Today was another boooring day of driving. We left Kansas City around 8:30 (notice a trend here…), and headed east. Really no trouble along the way, and it was a little boring. I did enjoy going 85 in a 60 after St. Louis, behind two ‘chumps’, a Mustang and a Subaru Outback, both a ways ahead of me and matching my speed, so cops would be more likely to get them instead of me.

I did finish up Dead Set, the British zombie apocalypse miniseries, which was pretty damn fantastic to be sure. And, I even got to listen to Everytime I Die (the Big Dirty, great album), probably to everybody else’s disdain. Really though, I couldn’t take much more of the emo stuff the other guys like. It just all sounds the same to me: bad. I’m not going to say the music is unfit for listening, it just grates at my eardrums, and I can’t take much of it at a time.

Anywho, we hit Brookville, OH, just outside Dayton, around 6pm (Eastern, finally!), and met Jason’s aunt and uncle, who are very kind and generous, enough to board us for the night. Dinner was great too, sure beats most of the restaurant food we’ve been eating, though Jason did forget to mention I’m a veggie. It didn’t prove to be a problem, since there was plenty to eat aside from the meat. Also, cookies and pie afterward! I’m not usually a pie fan, but I couldn’t refuse fresh peach pie, and it turned out to be delicious. May have been partly pre-assembled (canned filling, frozen crust?), but still a great end to dinner. Conversation was good too, it’s not often adults treat us young adults as equals, but this was a case of the exception. We told them about ourselves, our ambitions, our travels, anything that seemed interesting, and nothing was awkward or the like.

Anyway, hunkered down now, watching Death At A Funeral (more British, more death!), prolly gonna hit the hay soon, and then tomorrow we hit the road for Rochester, our final leg of the journey, and home for at least a day.

We departed Grand Junction this morning around 8:30, and hit the road through Colorado, bound for Kansas City. On the way, we saw our first up-close-and-personal snow. Seems like Colorado is doing pretty well in the Rockies this time of year, as a few resorts (Vail, Lionshead, Breckenridge) appeared to be open. We drove straight through the area, unfortunately. I certainly can’t wait to get back on a snowboard now and shred some powder.

Today’s leg seemed to last forever, to be certain. Everybody’s shift felt like it lasted forever, no matter who was driving. I picked up in Kansas, just after the state line and time zone change. I kept a fairly steady 85mph pace, saw NO cops at all, and hit my stop after a few long long hours.

We’ve essentially seen it all at this point; the cool November plains that stretch for miles, the barren desert pockmarked with mesas, the canyons that dot the midwest, the warm coasts of California, the smog of East LA, the low valleys nested in immensely tall peaks of the Rockies, the mountain mining towns of the same area, as well as the white dusted resort towns, and now as we continue back toward our starting location, more plains, and the almost too familiar hotel bed. This is our last hotel stop for the trip, a Comfort Suites in Kansas City, MO. The room is unexpectedly nice, with a love seat and everything, certainly not what we’ve been used to so far.

Tonight, dinner was free! Jason managed to finagle us an on-the-house dinner at a place called Governor Stumpy’s, a bar and grill in this very city. The food was great, the owner (a friend of Jay’s parents) was friendly and accommodating, and we all left full and happy. Honestly, after today’s shit breakfast at the Quality Inn (diner eggs + my stomach = an unhappy Steve), it was all I could ask for to be fed well, for free no less.

Tomorrow we hit the road on a relatively short 8-hour trek to Dayton, OH, to stay with Jason’s aunt and uncle, once again free room and board for us roadweary and poor-ish travelers. I’m hoping we see more snow, though ideally it will not be dumping on us from the skies while we drive.

Also, did I mention gas out here is below $1.50 a gallon? Yeah. Everybody should want to live in fucking Kansas City. Jeebus creepus.

We have been on the road for a week, how cool is that?

Unfortunately, not much cool happened today. We set off from Encinitas early, around 7, and headed North, out of California, through Las Vegas, into Arizona, Utah, and finally stopped here in Grand Junction, Colorado. It was a lot of driving, not much stopping, a little bit of eating. Jason and I stopped in Arizona to try some climbing, but alas, the desert sandstone we found had been irrigated and was extremely crumbly, which is of course dangerous and hard to climb. We stopped after a few unsuccessful and pitiful climbs, and set off again. Really, the views have been great on the way out here, but we haven’t had the chance to do much. It was a long driving day, I’m looking forward to sleeping, and tomorrow we hit the road again, bound for Kansas City (both of them).

Woke up today to a relatively sunny morning. We all walked down to the Leucadia Donut Shop to get our 13 breakfasts, and walked back to the house to eat them. Afterward, we walked back down to Leucadia to explore the area shops. In my opinion, it’s nothing special, though there is a witchcraft shop, and plenty of surf shops. Later, we hit La Jolla, CA, to go check out the seals. Unfortunately, the weather was overcast, the seals were few, and by law, unapproachable. We decided to explore the tide pools in the area, which were absolutely fantastic. The little microcosms of ocean life held so much, such variety, it was almost like being a kid in a vast toy store for somebody interested in wildlife. I found barnacles, what appeared to be segmented bugs, anemones, hermit crabs, fiddler crabs, what could have been a small shark, and also what looked like a baby lionfish. This certainly made my day.

Once we arrived back, I decided to go to the beach, just one last time before we leave. I went collecting shells and such, and eventually entered the water, which turned out to be far warmer than expected, almost warmer than the air, it seemed. On the way back, we discovered what we had since thought was seaside rock on the bluffs was actually dense sand, probably washed from the actual bluffs, or eroded by the tides. The cool part was that they really do look like solid rock, so when you pull a chunk off, you probably appear incredibly strong. Crazy shit.

Dinner at a legit Mexican place tonight, was pretty good. The burrito I had would have been better at Alto Cinco (in good ol’ Syracuse), but the meal overall was better than I expected. Still, dinner last night is still the best of the trip I think.

Tomorrow we’ve got an early start, off to Denver by the end of the day. It sucks that we have to leave Southern Cali, it’s a fantastic place, but I know where my home is, and it’s not here. Not yet at least.

Ah, sunny Encinitas, California. Woke up yesterday around 9:30, hung out for a little bit, then we all went to the store to grab some food for the house, and for a sweet dinner I’m going to make (more on that later). We then went to a little shopping plaza, which was crazy upscale, and split up, two of going to buy some coffee, the other wo looking for sandals. We hit this shop called The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf, a chain, we found out, but one that still has the feel of an indy shop. We made conversation with the kids behind the counter, who were very friendly, and certainly not afraid to recommend to us another coffee shop closer to where we are staying. After that, we hit an upscale chocolaterie, just to check it out. I may see about buying something there for a certain someone back home.

Once we got back and unloaded the groceries, we hit the beach. I wasn’t really planning on swimming, since the water was freezing and the air temperature didn’t seem to be warm enough to merit it, but in retrospect I’m very glad I did. The water was cold, yes, but it was quickly forgotten, as we body surfed the huge waves, which broke right over our heads and pummeled us towards the shore. Afterward, we lay in the sun for a bit, came in, watched a movie, and then departed for Erin’s aunt’s house. Her aunt is the one who owns this beach house, so we all decided it would be a nice gesture to go and meet her.

She cooked us a wonderful pasta dinner, and even catered to my own vegetarian lameness. She seemed to be a very lively woman, very friendly and talkative. Her one daughter though…ugh. She was a bit of a pain. Twelve years old, though she looks probably sixteen, she romped about the whole night bugging basically everyone. The best part was how much attention she seemed to pay to me, and I say best with utmost sarcasm. She kept staring at me the whole time, every time I looked around at people, if I passed over her, she was watching me. During dinner, she smacked the bill of my hat down. A little later she knelt on the ground next to me and decided to make conversation.

“Hi.”

“What’s up?”

“How’s your life going?”

“Uh, good..Having a pretty cool road trip right now.”

“Where’s your final destination?”

“Oh, well here, San Diego.”

“So you mean me right?”

“Uhh…no.”

She pressed the idea that my destination was her, whatever that means, but I would not concede. Weird little girl.

Then we went to visit Erin’s cousins, two Marines living nearby. They’re alright guys, didn’t get to hang out with them much. But, they’re coming to dinner tonight, so maybe we’ll get to know them better.

Day 5

Today started out with cereal. Albertson’s Cranberry Almond, pretty good stuff. We then drove out to Mission Bay, and we rented us some jet skis. Hell. Yeah.

I’ve never been on  a jet ski before, and I must say, it is the most fun I’ve ever had on the water. I don’t know that I’ve ever traveled at 50 mph on the water before, but if I have, it was never so exposed. I felt like I was going to get tossed off often when I wasn’t driving, but when I had the throttle in my hand, whoo! I was a maniac. I did it all, I jetted through the bay at top speed, I jumped off the other ski’s wake, I created a whirlpool and came back and drove through it. It was such a thrilling experience, to be travelling so fast over the water, while being a small enough craft to be able to get tossed around by what seem to be small swells. Honestly, if I could do it every day, I would.

Then, for lunch, we hit a sweet little cafe called Zanzibar. Apparently it’s been around for like 18 years, and is a fantastic little cafe. The menu is plentiful and surely delicious. I got a veggie sandwich, which was phenomenal. The salad it came with surprised me in its simplicity, as it turned out to be a wealth of flavor. This is by far the best restaurant we have eaten at yet.

Tonight, I’m making grilled chicken, which will be accompanied by an avocado salad and potatoes. I’m cooking for us four, plus Erin’s two cousins, so hopefully it will be a successful meal.

I’ve got to start marinating the chicken now, so this post is OVER.

So, today we started in Flagstaff, AZ. The temperature was a cool 53 degrees, and my shift was first. I drove us through striking mountains and forests*, all the way to the Grand Canyon, our first stop for the day. Traffic was so light on the way there, I took the opportunity to drive at 60 miles an hour on the opposite side of the road.

Once we hit the canyon, and paid their terrible $25 fee, we parked at what sounded like a good spo

HOLY SHIT THE GRAND FUCKING CANYON! There are no words to describe the jaw-dropping awe that ripped from my oculars to my ventricles in an instant. The view we had was both breathtaking and mind-numbing. Incomprehensible distances, depths, angles, colors, everything was so new it took a long time to fully process. Unfortunately, our time was short, so we moved on from the first vantage point to a hiking trail, equally full of awesome views. Some day, I’ll go back, explore a cave we saw not far from the edge of the Rim trail (vertically I mean), and continue further into the canyon.

Once we hit the road again, we headed to good ol’ Phoeniz, AZ, or so they tell me. I passed out in the car and only noticed the difference in flora, in that the trees had somehow become saguaros. Phoenix traffic = el sucko. We stopped at a Jack in The Box for lunch, I got a chicken salad but gave away the chicken, and surprise surprise, the salad was pretty good! We then departed and went off to Yuma, AZ. This is where things begun to get really interesting. It’s nighttime, it’s the desert, we’re driving past military bases and things, but nothing too eventful happens. We stopped in Yuma….kindof. Erin took an exit that apparently led to Mexico, which was not our intended destination at all, so she tore off the side of the road into some gravel, we switched drivers, and headed onward, westward towards San Diego. Same dark desert driving, now with more Border Patrol, three check points, and a quick bathroom break in some border town, California. Once we hit the mountains, we quickly figured out we were running out of gas, and hit up a tiny mountain town with like a 200 foot drop in elevation from the highway. The $2.99 gas was not really what we hoped for, but we bought 5 gallons anyway. After that, we hit the mountain highway again, going 5 above the limit, blasting Daft Punk, and basically creating a Burnout/California Rush experience for ourselves. When the San Diego lights hit our eyes, I think we all breathed a small sigh of relief; it’s been three days of straight travelling, culminating in a real destination for once, and it’s been so worth it. This is the furthest west in the US I’ve ever been, the first time I’ve been to the Pacific, and goddamn, it’s awesome. There’ve been a lot of firsts this trip, but, unfortunately, some of them have been dilluted and were not impressive. You take these things for granted, but it’s occurred to me that I should have been moved in some way by many of these things. For example, I’ve never seen a palm tree in real life. This is the kind of thing that should make a kid from upstate New York go “Whoa! That’s new and exciting!” But, movies, TV, etc. have caused that feeling to dissolve into “Oh cool, palm trees.” The same goes for things like seeing oil wells dotting the Oklahoma plains, or the vast expanses of mesas and scrubland in the deserts. There are some things that have taken my breath away, or caused me to get giddy, but there are others where I wished I hadn’t been so exposed to media that I’ve seen it all before in some way.

We reside now in a million dollar beach house in a gated community outside of Oceanside, California. The house is pretty nice, the weather is dandy so far (night time, hard to tell), and I simply can’t wait to get out and see stuff, to wade in the chilly ocean waters, to go jetskiing maybe? This trip has a long way to go, but it’s all for these next few days I think, so I’m going to make them count like hell. Wish me luck!

*The forests of Arizona, I noticed, are tremendously different from the forests of New York. The trees may be similar (pine, birch), but the rest of what makes it a forest is nowhere near the same. New York usually features rocks, moss, grasses, bushes, flowers, and the like, beneath the mixed tree growth. Arizona had shortish brown grass, and nothing more (nothing visible at least). The fact that you could see deep into the forest struck me as odd immediately, since I’ve grown up in a lot of different New York forests, where you can’t see more than 10-20 feet usually. It was impressive to be in what seemed to be a familiar environment, whose style was so different.

We started the day in Oklahoma City, and got right on the road at 7:30 AM. We went through some of the coolest terrain today I have ever seen. First we got plains so flat in Texas, you could see at least 15 miles in either direction. When the terrain around the road dropped slightly, you could see farther still, an incredible sight. We stopped in basically a ranch town in Texas (pop. 380), got out of our Honda with the New York plates, and got a few looks. On the road, things have been pretty uneventful, knock on wood. Gas prices were steadily below $2 for a while, but once we hit the desert, things got a bit more expensive. It’s funny how gas jaded we’ve become, trying to avoid places with prices over $2, even though we’ve been used to $2.50+ prices in Rochester for months.

Anyway, we crossed through Texas and into New Mexico, stopping in a few spots for refreshments and gas. I passed a truck with a level 7 radioactivity label on it, scary shit. Also awesome have been the speed limits: 70mph and up mostly today. There’s been a little road work, nothing too severe.

When we hit the desert, I was in awe the whole time. The long stretches flat land interrupted by immense mesas and dotted with buttes was just spectacular. And it only got better when we hit the red rocks in the latter half of New Mexico. At sunset, we were still in range of the red sandstone monoliths, which only made them more impressive, more red, and more beautiful. I wish I could have climbed them today, but alas, we hit Gallup (our planned climbing spot) post-sunset and could not. HOWEVER (big however indeed), we will be going to the Grand Canyon tomorrow, and probably doing some climbing there. I am so excited right now, all I want to do is go to sleep, so I can do it that much sooner.

Currently, we are in Flagstaff, AZ, the weather is chilly, the desert is grand, and the gas is a little more expensive than we’d like. I’m hungry, so I’m going to go brave the chill for something filling and meatless*.

Tomorrow is the Grand Canyon to the north, then South to Phoenix, West to Yuma and finally San Diego.

*There seems to be a parabolic curve in relation to distance from Rochester, and ease of getting something vegetarian to eat. We hit a Sonic today in Albuquerque, and the only things on the menu sans meat were fries and tots. Not a great meal, large cheese fries. I’m starving.

Left Rochester at about 5 PM yesterday, and we set off straight to Oklahoma City. Notable stops on the way: Cleveland, Indianapolis (vvvvvreewwwwww! *racecars*), St. Louis, Joplin. We hit a Denny’s in Eureka, Missouri at like 6 AM, but mostly we drove. I had the longest single shift, at 5.5 hours, from a little past Cleveland to Indianapolis. Driving at night was pretty awesome, there were plenty of times where we were the only car in sight on the road. So far, the weather has been pretty stable, it’s a little chilly, much like when we left Rochester. After my shift I basically passed out in the back, waking up in Oklahoma. The transformation was pretty striking, going from dark flat fields, to low hilly scrubland. I saw my first oil wells too, just after waking up. They’re not anything spectacular, but they’re sure to help with gas costs. Speaking of which! Gas out here is like $1.75 per gallon! It’s just been getting lower and lower along the way. However, other prices have been a little odd; I paid like two bucks for a thing of mints that would have cost half that in New York.

No pictures to link to yet, but they have been taken. So far the experience is pretty cool. Lots of driving, achey legs, just now getting to sleep ($55 room at Days Inn Midwest in Oklahoma City). Hopefully we’re gonna go see the new Bond flick tonight, then we’ll get some food, come back and hang out, crash, and hit the road again tomorrow. Next stop is Flagstaff, I believe, and then Sunday we should be in San Diego.

Also, climbing tomorrow probably, and it *might* be in this little place called the GRAND FUCKIN CANYON.

What now?!

You know what’s going to be awesome? Going on a road trip. More awesome? Going on a road trip TONIGHT.

In just a few hours I’ll be leaving Rochester, NY, bound for San Diego, CA. I’ve never been west of Buffalo…this is gonna be sweet. Since I’m going on the trip of a lifetime here, I’m going to document it. That means this blog is going to go from Dynamic Typography to Crosscountry USA really quickly.

Oh boy!