So in June i decided to take a drive....to California

[Sijray21]

Hey guys,

well i decided to take that cross country trip i was planning.

Here are the stats:

8743 miles
10 quarts of oil burned
278.597 gallons of gas consumed
$690.42 spent on gas
$2.49 average price on gas
31.51 average miles per gallon (min mpg: 25.11 ; max mpg: 36.97)

Well after Graduation i wanted to take a little time off and enjoy myself and my car. With the car getting older and me realizing that i was going to be working for a long time starting in the couple months, I decided to take a little drive. My mom came along too since she just graduated from her Masters thing with NDU and had a month off. Basically the point of the trip was to see more of the country and see more of the National Parks and California. We did just that, staying near major cities and their hotels overnight.

Here are the overnight stops:

St. Louis, MO
Denver, CO
Salt Lake City, UT
Boise, ID
Eureka, CA
San Francisco, CA (2 nights)
Los Angeles, CA (3 nights)
Flagstaff, AZ
Grand Canyon, AZ
Albequerque, NM
Little Rock, AR
Atlanta, GA (visiting Scotty!)
Back to Northern VA

Here is a little photo-journalism:

Here is the starting mileage:


Here are my weapons to fight boredom:


The first leg of the trip: DC to St. Louis, MO

After much consideration we decided to make the first stop St. Louis, MO. Our first concept was to travel to Nashville, visiting a friend of mine in Chatanooga on the way, and moving on. After careful consideration for the future trips we found this to be relatively short, we wanted to make it to Denver on the second day. Taking this trip was quite fun. We took the I-270, I-68, I-64 way through Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois and finally Missouri. In retrospect we should've taken I-66 to I-64, but going to I-68 was a last minute decision when we were in MD.

Going through the mountains of WV was beautiful. Kentucky was also quite nice. It was a long 14 hour trip to start it off, i actually thought it would take longer. I allowed my mom to drive an hour through kentucky, but she and i felt uncomfortable with her driving on the highway (she tends to get nervous and slow down for: rain, traffic, wind, etc. So i drive the entire rest of the way until we get back home.


I didn't add too many pics from this part simply because there wasn't anything special worth seeing.
Here are some of the pics from this leg:






The second leg of the trip: St. Louis, MO to Denver, CO

Luckily the hotel we stayed in St. Louis was right by the interstate we needed to take west to Colorado. We passed through Missouri, Kansas, and into Colorado. This was one of the most painful parts of the entire trip. There is NOTHING...i repeat...NOTHING to see in Kansas. Missouri was OK, but not interesting at best. There was a really cool storm (pictured) which we had to pass through (tornado warnings and all). And my crazy ass wanted to see a tornado...i mean hey, why not, we're in "tornado alley" and damnit i want to see a tornado. One of my goals before i die is to perform a storm chase .

After the storm passed over (lots of HEAVY rain and wind - thank you Rain-X!) it was a really odd sensation with the clouds, it felt too perfect (pictured).

After Missouri is when it started to get boring. We entered Kansas... This state sucks for site seeing while driving on the highway. Not to mention that there was a strong 20 mph wind in our face the entire 8 hours through Kansas, bringing our MPG to 25.27 between the two gas stops in Kansas that we took. I collected a wide assortment of bugs on my wipers/hood/windshield/bumper/etc on the trip. I must say that the smell of roasting bugs on the radiator is absolutely terrible.

Once Kansas was finished i couldn't help but take the typical F-U-state-i-hate-you-state-picture. Entering Colorado was a blessing. Increased speed limits to 75mph was the best part (aka me cruising at 90 without worry). Like Kansas the entire eastern part of Colorado was flat nothingness. Once we started to see a glimpse of the rockies is when i started to get excited. We bypassed the highway going to Denver and took some side roads. We ended up passing through a Denver suburb - Castle Rock (**...come to Fraggle Rock, [clap][clap]**)...sorry couldn't help myself.
This little city is really nice! Nice looking community (newer with nice houses, shopping centers, and enough land to not be crowded). This is where i took a picture of the plataeu in the background and the semi-truck in the silhouette.

Unfortunately by the time we hit Denver it was night time and we couldn't see the rockies....yet.

Here are the pictures from this leg:











The third leg of the trip: Denver, CO to Salt Lake City, UT

This was one of my favorite sections of the overall trip. Waking up early to see a crisp view of the Rocky Mountains (still topped with snow) was breathtaking. As expected the temperature got quite cold as we entered the Rockies. We went from 95 midwest temps to about 45 on the top of Independence Pass. Fortunately we were prepared. We encountered a couple of hiccups on our trip. The main one was the spare 2.5 gal gas tank we had in the trunk started to spill over, the cap was just not sitting correctly, but now we had the odor of gasoline in our trunk.

Once again we decided to veer off and try another scenic side route. This would take us off I-70 and passing through Aspen, CO and other various steep Rocky Mountain twisties (i was very happy ). This scenic route was an excellent decision, we passed right next to snow filled mountain sides and beautiful scenery. Most of these mountains looked good enough to still ski on (this was Mid/late June!).

Heading on this scenic route took us to the top of Independence Pass (picture). It snowed here 6" the previous night (i was told by the cute waitress in Aspen who apparently goes to JMU(junior)!..weird) After passing through the beautiful/dangerous mountain roads we encountered Aspen, CO. This ski town was incredible. Quite expensive anywhere, but a very nice town for a lunch stop. There was a Gucci shop there as well as other HIGH quality clothing products. We didn't stay here long.

Getting back on the Interstate had us traveling much faster, which i enjoyed. This time we were passing through and next to, mountain walls - many "watch for falling rock" signs since it's actually a dangerous threat. The sites of Utah and western Colorado are incredible. Brown/red in color and massive in size - it truely feels like you're in another world when you travel this little section. Barron land where gas stations are every 70 miles or so (good thing we brought the spare tank).

Here are the pictures from this leg:









Beautiful Aspen Trees...





Bug progression:





The fourth leg of the trip: Salt Lake City, UT to Boise, ID

This part of the trip was very random. The plan when we left the hotel at Salt Lake was to drive to Eugene, OR. While driving we noticed that Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Parks were really close by, so we decided to drive up north and see them. This turned out to be a great decision.

Going through Yellow stone and the Grand Teton was beautiful. The weather was absolutely perfect at the time - minimal clouds, about 72/73 degrees, and no plan for rain. Buffalo were roaming around as well as Elk. The Grand Teton was kind of boring, the mountains were awesome though. The Old Faithful geyser was cool, but a little anti-climatic. Some dissapointment came when i saw mostly burned tree trunks covering the parks horizon. I later found out that 1.4 Million acres were burned in the great fire of 89 or something about 15 years ago.

Leaving the park we traveled through a small part of Montanta and on the way we traveled through Jackson Hole (for all you skiers/boarders out there ). One thing that surprised me was an Idaho Interstate...it was gravel/water puddles for about 26 miles where cones split the traffic. Having a lowered car during this point wasn't much fun.

well...on to the pics:













...i'll be adding more later, this bitch is going to be long (115 pictures total i'd like to share)

[damnit458]

Awesome

I went to Montana/Wyoming/Idaho a few years ago on vacation with my parents. We stopped at Yellowstone and Glacier national parks, and stayed in glacier for a few days. I have never seen a more beautiful part of the country. The mountains look amazing, the weather is perfect, and the wildlife is absolutely unbelievable. I found glacier to be particularly attractive (driving into the park to a lake something like what you pictured...you couldnt imagine anything more breathtaking).

Its always fun to see a side of life that you dont see much arround where you live. What I found particularly interesting about Idaho was the fact that where we were staying (I forget ATM) had just a few months ago changed from four to seven digit telephone numbers (when we had just a few months ago changed from seven to ten hahaha)

Cant wait to see more. Great pictures, and it sounds like the ride was a blast.

[Feersty]

Nice Jay. That is a beautiful part of the country that you saw.

[JohnC]

Looks like fun, although my puny brain can't wrap itself around the fact that you went on a road trip with your mom... Keep the pics coming!

[Sijray21]

The fourth leg of the trip: Boise, ID to Eurka, CA

This leg was almost all side roads. There aren't too many highways that travel east-west in the NW part of the US. This was kind of interesting. Passing into Oregon you would think there were a lot of trees....this was not the case. The entire eastern part of Oregon felt like the desert. And i did see a sign that said, "speed limit 55mph for the next 172 miles due to construction -- speeding fines double"....that was a little frustrating. And in this construction there was a traffic light....in the middle of NO WHERE. No one was working near and there didn't appear to be a traffic obstruction. The other two cars and i were there for about 20 minutes. The next event happened when i stopped to fill up gas in Oregon. I get out of the car and begin to pump my gas...the attendant comes running out saying, "What the fuck are you doing!!?!?!??". I'm confused...I begin to look around frantically. Apparently it's illegal to pump your own gas in Oregon, like New Jersey.

Once we reach some trees it begins to rain. It continues to rain for a while. We decide to take another scenic route in the middle of Oregon near one of the peaks (not sure where this is). The roads were awesome on this road, but scary in the wet. Some of the sharpest turns i've ever encountered with steep grades. I wanted to take pictures, but it was raining kind of hard. When we hit the top of the mountain it was weird. The mountain looked like it had been unearthed and put back in the form of a giant pile of rocks. One of the weirdest things i've ever seen. After getting to Eugene via side roads, we headed south on I-5 till a turn off to go to the northern/western part of California.

Finally...California. I love this state, just something about it. Coming into California was awesome, the roads became much smoother and people started driving faster. We then entered the Redwood Forests of Northern California. These trees are REALLY REALLY big. The pictures shown do not serve them justice in size. There will be one picture of a trunk, on that trunk is a Dollar Bill. Just to give some relavancy for size. Taking a small road into one of the forests turned out to be amazing. I truely felt like a small bug or animal in this forest, it was like something out of a fairy tale....a scary one.

After passing through the forests (they're a lot of them) we hit the coastal highway! The Pacific Coastal Highway (PCH as the natives call it) and this was incredible. Beautiful trees with coastal cliffs and awesome waves crashing into beaten rocks. Then a night in Eureka, CA where an aftershock earthquake hit later that night. (i didn't feel it, but my mom did)...weak.

Here are the pictures for this leg of the trip:

[Sijray21]

Looks like fun, although my puny brain can't wrap itself around the fact that you went on a road trip with your mom... Keep the pics coming!

none of my friends could've taken off for 2.5 weeks to do this at this time, and going by myself would've been fine, but she really wanted to go and the timing was good so she came along.

[Sijray21]

The fifth leg of the trip: Eureka, CA to San Francisco, CA

I loved this part of the trip. We took RT-1 the PCH, the entire way down to SF. This was relatively short at 8-9 hours, but i actually had to use my spare tank of gas since the gas stations were scarce. Unfortunately it was damp and muggy the entire trip down. The roads were incredible though. The best twisties of the entire trip! One thing i like about CA is that they recognize faster drivers and slower drivers give way. They don't have many chances to pass since it is all winding and it's just 2 lanes for both directions, but they have pull-outs where slower cars are supposed to pull out. Almost everyone used them, i was very thankful, and i used them when i needed to. Not too much to say about this leg, so i'll just post the pictures.

San Francisco was amazing, we stayed 2 nights here where i visited a friend of mine who was staying there for her internship. Expensive and beautiful would be two words to explain this place. The roads were REALLY steep, i'd say about a 20% grade or damn close to it at certain places. Lombard street is pretty cool, just a public road that some people take, super steep where people actually live off of it. Garages and driveways are there if you look carefully. Driving in SF is insane though, everyone's aggressive, but they are more aware of other drivers as opposed to VA sometimes.

[Mike]

great pics, sounds like a blast. hard to believe there is still such natural beauty in this country.

[Sijray21]

Sixth leg of the trip: San Francisco to Los Angeles

Most of this trip was remaining around the San Fransicso area. The first stop was Laguna Seca Raceway. Most of you have seen the pictures that Gerald put up from the Moto GP they had. When i was there the Skip Barber school was active. Most of it was calm since they were preparing for the Moto GP. The race track is incredible. Like many have said, the elevation changes are a LOT more apparent when you're actually there to see it. The track is also a lot smaller than it seems on TV and Grand Tourismo . Getting to certain points in the track is more difficult than i thought. The thing is in the middle of an RV park...? Something i didn't see coming. The 18% grade up to the entrance is also kind of interesting...wonder how slow most of the trucks that have to go up there must go.

Next on the stop was Monterey, CA: home of Pebble Beach GC. This place was beautiful. There is a "17 mile drive" there that you pay $10 to drive and it runs right along the coast with views of the ocean rocks and the four majestic golf courses. Me being an avid golfer loved this trip. My mom took it a couple months ago with her class and recommended it for me.

After we finished sight seeing we headed down to LA via I-5. I really wanted to take the PCH down to LA, but we just didn't have time. My mom wanted to spend time with her sister and relatives and it was already saturday night, and they had to work on Monday. Guess i have to go out to California again to finish the trip.....damn :wink:

Pics:

[John]

Great photos... I too love that part of California, and in fact, I think I drove that same curvy road between Eureka and SF (except that I was driving an land yacht SUV). That little parkway around Pebble Beach is incredible as well.

[Sijray21]

Well...enough being lazy, i'm here to finish the trip.

The Seventh leg of the trip: LA for 3 days then Vegas!

After spending time traveling through Northern California, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, Indiana, Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia, we decided to stay in one place for a few days. The trip took us about 5 days to get to this point and i think we needed to relax.

Leaving San Francisco/Montery/Pebble Beach area was a little dissapointing, i wouldn't have minded staying there a couple more days. We left at night and took I-5 south to LA. This trip was entirely at night. The drive to LA was long and straight where i was being passed constantly while i was cruising at 85 mph. When we finally reached LA we were able to get some rest. We took it easy for a few days just hanging out with the relative and seeing the typical sites (hollywood, sunset blvd, etc). We also took a trip to Mission Veijo about an hour south of where we were staying in Glendale (north of LA). Driving down there wasn't bad for traffic at all...about an hour - not much traffic...it was 11am. We decided to leave at 3pm...we didn't get to Glendale till 7:45...4 hours and 45 minutes later. LA traffic was horrendus. It's about equivalent as taking 395 south to woodbridge, then turning around and doing it again for all you Northern VA people. Despite that sour note, LA and the area is (for the most part) beautiful. I can defintely see my self living here eventually. The mountain side and scenery on a 'normal' drive is great! I felt at home driving here. And after enough rest and relaxation we decide to continue on with our trip. Next stop...Vegas.

Leaving LA was a bit sad...we're heading back east now, our trip is over half-way done. The way out leads us through the north-east area of Los Angeles to Needles, CA and Death Valley. This trip was only about 3 hours, but man...what a 3 hours. I've never experienced this kind of heat in my life. The temperature (according to the XM Radio weather station) was 118*F for Needles, CA. The only reason why Needles was on the station was because it just hit a record High Temp for the year in the shade. I was happy since the Honda never had a cooling problem and the A/C was blasting cold. Well...that didn't last long.

The coolant for the car was still fine, but...the cooling system was working hard. I saw all these people with their windows down while i was passing them on the left of a stretch of road that was heading up-hill. This stretch of road concerned me was we were approaching it...there was sand (very bright from the Sun) on both sides of the highway. I thought nothing but "keep the A/C blowing and keep driving". Well i look at my temp guage...it's RISING...FAST. I quickly decide to roll down the windows while my mom is confused. I explain it to her and monitor my temp guage. It's still not low enough for me to feel comfortable... so... I decide to turn on the heater rerouting the coolant through the cabin's radiator. This does the trick, but man is it hot!! The air from the heater core is actually slightly COOLER than the air coming in from the outside...i'm speechless. It's becoming unbearably hot at this point - we're both sweating profusely and i'm a little concerned for my mom since she has a high-blood pressure problem. I decide to floor it and get to the top (not the safest thing to do, but i'll be damned if i'm going to have my mom have a stroke before i get a speeding ticket - we go about 110mph to the top). Once we get to the top of this stretch it's considerably cooler. We turn the A/C back on and everything was fine.

We're relieved to get to Vegas. The temp on a marque reads 107*F. I drive straight to the Monte Carlo garaged parking. I decided to go here since the last time i was in Vegas i won $175 off poker. I want to play some poker and my mom just wants to go around to relax. We separate.

(1.5 hours later)

I ended up going $75 up on poker so i leave. The people at the table weren't happy, but i didn't care, i got their money. Enough to pay for a tanks of Gas and lunch for my mom and I. We eat and leave...I miss Vegas.

...but...on with the pictures:

LA Traffic


$Bling$


Malibu...doesn't this just suck??? what's all the Fuss about


Zuma Beach...not that great, but the waves were awesome


Somewhere near Hollywood


Two-Floor Hustler Porn Store, i had to take a picture


Mission Veijo and my car (relative's place)


Before the temp guage rose


Death Stretch...it's a LOT longer than it appears...and it's ALL UPHILL!!


Not Vegas, but the first signs of Nevada


New York, New York





...Next Stop....Hoover Damn and the Grand Canyon...