Day 9: LA to San Francisco (home!)

We started our day at about 4 am, and woke to find Sam awake and working away at his computer. Apparently, there was an earthquake during the night! Sam checked on me and Jenna after it happened, but we didn't feel a thing and stayed fast asleep. We said goodbye and hopped on the road. The original idea was to go up the Pacific Coast Highway the whole way, but soon realized that it wouldn't be worth the slow speed limit until at least the sun came up so we could see the view. And oh, what a view. It's tough to say what the most beautiful sight was on the trip, but the PCH was up there in the top 5. We happened upon Hearst Castle, so we decided to check it out.... at least, until we found out how much it cost. We had been dropping a lot of cash to see random stuff, but the cost compounded with the fact that the tour would be about 1.5 hours out of our day meant we decided to skip it. Instead, we watched the videos playing in the gift shop and looked at the postcards before getting back on the road.

It was probably about this time that we got on the PCH and stayed there for a few hours. I had never driven on roads like these before. We couldn't go any faster than 20 most of the time so we could get around these curves. Unfortunately, GoogleMaps must have calculated the travel time using the posted speed limit of about 50 mph, because it took much longer than expected to finally reach Monterey. Every sign seemed to be like those cartoons where the clock moves backwards, except in our case the miles to Monterey seemed not to change as the hours flew past. We decided to skip Carmel and went to the Fisherman's Wharf in Monterey. We ate as quickly as possible to get back on the road, where we drove to Castroville.

Castroville, for those that haven't talked to Jenna, is the artichoke capital of the world. We got lost trying to get there (my fault, surprise surprise) but were determined to see the "World's Biggest Artichoke" statue. So, instead of saving time and keeping going after we missed the turn, we turned back on our quest. And oh, was it worth it. We got fried artichoke hearts which you dip in ranch dressing. Mmmmmm... delicious. Jenna then drove us up to Menlo Park and Palo Alto. She showed me her high school, which was under construction, and her old house before we went to Stanford Shopping Center.

And this is where the tale ends. Jenna's friends met her at the mall, so we split up and I left to go to my new home in the city. The adventure was over, but it was one of the best trips I have ever taken. If there's anybody out there that needs a car driven across the country, you let me know- I'll do it again in a heartbeat.

Day 8: Vegas to LA

After breakfast in Vegas, Jenna and I said adieu to her parents and hit the road. We made it to LA in about 4 hours, but that was one scary ride. No cell phone reception, the temperatures were boiling hot, and everywhere we looked things were dead. On top of all that, we then had to drive on the highway in LA. Blech! Not my favorite driving day.
We first went to Sam's apartment, where we dropped off our stuff and played with his kittens :) . Afterwards, we headed over to Santa Monica Blvd and kept singing that song as we shopped along the street and walked on the pier. Afterwards, we went to the famous El Cholo. Jenna has talked about this place about much as I talk about CalTor (and if we've ever met, you know how I love my CalTor). The guacamole was very good. A bit too much lime juice, but overall it was delicious, as were the margaritas. We crashed pretty much as soon as we got home after dinner.

Day 7 – Green River, UT to Las Vegas, NV (via St. George, Utah)

Bright and early in Green River, we checked out of the hotel after about 5 hours of sleep and before the sun even rose. We watched it rise as we drove through Utah’s mountains, and our pictures just don’t do it any justice. It’s just unlike anything else in the world, and so beautiful. It turned out that we were making great time, so we stopped by Zion on our way to St. George. If you ever have the chance to go to Zion National Park, do it! I have never seen mountains that red against a sky so blue- just breathtaking.

Afterwards, we had lunch with Jenna’s grandfather in St. George, then headed to Vegas. First off, I must say that it was scary driving through that sort of desert. I mean, if the car had broken down, we’d be stuck in the middle of nowhere with no cell phone reception and heat above 100 degrees.

We met up with Jenna’s parents in Vegas in the early afternoon. They got us the most beautiful suite in the New York, New York casino with Jacuzzi, living room, and view of the roller coaster. We quickly headed out into the extreme heat and walked the strip so I could see the other casinos. We visited Paris, the Venetian, MGM, and Treasure Island. This city is amazing- a playground for adults, complete with curfew for the under 18. We stopped back at NY NY for a little gambling before going to dinner at Mesa (Bobby Flay’s restaurant in Caesar’s) with Jenna’s parents. The food was AMAZING. It turns out that Bobby Flay’s style of cooking is spicy, which was a bit of a surprise for me but I adjusted by ordering very carefully (and mild). Jenna and her family enjoy spicy food, so they went to town. We all ordered our separate meals, but we took turns sampling each other’s food. By desert, I was falling asleep at the table.After dinner, we headed over to the Bellagio to see the fountain from Ocean’s 11, then popped back to our hotel and casino for more gambling. I played some black jack and slots, and surprisingly, had the most luck with the slots. It was quite a long day, so Jenna and I crashed at about midnight. Don’t worry, we gambled more before breakfast the next morning which gave me the opportunity to lose some more money. All in all, I lost about $50. Coulda been better, coulda been worse. But I plan on practicing more black jack before I head back J.

Day 6: Canon City, CO to Green River, UT (with White Water Rafting)

Being the early birds and lame-o’s that we are, we got to the White Water rafting place at 7:30am because they told us to be there at 8. Apparently, though, when people in Colorado say 8 they actually mean 8:15. We drove around and took some pictures to kill time, then went back and were actually allowed to check in. Somehow, we managed to choose the plainest rafting company in the area. We had driven by a ton of really nice rafting places, and were a little dismayed to see ours. Ironically, the place we chose (Buffalo Joes) had the nicest brochure. The other advantage of this place is their track record- no major incidents since they started in the mid 70s.

For all the ghetto-ness, this company was fantastic. Our guide, Coop, was super nice and really encouraging to us. I was pretty darn nervous, as this was my first time rafting and we were doing class 3 & 4 rapids (out of 6, 6 being when you can’t raft). Jenna assured me I would love it as soon as we got started (she was right, of course). Halfway through the trip, Coop pulled over the boat, pointed at a big rock and said “who wants to jump?” I was all over it, Jenna not so much. The rock was probably 10 or 11 ft tall. I tell you, it looked much shorter from the boat, but I didn’t climb up there to chicken out. Like the 3 people from our boat who jumped before me, I screamed J It was actually pretty hard to swim in the booties they gave us, but I made it across the river with a little help from the others in our boat.

A little further down the river, they asked if anybody would “like to ride the bull,” which means sitting on the edge of the front of the boat. Well, again I volunteered- when else will I be able to do this stuff? Coop steered the boat into some pretty awesome rapids while I was up there, only holding onto a rope in the front. The first or second big dip knocked me back into the boat with a face full of water. I’m telling you, I think it may be harder than actual bull riding because of the water that continually splashes in your face. But, TOTALLY FUN! A bit further down the river, after I had climbed back to my seat, there was another opportunity for somebody to ride the bull. This time, Jenna volunteered and climbed up there. I think she had it worse then I did- we hit some pretty bad rapids. She also got knocked backwards into the boat (they told us to keep our weight backwards just in case). Nobody on our boat was knocked out during the trip, but they also said that when the water levels are higher, the trip down the river gets crazier.

Once the trip was over, we got on the road and saw some of the most beautiful views Jenna or I had ever seen. All over Colorado, it’s just mountains, blue lakes, and canyons. Driving through the Rockies was incredible. We stopped at Black Canyon even though we were worried about timing, and we are so glad we did. It is a lot like the Grand Canyon but on a smaller scale, and just as breathtaking. We drove around the park for about an hour before begrudgingly realizing that we needed to keep moving.

Side note: it’s not easy to drive through the country with the sun shining bright and no sunglasses. Jenna’s broke way back in Chicago, and Connie decided to leave them on top of the car while she pumped gas in Kansas and they were never to be seen again. We keep meaning to buy a cheap pair somewhere to help with the glare, but then always forget. Oops.

We grabbed a quick bite in Grand Junction, CO, which is a pretty cute town overall, much like many others that we’ve seen. After that it was another hour and a half of peering through a bug-gut covered windshield to Green River, UT, our stop for the night. Watching the sun set as we drove from Colorado to Utah was gorgeous, to say the least. We called an hour ahead to check for hotel rooms and luckily we did, because a few of them were actually booked up by that point. It’s a big stopping point for truckers we guessed.

Days 4 and 5

Day 4: Chicago, IL to Topeka, KS (via St. Louis and Kansas City, MO)

We buddy systemed our way to the sketchy car park at 5am, which somehow seemed less sketchy then than in the light of day. Quick pit stop at Dunkin Donuts, then we headed South through Illinois. We stopped in Lincoln with hopes of seeing a bull with a chef’s hat and a watermelon monument of Abraham Lincoln. Our dreams were shattered when we discovered that the bull was no longer there and the “monument” was, in fact, of a watermelon and the size of an actual watermelon. Nevertheless, Connie tried to eat it (hey, I was hungry). To make matters worse, we took the wrong turn so it took us mucho longer to get there than was worth it.

We proceeded to Springfield IL where we saw a 30ft statue of Abraham Lincoln and we saw Lincoln’s tomb, where a dirty old man who worked there told Jenna that she should tour all of the president’s tombs on her way back to Boston. She didn’t want to break his heart by telling him that she wasn’t, indeed, a presidential-tomb-enthusiast.

After Springfield came St Louis. We had planned on going to the top of the Gateway Arch and were super psyched at the prospect, but it turned out that we would have had to wait in line for more than 3 hrs. We were sad. But we got over it, and headed to Kansas City, MO, which was surprisingly much cooler than St. Louis. After meandering the sketchy constructiony part, we ended up in an area called Country Club Plaza which is very much like Georgetown or Newbury St, complete with ridiculously expensive stores and the clientele to go with it. We ate at an awesome restaurant called Tomfooleries where we dined on fried pickles, Coronas, and ass-kickin’ chicken before driving the last hour to Topeka.

Now, here is our tribute to the Best Hotel in the World, known as The Senate Luxury Inn in Topeka Kansas. Not only did it cost less than the trashy place in Chicago, we had a living room, a kitchen, a separate bedroom, and a balcony. It was fantastic, and very charming in an old-time country kind of way. We loved it!

Day 5: Topeka, KS to Canon City, CO

We left Topeka at 6 and our first stop was only an hour west, where we visited Wamego, KS, the home of the (very closed) Museum of Oz. Dorothy’s house is actually in Liberal, KS, too far south for us to visit. So we drove through Wamego briefly and then kept going to Manhattan, KS, the “Little Apple,” as it were. We had our first Sonic experience for breakfast, which was enjoyable in a greasy greasy greasy kind of way.

After that, it was smooth sailing until we started to see signs for Prairie Dog Town, featuring the World’s Largest Prairie Dog weighing in at 8,000 pounds. Connie and I are certainly not ones to pass up the World’s Largest Anything-At-All, so we were more than willing to pay the $7 entrance fee. What we encountered was a combination of Midwestern petting zoo (think rattlesnakes, goats, coyotes, foxes, buffalo, raccoons, and of course, prairie dogs) and the worst animal cruelty we’ve ever witnessed with our own two eyes. We thought about calling PETA. Seriously. The animals were caged in very small quarters, which can not be good for the well-being of wild birds, boars, coyotes and the like.

We kept going through Kansas, which was really beautiful with its open plains and fields of sunflowers. At one point we saw a storm forming which looked like it could be a tornado, but it didn’t amount to much. Crossing into Colorado was much of the same, only an hour earlier. Since we were so ahead of schedule (for once!) we decided to detour into Colorado Springs, and since Ro’s sister lives there she had mentioned an awesome park called the Garden of the Gods so we went there (thanks Ro!). Colorado Springs actually reminds me a lot of Tucson, only smaller and more Colorado-like. Garden of the Gods was amazingly beautiful with its red rock formations and mountain views. After that it was still only 3:30pm, so in a state of exhaustion we went straight to our hotel in Canon City about an hour south of there.

And that brings us up to date. We only wish that going into Kansas we had thought to start counting the churches or the pro-life signage on the side of the road. Tomorrow is white-water rafting and then to Utah, so we’ll post more later!

Day 3: Cleveland, OH to Chicago, IL

Here is where the fun begins, folks. We got up at 3:30 to make sure we were on the road by 4. Before leaving the area, we had decided we wanted to see Jenna’s old house. This time, we were sure to follow the Google Maps directions to save ourselves from headache. Well, Google Maps was either wrong or hard to understand, because we found ourselves in a very nice area and completely lost. We mistakenly pull into a synagogue, and as these things typically go down, a cop magically appears behind us with lights flashing. We must have sat there for only 2 minutes, although it felt longer, while the spotlight shown on the car and he checked our plates. After he discovered that we were not criminals, he strolled up to Jenna’s (the driver) window and said “what’s going on?” We then both started into how we were terribly lost and had no idea how to find this house. He looked at our map and radioed to find out where we were supposed to be. Nobody had heard of Jenna’s old street, but they directed us to the correct neighborhood. For another 20-30 minutes, I gave Jenna the wrong directions (whoops) based on the tiny picture on Google Maps before we finally found the house.

Now it was time to find the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame. With Jenna and my love of all things music, it was the obvious choice. We were lucky enough to find it pretty easily, although there were definitely some strange looking people hanging out in front of it while we were taking pictures from the car.

From there, we went straight to Chicago, so we got there at about 10:30 Chicago time (we gained an hour. Yipee!). The weather was hot, but perfect from an air conditioned car, so I insisted we drive north for the span of Lake Shore drive for picture purposes. We could hear Lollapalooza on our way up and quickly started second guessing our decision to pass on the $80 all day festival. To get to the hotel, we drove south through the city, so we saw everything from about Andersonville to the south Loop.

Parking in this city was a nightmare. The hotel had advertised that it had parking, but we had to turn over our keys and the signs said parking was open from 6am-11pm Mon-Fri. Of course, we wanted to leave at 4 am on a Saturday, so we promptly decided to find some other parking arrangements. We found another place that was open 24 hours but was sketchy, and as we walked away from the car I mentally prepared myself for all my worldly possessions to be stolen.

The hotel itself was ghetto compared to the Lancaster accommodations, but then again this was a Travelodge. As Tempe commented, this hotel had some weird Feng Shui- the 2 queen sized beds faced each other in a long room. We put down our stuff, showered, and headed out into the city.

We walked on Michigan Ave, making sure to stop by Millenium Park with the large bean and the face fountains. We stopped by the American Girl Place to see where Tempe works, and met up with her briefly before heading to Food Life for lunch (think Marche or Eatzi’s style place). From there, we walked all over the city before meeting up with Tempe and checking out her current accommodations. Jenna’s dad recommended the most AMAZING Italian restaurant in Little Italy (Tuscany, for anyone who has the pleasure of going to Chicago). Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel to crash.


And that was Friday, an update on today (Saturday)'s adventures tomorrow!

Day 2 : Lancaster, PA to Cleveland, OH

Connie and Jenna in Brighton, next to the p-i-m-p station wagon, ready to go!

Connie enjoying her latkes from Rein's

Day 1 (cont’d):

Let us never speak of diverging from Google Maps directions again. We thought we were saving time by avoiding New York and the New Jersey Turnpike, which Google told us to take. That didn’t quite work out as planned. After much confusion about roads that were poorly labeled and highway exits that were supposed to exist (according to our map) but didn’t, we finally reached Lancaster about 11:30pm. The hotel was gorgeous, though, with a flat panel tv and a mint on the pillow. This was where we learned about the Minneapolis bridge collapsing. Holy crap! Luckily, we don’t have many bridges planned on our route.

The awesome hotel room

Anyway, the next day...

We woke up “late” at 6am so that we could actually explore Amish Country in the light of day. Our unfortunate escapades from the night before meant that we couldn’t see Allentown, PA (home of the Crayola Factory) or Intercourse, PA (home of more Amish awesomeness). This morning, the concierge told us about a farmers market that opened up at 6am. We ventured over to find, alas, the market is only open on Tuesdays and Fridays. We had to discuss for a few minutes to realize that today is in fact Thursday, and does us no good.

Jenna is sad... the farmer's market was closed! So much for Amish country...


So, we popped into a cute tea shop and grabbed some breakfast, bought some preserves (that were packaged in such a way that it could have been made in California, so not the local cuisine we were hoping for), and fresh bread at the only 2 places in town that were open, and hopped back on the road.

We totally lucked out on the way to Cleveland and happened to stop in at a rest area that had a farmers market. We bought some unbelievable apple butter and truly local preserves and some cheese. Voila, lunch! We debated stopping at some of the more interesting sights on the way, but after the problems of last night, we opted for the straight and easy route.

The rolling hills of Pennsylvania...

We made it to Chagrin Falls, OH, just as flash flood warnings were coming across the radio. We stopped by the famous popcorn shop but didn't get anything, and we got to Jenna’s great-aunt Ruthie’s place around 4pm. I met a great deal of Jenna’s family, all quite awesome people, and ate some AMAZING food that was prepared in our honor. (note from Jenna: my crazy, catty, and melodramatic family, that is!) After a long day, we crashed about 9pm.

We'll have a ton more pictures which we'll post when we have time, but for now we're off to explore Chicago!

Day 1 (8/1): Boston to Lancaster, PA

After spending an hour or so repacking the car so we could actually see out the back window while driving, we set off from Brighton on our journey to San Francisco. We began on the Mass Pike with the intention of changing to 84 in Connecticut, but true to Constance Thomas fashion, we missed the exit! Thus we took a little detour through the boondocks of western Massachusetts and agreed that it would, let’s just say, not be anyplace we’d ever choose to return to.

Half an hour and a half a box of Cheez-its later, we needed more food. Rein’s Deli was the logical choice, being the best Jewish deli the town of Vernon, CT has ever seen. We contented our tummuses on pickles and latkes and continued on our way.

Driving through CT and upstate NY, Connie led us in the wrong direction two more times, but Jenna (our heroine in this tale) quickly remedied the situation by ignoring Connie’s slightly altered state of mind. Meanwhile, the iPod playlists are, as always, in full swing. Everything from old-school Madonna to Ludacris to our favorite hardcore rock bands, you can bet we were singing at the tops of our lungs.

Pennsylvania was next, bringing us through a small town called Matamoras (sounds like something out of Harry Potter) and we had the delight of seeing a tiny house that would probably be appropriate for a family of midgets and their cats. Alas, we did not capture the house on film, but trust us, it was cute. And house-like. And small.

Unfortunately, a number of interesting attractions in Pennsylvania were just too far off our path to make it to. Among these were the Disney Tattoo Guy, Cabela’s Dead Animal Displays, the Kaatskill Kaleidoscope, Christmas Village, the Pez Museum, and the spot where “The Blob” was filmed.

We’re now further into PA, driving through vast cornfields and swerving every time Connie sees a sign of interest. We’ll write more after we leave Amish Country!