Go East Young Man, Go East

Distance Travelled: 856.5 miles

Current Location: Cortez, Colorado

Okay, so I wrote this last night as finding internet was problematic at best in the Navajo Nation so I’ll put up todays post after I finish typing this one up.

Quite the day today, got a late start out of Las Vegas due to me getting turned around trying to find Trader Joes. Finally found it and picked up a whole bunch of trail mix and dried fruit, should be enough for the remainder of the trip. I did pick up a road atlas which has been tremendously helpful when it comes to navigation of the bigger roads (not so much with cities and towns.)

First stop was the Hoover Dam. I didn’t do any tour as I was already running behind so I couldn’t find out where they were hiding Megatron all these years. But just looking at the Dam was impressive enough, quite the engineering marvel to see. I’ll create a new photo album where i’ll throw pictures from the road trip into later tonight.

Next stop was the Grand Canyon. Unfortunately pictures just doesn’t do this place justice. It really is something you need to see for yourself to appreciate how grand it is. I still took a bunch of pictures and did a small walk around one of the points. I’d really like to spend a few days there next time I visit, i’m sure there are a ton of trails and campgrounds around there.

Finally I wanted to stop at the 4 corners. (For those keeping track, thats the entire length of Arizona in 1 day) I did make it, but at 9pm and I guess the Navajo Nation shuts down the area at 7p. I thought about it for a while and decided to leave to find shelter for the night which is why I ended up in Cortez Colorado.

I tried a few of the motels around and everything was booked up. So, resigned to my fate I just toughed it up and slept in the car. End of a long day.

Long Drive Goodnight

Distance Travelled: 1360.9 miles

Current Location: Ft. Collins, Colorado

Wheeeee… hit and surpassed the 1k mark today. I’m reconsidering the Yellowstone portion of this trip as it takes me 400 miles WEST. West is the wrong direction. I’ll probably make the decision on Monday when I start driving again (I’ll be spending the weekend here with Shaun and Catherine.)

I forgot to add in the last post that I drove through Tuba City, Arizona. My mental picture of that place was a lot different than reality. I pictured people polka-ing in the streets and sousaphones on every corner. Sadly this isn’t the case, it’s in the middle of the Navajo Nation and it’s just a regular town. I think my image of this place is a lot better.

I started early this morning, i think 3a or 4a, depending if you account for moving into Mountain Standard or stay on Pacific Standard. In any case my goal of the day was to get to Ft. Collins in time for dinner as Shaun has promised homemade pasta prepared by a friend of theirs.

Of note on todays drive if anyone has the opprotunity to drive on the I70 through Colorado i’d definately reccomend it. So far this has to be the most scenic interstate to drive on that i’ve experienced so far. The mountains are extremely majestic, couple that with the snow it’s a great drive. Only thing I would change if I could would to be driving something a little stronger than the 4 banger Mazda Protege that I am. I struggled through a few of the hills. I didn’t take any pictures as theres not a whole lot of opprotunities to take pictures and I knew it was going to be a long drive.

First bad thing happened today as I was driving on the I70, the windshield got a crack in it from a flying rock kicked up by a truck. I didn’t realize it until I was almost at my destination, right now it’s about 8 inches or so. I’ll keep an eye on it so that it doesn’t extend any.

Into the Unknown

Distance Travelled: 290.3 miles

Current Location: Las Vegas, Nevada

Day 1 down, 2 more to go until I hit Fort Collins Colorado. Tommorrows plan is to hit Hoover Dam, The Grand Canyon, and sleep somewhere around the 4 corners which leaves me at the furthest point from Fort Collins in Colorado as possible.

I’m guessing that the Southern part of the Grand Canyon is the scenic part which is where i’ll be heading tommorow, it’s kinda backtracking as i’ll be heading South for a bit tommorrow but I think the Grand Canyon is worth it. Hoover dam wasn’t part of the original plan but it ends up being on the way so why not.

As for the drive today the hours just slide by. I made one stop at Prim to use the bathroom and get some drinks. So far the ipod + fm transmitter is doing it’s job. Only thing I really did to make it work better was to retract the antenna, after that finding 3 blank stations is a snap which makes for good reception.

I realize that lightbox isn’t working embedded in the page here, i’ve been tweaking on it all night and can’t figure out where i’m going wrong, yet another problem to add to the list of things to fix.

The Beginning

Distance Travelled: 0 miles

Current Location: Los Angeles

I finally got around to finishing setting this up, comments and suggestions for the so-called-blog are appreciated.

I’m finally feeling well enough to get on the road. Well, that and I need to start moving sometime otherwise I won’t meet my May 2 deadline of being in Minnesota to pick up ma and pa.

We had quite the weekend here. Fatima, Janice, and I went wine tasting on Sunday in Temecula, which is a winery area to the South of Los Angeles. We found an Almond Champagne that we all thought was the highlight of the tastings that was done that day.

Below is the cast of charachters at the rockness monster house, sans 2 people. First and foremost we have Wolfie, patron of the house. Next we have Janice and Fatima, both amazing artists and crazy kids. Then we have Elonda, Sara?, and Jenova. Elonda is another artist while Jenova is a budding playwright. I didn’t get to meet Sara unfortunately as we crossed paths somewhere between LA and Las Vegas.

Wolfie!

On Saturday we went to see a puppet show at the Upright Citizens Brigade. Hands down best puppet show i’ve seen in the last 20 years =D Lots to do in LA but it’s time to move on.

I just tested tihs out in Internet Explorer and it looks terrible, i’ll figure it out when I get to Las Vegas.