March 18, 2012 - March 20, 2012
My journey out to Los Angeles essentially begins in Cleveland on Sunday. Luckily, I had a friend I was able to crash in Chicago on Sunday to really begin my trip early Monday morning out onto I-80 West. I arrived in Chicago in the evening just in time for the Xavier game. Whiteny and I headed to a bar to grab dinner and watch the game. Sadly, they were not showing the game on a television so I was not able to actually watch the game. Very disappointing but luckily they won. We got back watched the remainder of the Kansas game, and I was so tired that I just called it a night. A very uneventful evening after such a crazy weekend. Just what the doctor called for before the long drive.
So I brushed my teeth and headed on my out through Utah. I stopped a number of times at different Scenic Views along the way. It was a very beautiful drive. However, driving up and down the mountains were quite annoying and a little nerve wrecking. On the border of Utah and Nevada, I stopped for gas and a maintenance guy at the gas station said I needed new rear tires because the inside tread on my current ones were wearing away. I agreed and it turned out the tires were from 1996 and definitely had better days. The bad part was that it costed me time and money. So I waited for an hour because the new tires needed to be delivered by the vendor and then installed.Finally back om the road, I drove through Vegas and headed to California. The mountains never seemed to stop. Continued annoyance followed. Made it to the suburbs of Los Angeles and decided to pull off to eat and find a place to stay. I ended up at a Panera store because I knew they would have free wifi connection. I went onto CouchSurfing.org to find a place to stay. This site allows people to create a profile and either host or surf on couches for free. A great website for frequent travelers. I was lucky enough to find a place to stay in the area I was already in. So I drove there, showered, and planned my only day in Los Angeles. Then, slept like a baby.I had finally made it out to the West Coast.
Got up the next morning and left at 6:15 and headed out on my way. I'll just skip all the boring stuff. Drove to Iowa, then Nebraska, then Colorado, and night fell as I entered into the state of Colorado. I had been driving for 14 hours or so and felt pretty good actually. There were no problems along the way and my Check Service Engine light actually went off after filling up in Iowa.
Quick notes, Iowa is a pretty cool state to drive through with rolling hills, wind farms, and it was cloudy so it made the scenery that much nicer. I like the dreary look. Nebraska is a horrible state to drive through and was the worst part of the drive. Just flatness every where and no cities to drive through. Just plain emptiness. The beginning of Colorado was nice, but then it got dark and cold. I was just wearing shorts and a light weight jacket because I left my sweatshirt in Cleveland.
Got to Denver and started up the mountains. Then I got tired and was not in the mood to drive through mountains at night as it started to ice up. So, I debated on trying to find a hotel or just sleeping in a rest area. Finally, I chose a rest area. I crawled up in the back of my car with my blanket and pillow. Slept for maybe an hour. I was awaken by some idiots being loud next to me. I couldn't fall back asleep, so I decided to continue to drive a little more. After a couple of hours, I pulled over, used the restroom, and went back to sleep. A couple of hours later, I did the same the same thing. Finally, I made it to Utah. Found a Scenic View stop and slept there until morning, which was like 4-5 hours. Below is what I woke up to in front of me. Man, what a view to wake up to.
Go Big Or Go Home
Photos of the trip:
No comments:
Post a Comment