellectual ones as well) and I think an aquarium though I didn't see the entrance anywhere.
From there is a boardwalk type path that runs towards the water, not along it with more shopping, restuarants and entertainment including a carousel. I found a store called Lefties that has stuff made for left handers in it and thought of my parents who are both left handed. One of the coolest things, though, was the sea lions. Apparently sea lions just started showing up and now camp out on rafts in the bay by the boats. We saw several of them fighting over a certain spot and there was a lot of sun bathing going on as well. Kind of awesome to see them in a more natural environment in a way. They are there by choice.
But, the thing that beats out the sea lions has to be the Musee Mecanique. We discovered this completely by accident and ended up spending at least 30 minutes inside, maybe more. It's a warehouse FULL of original working mechanical attraction things. Like fortune tellers and video games. From the 1800's through now - everything was represented but the pure scope of seeing all those early 20th century coin operated mechanicals was so so cool. And what was cooler is that they all worked. You could put in a quarter and see "what the belly dancer does on her day off" or an English Execution with puppets or a Barber Shop Quartet with puppets. There were some of the creepiest puppets I'd ever seen in these machines and I think Matt captured the creepiness perfectly. I kept getting a glare, and getting freaked out. We even found an old photo booth and now have a set of 4 black and white photos of us 1930's style. So so cool.
After a brief return to the hotel we drove to Golden Gate Park and from there a new adventure started. Golden Gate Park is harder to navigate than Central Park in my opinion. It has a lot more major roads that run through it and everything is guarded closely by a wall of plant life that you can't see past. It makes it hard to see where you are and where you are going. There are also a strange lack of street signs, though street names are carved into the sidewalk. Other than that the park was pretty and there were some interesting flowers (some of which ended up in my hair, because we sort of had to, this being San Francisco and all). There were also bizarre crooked palm trees that sort of fascinated us.
From the park we walked up Haight street to the famous cross-street of Ashbury. I imagined Haight Ashbury to be more musical, I guess, more creative considering it's history as a center for hippies and music in the 1960's, but I saw a scant 2 guitarist panhandlers and the street was pretty sketchy to walk down. A lot of panhandlers, some more brazen than others, a lot of people too. Some shops looked
interesting, but by that point it was getting late and the area was kind of getting to me. I took a photo of the street signs, but I'm not sure if it came out very well. The sky was very white and there were people in my way sort of. Either way, I went and I can say I've been, but I wish that the area had stayed creative and not become a sort of ghetto for the desperate.
On our way back into the park a youngish guy asked us if we wanted any herbals, at which point I realized the experience was complete.
We walked back through the park, retrieved the car and headed back to the hotel. Another short break later we were out and about in search of dinner back on Pier 39. I bought a SF shirt because it kind of called to me despite the colors, or perhaps because of them. A final stop at Ghiradelli's for an amazing chocolate chip cookie sunday completed a long but amazing day.
We did a lot of hiking up and down a lot of hills. You can't go anywhere in SF without going up or down a hill and it's going to be extreme either way. My feet sort of hurt and I think I got a small tan if not sunburn, which I wasn't expecting until Vegas. Guess we'll have to invest in some suntan lotion soon.
My posts just get longer and longer. I feel like maybe I should compile all this into a book with my photos and have it made. I would probably extend the entries more too. Okay, time to figure out tomorrow so we can get some sleep.
Scroll down for more from Matt as well as a few photos :)
San Fancisco in a day
OK, We decided to stay in San Francisco for the full day today and stay and extra night because we got in around 6 last night and thought it wasn't going to be enough time. So in doing that we cut out the Grand Canyon. This was a hard decision but ultimately came to the conclusion that the Grand Canyon probably deserves it's own trip. So this gave us some extra time to fiddle with. We decided that we want to see the Redwoods that are near San Fran. and drive down the Pacific Coast Highway... I think that's what its called. Then I think maybe a drive through of LA then staying in a town inbetween LA and Las Vegas.
San Francisco is beautiful.
The hills are very cool looking, and make for some interesting city walking. I have two huge blisters... one on each foot.
Other than that it has been totally worth it. The bay is beautiful, I touched the Pacific ocean. I was very excited about this. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and the Pier 39 area which has shops and restaurants and a lot of neat things like that. Pier 39 is kind of like Navy Pier in Chicago.
One very cool thing about it was that Sea Lions come there to sunbathe, a lot of Sea Lions.
Then we drove to Golden Gate Park which is more west of the downtown area of San Fran. It was nice, palm trees and lots of interesting looking plants. We found some flowers to put in Lindsey's hair.
Then we walked to Haight/Ashbury from the park which was pretty much right outside the Park. It is basically where a lot of the influensial people from the whole 60's movement lived and hung out and made music and ared and rebelled. Now its basically a bit of a run down area where wannabe hippies panhandle on the sidewalk. It was slighty disappointing. Then we drove back to the Hotel, went to the Pier/Bay area and had dinner and then went to Gihradelli's to have ice cream... it was awesome! :)
Now we are back at the Hotel recovering from our wounds. I noticed I have some substantial sunburn. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, but now we have to plan it.
San Francisco is beautiful.
The hills are very cool looking, and make for some interesting city walking. I have two huge blisters... one on each foot.
Other than that it has been totally worth it. The bay is beautiful, I touched the Pacific ocean. I was very excited about this. We went to Fisherman's Wharf and the Pier 39 area which has shops and restaurants and a lot of neat things like that. Pier 39 is kind of like Navy Pier in Chicago.
One very cool thing about it was that Sea Lions come there to sunbathe, a lot of Sea Lions.
Then we drove to Golden Gate Park which is more west of the downtown area of San Fran. It was nice, palm trees and lots of interesting looking plants. We found some flowers to put in Lindsey's hair.
Then we walked to Haight/Ashbury from the park which was pretty much right outside the Park. It is basically where a lot of the influensial people from the whole 60's movement lived and hung out and made music and ared and rebelled. Now its basically a bit of a run down area where wannabe hippies panhandle on the sidewalk. It was slighty disappointing. Then we drove back to the Hotel, went to the Pier/Bay area and had dinner and then went to Gihradelli's to have ice cream... it was awesome! :)
Now we are back at the Hotel recovering from our wounds. I noticed I have some substantial sunburn. I'm looking forward to tomorrow, but now we have to plan it.
Monday, April 13, 2009
Slight Change
We've decided to skip the Grand Canyon and stay longer in San Francisco as well as pass through Los Angeles which wasn't really on our trip plan. Well, okay that's not entirely true, we debated it back and forth a lot one day but eventually cut it. Now it's back in, just for a pass through probably though since neither of us have our hearts set on LA for some reason.
There's too much we want to see here in SF and the Grand Canyon while I'm sure fabulous also involves a lot of long driving days on possibly more deserted roads as well as a lot of back and forth since we would be going to Vegas afterwards. And the Grand Canyon probably deserves more than just the glance that we would have time to give it.
While sad, we're very excited about being able to see more in SF tomorrow and about a supposedly beautiful drive down the coast of California towards LA.
time for bed as we have a lot of uphill walking ahead of us tomorrow.
There's too much we want to see here in SF and the Grand Canyon while I'm sure fabulous also involves a lot of long driving days on possibly more deserted roads as well as a lot of back and forth since we would be going to Vegas afterwards. And the Grand Canyon probably deserves more than just the glance that we would have time to give it.
While sad, we're very excited about being able to see more in SF tomorrow and about a supposedly beautiful drive down the coast of California towards LA.
time for bed as we have a lot of uphill walking ahead of us tomorrow.
Day 5 - Tonopah to San Francisco
Driving through the Nevada desert is intimidating and humbling. There is absolutely nothing for miles and then random little ghosty type towns that look abandoned but aren't. We just passed through one called Luning and let me attempt to describe this to you. You're driving for 50 miles or so through absolutely nothing - desert and mountains and flatness as far as the eye can see. All of a sudden in your path on the sides of the road you see broken down wooden buildings and old faded signs. A few trailer homes, an RV park. Everything looks abandoned until you see a shiny new truck parked outside one of the structures and three people in hats walking casually down the road. Literally 1 minute later the "town" is behind you and there is again nothing for miles and miles.
It's a good idea we're being pretty vigilant about filling up the gas tank.
We stopped by the side of the road in the middle of this nothing to take photos of each other, now I wish we'd stopped in Luning for a shot of those buildings. There will probably be another similar town, however, so maybe we'll stop when we see one. Just for a moment. It really gives you a sense of history in a sense to see these things. Who knows, years ago maybe these were thriving towns. Maybe they were founded when non- native-americans were still truly discovering the American West. And fell into disrepair once towns like Reno appeared. :D We're heading by Reno by the way. We have to to get to San Francisco.
Today has been a little slow going. Tonopah is everything we could ever wish of it, however we discovered today that we didn't even have to go to Tonopah because the road from there to Yosemite National Park is still closed for Winter. The only other way to the park from here is way too far away for us to take, which makes us a little sad since we won't get to see Yosemite now. But we've seen so many incredible things and still have a lot more to go that we're taking everything in stride as much as possible. We'll plan another trip out to see Yosemite or Yellowstone in the future, and remember to come after April. Either way we experienced Tonopah, which was kind of awesome in it's own way.
Left a little later than planned because we spent some time trying to see if we could still figure in Yosemite and then having to find an alternate route to San Francisco because the route Wilma had us taking was right through the park - on the closed road.
We're about to approach an Army Ammunition Depot and there are a lot of mounds in the desert that look like super secret Army things. We don't know what they actually are, but we like to think they're something super secret.
-- Okay must talk about what we just encountered. Driving straight towards the mountains after miles of nothing and ghost towns there is a oasis that is called Hawthorne. More than just a one street town it has actual street signs, a McDonalds, a small casino and a couple gas stations. This is home to the Army Ammunition Depot and it is the only gas for seriously like 100 miles. We filled up and it was too expensive but they can charge whatever the hell they want because there's nowhere else to get gas for 100 miles or whatever. We've decided that Hawthorne is actually Radiator Springs.
We're driving around this huge lake, Walker Lake, and it's very beautiful. There's a tiny community on the hills by the lake and I'm thinking that an awesome longer trip would be to do another cross country roadtrip and stay in the little places like this town by Walker Lake in the middle of nowhere and the tiny village we found in the Rocky Mountains. It would be an incredible experience to do that. Maybe someday we'll have the time and money. It would have to be longer than this trip, I think, in order to fully appreciate everything. But so worth it.
Middle of the desert and temperature is 61 degrees - the warmest we've had yet. Note for anyone thinking of travelling in this area - is extremely hard to judge distance on a straight road through the desert.
signing off for now - too much to look at.
-- later --
Crossed the border into California and promptly entered another mountain range, I think part of the Rocky's again. It's beautiful and this time we have blue skies. No clouds in sight. Driving curvy mountain roads once again is nice.
Later in California, the terrain started to look more like home. Except flatter with palm trees. And a lot of fruit trees and farms. But sort of like home. With 6 lane highways. We really are seeing every possible kind of landscape you could possibly imagine.
From San Francisco Hotel -
Arrived in San Francisco via this absolutely beautiful drive that for some reason made me think of Fiji. I've never been to Fiji, but I imagine huge green mountains by water and that is exactly what we saw coming in. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge which was awesome as well but I loved loved the curvy roads through the green hills that we took to get there - even if we were stuck in some traffic getting to the bridge.
The city is beautiful and very different from New York or Chicago. Most of the building are only a few stories and the city is set on a hill so everything is kind of staggared. There is a massive hill on the street next to our hotel that .. just baffles the mind. I couldn't imagine driving up and down that every day. It's very very steep. We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and then some streets nearby and Ghiradelli Square - but it was after 8 on Easter Sunday so almost everything was closed.
We'll wander more tomorrow - and I want to see Haight Ashbury and we were talking about a park that's near there too. Hopefully we'll have time. I feel like I could be here a week and still not see everything I'd like to. We'll definitely have to come back some time for a longer time period.
We're both taking hundreds of photos but haven't really had time to sit and figure out how best for you all to see them. We'll hopefully figure that out in the next day or two.
It's a good idea we're being pretty vigilant about filling up the gas tank.
We stopped by the side of the road in the middle of this nothing to take photos of each other, now I wish we'd stopped in Luning for a shot of those buildings. There will probably be another similar town, however, so maybe we'll stop when we see one. Just for a moment. It really gives you a sense of history in a sense to see these things. Who knows, years ago maybe these were thriving towns. Maybe they were founded when non- native-americans were still truly discovering the American West. And fell into disrepair once towns like Reno appeared. :D We're heading by Reno by the way. We have to to get to San Francisco.
Today has been a little slow going. Tonopah is everything we could ever wish of it, however we discovered today that we didn't even have to go to Tonopah because the road from there to Yosemite National Park is still closed for Winter. The only other way to the park from here is way too far away for us to take, which makes us a little sad since we won't get to see Yosemite now. But we've seen so many incredible things and still have a lot more to go that we're taking everything in stride as much as possible. We'll plan another trip out to see Yosemite or Yellowstone in the future, and remember to come after April. Either way we experienced Tonopah, which was kind of awesome in it's own way.
Left a little later than planned because we spent some time trying to see if we could still figure in Yosemite and then having to find an alternate route to San Francisco because the route Wilma had us taking was right through the park - on the closed road.
We're about to approach an Army Ammunition Depot and there are a lot of mounds in the desert that look like super secret Army things. We don't know what they actually are, but we like to think they're something super secret.
-- Okay must talk about what we just encountered. Driving straight towards the mountains after miles of nothing and ghost towns there is a oasis that is called Hawthorne. More than just a one street town it has actual street signs, a McDonalds, a small casino and a couple gas stations. This is home to the Army Ammunition Depot and it is the only gas for seriously like 100 miles. We filled up and it was too expensive but they can charge whatever the hell they want because there's nowhere else to get gas for 100 miles or whatever. We've decided that Hawthorne is actually Radiator Springs.
We're driving around this huge lake, Walker Lake, and it's very beautiful. There's a tiny community on the hills by the lake and I'm thinking that an awesome longer trip would be to do another cross country roadtrip and stay in the little places like this town by Walker Lake in the middle of nowhere and the tiny village we found in the Rocky Mountains. It would be an incredible experience to do that. Maybe someday we'll have the time and money. It would have to be longer than this trip, I think, in order to fully appreciate everything. But so worth it.
Middle of the desert and temperature is 61 degrees - the warmest we've had yet. Note for anyone thinking of travelling in this area - is extremely hard to judge distance on a straight road through the desert.
signing off for now - too much to look at.
-- later --
Crossed the border into California and promptly entered another mountain range, I think part of the Rocky's again. It's beautiful and this time we have blue skies. No clouds in sight. Driving curvy mountain roads once again is nice.
Later in California, the terrain started to look more like home. Except flatter with palm trees. And a lot of fruit trees and farms. But sort of like home. With 6 lane highways. We really are seeing every possible kind of landscape you could possibly imagine.
From San Francisco Hotel -
Arrived in San Francisco via this absolutely beautiful drive that for some reason made me think of Fiji. I've never been to Fiji, but I imagine huge green mountains by water and that is exactly what we saw coming in. We drove across the Golden Gate Bridge which was awesome as well but I loved loved the curvy roads through the green hills that we took to get there - even if we were stuck in some traffic getting to the bridge.
The city is beautiful and very different from New York or Chicago. Most of the building are only a few stories and the city is set on a hill so everything is kind of staggared. There is a massive hill on the street next to our hotel that .. just baffles the mind. I couldn't imagine driving up and down that every day. It's very very steep. We wandered around Fisherman's Wharf and then some streets nearby and Ghiradelli Square - but it was after 8 on Easter Sunday so almost everything was closed.
We'll wander more tomorrow - and I want to see Haight Ashbury and we were talking about a park that's near there too. Hopefully we'll have time. I feel like I could be here a week and still not see everything I'd like to. We'll definitely have to come back some time for a longer time period.
We're both taking hundreds of photos but haven't really had time to sit and figure out how best for you all to see them. We'll hopefully figure that out in the next day or two.
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Slight Hiccup
Slight hiccup in our plans today. We discovered via the free internets in Tonopah that the road we would take into Yosemite National Park is closed right now due to snow and what have you. Other roads are open, but it would take us way too long to do that. So straight on to San Francisco we go. I guess April is too early for National Parks.
We'll have to plan another trip to Yosemite or Yellowstone for another time. ::sigh::
We'll have to plan another trip to Yosemite or Yellowstone for another time. ::sigh::
Day 4 Alliance to Tonopah
Got in to Alliance extremely late last night, sorry for the delays in posting. We arrived in Alliance around 11:30 at night, but according to our internal Chicago clocks it was 12:30 and according to our internal home clocks 1:30. Needless to say we were pretty exhausted. Especially since NE-2 was a desolate empty road with no lights. A couple jack rabbits (possibly) tried to waylay us and there was a suicidal owl and bat (we think) but other than that a lot of farmland and a lot of cargo trains and a lot of nothing.
Alliance… was pretty incredible. A one street town with a lot of what seemed like trailer homes, a couple gas stations, a couple hotels and a few fast food joints. And a lot of open space. It was an interesting experience, totally different from what I’m used to.
Woke up sort of early, but not as early as planned due to need of sleep, and went to Carhenge. Let me stress NEBRASKA IS FRIGGING COLD. And really windy. And there was still snow on the g round. Carhenge was supremely awesome but I couldn’t feel my fingers after a minute so I really hope I got some good shots. We were out there taking photos for a while but I kept having to take breaks to try and warm my hands. Matt says that Carhenge is kind of in an area like the real Stonehenge. I’m jealous. Now I want to go to Stonehenge. And come back to Carhenge in the Summer. So so so cold. Nebraska is COLD.
The landscape got kinda wacky after that – a lot of hills that I don’t think I can express in words or photos – they were so hard to capture. I was driving also, so Matt got some photos of those, but we decided that we aren’t really landscape photographers so we’re not sure if they capture the beauty of the hills.
We’re probably going to have very few stops this leg since we have a 14 hour drive to Tonopah according to Wilma, who has been known to be wrong. A lot. But we are changing time zones again which will help. We have plenty of food in the car, so we’re thinking PB&J for lunch and Matt can have his leftover pizza for dinner and I think I have leftovers or something too, if not more PB&J is fine. Might also have shorter driving shifts so that we can nap and try to catch up on sleep a little. We have a few alternate stops that we can make that are before Tonopah if necessary, but considering that would take away from our time in Yosemite National Park or San Francisco, we’re hesitant to do that. We’ll see how far we can get before we collapse I guess.
Signing off for now, cheese and crackers are calling my name.
Lovin Harley’s Summit in Utah!!! Driving through the mountains is one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. No, the most incredible. The Rocky Mountains are so … words can not express how beautiful this is. We’re driving through a curvy valley right between two sets of mountains covered in snow and… we keep slowing down because 1. it’s pouring rain but 2 it’s so so beautiful we keep getting distracted.
Just passed The Great Salt Lake and … I’m speechless once again. Utah is incredibly beautiful. Matt probably already mentioned this but we’ve seen so many different landscapes in this day alone that I’m overwhelmed. We went from the flats of Nebraska to the hills of Nebrasky to the buttes (mesas, whatever) of Wyoming, to more hills and huge crags to the beautiful Rocky Mountains. The rain has stopped, the sun is coming out and the clouds are just amazing. Today is the best day yet. And it’s only day 4. I keep trying to think of words to express how I’m feeling right now but all I can say is today has been near perfect and I love that I’m sharing this with Matt.
Bit later
Tack on to our list of different landscapes from today the absolute complete flatness that is the stretch of Utah before the Salt Flats. It’s like crossing the Ocean. There is no going back once you hit this stretch. No turning around and no getting off. It’s beautiful, but intimidating. It looks like people have created messages with rocks in the sand or salt that we’re driving through right now. I wish we had time to stop and read them. There also appear to be a lot of beer bottles. Broken and made into weird art formations and whole and in weird art formations. We’re driving towards more mountains that look beautiful. I can see the cloud above the salt flats in the distance, pretty cool stuff all this.
And, just so you all know – the FIRST thing you see when you cross the border into Nevada is a casino. Go figure. Mountains and a Casino. Then a road full of small casinos and then a road straight towards the mountains surrounded by nothing.
Okay wait a minute wait a minute let’s back track for a minute.
Flat Nebraska
Nebrasky hills
Butte’s and Mesas in Wyoming,
Hills and Crags in Wyoming,
Beautiful Rocky Mountains in Utah,
Completely Flat Salt Flats in Utah,
Desert Mountains in Nevada.
All in one day. Wow. Right now we are driving on a road through the desert that is absolutely beautiful. It’s also completely empty. We see a car maybe every 10 minutes. There are no towns. Again with the whole intimidating thing. But we have almost a full tank of gas so I’m not really worried at all. Just basking in the beauty through a bug stained windshield.
Alliance… was pretty incredible. A one street town with a lot of what seemed like trailer homes, a couple gas stations, a couple hotels and a few fast food joints. And a lot of open space. It was an interesting experience, totally different from what I’m used to.
Woke up sort of early, but not as early as planned due to need of sleep, and went to Carhenge. Let me stress NEBRASKA IS FRIGGING COLD. And really windy. And there was still snow on the g round. Carhenge was supremely awesome but I couldn’t feel my fingers after a minute so I really hope I got some good shots. We were out there taking photos for a while but I kept having to take breaks to try and warm my hands. Matt says that Carhenge is kind of in an area like the real Stonehenge. I’m jealous. Now I want to go to Stonehenge. And come back to Carhenge in the Summer. So so so cold. Nebraska is COLD.
The landscape got kinda wacky after that – a lot of hills that I don’t think I can express in words or photos – they were so hard to capture. I was driving also, so Matt got some photos of those, but we decided that we aren’t really landscape photographers so we’re not sure if they capture the beauty of the hills.
We’re probably going to have very few stops this leg since we have a 14 hour drive to Tonopah according to Wilma, who has been known to be wrong. A lot. But we are changing time zones again which will help. We have plenty of food in the car, so we’re thinking PB&J for lunch and Matt can have his leftover pizza for dinner and I think I have leftovers or something too, if not more PB&J is fine. Might also have shorter driving shifts so that we can nap and try to catch up on sleep a little. We have a few alternate stops that we can make that are before Tonopah if necessary, but considering that would take away from our time in Yosemite National Park or San Francisco, we’re hesitant to do that. We’ll see how far we can get before we collapse I guess.
Signing off for now, cheese and crackers are calling my name.
Lovin Harley’s Summit in Utah!!! Driving through the mountains is one of the most incredible experiences I’ve ever had. No, the most incredible. The Rocky Mountains are so … words can not express how beautiful this is. We’re driving through a curvy valley right between two sets of mountains covered in snow and… we keep slowing down because 1. it’s pouring rain but 2 it’s so so beautiful we keep getting distracted.
Just passed The Great Salt Lake and … I’m speechless once again. Utah is incredibly beautiful. Matt probably already mentioned this but we’ve seen so many different landscapes in this day alone that I’m overwhelmed. We went from the flats of Nebraska to the hills of Nebrasky to the buttes (mesas, whatever) of Wyoming, to more hills and huge crags to the beautiful Rocky Mountains. The rain has stopped, the sun is coming out and the clouds are just amazing. Today is the best day yet. And it’s only day 4. I keep trying to think of words to express how I’m feeling right now but all I can say is today has been near perfect and I love that I’m sharing this with Matt.
Bit later
Tack on to our list of different landscapes from today the absolute complete flatness that is the stretch of Utah before the Salt Flats. It’s like crossing the Ocean. There is no going back once you hit this stretch. No turning around and no getting off. It’s beautiful, but intimidating. It looks like people have created messages with rocks in the sand or salt that we’re driving through right now. I wish we had time to stop and read them. There also appear to be a lot of beer bottles. Broken and made into weird art formations and whole and in weird art formations. We’re driving towards more mountains that look beautiful. I can see the cloud above the salt flats in the distance, pretty cool stuff all this.
And, just so you all know – the FIRST thing you see when you cross the border into Nevada is a casino. Go figure. Mountains and a Casino. Then a road full of small casinos and then a road straight towards the mountains surrounded by nothing.
Okay wait a minute wait a minute let’s back track for a minute.
Flat Nebraska
Nebrasky hills
Butte’s and Mesas in Wyoming,
Hills and Crags in Wyoming,
Beautiful Rocky Mountains in Utah,
Completely Flat Salt Flats in Utah,
Desert Mountains in Nevada.
All in one day. Wow. Right now we are driving on a road through the desert that is absolutely beautiful. It’s also completely empty. We see a car maybe every 10 minutes. There are no towns. Again with the whole intimidating thing. But we have almost a full tank of gas so I’m not really worried at all. Just basking in the beauty through a bug stained windshield.
OK now, after about... I think 5 hours of driving from the end edge of Nebraska into Wyoming, we are in the midst of Wyoming and its beginning to rain a bit. We started to see some small mountains a little after we came into Wyoming. Its stayed around 50 out but its been really windy and there seems to be large areas where there is still a significant amount of snow on the ground. The rain doesn't seem to be too bad, it already seems to be slowing a bit. Its like sprinkling out. Oh now its picking up again.
The landscape has been beautiful the whole time. Each section has something going for it. The flat farmlands were pertty, but they got a little tiresome after a while. Then in Nebraska we started seeing spprawling landscapes with rolling hills. It was really beautiful. Now we are getting into areas with mountains every now and again.
So this leg... from Alliance NE to Tanopah NV, will be about 14 hours. We are trying to keep better track of our time when we stop so we aren't like 2 hour behind like last night. So far its been about 35 min. and hopefully not much more. We are also crossing another time zone before Tanopah so that will make up the difference from stopping.
We've seen alot of cows on in Nebraska and Wyoming. Before that it seemed like mostly corn fields and now we are seeing Cow Ranches and stuff, but it's really just big huge fenced in areas that cows are wandering around in. No buildings really at all. We also saw two places with Windmill feilds. They weren't huge but there were like maybe 20 or so in each, that we could see. There was also some oil feilds with several oil pumps going.
So yeah that's all I can think to write about now for some reason. Lindsey is more comfortable writing in the car than I am I think and her posts are usually more interesting. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.
The landscape has been beautiful the whole time. Each section has something going for it. The flat farmlands were pertty, but they got a little tiresome after a while. Then in Nebraska we started seeing spprawling landscapes with rolling hills. It was really beautiful. Now we are getting into areas with mountains every now and again.
So this leg... from Alliance NE to Tanopah NV, will be about 14 hours. We are trying to keep better track of our time when we stop so we aren't like 2 hour behind like last night. So far its been about 35 min. and hopefully not much more. We are also crossing another time zone before Tanopah so that will make up the difference from stopping.
We've seen alot of cows on in Nebraska and Wyoming. Before that it seemed like mostly corn fields and now we are seeing Cow Ranches and stuff, but it's really just big huge fenced in areas that cows are wandering around in. No buildings really at all. We also saw two places with Windmill feilds. They weren't huge but there were like maybe 20 or so in each, that we could see. There was also some oil feilds with several oil pumps going.
So yeah that's all I can think to write about now for some reason. Lindsey is more comfortable writing in the car than I am I think and her posts are usually more interesting. I just wanted to throw my 2 cents in.
Day 3 - Chicago to Alliance Nebraska
here's my post from Day 3, Friday April 10th -- Lindsey
Woke up a little earlier today and walked to the river to take some photos. Also saw the Chicago Theater (so jealous .. Leonard Cohen and a Doo-Wop group are on the marquee). It’s damn cold in Chicago. And Windy. My ears were sooo cold.
Staff was extremely nice and helpful, but there were people waiting behind us to get out so we felt a little rushed. But it’s only 1 hour to Wilmington where we take a brief break to see the Gemini Giant which is so totally going to be on someone’s lawn. We can re set up the camera and get better situated then I guess.
Here we are on the road again, eating nutrigrain bars and goldfish and singing along with my road trip mix (yesterday was most of matt’s). I’ve only spilled and stepped on a few goldfish crackers, so so far the car is pretty clean inside. Cluttered, but not a complete disaster. Movin Right Along is such an awesome song, from the Muppet Movie. It makes me happy. “California Here We Come”….But first Nebraska and Tonopah, NV.
Realized this morning that while we’re gaining an hour with every stop on the way, it’ll be reversed on the way back, which will be a bit of a pain. We’ll just have to remember to account for that. But it’s awesome for right now since we started off a little late. We’ll probably catch up and be able to be up for 5 or 6 tomorrow. Today we left Chicago around 7:45 or 8 am.
Eww the windshield is splattered with the giant bugs that attack us at night. And during the day. Gonna have to clean that the next time we get gas.
Signing off for now!
--- Later ---
The Mississippi River is much dirtier than the Hudson. Or at least it looked like it was as we crossed it. We’re through Illinois, passing through Ohio currently and the gray/whiteness of the sky is starting to give way to blue skies with scattered clouds. Temperature is 51 degrees right now, though extremely windy when we stopped at a rest stop a moment ago. There are a lot of crazy billboards in the middle of wheat fields, except the wheat is all cut and hasn’t started growing again so it’s like a billboard and the farm and nothing growing. Very strange.
Just saw a billboard for the World’s Largest Truck Stop, may have to stop by. Okay, we have officially been to the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa and … yes it is that large. It was practically a one store mall. Anything you could possibly want from trucker stuff like hood ornaments and those crazy flashy lights they have to postcards, bags of marbles, food, books, movies, cassette tapes, video games to play, a restaurant, a few fast food joints too. HUGE. There were like 8 rooms AND an upstairs Trucker’s Lounge.
I’m hoping we see more billboards like that that we can just stop at instead of having to plan everything out. Granted, that took us a while to explore and time is short today, but whatever. We saw a World’s Largest and that makes me happy.
So far – construction in every single state, a small castle in Ohio, the Gemini Giant in Illinois and the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa. Yay.
Later –
Just finished driving for a little while, letting Matt take over for the rest of the trip to Alliance probably. We’re hopefully not too far off, maybe 3 hours or something. First I have to tell you about the Albino Smoke Monster. Those who watch Lost know what I’m talking about. We were driving on 80 in the middle of Iowa somewhere and to our right we see this road that runs parallel. From this road is a massive kick up of white dust and it’s moving at a crazy fast speed – like 70 or 80 mph – ahead of us and then it just zooms off. We could see absolutely nothing that could be kicking up the dust so we decided that it was an Albino Smoke Monster.
A little later towards the end of Iowa/ beginning of Nebraska we started to see a lot of windmills which was really beautiful and awesome. I was driving so Matt got all the photos of those, but I loved looking at them and seeing their sheer size. Such a cool thing. There’s been some really great driving today. From complete flatness to rolling hills. It’s bizarre seeing a horizon line. Right now the sun is setting and there are very very few trees to block it, which is both beautiful and strange to me.
We’re now on what Nebraskans call NE-2 which to us just looks like a two way road in the middle of nowhere. But the speed limit is 55 so… um it’s kind of a highway?
Okay, gonna cut out for now.
Longest Post So Far. Still on this NE-2 road, going to be on it for a while yet. Running late, as per usual. Tomorrow is going to be interesting.
Woke up a little earlier today and walked to the river to take some photos. Also saw the Chicago Theater (so jealous .. Leonard Cohen and a Doo-Wop group are on the marquee). It’s damn cold in Chicago. And Windy. My ears were sooo cold.
Staff was extremely nice and helpful, but there were people waiting behind us to get out so we felt a little rushed. But it’s only 1 hour to Wilmington where we take a brief break to see the Gemini Giant which is so totally going to be on someone’s lawn. We can re set up the camera and get better situated then I guess.
Here we are on the road again, eating nutrigrain bars and goldfish and singing along with my road trip mix (yesterday was most of matt’s). I’ve only spilled and stepped on a few goldfish crackers, so so far the car is pretty clean inside. Cluttered, but not a complete disaster. Movin Right Along is such an awesome song, from the Muppet Movie. It makes me happy. “California Here We Come”….But first Nebraska and Tonopah, NV.
Realized this morning that while we’re gaining an hour with every stop on the way, it’ll be reversed on the way back, which will be a bit of a pain. We’ll just have to remember to account for that. But it’s awesome for right now since we started off a little late. We’ll probably catch up and be able to be up for 5 or 6 tomorrow. Today we left Chicago around 7:45 or 8 am.
Eww the windshield is splattered with the giant bugs that attack us at night. And during the day. Gonna have to clean that the next time we get gas.
Signing off for now!
--- Later ---
The Mississippi River is much dirtier than the Hudson. Or at least it looked like it was as we crossed it. We’re through Illinois, passing through Ohio currently and the gray/whiteness of the sky is starting to give way to blue skies with scattered clouds. Temperature is 51 degrees right now, though extremely windy when we stopped at a rest stop a moment ago. There are a lot of crazy billboards in the middle of wheat fields, except the wheat is all cut and hasn’t started growing again so it’s like a billboard and the farm and nothing growing. Very strange.
Just saw a billboard for the World’s Largest Truck Stop, may have to stop by. Okay, we have officially been to the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa and … yes it is that large. It was practically a one store mall. Anything you could possibly want from trucker stuff like hood ornaments and those crazy flashy lights they have to postcards, bags of marbles, food, books, movies, cassette tapes, video games to play, a restaurant, a few fast food joints too. HUGE. There were like 8 rooms AND an upstairs Trucker’s Lounge.
I’m hoping we see more billboards like that that we can just stop at instead of having to plan everything out. Granted, that took us a while to explore and time is short today, but whatever. We saw a World’s Largest and that makes me happy.
So far – construction in every single state, a small castle in Ohio, the Gemini Giant in Illinois and the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa. Yay.
Later –
Just finished driving for a little while, letting Matt take over for the rest of the trip to Alliance probably. We’re hopefully not too far off, maybe 3 hours or something. First I have to tell you about the Albino Smoke Monster. Those who watch Lost know what I’m talking about. We were driving on 80 in the middle of Iowa somewhere and to our right we see this road that runs parallel. From this road is a massive kick up of white dust and it’s moving at a crazy fast speed – like 70 or 80 mph – ahead of us and then it just zooms off. We could see absolutely nothing that could be kicking up the dust so we decided that it was an Albino Smoke Monster.
A little later towards the end of Iowa/ beginning of Nebraska we started to see a lot of windmills which was really beautiful and awesome. I was driving so Matt got all the photos of those, but I loved looking at them and seeing their sheer size. Such a cool thing. There’s been some really great driving today. From complete flatness to rolling hills. It’s bizarre seeing a horizon line. Right now the sun is setting and there are very very few trees to block it, which is both beautiful and strange to me.
We’re now on what Nebraskans call NE-2 which to us just looks like a two way road in the middle of nowhere. But the speed limit is 55 so… um it’s kind of a highway?
Okay, gonna cut out for now.
Longest Post So Far. Still on this NE-2 road, going to be on it for a while yet. Running late, as per usual. Tomorrow is going to be interesting.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Nebraska Morning 6:30
Got in late last night so we slept an hour later than we wanted to... So we have to go in like 5 min. Hotel was ok... has wireless internet which is nice. Looks like fair weather, 37 now.. prob. 55 high. We have a long drive today so we wanna get going. Gonna see Carhenge before we head out though.
http://www.carhenge.com/
So that's all I have the steam and time to write about now. There is alot more stuff from when we were driving, but we don't have time to post it now. We will tonight.
http://www.carhenge.com/
So that's all I have the steam and time to write about now. There is alot more stuff from when we were driving, but we don't have time to post it now. We will tonight.
Friday, April 10, 2009
Day 2: PA - Chicago, from Lindsey
From today's writings:
Yesterday was .. an adventure ending around 1:30 in the morning. Today is turning out to be another kind of adventure. We haven’t really gotten turned around too much today, but everything is taking longer than the GPS told us it would. We were supposed to be in Loveland, OH by 2:30 ish… it’s 3:39 and we aren’t there yet. Hopefully by 4, but then that messes up the rest of our day a little. We should have called Chicago to reserve a room by now, but I kind of want to see what time we get to Loveland because then I can judge just how off Wilma is.
It’s a bit nervewreaking, but I’m still enjoying the ride. We were supposed to eat lunch at the castle but instead we’re munching on fruit (him), goldfish (both of us) and I just made half a PB&J sandwich. Still a little hungry, but I can wait till we get there, it shouldn’t be too much longer now.
Ohio is as flat as I remember it being and we’re going south through the state so we’re getting to see a lot of it. We passed by Columbus earlier. It’s all pretty though. Most trees are still bare, but occasionally we see some flowers and some green bushes and stuff.
-- Later –
Okay , so Loveland Castle is totally worth it. We’re driving through town and it seems like a pretty busy center of malls and restaurants and stuff, then we go residential and I’m still not seeing a castle. Finally we turn down this road and end up going down this crazy steep curvy road lined with pretty greening bushes and trees and at the bottom is this small castle. Walk in, pay our $3/person fee and get a mini informational lecture about the castle from the man at the counter. This guy in the 1920’s had a group of boys who would hike and camp and fish in the river there and they called themselves the Knights .. of something I can’t remember, so he figured if they were knights they should have a castle. He spent the next like 50 years building the castle by hand and when he passed away they turned it into a memorial museum in his honor.
It was actually a pretty cool story and the castle was fun to wander. There was a dungeon with a “wild man” skeleton and an upstairs with a dining hall room and a balcony overlooking part of the pretty gardens also on the grounds. If I was a boy in the 1930’s I would have totally loved it. Hell as a girl I would have too, but wouldn’t have been allowed in. :P There were a lot of secret hatches and ladders and things to explore that were all locked, unfortunately. There were also rooms set up that were locked like a room with a desk and a typewriter and another with a bed. Tons of suits of armour as well. :)
Took a bunch of pictures, but it was kind of dark inside so I’m not sure how many will come out. I brought my camera book so I can get better at indoor photography, but haven’t had a chance to break it out yet. Maybe tomorrow.
We’re running a little later than we thought and are currently driving through rush hour – however it’s moving very quickly for rush our and we also are going back in time once we hit the Chicago area as it’s a different time zone. Which totally works in our favor in a really good way.
Unfortunately, we can’t film this leg of the trip on the video camera because we ran out of space and haven’t really had time to transfer the files. I’m going to try to do that now while we drive and maybe I’ll be able to capture entering Chicago by hand or something. It won’t be exactly the same, but it’s a long trip. We’ll have - CRAP I just missed photographing the welcome to Indiana sign cause I was doing this. ::sigh:: and we didn’t find any tourist traps in Ohio to get stickers at. ::sigh::
Signing off for now.
later –
We just passed a casino. Indiana LIVE! Casino. It’s in the middle of nowhere in Indiana with a tiny fountain. No photo, sorry. Too much technology on my lap right now trying to save the video files to the computer and not get lost at the same time.
Just finished transferring the video files to the computer only to discover that we actually have 4 hours left of “tape” and that we actually forgot to turn it back on after we left a rest stop at the beginning of Ohio. Oops. Gonna try to film a little of Indiana by hand and then entering Chicago. Just so there’s something.
NOW -
While I'm loving this hotel room - the layout is great and original, the view not bad, everything is nice and people were great. But one phone wasn't working - and therefore the internet wasn't working until i called for help (lan, or ethernet no wireless), the other phone works fine though. Also, there are no tissues to be found which is just bizarre. And Matt said that some guy in a gorilla suit was scaring people in the hallways. We're guessing a class trip since there seem to be a bunch of teenagers wandering around.
It's getting late, so I think we're going to crash. I'll try to go through photos a little tomorrow on the drive and see if I have any to post.
Yesterday was .. an adventure ending around 1:30 in the morning. Today is turning out to be another kind of adventure. We haven’t really gotten turned around too much today, but everything is taking longer than the GPS told us it would. We were supposed to be in Loveland, OH by 2:30 ish… it’s 3:39 and we aren’t there yet. Hopefully by 4, but then that messes up the rest of our day a little. We should have called Chicago to reserve a room by now, but I kind of want to see what time we get to Loveland because then I can judge just how off Wilma is.
It’s a bit nervewreaking, but I’m still enjoying the ride. We were supposed to eat lunch at the castle but instead we’re munching on fruit (him), goldfish (both of us) and I just made half a PB&J sandwich. Still a little hungry, but I can wait till we get there, it shouldn’t be too much longer now.
Ohio is as flat as I remember it being and we’re going south through the state so we’re getting to see a lot of it. We passed by Columbus earlier. It’s all pretty though. Most trees are still bare, but occasionally we see some flowers and some green bushes and stuff.
-- Later –
Okay , so Loveland Castle is totally worth it. We’re driving through town and it seems like a pretty busy center of malls and restaurants and stuff, then we go residential and I’m still not seeing a castle. Finally we turn down this road and end up going down this crazy steep curvy road lined with pretty greening bushes and trees and at the bottom is this small castle. Walk in, pay our $3/person fee and get a mini informational lecture about the castle from the man at the counter. This guy in the 1920’s had a group of boys who would hike and camp and fish in the river there and they called themselves the Knights .. of something I can’t remember, so he figured if they were knights they should have a castle. He spent the next like 50 years building the castle by hand and when he passed away they turned it into a memorial museum in his honor.
It was actually a pretty cool story and the castle was fun to wander. There was a dungeon with a “wild man” skeleton and an upstairs with a dining hall room and a balcony overlooking part of the pretty gardens also on the grounds. If I was a boy in the 1930’s I would have totally loved it. Hell as a girl I would have too, but wouldn’t have been allowed in. :P There were a lot of secret hatches and ladders and things to explore that were all locked, unfortunately. There were also rooms set up that were locked like a room with a desk and a typewriter and another with a bed. Tons of suits of armour as well. :)
Took a bunch of pictures, but it was kind of dark inside so I’m not sure how many will come out. I brought my camera book so I can get better at indoor photography, but haven’t had a chance to break it out yet. Maybe tomorrow.
We’re running a little later than we thought and are currently driving through rush hour – however it’s moving very quickly for rush our and we also are going back in time once we hit the Chicago area as it’s a different time zone. Which totally works in our favor in a really good way.
Unfortunately, we can’t film this leg of the trip on the video camera because we ran out of space and haven’t really had time to transfer the files. I’m going to try to do that now while we drive and maybe I’ll be able to capture entering Chicago by hand or something. It won’t be exactly the same, but it’s a long trip. We’ll have - CRAP I just missed photographing the welcome to Indiana sign cause I was doing this. ::sigh:: and we didn’t find any tourist traps in Ohio to get stickers at. ::sigh::
Signing off for now.
later –
We just passed a casino. Indiana LIVE! Casino. It’s in the middle of nowhere in Indiana with a tiny fountain. No photo, sorry. Too much technology on my lap right now trying to save the video files to the computer and not get lost at the same time.
Just finished transferring the video files to the computer only to discover that we actually have 4 hours left of “tape” and that we actually forgot to turn it back on after we left a rest stop at the beginning of Ohio. Oops. Gonna try to film a little of Indiana by hand and then entering Chicago. Just so there’s something.
NOW -
While I'm loving this hotel room - the layout is great and original, the view not bad, everything is nice and people were great. But one phone wasn't working - and therefore the internet wasn't working until i called for help (lan, or ethernet no wireless), the other phone works fine though. Also, there are no tissues to be found which is just bizarre. And Matt said that some guy in a gorilla suit was scaring people in the hallways. We're guessing a class trip since there seem to be a bunch of teenagers wandering around.
It's getting late, so I think we're going to crash. I'll try to go through photos a little tomorrow on the drive and see if I have any to post.
PA - IL
Hello there... We are at the Hotel in Chicago. It's pretty nice and was actually pretty easy to get to. Wilma was on good behavior coming into the city. OK so now we are all settled in and are online, I'd like to show you Jareth, Wilma and Dante... all working together, in theory.
That (above) is me in the car (Dante). my hair hasn't been washed in a while so, yeah its gross.
So yeah anyway, we got up a little later than we wanted to, but it's because we got in later than we wanted to. But it worked out OK because we got to Chicago in time to check in and stuff. Lindsey started off the drive in PA then I took over after we got to Love Land Castle in Ohio, almost all the way through Ohio.
It is basically at the bottom west part of Ohio. And fromt here we went north through Indiana. the Castle was kinda cool, smaller than I thought it was gonna be, but interesting anyway. We were there for like 30 min. We seemed to be running a bit behind so we had to scoot pretty quickly. There was a Dungeon in the castle and there was a prisoner in it who seems to have never been released.
After that we hightailed out and got to Chicago in about 5 hours. Like I said, nice room, pretty good view, and we got here in time to order Giordano's stuffed Pizza! I was waiting for this for a long time. I was everything I remembered.
And that is that for now. It's kinda late and I'm tired so i'm gonna get to bed soon. Till, tomorrow hopefully... if we get internet.
That (above) is me in the car (Dante). my hair hasn't been washed in a while so, yeah its gross.
So yeah anyway, we got up a little later than we wanted to, but it's because we got in later than we wanted to. But it worked out OK because we got to Chicago in time to check in and stuff. Lindsey started off the drive in PA then I took over after we got to Love Land Castle in Ohio, almost all the way through Ohio.
It is basically at the bottom west part of Ohio. And fromt here we went north through Indiana. the Castle was kinda cool, smaller than I thought it was gonna be, but interesting anyway. We were there for like 30 min. We seemed to be running a bit behind so we had to scoot pretty quickly. There was a Dungeon in the castle and there was a prisoner in it who seems to have never been released.
After that we hightailed out and got to Chicago in about 5 hours. Like I said, nice room, pretty good view, and we got here in time to order Giordano's stuffed Pizza! I was waiting for this for a long time. I was everything I remembered.
And that is that for now. It's kinda late and I'm tired so i'm gonna get to bed soon. Till, tomorrow hopefully... if we get internet.
Thursday, April 9, 2009
April 8 2009
wasn't able to get online last night so here is the blog form yesterday:
Well, we are off. Its 6:41 p.m. I misplaced my iPod which is making me feel pretty sad, I must say. I was up till like 12 making a playlist, for nothing. I think I might have left it at my house. I guess its 2 hours after we planned to leave but I don’t really remember saying we were gonna leave at a specific time. We wanted to try for around 5 I guess. So we are going to Penn. Port Matilda and we’ll stay at her Aunt’s house.
We got the computer going, obviously, plugged into the power inverter. We also have the camera going now, also plugged into the power inverter.
I guess Wilma is telling us to go a different way than Lindsey’s mother said to go. This is making Lindsey a little frazzled. Not too much really, but we don’t trust Wilma 100% to be completely honest.
Packing the car wasn’t too painful. I had to duct tape the camera down. That seems to be working well for now… but its only like 20 min into out trip. We got the food within reach. Stuff in my bag is way back in the .. well back. I only have some Trail Mix in there really. Well, it seems as though Wilma is going to start talking. Ok we had a little misadventure with Wilma. It said to take exit 21 and it was coming up and it didn’t speak to tell us to do that and that made us confused. We took it and then it said we were off route. Then we figured out that it probably meant exit 21 in like NY or another state or something. Ok I’m gonna go now.
Well, we are off. Its 6:41 p.m. I misplaced my iPod which is making me feel pretty sad, I must say. I was up till like 12 making a playlist, for nothing. I think I might have left it at my house. I guess its 2 hours after we planned to leave but I don’t really remember saying we were gonna leave at a specific time. We wanted to try for around 5 I guess. So we are going to Penn. Port Matilda and we’ll stay at her Aunt’s house.
We got the computer going, obviously, plugged into the power inverter. We also have the camera going now, also plugged into the power inverter.
I guess Wilma is telling us to go a different way than Lindsey’s mother said to go. This is making Lindsey a little frazzled. Not too much really, but we don’t trust Wilma 100% to be completely honest.
Packing the car wasn’t too painful. I had to duct tape the camera down. That seems to be working well for now… but its only like 20 min into out trip. We got the food within reach. Stuff in my bag is way back in the .. well back. I only have some Trail Mix in there really. Well, it seems as though Wilma is going to start talking. Ok we had a little misadventure with Wilma. It said to take exit 21 and it was coming up and it didn’t speak to tell us to do that and that made us confused. We took it and then it said we were off route. Then we figured out that it probably meant exit 21 in like NY or another state or something. Ok I’m gonna go now.
Day 1 - Wednesday April 8, 2009 from Lindsey
This is what I typed up in the car yesterday.
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4.8.09 Wednesday
I hate New Jersey. Just getting that out there. Those who have traveled out of state with me before know this already. I really hate driving in New Jersey. There are no signs, but if there are signs they aren’t correct, or updated or anything normal. We, thankfully, haven’t hit any tolls yet but if we do there won’t be any lines on the ground and everything will be all willy-nilly.
To further explain, it was around 7 and we were getting pretty hungry. I don’t know about Matt, but I hadn’t really eaten anything since around 1:30. My head was starting to hurt and I knew it was time to find food. So, first of all – Wilma has the ability to tell us what is in the area, but decided at this point to not work properly. So I do it the old fashioned way and look at signs, except there are no signs. Or all the signs say are gas stations.
I finally see a sign that says “Wendy’s” and so I take it…… ….. we ended up in some kind of national forest with nothing but trees. No lights, no houses, no Wendy’s. We had turned off Wilma so that she wouldn’t freak out that we were off route, but eventually I gave up on all hope of food and we turned her back on. She took us on a roundabout journey back to 80. At least she got us back there I guess. And it isn’t entirely her fault that we never found that Wendy’s. Or anything else for that matter.
After being off route for so long I was hesitant to try another exit with a food sign, but this time Wilma confirmed that the Wendy’s was just two turns off the exit. Still in New Jersey, I keep calm knowing it won’t precisely be that way. Follow the signs to Wendy’s and find… a McDonalds. Decide to say screw Wendy’s and just get that instead. Good plan cause I didn’t see any lights further down the road.
We don’t really want to be eating a lot of fast food on this trip, but considering we left about 2 hours late and had a pretty rough day to start I wasn’t about to go to a diner or other type of sit down restaurant. So McDonald’s it was.
We just crossed the border into PA, which is good. Although we still have a while to go. But our spirits are still up and I’m really excited that I’m finally on this trip after all the planning that we’ve done over the past few months. I’m starting to get a little tired, switched off so Matt can drive the rest of the way to my aunt’s house. Or at least give me a little rest. We’ll see how it goes.
Signing off for now, even though I could probably write another two pages.
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4.8.09 Wednesday
I hate New Jersey. Just getting that out there. Those who have traveled out of state with me before know this already. I really hate driving in New Jersey. There are no signs, but if there are signs they aren’t correct, or updated or anything normal. We, thankfully, haven’t hit any tolls yet but if we do there won’t be any lines on the ground and everything will be all willy-nilly.
To further explain, it was around 7 and we were getting pretty hungry. I don’t know about Matt, but I hadn’t really eaten anything since around 1:30. My head was starting to hurt and I knew it was time to find food. So, first of all – Wilma has the ability to tell us what is in the area, but decided at this point to not work properly. So I do it the old fashioned way and look at signs, except there are no signs. Or all the signs say are gas stations.
I finally see a sign that says “Wendy’s” and so I take it…… ….. we ended up in some kind of national forest with nothing but trees. No lights, no houses, no Wendy’s. We had turned off Wilma so that she wouldn’t freak out that we were off route, but eventually I gave up on all hope of food and we turned her back on. She took us on a roundabout journey back to 80. At least she got us back there I guess. And it isn’t entirely her fault that we never found that Wendy’s. Or anything else for that matter.
After being off route for so long I was hesitant to try another exit with a food sign, but this time Wilma confirmed that the Wendy’s was just two turns off the exit. Still in New Jersey, I keep calm knowing it won’t precisely be that way. Follow the signs to Wendy’s and find… a McDonalds. Decide to say screw Wendy’s and just get that instead. Good plan cause I didn’t see any lights further down the road.
We don’t really want to be eating a lot of fast food on this trip, but considering we left about 2 hours late and had a pretty rough day to start I wasn’t about to go to a diner or other type of sit down restaurant. So McDonald’s it was.
We just crossed the border into PA, which is good. Although we still have a while to go. But our spirits are still up and I’m really excited that I’m finally on this trip after all the planning that we’ve done over the past few months. I’m starting to get a little tired, switched off so Matt can drive the rest of the way to my aunt’s house. Or at least give me a little rest. We’ll see how it goes.
Signing off for now, even though I could probably write another two pages.
Friday, April 3, 2009
Suitcase
After a bit of searching, I finally found the perfect suitcase. I probably won't be using it as it's a bit small, but I will be buying travel type stickers to decorate it with 1930's style. I want to represent almost everywhere we go on this trip and yet leave space for future travels.
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