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VISITING SAN FRANCISCO
 The trip up the Pacific Coast Higway was as wonderful as I expected. I took hundreds of pictures and we listened to hours of the Beatles. Our stay in San Francisco, or Redwood City to be exact, was short but filled with laughter and friends. I will be writing about it all as soon as I can get unpacked and get my life back on track.  PCH HERE WE COME
When Jake and I drove across the country this summer, we covered every state to the west of Oklahoma, except California. We had a list of locations in the state that we wanted to make sure to cover. Jake said that maybe we should do those another time since we were now officially living in California and would have time to see it. Well, it's been six months and we've only visited one of those locations: Joshua Tree National Park. Our list still includes: Death Valley, Yosemite National Park, Sequoia National Park, Santa Barbara, San Francisco, and driving the Pacific Coast Highway.
A month ago, we thought of going to a State Park by Santa Barbara but the drive was about 8 hours to this remote island and we figured a weekend wasn't enough. I don't get three-day-weekends at my job so I got worried that it was a bad idea to put off the California section of our trip. NOT EXACTLY HOME
When we decided to move to Southern California, I had never been to this part of the country. Six months before our move, we made a list of all the cities we thought we'd like to live in and then eliminated them one by one. We couldn't live in Chicago because it was too cold and too expensive. Jake wanted to live somewhere warm; I wanted to live by the water. We both wanted something that was a decent-sized city but neither one of us wanted the expensive rents and tiny apartments of New York City anymore.
We eliminated all the way down to Santa Fe or San Diego. For weeks we pondered which but didn't really do much research. I had never visited either and Jake had only been to Santa Fe. We'd both been to San Francisco but nowhere in Southern California. Jake kept asking me which I preferred and I couldn't make a decision between two places I knew nothing about, but after two weeks I suddenly said, "We've moving to San Diego." When he asked me why, all I could say was that I had picked San Diego and that was that. We made up the reasons afterwards. Santa Fe got too cold in the winter. San Diego was closer to a major city with an international airport which made it easier to fly home. San Diego was in California, had the benefits of the West Coast but wasn't New-York expensive. We would have moved to San Francisco but we were really tired of living in small apartments. I wanted a house, badly. And San Diego had perfect weather. So it was settled. By the time we actually arrived here, there was no doubt we were meant to live here. We've now been in San Diego for four months. We don't have a house but we do have an apartment more than twice the size of the one we had in New York and the rent is almost half. We have a porch which we use quite often. The weather is somewhat chilly up in La Jolla but the sun shines every day and I have yet to wear a coat. San Diego delivered on all it promised. Yet I had no idea there would be so many things I didn't like. So many people I can't relate to. I didn't realize what a struggle it would be to learn to drive at thirty and to lack the independence driving provides here. I didn't think much of how my life in New York was surrounded by people I cared about and places that were so familiar to me until it all disappeared. I know that we've just gotten here and I know that it will take time to settle in and to make friends. I know that I will eventually be able to drive myself around and I will grow to love this beautiful city. But I don't know if I will ever truly belong here. When I see the streets of New York on TV, they are familiar like home. Yet, the ones here feel different. Distant. Like a vacation that's bound to end eventually. In the meantime, I plan to enjoy one of the main jewels of my new city: nature. I cherish the breathtaking beaches with sand pipers chasing after crabs, running away from waves. I am amazed by the inexplicable beauty of the Joshua Trees. I love that we can drive two hours out of the city and be in the middle of a desert and sit on the side of a cliff, staring into expansive flat land filled with jack rabbits. That is quite magical. SAN DIEGO
We made it! Our amazing trip is finally over and we've now started the fun business of looking for an apartment. It will be followed by finding a moving company and a job. I suppose the vacation was bound to end eventually. NEVADA
Hoover Dam is on the way from the Grand Canyon to Las Vegas so we, invariably, stopped for a few minutes and took some pictures. I thought, as I knew I would, that it wasn't that impressive. However, I am sure it must have been in the 30s. I had reserved a hotel, Treasure Island, using hotels.com, a night ago in Williams, Arizona. We drove in around 6pm and waited too long to check in. Since it was a Wednesday, the Cirque de Soleil show in our hotel, Mystere, was dark for both of our nights. We asked about tickets to the other show by the same group, 'O', which was sold out but we could go and wait for last minute cancellations. We rushed to Bellagio to get in line which already had 60 people in it. While Jake waited, I walked up and asked if there were any tickets for the next night and it turned out there was a cancellation so we walked out of the hotel, thrilled not to have to wain in the line. Neither of us being gamblers, Vegas didn't promise huge excitement for us. We walked around to see the Mirage's volcano erupt, we watched the magnificent lights of the Bellagio. On the way back, we walked into a casino, played for 2 dollars and won 45. We went to the hotel and slept. The next morning it was pouring so we took our time getting up. We visited a chocolate factory with a cactuds garden. We walked around, seeing the lions in MGM, the fish and tigers in Mirage, playing pinball, visiting Luxor, Mandalay Bay, Tropicana, Excalibur, New York New York, and went back to take a nap to make sure I'd be able to stay up through the night. The Cirque de Soleil show was breathtaking. I can honestly say I enjoyed every moment of it. We waited in the extremely long yet very fast-moving line to take a cab to Hard Rock. After dinner, drinks and winning 5 bucks we took another cab to Tropicana and walked into some more of the hotels, ending up in the same casino. An hour, drinks and losing all of our winnings later, we went to bed at 4am. A true Vegas experience. UTAH
We arrived in Utah in the afternoon. We drove right to the Salt Flat and was awed by the uneding flat road. We were scared to take our little car onto the flats since the person at the cafe by them told us that many cars get stuck. But while we were standing on them, an SUV came up and drove right onto them. It disappeared into the horizon within seconds. If you're a fan of speeding, that's probably the best place in the States to visit. Not to mention it's quite neat.We then drove to Provo where I decided I was too tired to continue so we spent the night in a hotel and relaxed and did the laundrey and logged in. In the morning, we took our time leaving and drove towards Zion National Park. On the way, we stopped at Marysvale around where we had read about two ghost towns. We stopped for lunch at this tiny cafe which had the best burgers I've eatned in quite some time. We then drove up to Bullion which wasn't really a ghost town; it was an old town which was really no longer there. There was an exhibit with the mining equipment. It was interesting but not exactly what we were looking for. We then drove down tothrough Red Canyon to Bryce Park. It had started to rain and within minutes, it ppoured and started to thunder loudly. e saw several flashes of lightning. We drove anyway and by the time we arrived at Bryce, it was trickling a tiny amount. The shaved and cony mountains of red, pink, yellow, white and orange covered miles and miles. I was so awestruck that I couldn't stop taking pictures. I thikn it might be the most beautiful sight I've seen on this trip. An hour or so later, we drove to Zion Park and got there throught the east enterance, which turned out to be interesting but a bummer. The winding roads took a long time to get through and by the time we were in the park and got on the shuttle (you can't drive in the park, you have to take the shuttle) it was already 8:30pm. We went up to Weeping Rock and walked a trail that was only a quarter of a mile long before it got dark. We made a note to definitely come back to this park as the huge mountains that towered over us in multicolor fascinated Jake and he wanted to do some of the longer and steeper hikes that we hadn't had the time to do. A truly inspiring park. We drove to St. George for the night and plan to take the quicker, though by no means quik, route to the Four Corners, Canyon of the Ancients and then Canyon de Chelly.We'll see how far we'll get. Utah, albeit hot, was amazing and we haven't even seen half of it. Lodging: La Quinta Inn, Provo @ $62.10 , Singletree Inn, St. George @ $41.50Car's Mileage: 16,110 Gas: $11.87@1.69 & $14.07@1.78 Roads: 80 to SLC, 15 to Provo, 70 and 89 to Bryce and to Zion, 15 to St. George Sites: Bonneville Salt Flats, Provo, Bryce National Park, Red Canyon, Zion National Park IDAHO
After a very long day of driving we decided to skip Boise and get as close to the Craters as possible. Around 10:30, we passed the last large (population of about 1,500) town on the way and decided to turn around to stop for the night. It was getting tool late to camp and we weren't sure the two tiny towns up ahead had hotels. We spent the night at the only lodging in town and got back on the road at 8, right after eating the pancakes cooked by the owner. We chatted with a Seattle couple who were also going to the Craters. The lava at the Craters was very different than the one in the Valley of Fires, NM. You were not allowed to walk on this one because there was a high chance of its caving in. The chunks looked like wood but sounded like metal. The entire place was one big bed of black. We had read the one of the caves, the Boy Scout Cave, had ice on its ground all year round so we decided to check it out. We took our flashlight and walked down the path. The entrance to the cave looked like nothing more than a tiny hole. Jake was skeptical that it was the entrance but sure enough it was. We walked in to the cave which had low ceilings, sharp rocks and ice. There was a family of three in front of us so it felt less lonely and dark than it would have. We walked/crawled all the way to the end and back. The inside of the cave had been cold and drippy so going back out to the steaming weather was a bit of a shock. Since our next stop was the Salt Flats in Utah, we decided it would be faster to cut through Nevada. As we entered the state, we saw a sign on the map for a Ghost Town and decided to drive out of the way a bit to find it. We spent the next half hour searching for it. Unsuccessfully. Do any of you know a ghost town in Utah or Arizona? Lodging: Governer's Mansion B&B@$55, Shoshone Car's Mileage: 15,559 Gas: $13.62@1.76 & $15.55@1.79 Roads: 84 east to 26 to the Craters, 93 to Nevada, 80 to Utah Sites: Craters of the Moon National Monument ARIZONA
Our visit in Arizona turned out to be racing from one end to the other. FromZion Park in Utah, we drove all the way to Canyon de Chelly through smallroads, passing Grand National Staircase, Glen Canyon National Recreation Areaand Monument Valley on the way. The drive was a feast on our eyes. A site wehad never experienced previously.We drove to Four Coners, paying 6 bucks to get in and being majorlydisappointed. The one place that definitely wasn't worth the time. Canyon de Chelly was quite beautiful but we'd heard so many stories about itbeing the best place to visit in the US that I think it was a tiny bit of adisappointment. We then drove all the way back west, almost immediately south of Zion Park tospend the night in Williams. We drive to the Grand Canyon at 7 in the morning,thankfully missing much of the crowds and traffic but not enough of the heat. The canyon is immense, words cannot adequately describe its size. The hillsare pale and I am worried my camera didn't do justice to its beauty. We took asmall hike and decided to call it a day. We'd already skipped Sedona because wewanted to save a day so we started on the drive to Vegas. On the way to Nevada, we took a side exit to visit another ghost town, Oatman.The town was overpopulated with people selling items and burros left from themining days. It was interesting but not what we had in mind. Lodging: Mountain Side Inn, Williams @ $49.10 Car's Mileage: 17,019 Gas: $15.43@1.67 & $12.28@1.56 & $12.03@1.79 & $14.48@1.55 Roads: 59-89-98-160 and 163-191-160-191 and 7 to Canyon de Chelly, 191 and 40to Williams, 64/180 to the Grand Canyon, Oatman Sites: Glen Canyon Rec. Area, Monument Valley, Four Corners, Canyon de Chelly,Grand Canyon OREGON
We arrived in Portland around noon. We drove down to the historic district where the saturday market made its home. We walked around for a while and bought a postcard. I read that Powell's bookstore was in the city so we asked around and drove to it. After the two Sedaris CD sets and Cause Celeb by Helen Fielding that my friend Ashlie had lent me, we were out of audio CDs so we bought Reefer Madness by Eric Schlosser, Fraud by David Rakoff, maneater by Gigi Grazer, Dirk Gently's Detective Agency by Douglas Adams and the Kid Stays in the Picture by Robert Evans. Cause Celeb was quite dumb really. But I am not a fan of Fielding anyway. I imagine Maneater will not be so great either but it might be fun. Schlosser's voice is too monotonous but the reasearch, like in Fast Food Nation, is quite detailed and interesting. Though obviously biased so far. We're now on the way to Idaho; spending the night in either Boise or Craters of the Moon. Even though we stayed in Portland only 2 hours, the city was very clean, very green and quite beautiful. Lodging: none Car's Mileage: 14,922 Gas: $19.00@1.79 Roads: 84 east all the way after 5 Sites: Portland WASHINGTON
We arrived in Seattle around 9pm. We checked in the hotel, surfed and slept. The next morning I called my friend, Zeynep, to see if she was up for lunch. We made a date and went to checkout Pike Place Market. It was a beautiful day in Seattle, cool but sunny. We walked around the market, going in and out of stores, watching the flying fish, and buying cashews. We walked over to my friend Sarah's dad's gallery, the William Traver Gallery, and chatted with her friend Ben. When I talked to the dept of transportation, they told me to rush and take an early ferry to Bainbridge island so we would be able get across faster. I called and apologetically cancelled with Zeynep and we drove to the ferry. It turned out we were too late and were going to have to wait almost two hours so we chose to drive instead. The Olympic Peninsula was covered with evergreens and lakes. On our way to the Hoh rain forest we ran into a huge line or cars. Miles and miles of cars. We tu!rned back, trying to find out what went wrong. As it turns out, a cement truck turned over and the road had been blocked since 9am. We decided to turn back and take a small hike in Sol Duc. There was a small trail which was like a rainforest. The trees were tall as far as the eye can see. Moss covered the trunks and branches. Mushrooms spurted out of the ground and bugs covered the forest. It was my first time in a forest like that and I couldn't get enough of the lush green. All the guides said not to go to the forests in the weekend due to huge crowds so we decided to skip Mt. Rainier National Forest and drove south to Portland. We stopped in Centralia for the night and are currently on our way to Portland. Seattle and Washington is beautiful. The weather was really pleasant, the people fun. Lodging: Fairfield Inn Bellevue@$71 & Centralia Inn@40 Car's Mileage: 14,642 Gas: $11.54@1.59 & $14.21@1.55 Roads: 2 to Spokane, 5 to 110 to Olympia Nat. Forest, 5 to Portland Sites: Seattle, Olympic Nat. Forest MONTANA
The drive from Yellowstone to Glacier Park was long and uneventful. We stopped by Bozeman but it seemed empty. We then stopped at Big Spring and saw the waterfalls which also weren't as impressive as we expected.So far, the smallest town we've seen is Emblem, WY with a population of 10. Northern Montana is completely empty with farmland as far as the eye can see. We drove through the Blackfeet Indian Reservation and all the roads everywhere in Montana were scarcely populated. We arrived at the park at 9pm, went to the campground even though it said it was full and got a spot. The gusty winds made for a very hardy night. Our crappy tent thrashed around in the wind. I kept thinking it would fall on us any minute. As a result, we got maybe 3 hours of sleep all night. We kept waiting for the sun to ocme up hoping it would signal the end of the wind but even as late at 8am, the wind was still going full force so we gave up and decided to get going. We drove the going-to-the-sun road and hiked, saw deer and longhorns, saw a glacier and waterfalls. We saw bighorn sheep just lying on the grazz and sun bathing. A deer looked us in the eye at about 5 feet. The peeks of the mountains were covered with snow but the meadows had wild flowers. Streams of water trickled down most of the mountains. Bird chriped everywhere and we saw at least 7 chipmunks running past us. One even approached us thinking we had food but quickly lost interest when we didn't. St.Mary's waterfall had a rainbow going ight through it and the water was icy. The park had magnificent views and falls. It was one of the most beautiful parks I've ever been to and I'm glad we decided to go out of our way to come here. I've officially become a fan of Montana. Lodging: St.Mary Campground in Glacier Nat. Park@$17 Car's Mileage: 13,526 Gas: $13.40@1.69 & $13.03@1.62 & $10.05@1.77 Roads: 90 to Butte, 15 to Shelby, 2 to Glacier Park Sites: Bozeman, Big Spring, Glacier National Park WYOMING
At 4pm we arrived at Devil's Tower. The tower is visible from the horizon. You need to register to climb it so we took a hike around it and Jake went up as far as they let him. On the way back, we saw two doe with two fawns. We also stopped to watch the prairie dogs which were endlessly entertaining. Since it was already late, we spent the night in Gillette. Our dialups didn't have a local number but the hotel had a business room where you could use their computer. We wanted to download the linksys drivers for the wireless to my laptop so we grabbed the crossover ethernet cable in the car and stuck it in their computer and, ta-da, it could see my laptop. There had to be some advantages to carrying all the computer equipment around. The drive to Yellowstone was pretty but long. It took us 5 hours to arrive at the east gate. By the time we saw the lake, went down to the Grand Teton Park and back, it was already 8pm so we decided to spend the night at the park. The camp ground was really pretty but had no water and only pit toilets. We set our phone to alarm at 5am and watched the rest of our movie on my portable DVD player. We had to watch it inside because the mosquitoes were swarming us. The Grand Tetons were amazing but obviously need to be hiked because the road didn't get too near them so that was a bit of a disappointment. Yellowstone proved otherwise. The night we arrived, we didn't get to see much as it was already late and the speed limit in the huge park varies between 35 and 45. We did see elk and a bear and we drove south bu that was mainly it for the day. We camped for the night and decided to get an early start. At 5:30am we got on the road and saw Old Faithful, the geyser. It erupted 20 minutes or so after we got there. We watched it wrapped around my blanket cause it was still freezing out. We stopped at the many geyser basins, we hiked to the lower falls, saw the mammoth hot springs and finally, 6.5 hours later, we left. Lodging: Hotel in Gillette@68 & Lewis Lake Camp in Yellowstone@10 Car's Mileage: 13,029 Gas: $14.21@1.61 & $9.99@1.62 Roads: 90-14 to Devil's Tower, 90-14 to Yellowstone, 191 to Grand Teton, 89 to Montana Sites: Devil's Tower, Bighorn Mountains, Yellowstone Nat. Park, Grand Teton Nat. Park SOUTH DAKOTA
We didn't leave Ft Collins until 3pm so we couldn't make it to South Dakota before sunset. At 6pm we stopped in Wheatland and ate a patty melt at Casey's Timberhouse and it was delicious. All the way to SD, we listened to David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day which is read by him and hilarious. As we approached the Black Hills Park, we saw many prairie dogs. As we stopped to take pictures they started barking loudly and you could hear hundreds of them. In Custer State Park, we ran into a bison right in the middle of the road. It seemed to be minding its own business and didn't even glance at us. By then, the sun was setting so we looked for a campground which we found right in the middle of the park. The place said it was full but thanks to cancellations we got a spot and made in just in time to watch the 20minute Spring Prairie movie. After our best night of camping ever, we got on the road at 6:30am and saw some bighorn sheep and pronghorn antelopes on the way to the Crazy Horse memorial. The memorial was huge but we didn't get to get close as we were there too early and they were also blasting the mountain. We then drove back and up the Needles Highway Scenic Drive to Mount Rushmore. Both Rushmore and the Horse memorial were somewhat of a letdown after the amazing nature we saw in the last few days. We stopped by Rapid City, bought batteries, wifi card, movies, Naked on CD, and drove on. One the way over we saw huge signs for Wall Drug and, thanks to Sarah, I knew to stop. We ate lunch and drove to the colorful Badlands. Lodging: Marriott@$72 in CO & Custer Park Camping@$15 in SD Car's Mileage: 12103 Gas: $12@1.48 & $13.95@1.65 Roads: 25 to Orin, 18/85 to Hot Springs, 385 to Wind Cave Nat. Park, 87 and 244 to to Mt. Rushmore, 16 to Rapid City, 90 and 240 to the Badlands Sites: Custer State Park, Crazy Horse Memorial, Black Hills National Park, The Needles, Mount Rushmore, Rapid City, Wall Drug, Badlands Nat. Park OUR ROUTE
Now that we're staying at a hotel with broadband access I figured I'd post our route in case people have recommendations. We've been adding sites as we go along so this schedule is not rigid. I will put the added sites in italics so you can see how much we've already added. Also, the original plan was not to drive more than 200/300 miles a day so if it seems we are covering very little ground per day, that's the reason. We've also gotten more flexible on that so I'll try to show those changes, too. The days are not dated since we didn't want to be locked into a date in case we chose to stay somewhere longer.Day 1: Boston to Pennsylvania - driving through New Haven for some banking needs Day 2: Pennsylvania to Day 3: Day 4: St. Louis to Oklahoma City, OK Day 5: Oklahoma City to Dallas, TX Day 6: Dallas to Day 7: Big Spring to Carlsbad Caverns, NM - that day we also did White Sands and ended up spending the night by Valley of Fires Day 8: Carlsbad to Santa Fe - we also visited Valley of Fires Day 9: Santa Fe to Great Sand Dunes, CO - we ended up driving all the way to Colorado on Day 8 and spent the night at the Grand Sand Dunes so we ended up saving one more day Day 10: Great Sand Dunes to Rocky Mountains - we also saw Black Canyon and drove to Fort Collins, CO for the night instead. Day 11: Colorado to Badlands/Mount Rushmore/Crazy Horse Memorial, SD - this is a bit ambitious so we might take two days, especially since we won't get on the road until noon. It turned out that we camped at Custer State Park that night and saw all of the above the next morning. Day 12: South Dakota to Devil's Tower/Yellowstone, WY - we thought this might take two days as well. We ended up spending the night in Gilette after the Devil's Tower and drove to Yellowstone the next day spent the night and drove around the park the day after. We also visited the Grand Teton National Park. Day 13: Wyoming to Missoula, MT - we also wanted to add the Great Falls (I'm not sure that's what they are called) We skipped Missoula, went to Glacier National Park instead, camped, and visited the park the next day. We did also get to stop by Great Falls. Day 14: Missoula to Spokane or Seattle, WA - depends on how much driving we can do that day. We made it to Seattle and are planning to visit the Olympic National Park and Mt. Ranier National Park so we will probably take an extra day here. Day 15: Seattle to Portland, OR Day 16: Portland to Boise, ID Day 17: Boise to Craters of the Moon Nat. Park - we were also told to visit Red River along the way. Day 18: Idaho to Salt Lake City Vicinity, UT - we decided to add on the Bonneville Salt Flats and we were told to stay in St. George in Zion National Park for the night. Day 19: Utah to Four Corners/Canyons of the Ancients/Canyon De Chelly, AZ - we were told to go through Sedona on our way. Day 20: Canyon de Chelly - Grand Canyon - we may take an extra day here, depending how tired we are and how much of the canyon we get to see. Day 21: Grand Canyon to Las Vegas, NV - we added Hoover Dam on the way Day 22: Las Vegas to San Diego, CA - our new home! There you have it. This is the plan as it stands now. I am sure there will be changes and additions but we've been having a blast and we think we'll end up seeing almost every great site in the country. The one thing we left out was the Pacific Coast Highway which we decided would be a trip of its own once we settle down in San Diego. Including the trip in May, the states we will have not visited at all will be: Vermont, Maine, Nebraska, Kansas, Michigan, Ohio, Wisconsin, Iowa and North Dakota. Did we miss anything? Are we seeing something that's not worthwhile? All comments are very appreciated. Our method of choosing the sites was opening a US AAA map and looking carefully so we may have easily missed some amazing places. COLORADO
We arrived at the Colorado Great Sand Dunes at sunset. We walked around for a few minutes and then drove to the campground four miles away. We camped on the side of the mountain at quite a steep slant. I kept falling sideways in my sleep. We awoke at 5:30AM local time and revisited the dunes. The amazing thing about such a huge quantity of sand is that it makes you lose your perspective of height and distance. We kept thinking we were almost at the base of the dunes but there was always more to walk. Especially with the huge mountains behind them, the dunes look small from a distance. Only when you climb up do you realize how incredible they are. Jake climbed all the way to the top as the sun rose and I waited at one of the hills. Over an hour later we got back on the road to Gunnison Park where the Black Canyon is. This site was picked last minute from the AAA guide which turned out to be a very good pick. The canyon was deep enough to fit to Empire State buildings on top of each other. We then drove from the westernmost end of the state to the Rocky Mountain National Park passing amazing badlands, canyons, the Colorado River on the way. The difference between New Mexico and Colorado is striking and the mountains here are truly awe inspiring. We arrived at the Rocky Mountains National Park at 7pm and worried that we wouldn't be able to see anything but the ticket collector told us that it would be light till 9. During the awesome ride up, we saw elk. At the top, we saw the sun set. Simply Magnificent. Lodging: Great Sand Dunes Oasis Camping@$12 Miles on the car: 11541 Gas: $10.08@1.62 & $8.89@1.69 & $15.70@1.89 Roads: 285 to Alamosa, 160 to Blanca, 150 to the Great Sand Dunes, Road w/ no number to Mosca, 17 to Poncha Springs, 50 to 347 to Black Canyon, 50 to 70E to 40 to 35 to the Rocky Mtn. Nat. Park, 287 to Fort Collins Sites: Great Sand Dunes Nat. Mon., Black Canyon of the Gunnison Nat. Park, White River National Forest, Rocky Mountain National Park NEW MEXICO
Carlsbad Caverns and Santa Fe were two original spots we had decided to visit but once we drove into the state we decided we had to go to the white sands and our friend Travis recommended that we check our the Valley of Fires so we're doing it all. New Mexico so far has been drastically different than anywhere I've been. The roads are completely flat with nothing for miles and miles. We occasionally see some cows and some mountains in the distance. We've seen a few little animals scurrying off the road. They look like squirrels but kinda small. I have no idea what they are. But we're often alone on the road for miles at a time, which is a bit scary in the middle of the torrential rain that just poured. The cavern was unbelievably huge, very humid and somewhat smelly. It was a long hike to get to the bottom but it was worth it. On the way west, we drove through Cloudcroft where the air suddenly went from 100s to 60s. We started seeing trees and mountains. The town is around 8000ft. and seems to be a ski area. The contrast between the sands and the lava and between the barren desert and the lush Rio Grande area, the flat and the mountains makes this state fascinating to me. The cutest part of today was Jake seeing a prairie dog on the side of the road and our seeing a couple on a bike and dog with its very own tiny helmet. In Santa Fe we emailed our teacher, Prof. Miller, from CMU who works at the Santa Fe Institute. We hadn't seen him in 6 years. He was there and we had a nice chat and tour and got back on the way. We're now driving to the scenic route through the Carson National Forest up to Colorado. Lodging: The Four Winds Motel, Carrizozo, NM@$44 Miles on the car: 10715 Gas: $20.72@1.49 and $10.12@1.45 Roads taken: 180 to Carlsbad, 285 to Artesia, 82 to Cloudcroft, 82 to White Sands, 54 to Carrizozo and 25 to Santa Fe Sites: Carlsbad Caverns, Lincoln National Forest, White Sands National Monument, Valley of Fires, Santa Fe TEXAS
We arrived at Dallas around 5 in the afternoon. We were close to the border hours before that but decided to stop and experience some Dairy Queen, a first for both of us. The woman at the store was extra kind to us, first-timers and mixed in chocolate chip, cookie dough ice cream with a ton of fudge and a banana. It was delicious. I'm afraid we're going to have to stop at many DQs from now on. We then went on some farm roads to find cows. We stopped to talk to many cows. The first two times they got scared and walked away but the third set seemed curious, especially the calves, so we hug out there for a while. We went to Jake's friend Ivan's house in Dallas and spent the night with them. Like our friends in Missouri, they too have a big and beautiful house. They grilled us some food and we chatted. The next day we drove to downtown Dallas and had yummy Mexican food. There are many huge, mirrored buildings in Dallas. My favorite was the enormous Pizza Hut building. It must be their headquarters because I can't imagine why Pizza Hut would need that big a building. We then got on the road to Carlsbad Caverns, NM. We took I-20 and I drove the entire way. Around 8pm, we decided to stop at the last big town on route: Big Spring, Texas. There were only two still-functioning hotels. We picked one and spent the night. Dinner was from Schlotzky's Deli which we were awfully surprised to see in the remote corner of Texas. In the morning, we checked all of our car's fluids since the next part of the trip will be through some hot climates, and got on the road. We found a dealer in Santa Fe, where we plan to be in a day or two, so we can get on the road. Big Spring supposedly is a big oil town so there is a huge refinery. There is also a huge landfill. We're now on a small road with nothing but grass ranches on both sides. This supposedly takes us right to Carlsbad. With its red clay, rundown and deserted stores, magnificent cacti, and delicious food we enjoyed Texas quite a bit. OKLAHOMA
We were still not too tired when we passed by Tulsa, so we decided to continue to Oklahoma City and arrived in town at 7:20pm local time. We set up camp at an RV Park right off of the highway. There was only one more tenter, a woman with two young kids. She told us she would have slept in the car if we hadn't been there. After we set our tent up, we drove down to the memorial which really was quite magnificent. Afterwards, we drove around looking for a movie theater and finally asked two women at a gas station. Legally Blonde 2 was so bad that even I didn't like it and I'm not exactly what one would consider selective. Driving around last night and this morning, the city seems so deserted. There are many run-down, empty gas stations and stores. It didn't feel scary, just odd. I wonder what people do in this city. The one place that seemed somewhat lively was a small section called Bricktown. It has a pretty canal with bars and restaurants overlooking it. Today's drive is south on 35 to Dallas. Here's a bit a trivia I learned recently: the odd numbere highways go north-south and the eveb ones go east-west and the numbers increase from south to north and from west to east. Oh and if you ever wanted to visit the largest McDonalds, it's on 70 somewhere between Missouri and Oklahoma. ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI
After two long days of driving, we arrived at St. Louis on Friday night and spent the weekend at my friend Ashlie and her husband Travis' new house. In two days, we watched some amazing fireworks, saw penguins, puffins and prairie dogs at the zoo, went up into the arch, ate toasted ravioli on a riverboat, and spent quality time with my three good friends. Besides the obnoxious heat, I found St. Louis to be very pretty and charming. This opinion was, of course, strongly influenced by our amazing hosts. They went out of their way to make our experience really memorable. Especially, Travis (see, I told you I'd write about you.) He has also helped us fine tune our travel plans to make sure we don't miss anything amazing and we skip the unneccessary. So now, we're all set for the next month. We're currently driving through Oklahoma, on our way down to Dallas where Jake has a good friend. Today's highlights included driving on the famous Route 66 and a sign for a porn store that was immediately followed by one that said "porn ruins lives". We have been driving by lots of farms so we see many cows and lots of neat hay bales. We even saw mini oil wells in Illinois on the way to Missouri. Our stop tonight is Tulsa or Oklahoma City depending our mood. I want to see the memorial in Oklahoma City which, I was told, is breathtaking. THE BIG TRIP
After a week in the Caymans, two days in NYC, ten days in Turkey and four days in Boston, we're back on the road. This time our final destination, and hopefully our new home, is San Diego. We've learned some good lessons from the first leg back in May so our car is a lot less heavy now. We broke up the stuff across three smaller bags instead of one huge one. We didn't bring the 47 pairs of shoes I own. We traded the box of books for a bag of books. Especially since all I read in the last month was Five Quarters of an Orange, the Shipping News, the Eight and Range of Motion. The back seat holds only the food, the cooler and the AAA maps. We have two 12-packs of diet coke and quite a bit of snacks. We put another 256megs of RAM into my laptop and got a car-charger so I can continue the Python coding I've been doing for my father-in-law. We brought along two more laptops, the little libretto and an old loaner. With one blackberry, two phones, three laptops, five cameras, two iPods, one Rio, one Palm and one Visor, we have quite a bit of charging to keep up with. We planned out most of the route. The trip doesn't really start until we leave St.Louis since we've seen most everything east of that, we decided to zoom to Missouri, see our friends and go from there. We have 21-driving days planned but I can't so far tell if we've over or under estimated. We didn't get on the road till 1pm but we're now making way through Pennsylvania, hoping to reach St.Louis tomorrow night. We've already begun reading a fascinating book, The Secret House by David Bodanis. Right as we entered Connecticut, I looked over to my right and made an eye-connection with a driver to my right. I remarked to Jake about how much the driver looked like my friend Pat. A few minutes later, the same car put on its sirens and pulled us over. The cop came over to me and after giving us a bit of a hard time decided a ticket would be a terrible way to start our trip, so he let us go. Lucky! GRAND CAYMAN ISLAND
After a magnificent week in the Grand Cayman Island, we made it back to New York and are already on our way to Istanbul. I can't wait to hug my nephews. Save for the obnoxious allergies I had all week, the Caymans was truly enjoyable. We stayed with our friends Adam and Crystal and their friends John and Elsa. The view outside our balcony would have looked too perfect even for a postcard. We could see all the way to the bottom of the aquamarine water. We went diving (with an instructor since neither of us had a license) three times and hand-fed sting rays. We saw a plethora of colorful fish of all sizes and very colorful coral. I will write more about our trip and post our pictures when I land in Turkey, hug my nephews, sleep and log in. BEAUTIFUL FETHIYE, TURKEY
 BOSTON TO PITTSBURGH
After much debate, we decided to spend two days in Boston and do the trip to Pgh in one day. This means we won't get there early enough to see our professors from college but we had a much-needed extra day to rest. The drive from Philly to Boston was long and uneventful. We ended up getting on the road at 3pm because we had a long and very fun conversation with Jenn. Such, we didn't arrive in Boston till nearly midnight. The wedding in Pgh is of a good college friend and we'll have other classmates there which makes this event tons of fun. We're also staying with a friend's friend whom we haven't seen in a long time. Going to Pittsburgh is like going home for me since it's the first American city I ever lived in. After my mom's birthday yesterday and my nephews' today, our one-year annivesary is approaching fast. I can't believe that, as of Sunday, we'll have been married one whole year. And what a year it's been! I'm glad I'll finally have a chance to taste my wedding cake. After a ten hour drive we made it to Shadyside in Pittsburgh and sat in my beloved Max&Erma's. Now it's time to rest. SMOKEY MOUNTAINS AND BLUE RIDGE PARKWAY
We spent the night in a semi-fancy hotel due to yesterday's bad mood and we took our time eating breakfast and checking mail. We then drove towards the Great Smokey Mountains and Blue Ridge Parkway. The mountains are so tall that it's completely thick with fog up at the peak. I drove most of the way but handed the seat to Jake at the peaks so he can drive us through the smoke. The Blue Ridge Highway is very curvy and quite steep thus making it hard to go faster than 40. But the path is surrounded by mountains, tall trees and wildflowers. It's certaily worth the trip. After a long and slow journey through the winding roads of the Parkway we got to the campsite and decided it was too rainy and way too cold to camp. We took the next exit to a city (which turned out to be Marion, NC) and checked into the Days Inn. We're now watching Liar, Liar on TV. The weather situation sort of sucks. We are planning to spend tomorrow night in Philly with my friend Jenn. The night after that should hopefully take us back to Boston. Gas: $13.69@1.63 Miles on the car: 5246 Lodging: Knoxville, Clubhouse Hotel @ $80 States: TN, NC Sites: Great National Smokey Mountains Park, Blue Ridge Parkway NORTH CAROLINA TO PHILLY
We woke up to another rainy, crappy day and thus decided not to get back on the Blue Ridge Parkway. Instead, we are taking major highways to get to spend tonight with my friend Jenn in Philly. The return trip has been less fun and less interesting mostly due to tornadoes, a ton of rain, having to stay in hotels, raised anxiety levels due to the accident, and long days of driving. Nickel and Dimed is proving to be an interesting read as well as sad and thought-provoking. We're nearly done with it and I'm looking for other good read-aloud suggestions. It appears non-fiction works better than fiction. I've already read The Tipping Point and Fast Food Nation, both of which I think would have been good reads. If you have any suggestions, leave me a comment or email me. I've only been to Philly twice before, once during college to visit my boyfriend-at-the-time and once two years or so ago to visit my brother in law, both in UPenn. My friend Jenn is also working at the school where she's a PhD candidate in Art History. I wonder if everyone in Philly is somehow or another connected to UPenn? We made it to my friend's house on time and spent a beautiful night with her. To top it of she sent me on my way with three books. Anywhere I can stay for free and walk away with books is magic to me. Gas: $10.99@1.39 and $7.27@1.41 Toll: $7.00 Miles on the car: 5802 Lodging: Marion, NC Days Inn @ $42.63 States: NC, VA, DC, MD, DE, PA Sites: well we took 40 to 85 to 95 so we saw pretty much interstate highways all day long. LA - AR
The highway to Shreveport (I-49) was completely empty and perfectly straight so we were able to maintain an average of 80m/h all the way to the camp site. Since the beginning of the trip, last night was the first time we got to a site when the attendant was still around. We set up tent, started our laundry, and drove to a drive-in, Sonic, for some yummy food. The place was overtaken by cheerleaders so we had a long wait but were able to make it back to the camp site in time to see the lunar eclipse. It was magnificent. We then drove to Hot Springs, Arkansas; the home of ex-president Clinton. The Hot Springs National Park was windy and thick with trees. The road up reminded me of the curvy Praslin roads in the Seychelles. Unfortunately it started pouring rain so we couldn't see the springs and decided to drive through Little Rock before rush hour. It poured all the way to Memphis, Tennessee. We kept hearing tornado warnings on the radio but made it to Memphis at 7pm or so. We spent some time shopping for hotels, since camping in the heavy rain was out of the question. We found a travelodge for 40 bucks, checked in and went to the movies. Off to see Down With Love. There were only six of us in the theater. I assume that had something to do with the Matrix playing on 4 screens and Xmen in another 3. In the middle of the movie, lights went out for a second and the generator kicked in. About four minutes later a theater personnel came in and told us all to go to the lobby because the tornado looked like it was coming our way. We waited in the lobby for about twenty minutes when some official announced the tornado had passed us and the movies would resume. We finsihed the movie and drove to the hotel. I saw some of the brightest and biggest lightning I've ever seen on the way back. Gas: $10@1.35 Miles on the car: 4509 Lodging: East Shreveport KOA camp site @ $20.36 States: LA, AR, TN Sites: Shreveport, Hot Springs National Park, Memphis TENNESSEE
I spent the entire night listening to the storms and the airplanes. In the morning it was still raining and tornado warnings in the area resumed. We attempted to go to Mud Island but the rain was too strong and the best part of what's to see is outside so we decided to skip it and drive to Cherokee National Forest. Halfway through the trip, we got tired and decided to skip Cherokee Park and drive straight to Knoxville or the Great Smokey Mountains. We decidedto camp around there, or stay in a hotel and get on the trail first thing in the morning. Since the accident we've both been pretty nervous about driving which makes days like this, where we drive mindlessly all day, really frustrating and taxing. Today's been a pretty bad day since it poured pretty much all day and we didn't stop to see anything. We're both sort of grouchy and tired. I don't know if it's simply an effect of driving for so many days or just today's bad conditions. I guess we'll find out tomorrow. Gas: $12.17@1.37 Miles on the car: 4962 Lodging: Memphis airport Travelodge @ $46 States: TN Sites: drove all over the state of Tennessee but didn't stop for sight-seeing BATON ROUGE
After a short detour we made it to Baton Rouge in the early afternoon. We went straight to the theater and bought tickets for the Matrix and then shopped for a hotel; there appear to be no camp sites around Baton Rouge. We settled in and ran out to play mini-golf which happened to be right outside our hotel.The movie had strong visual effects but wasn't as interesting as the original. My theory is that in the first movie we find out about everything along with Neo so it's as if we're with him and experiencing his journey along his side. In this movie we're observers on the outside. There are some amazing fight scenes and the duplication trick is neat. It gives the viewer a lot of thought-provoking theories and it ends with a huge cliffhanger. If you go to the movie, make sure to stay all the way to the end because the preview of the third movie is right after the everlasting credits. In the morning, we went to downtown Baton Rouge to check out the magnificent Capitol Building which is the tallest in the country and has an observation deck on the 27th floor. We really liked Baton Rouge; it's very green, quiet and pretty. We then drove to Avery Island to see the Jungle Gardens. The gardens are private property owned by the Tobasco sauce company. There is a bird sanctuary and a ton of alligators, turtles, frogs, and fish. There are beautiful sunken gardens and a buddha. The place is truly magnificent. We've decided to go back up through Arkansas and Tennessee and pick up the Appalachian Trail from there so we're now on the way to Arkansas and will probably camp around Shreveport tonight. The bookreading has become a challenge. Neuromancer proved too hard and the second Bridget Jones too stupid. We've switched to Nickel and Dimed. Gas: $10.51@1.35 and $11.33@1.41 Toll: 50cents in Avery Island Entrance: $12.00 Miles on the car: 4050 Lodging: Microtel Hotel around Baton Rouge @ $51 States: LA Sites: Baton Rouge, Jungle Gardens GA-LA
We made it to New Orleans on Monday night around 9pm Lousiana time. Since we've been driving and not flying, we totally didn't remember the time change. In Alabama, we stopped to look for a AAA store so we could get a guide for New Orleans and when we finally found the place our car said 5:15 and the door said they closed at 5. We ran in and felt thankful they were somehow still open. Only after we got all the books and maps did we realize that it was actually 4:15 in Alabama and they were supposed to be open all along. On Saturday night when we stayed in Adel, Georgia we asked the Days Inn checkin how much the rooms were downstairs (the ad we saw said rooms were $35 upstairs) and she quoted $45. When we asked what the difference between the upstairs and downstairs rooms were she said 'Stairs.' I kid you not. She said people are willing to pay ten bucks more not to walk up 8 steps. We arrived in New Orleans late night and went to town right after setting up tent. The mosquitoes at the camp site were vicious so we did everything extra fast. We drove right to Bourbon Street and Toulouse and parked our car at the Ramada. We walked up and down Bourbon as I tried to get used to the overwhelming stench of liquor and vomit. My first night in the French Quarter didn't leave me very impressed. I thought the houses were pretty but the odor was too strong and there wasn't much to do for a non-drinking female. We used the side entrance of Ramada as a sneaky way to get access to a clean bathroom after a delicious Gyro meal. We then drove to the camp ground at 1:30 after having been awake for over 19 hours because we'd gotten up at 6am for Jake's brother's graduation. Gas: $6.47@1.21 in Georgia, $4.64@1.42 and $12.18@1.29 in Alabama Miles on the car: 3500 Lodging: one night at Days Inn in Adel, Georgia @$35, one night at the Shellmont Inn in Atlanta, one night at the New Orleans East KOA camp site @$24 States: GA, AL, MI, LA Sites: Atlanta, Montgomery, New Orleans NEW ORLEANS TO BATON ROUGE
The next morning, we slept till 11 and the drove back into New Orleans. We parked the car and walked around the French Quarter. We ate at a New Orleans style restaurant where Jake tried alligator meat. It started pouring as we walked towards the St. Louis Cathedral and the guy approached us and tried to get us to buy hats for Meals on Wheels. We gave him a small donation instead and he gave Jake a book about George Harrison. The rain ended about and hour later and we decided to spend the night in town. We booked a hotel, left the car and took a streetcar to the beautiful Garden District. The contrast from neightborhood to neightborhood is vert stark in this city. The French Quarter seems noisy but pretty safe but right outside the area got sketchy, then we get to the garden distirct and the million dollar houses are breathtaking. We saw an all-girls private school where a science teacher was raising three ducks and I kept thinking how unusual it must feel to live in this town.! The streets are lined with men giving tourists beads and then asking for money. The cemeteries are above ground to prevent the graves from flooding. They look quite haunting this way. We spent the night on Bourbon street again. This time we drank (the hurricane was quite tasty and the hand grenade was too strong) and by then the city was growing on me. We got to our hotel quite late, aching everywhere from all the walking and collapsed in bed. We're now back on the road to Baton Rouge, taking the scenic route 18 right along the Mississippi River. The Eggers book was too uninteresting for Jake so we've moved on to Neuromancer and plan to watch the Matrix somewhere in Loiusiana tonight. When you're a geek, you're a geek all the way. Gas: $10.09@1.33 in Lousiana Miles on the car: 3538 Lodging: Hotel Provencial in the French Quarter @$93 including parking States: LA Sites: the French Quarter and the Garden District in New Orleans, Baton Rouge ATLANTA TO NEW ORLEANS
After two days and endless amount of graduation ceremonies later, we're back on our way to New Orleans. If all goes well, we should make it to New Orleans tonight. We spent our night in a small bed and breakfast called Shellmont Inn and watched 15 Minutes which was much more violent than I imagined it would be. We drank, ate and chatted with Jake's family but didn't go around Atlanta at all so I have no pictures to show for the last two days. We did however get gas at 1.21 much to Jake's delight. Atlanta was quite hilly, very green and sunny but breezy. All in all, it seemed quite pleasent. We've finished reading Catch Me If You Can and have moved on to You Shall Know Our Velocity by Eggers. I'm also reading Look At Me by Egan during times when my jaw is tired from reading out loud. Maybe we'll buy some books on tape for the next trip (though they'd have to be on CD since we don't have a tape deck in the car). We're now on 85 south going through Alabama. The roads are very green and somewhat empty. Even though the highways mean faster travel speed, they don't provide the solitude and entertainment of the smaller roads. On the way up from Florida, we took a small route and saw many cows and wide open roads which were beautiful. We saw ten cows huddled around a sign "Beef, it's what's for dinner." Thankfully, the cows can't read! Now that we don't have any set deadlines till the 25th, I'll try to take more pictures in the side roads and stop to talk to cows. The pictures I've taken so far can be found here. I tested it a bit but not heavily. If you find a bug please leave me a comment (the comments get forwarded to my email) or drop me an email. Thank you! OUT OF FLORIDA
We finally made it out of Florida! Our car was ready at around 3pm. It looks almost the same as the original but my inquisitive eye did catch glimpses of glitches it the paint. There is also a tiny sound when you turn the car slightly. Other than that we're good as new. We made it all the way up to Adel, Georgia last night where we stopped for the night at a Days Inn for 35bucks. The funny thing was that if we took a room downstairs instead it would have cost us 45bucks. We asked her if the rooms were bigger or safer downstairs and she said that the only difference was the stairs. We got to bed at 10:30 after filling up the tank for $15.62 at 1.69 a gallon, Jake was really sad to see gas for $1.19. We also saw a hotel for 15bucks a night. Both were in Georgia which is officially the cheapest gas and lodging we've seen so far. We spent yesterday reading Catch Me If You Can (I read aloud while Jake drove). While it isn't a literary accomplishment, it is astonishing how much the guy got away with and a really neat story since it's true. We also tried to name all the state capitals which wasn't a very successful attempt (nerds, I know). We woke up at 6am and got back on the road as our first commitment in Atlanta is today at 10, which we should make if there are no problems on the road. I can't tell you how glad I am to be out of Florida! PERSPECTIVE
We're still stuck in West Palm Beach. We went to the car shop today and the car may not even be ready on Saturday. He said Saturday or Monday. Jake's brother is graduating on Sunday in Atlanta so if we don't get the car on Saturday we have to rent another car (our current rental is in-state only) and drive up there and come back to pick up our car. That would be a major bummer. I am just hoping it won't have to come to that. In theory, I am aware that Palm Beach isn't the worst place to get stuck in the world but the fact is both of us are really upset about the car and don't seem to be in the mood to do anything. I have a million things to do in the hotel room alone: I can read the 40 books I brought with me, I can organize and post my pictures for the last week, I can start working on my novel, I can email friends to whom I owe a reply. Not to mention, I can hang out at the pool and just relax. But I won't do any of those. I also won't go to Disney World, which I adore. Or anywhere else that might be fun in this huge state. Yesterday Jake had to drag me to the movies or I wouldn't have gone there either. I am simply determined to be in a bad mood. Stupid? You bet! I'm just frustrated and scared. I keep worrying we're going to get into another accident. I am freaked out constantly. I am even wondering how we will do the big trip on August if we get in another accident. Now that someone hit us I keep thinking it will happen over and over again. Crazy? You bet! STUCK IN FLORIDA
I know it's been almost a week since I wrote. We spent Thursday and Friday nights in Coral Gables and here's what I had written on that: After two nights at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables we're finally back on the road again. It turns out jazz festival is going on in New Orleans so we picked a good time to go. Leg two of out trip has officially begun and I can't say I'm sorry to leave hot HOT Miami. We did get to see beautiful Daphne and awesome Rony for brunch and we're on our way to meet with Ryan who's a good friend of six. We also got to hang out with Jake's family so it was a well-worth two day stop. On the way to Ryan's we got off the highway to get gas and some guy rearended us. Which meant that our brand new car was smashed and we had to wait here till Monday to find out what we were supposed to do with the insurance. On Monday we took the poor car to a shop and the guy said it would take a week to fix it so we've been stuck in Lantana, Florida for the last five days. Lantana is in Palm Beach County which isn't the worst place to get stuck but we're both so bummed about the car that it wouldn't matter where we were. After giving our car to the shop and renting another one, we decided we might as well have some fun. We went to see the Lion Safari and watched both X2 and Bend It Like Beckham which were both really good. Though I would completely have prefered not to have crashed the car and to be in New Orleans now. Major bummer. More updates will come as soon as we're back on the road by Friday, if all goes well. MA-FL - DAY FIVE
My friend Ashlie was staying at the Ritz Carlton so we ended up going from camping it to the Ritz, quite a change! After a delightful night of chatting, showering and charging up all our electronics. We awoke fresh and recharged. We ate from the delicious buffet, hugged her goodbye and we're on the way to the Everglades and then to Miami. As soon as I opened the AAA tourbook for Florida, I realized that our everglades plan was badly made. We drove around for 45 minutes, saw some really neat grasshoppers, and then scrapped the plan and went right through the scenic route 41 to Shark Alley and walked around. We saw alligators, turtles, gar fish, a cormorant and a snake. It was indescribibly beautiful. We are now back on the way to Coral Gables, at this point less than 30 miles away. After last night's fancy hotel today's famous Biltmore might not even look that fancy. We're officially in Miami now which makes this leg of the trip over. The next leg is Florida to New Orleans starting Saturday morning. Gas: $9.32@1.61 Miles on the car: 2144 Breaks: 1 Valet: $7.00 Toll: $1.50 Camping: 0! States: FL Sites: Big Cypress National Preserve, Everglades National Park, Coral Gables MA-FL - DAY FOUR
We're down to the last two days. The first event for the wedding is at 9pm tomorrow night. We appear to be on schedule but I am never too confident about my abilities to calculate travel time using a map. Last night's camping was awesome. The ground was on a swamp. We got there in daylight, setup camp and went into Charleston and walked around. Charleston is beautiful. With small colorful houses and cobblestone side-streets it looks like a small European village. I didn't get to take any pictures because it was late night by the time we got there. I slept so hard that I didn't even wake up once in the middle of the night. Which is a huge accomplishment for me. We got up around 6:45 and watched the ducks that were completely unfazed by our existense and approached the tent with confidence. Racing to avoid the mosquitoes we got ready and got right on the road at 8am, the earliest we've been on the road in the last four days. It was my turn to drive so I drove us down to Savannah which I think is the most beautiful American city I've ever been in. We took an hour and a half break and walked around the city and its amazing parks. I'd been down here with Jake's family two years ago but that was the week I'd had an MRI and found out about my herniated discs so Jake and I had had to fly back to New York. The three hours we'd spent in the city had been enough for me to know that I wanted to come back. Today's plan was to go to Jekyll Island and camp at Daytona Beach but we ended up zooming right past Jekyll island because I wasn't paying attention and didn't tell Jake to get off at the exit. Thanks to that we changed our plans and decided to drive to Naples where my friend Ashlie happens to be and staying in her hotel room. Finally a clean shower! Gas: $6.10@1.39 & $12.41@1.49 & $6.86@1.52 Miles on the car: 1966 Breaks: 3 Bagel lunch: $1.35 Parking: $0.50 Camping: $15.00 States: SC, GA, FL Sites: Charleston, Savannah, Naples MA-FL - DAY TWO
After three hours of driving around we finally realized that we had driven past the campsite about 4 times. Around 10:30 we pulled into the campsite and found a little spot. Thanks to the headlights we setup the tent in no time and decided to skip dinner and snore. The night got colder but other than that we had no animals, no bugs, actually no noise at all. It was calm and peaceful. I woke up without any back pain at all. It appears I can get used to this life which is great news. I picked our route for the day. We're taking the scenic routes 13 and 17 all the way down to Miami. Today's my day to drive and it will be my first full day of driving ever. Cross your fingers. We plan to stop at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge and possibly visit Kitty Hawk and Wilmington. Drive through Myrtle Beach and end up in Charleston for the night. I might be underestimating the distance so we'll see how the plan gets revised. Btw, the emails are typed on my tiny blackberry which may explain the typos. Also I type most of the mail up during the day and update it until we go to bed which is around when I send the mail. So it is now 8:17pm and I drove from 9:30 till now. No accidents and pretty okay driving. Tons of backache though. We're on the way to Rodanthe Camp ground which is about 25 minutes south of Kitty Hawk. It looks like it will be another night of setting up tent in the dark. Gas: $12.34 Miles on the car: 879 Breaks: 1 Toll spent: $12.50 Ferry: $33 Parking: $2.00 Curly Fries: $4.50 Previous night's camping: $10.00 States: NJ, DE, VA, SC Sites: Cape May, Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge MA-FL - DAY THREE
Last night's camping was quite windy because we camped right in front of the beach. But we survived it and even got lucky enough to take a shower this morning, so we're all clean and back in the car. Today's plan is to make it down to Charleston.It's Jake's turn to drive so I'm looking out the window and planning to read The Quiet American. Our brand new car is getting covered with dead bugs so intermittently we stop and clean the front of the car and the windshield. Fun fun! We're spending our entire day shooting down to Charleston through Route 17. Depending on when we get there we may camp at Buck Hall at Awendaw or at Lake Aire RV Park and Campground in Hollywood. I am hoping to dine in Charleston and maybe see a movie. It's 77 degrees in the bottom of North Carolina at 5pm. Hot hot! After driving straight down we made it to Charleston at 7:30 so we're staying at the Lake Aire campground. I am trying to convince Jake to setup our tent and drive back to Charleston to take a stroll because Savannah is in tomorrow's plan and I don't want to waste time driving back in the morning. Gas: $13.57 @1.39/gal. Miles on the car: 1342 Breaks: 3 Walmart diet-coke: $11.35 IHOP lunch: $6.00 Toll spent: $0! Parking: -$2.00 I wrote this for yesterday but we didn't park anywhere yesterday. Previous night's camping: $15.00 States: NC, SC Sites: The Outerbanks, passed through Roanoke Island and Mrytle Beach MA-FL - DAY ONE
After filling the car all the way up, eating Jake's mom's delicious crepes, and coming up with a vary vague plan we got on the road around 9:30am from Boston. Since our car is brand new Jake won't drive it over 60 until we reach 500 miles. As such we're in New Jersey driving down to Atlantic City and planning to camp somewhere around there or Cape May. My first night of camping ever is approaching fast. We're planning to stay at Belleplain State Forest in Millville. My back is already hurting from sitting in the car for seven hours, so we'll see how well it responds to sleeping on the ground. We stopped to rearrange the car as soon as we got on to the Mass turnpike because my seat was so close to the windshield that I tought I might freak out. We then had to rearrange it again when it got so hot that Jake decided to dig for his shorts. The luggage in the trunk was locked just to make it more fun. I must say that due to my laziness and unwillingness to repack we ended up bringing enough clothes to last a month or more and about 25 pairs of shoes. You don't have to tell me - I know that it's insane. I figurw this is the mini-trip so I can afford to be insane. Yeah, right. We walked into the hotel in AC where we parked the car. Neither one of us gambled before so we walked around and picked a machine which turned out to have 3 credits in it. We played and won 65cents. We then gambled away 50 cents at a few other machines and ended up leaving the place up 15 cents without putting in a cent of our own money. That's the kind of gambling I can deal with. Gas: $19.64 Miles on the car: 478 Breaks: (bathroom/food/stretch/etc.): 4 Toll spent: $7.95 Parking: $2.00 States: MA, NY, NJ Sites: Atlantic City ALMOST THERE
We finally bought a car! Joined the AAA and took every book and map they have on every state. We bought camping gear and borrowed some from Jake's parents. We charged all of our electronics. We bought coolers, ice, crackers, fruit and diet coke.Tomorrow morning starts the first leg of our trip: DC, Virginia, Carolinas, Florida, New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Mississippi Delta, Atlanta and then back to Boston. If you have ideas of neat places to visit in those states please leave me comments cause I want to see as much as possible!! More info and pictures to come as we get on the way. JETLAG
I don't get jetlag. BURGAZ
When I tell people that I'm from Turkey, the visions they imagine are nothing like my actual life.  Thankful that some parts of the world never change. Ps: the beautiful images of Burgaz and our house are copyright of a family friend, Erdogan. If you want to see more pictures of Burgaz, you can find them here. Previously? Mistakes. SOUTH BEACH
I don't think I could ever live in Florida. SPONTANEITY
Jake and I are not the most spontaneous people in the world. TALKING TO STRANGERS
The summer of 1990, my friends and I took a trip to Israel. We traveled all over the country, spending a few nights in each major city. A few weeks into the trip, we spent the night at a youth hostel right by the Masada. We were to climb the mountain early in the morning, before it got unbearably hot. As we chitchatted in the yard of the hostel, a group of Americans joined our conversation. At 15, I already knew that I wanted to attend college in the United States and I also knew that I wanted to study computer science. As I told one of the American strangers about my life goals and dreams, he said, "If you want to study computers, you should go to Carnegie Mellon." I had never heard of CMU, so I ran back to my little room and scribbled the name of the university in my diary. After I returned back to Istanbul, I did some research and found out that CMU was indeed quite a well-regarded computer science college. I even flew halfway across the world to visit the campus and fell in love with it. So I spent the next few months working, praying, and begging to get in. And I did. The winter of 1996, a few months before I graduated college, I cut my Christmas break early and flew back from Turkey to New York. In New York, I changed planes to reach my final destination, Boston. That winter happened to be a particularly bad one so our flight sat on the ground for quite some time and we were stuck inside the plane. I'd already been flying for twelve hours so to say that I was slightly anxious to get there wouldn't be an exaggeration. I was thoroughly bored and trying to stay awake, so I started chatting with the gentleman seated next to me. I truly can't remember how the subject matter came up but we started talking about programming. I started talking about interviewing. He asked me if I'd ever heard of a specific firm and I said, "Sure. They recruit heavily at CMU. They're mostly looking for Cobol programmers, though." We started discussing the details of several different programming languages. Our plane was still sitting on the ground. After an hour or so, the gentleman took out his business card and handed it over to me. Of course, he worked at the firm I'd just dissed and he was a Vice President. He got my email address and asked me to come down to New Jersey for an interview. Which I did, and after presenting me a book on Cobol, he offered me a job. And I took it. (Actually I didn't, but wouldn't my story be neater if I had?) I've had many incredible coincidences, random strangers who completely changed my life. Sometimes life works in magical ways. And if you're sitting on a plane, make sure to talk to the person next to you. Previously? Crappy Men. MOUNT AVALON
We spent the weekend in New Hampshire. My first time. The leaves had already started turning yellow, orange and red. Living in New York and working too many hours, it's easy to lose track of the changing of the seasons. I highly recommend that you go out and watch nature for a few minutes.We climbed Mount Avalon. My first climb ever. The weather was quite unaccommodating as it drizzled all the way up and the climb was steep. But we made it to the top and it was amazing. I can certainly understand the rush of feeling on top of the world. (Even though this mountain was tiny compared to the substantial ones.) We dined at the beautiful Mount Washington Hotel and drove up Mount Washington. The weather was so bad that 4 miles up the road the visibility was no more than 30 feet. At one point, we couldn't even see the car driving in front of us. All in all, it was a great weekend. Getting away once in a while helps the brain. SEVEN WONDERS
A while ago, a friend visiting Turkey told me that five of the seven wonders of the ancient world are in Turkey. Which, of course, isn't true. Tonight, over dinner, we tried to remember all the wonders but were able to only come up with five. So I found the site and we got them all. Greece has two, as does Egypt and Iraq has one. The other two are in Turkey. One in Bodrum and the other in Efes, close to Izmir. GETTING TO THE VINEYARD
We got up at 6:30am and took a cab at 7am to the Hertz rental place in midtown and drove for the next three hours to New London, Connecticut. Then, we grabbed a taxi from the Hertz drop off place to get to the docks. We waited there for about two hours and took a 2 and a half-hour boat. The boat arrived at 2:30pm. A total of 8 hours of traveling just to get from NYC to Martha's Vineyard. Is it worth it? During the entire trip, the answer was a decided no, but now that we're here and I can hear the crickets and the seagulls, I'm having second thoughts. It might be a pain in the ass to get here, but it's like a little piece of heaven on earth, which must be the reason we’re willing to repeat this ordeal several times a summer. VENICE Are you a sun-lover? Read this. I think it might make you reconsider. At least, I hope so. There was an article in yesterday's New York Times about Venice sinking. I can't find it in their web page or I would link it for you. The article talked about how the government is about to approve a multi-million dollar project to save Venice while some professor from Colgate proved that the proposal will not work. The professor is trying to make his findings public so that the project will get dropped, and so they can start searching for a feasible alternative. If you've never been to Venice, I think you should try to go soon cause I'm not sure how much longer this wonderful city will be around. |
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