Cactus Fight

I went to lower myself down a level on the cliff and felt a sharp twinge of pain. I pulled my hand up and saw this with a few large needles I instinctively pulled out before I thought it was funny enough to take a picture. Cactus: 1, Me: 0.

This was the culprit.

I got my revenge later. Cactus: 1, Me: 1.

If disaster movies (The Day After Tomorrow, Deep Impact, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, etc.) have taught me anything, it's you can't fight nature and win. This little guy hitched a ride for who knows how long and eventually stuck a few needles on the inside of my leg. Cactus:2, Me: 1.

Grand Canyon Pictures

It's alot easier going down than it is going up.

Defaced in 1953.

'R', '0' and '8' are extremely hard to carve into a cliff face.

My car is fine for all those wondering.

Ancient Ruins

The road to the Grand Canyon

230 miles on the same road!

Check out the 'JESUS' sign. You kind of have to look through the bug guts.

OK, Maybe 230 miles wasn't so bad

I think we need to work on our border patrol a little more

St Louis

not St. Louis, but oddly fascinating nonetheless

from the top of the Arch

the '2001' elevator used to travel up the Arch

Chicago Pictures

Day 15: Los Angeles, CA

Went to the Santa Monica Pier today.  It's pretty awesome out there.  I wish I had my beach stuff because it was so nice out.  Perfect beach weather.  Instead I just walked up and down the beach and people watched (that's how you say 'look at hot girls' in a nice way, right?).  

Later I took my care in to get an oil leak checked out.  Turns out there was no leak.  Apparently what I thought was an oil leak was just the AC condensation run off.  That would explain why it was dripping out of an open ended rubber tube.

Spent the rest of the day lounging and waiting for Heather to get out of work.  We went out for Sushi on Sunset Blvd.  It was pretty good (both the fish and the street).  On the way back there was a car flipped over on the Sunset.  It must've just happened since there were no cops there yet and someone was still in the driver seat.  There were an extraordinary amount of people outside looking on.  But really how does a car flip on Sunset?  You can't go faster than 20 mph on that street.  There's so much traffic.  If I find a news link I'll toss it in here.  If you find one, add it in the comments.

Day 14: Las Vegas, NV to Los Angeles, CA

The trip has finally ended (kind of).  The coast to coast portion has ended but really I'm driving back and forth between Vegas, LA and San Diego until the whole job / housing situation gets solved.  Anyways the 4 hour drive to LA was absolutely nothing.  I can do it with eyes closed.  Nothing to it.

I got to LA around 3:30 for my interview.  It went well, but we'll see what happens with it.  I'll hear back from them next week.  After the interview I went hung out at a park until my cousin got out of work.  I'm wicked jealous of her and her roommates jobs.  They all do work with movies and TV.  My cousin, Heather, works for NBC, her roommates work at PR firm for celebrities and Sony Image Works (wicked awesome in book).  After everyone got back from work, we got dinner at The Spanish Kitchen and had a couple drinks.  

Not a very fascinating day to write about but it was cool to finally back it to CA.  Still no power cord but it's in the mail.  Expect pictures soon.

Day 13: Las Vegas, NV

Today was a day of rest and relaxation. Loads of TV watching (oh how I've missed you). A little bit of reading (yawn). And pampering of my car. I took my car down for an oil change and got a free car wash, inside and out. Boy, does it look spectacular now.

Around 5:30 last night I thought I'd check to see if my Dad got the Sox game. He did! It's been so long since I've seen them play and they couldn't even get a win. Come on! After the game I thought my Dad and I could go see The Dark Knight at the IMAX screen. I figured it would be cool to watch it from a respectable distance this time. We drive all the way to the Palms and no dice. The shows sold out. Seriously? It's been out for over 3 weeks. So we went to see Step Brothers instead. What an odd movie. It was funny but I'm not sure how I feel about it. It was like Will Ferrell and Adam McKay had some really funny jokes but didn't know how to make them into a movie, so they just made Step Brothers with a bunch of random scenes. I think I'm giving it 3/5.

Oh yeah, I set up an interview on Tuesday at 4 in LA. Wish me luck.

Day 12: Grand Canyon, AZ to Las Vegas, NV

Sleeping in the Grand Canyon was a little scary. Even though I was at a campsite I heard growls and howls in the distance. With only a thin piece of fabric between me and the wilderness I got a little uneasy. When I woke up in the morning the French dude was packing up and the Italian girls were getting out of their tent. I noticed that they were older, atleast late 30s so I didn't feel as bad missing out the night before. It didn't take long to pack up. I've become a pro at it now. Everything was muddy though from setting up in the rain. I didn't care anymore. It was my last day with a full care so I stuffed everything in there and took off. By now my car was a mess but I was just ready to unload it.

On the way out of the canyon I stopped at all the posted lookout points. By the third one, I realized I was just looking at the same view and decided to make a straight shot out of there. I did however see a hiking trail at the last stop I was at. It's called the Grandview Trail. It is a 6 mile hike down the the Horseshoe Mesa campsite. You stay there overnight then either head back up or continue to the base to take another trail out to another campsite. It is now one of my goals in life to do an overnight hiking trip to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Who's with me?

The ride out of the GC to Las Vegas blew monkey balls. I've been saying I've been driving through the desert, but I did'nt know what desert was until I got to the AZ/NV border. What a terrible drive. Hot and boring. No posted signs to occupy myself. Hardly any other vehicles on the road. Atleast the ride was only 4.5 hours. Although, I did drive over the Hoover Dam, which cool. I've been there before, but driving over it was different for some odd reason. Apparently there's supposed to be bad traffic crossing the Dam from all the construction. It wasn't that bad coming in from the AZ side. From the NV side, though, there was traffic backed up for 3 miles! So for all you future road trippers, If you're coming from AZ to Vegas, don't take 93, go up 95. It's a less direct route but you have zero chance of getting stuck in horrendous traffic. I guess I got lucky. Must've been the lucky penny I picked up in the GC.

I finally arrived at my dad's house in Vegas and could unpack my car and relax. And that's what I did. Relaxed for the rest of the day and night. Wasted my day watching nothing on TV then watched Harold and Kumar 2 with my dad. Tomorrow I need to get an oil change and brave the hot, humid Vegas desert weather. Wish me luck.

Day 11: Albuquerque, NM to Grand Canyon, AZ.

I woke with a small hangover that I busted out of my system with a Belgian Waffle from the restaurant in the lobby of the hotel. Wicked slow service, wicked small tip. I hit the road after and drove through lots and lots of desert. The coolest thing was coming over a hill and seeing a mountain in the distance. All you can see is a blue silhouette. But eventually the mountain starts to take color and shape. Then all of the sudden you're in the mountain. It was pretty cool. Once I got close to the National Park area, trees starting sprouting and I felt I was back in NE.

When I got to the Grand Canyon National Park, all the camp sites were booked except for one that was 25 miles east of the entrance. I started driving out and all of a sudden there was an opening in the trees. You could see the canyon and it was amazing. I almost crashed because it was so prestine. It blew my mind. I kept driving though so I could get a spot at the campsite.

I got to the campsite around 3:30 and it started pouring out. I sat it out in my car then after 15 minutes the rain slowed down and I rushed to put my tent up. When I finshed the rain had almost completely stopped. And when I finished my dinner around 4:30, the rain had stopped altogether and there were blew skies.

I got my energy up and headed to the canyon. At first sight the view is spectacular. Like nothing I've ever seen before. When I get my cord I will post pictures, but they won't so it justice. For the most part I stayed close to rim. Unless you are on a designated hiking trail it is pretty dangerous out there. There is a lot of rubble that can slip out from under your foot and off the edge you go. I was doing pretty well keeping my balance and dropping down a couple levels, and then I got stupid. I was paying attention and went to lower myself down and put my hand right on top of a cactus. I pulled up an excruciating pain. I had inch long needles sticking out of my fingers and little tiny needles scattered all over my hand. It took about ten minutes to get them out and I think I still have some little ones dug deep in.

I continued to my first lookout point and sat a while. This foreign couple came by and told me about the sunsetting on the other side of a cliff face. I made it my mission to get there, but my mission was a direct tiresome route. I was climbing over rocks, scaling cliff walls, balancing on rubble. It was intense and exhilirating. When I got the cliff wall, there were all these tourists walking around in sandles and little kids playing. I felt cheated that I could take this hard path to get to somewhere that a road leads. So once I got there I headed down. The lower and further out I went, the more secluded it become. Until I got a point where I couldn't see anyone, let alone even hear them. It was so sirene and so relaxing. I stayed there for half an hour. On the cliff wall behind me were names carved into the stone. It was a tough spot to get to and I wondered how many people actually get to this point. There was one name dated back to 1954. Over 50 years ago and the name still looks great! I tried adding my name to the wall but 'R', '0' and '8' are kind of hard to carve.

I had been down there for a while and the wind was starting to pick up. I figured I should try to climb back up while people could still be around to help me incase I got stuck. No problem getting back up through. Alot of rock climbing, that was tons of fun. I wasn't until I was back up that I realized what I had done. If the nub I was holding broke, I would've feel backwards down the canyon. Back at the top there were still tons of tourists so I went to another secluded area to watch the sunset. It was absolutely beautiful. I can't wait to post pictures.

After the sunset I headed back to camp and got briefly lost. The sound of voices carried me in the right direction back to camp. It was dark by the time I got back and I tried cooking on my sterno. Took about 40 mintues to cook a can beans but it was tasty and hit the spot.

There was a fire at the site next to mine and I figured I go ask If I could join them. They looked like an older couple in their 40s. But the guy kept going over and putting the fire out. Then starting it back up briefly. Then puttting it out. When I finished eating he had just put the fire out so I figured I'd just go read in my tent. About 10 minutes later the fire was back up and they were out there talking around it. But since I was already in my tent, I thought it would be wierd to get out of the tent to join them. So I continued reading. And I was way off with who they were. The guy was actually French and there were two girls from Italy. Would've been a cool groupl to chill with but the longer I stayed in my tent the more wierd it would've been to join. Not to mention my clock was off and I thought it was an hour later than it was. So going to bed at 11:30 seemed alright, but it was really 10:30. Oh well, it was still a good day.

Day 10: Chamulet, OK to Albuquerque, NM

Last night I went to sleep at an empty campsite. I woke p at 6:30 to the sounds of 3 sirens packing up their tent at the site next to mine. They were three hippie chicks from NY. I want to know when these girls got here? And why did I go to bed so earlier? I wish there was a memo or something. I would've stayed up to welcome them. Damn. They booked it out of the campsite as I was getting out of my tent. Oh what could've been.

I hit the road not too long after the hippie chicks to start my 7 hour drive to NM. The campsite was literally right off of I-40. My hotel in Albuquerque was literally right off of I-40. I spent the entire 7 hours on I-40. Long boring ride through three starts. OK was OK (I'm pretty sure that pun was intended). Texas was not big (well besides the gas station employees). NM looked alot like old Mexico.

Albuquerque was over 100 degrees, so when I got the hotel I stayed inside for a while. I watched ESPN for about 1.5 hours to see what the hell was happening to my beloved Red Sox, but all I got was talk about the Dodgers. Now I know how other teams feel when they want coverage of the ball team.

I took a quick litttle nap and decided to brave the heat wave to explore Old Town. Old Town kind of really blew. Not much to see. Since it was still a million degrees out I went to a bar and started drinking. Talk to this lady briefly. For about 2 minutes. Apparently I made an impact on her because she bought my first two drinks. She never said anything to though, and the bartender told me about 2 hours after she left. I got an order of Nachos and talked a pair of volunteer EMTs who were in town from Santa Fe for a conference. The guy was an old retired EE who retired early and is now a biker. The girl came over from England, lived in Wisconsin for 14 years and is now a genetisist. Interesting group. The dude used to live in MA, so we talked about the Manny deal and pre-football season. The lady piped in with her gripes about Brett Favre. Fun topic to push.

I finally left the bar and headed to a sports bar to watch Manny's first game as a Dodger. I really wanted him to fall on his face for some reason. I'm kind of hurt he left in the way he did. But I drank through the game and talked to some more old people then headed back to the hotel. On the way back I saw some kids sitting on the side of the street so I went over to join them. I was drunk and didn't really understand what was going on. They were 18-19 year olds living in Albuquerque working for Jobcore. My complete lack of understanding is that Jobcore is for dumb kids that were taking the wrong track in life. Atleast thats what these kids seemed like. One of the kids was from VT, so that was pretty cool. Another one of the kids kept talking about my body. Asking me if my stomach was flat and if they could see it. It wasn't until 15 minutes in the conversation that I realized the kid was a dude and gay. A couple of the kids were gay. I guess it's nice to know I'm attractive to gay teens. They all had to get back to their dorms and I went back to my hotel to pass out.

Strange night in Albuquerque. Can't say I ever want to go back.

Day 9: Manhattan, KS to Chamulet, OK

As you all probably noticed on Day 9, I finally had some internet access to update my blog. It is now Day 13 and I can update once again. Once I get my power cable back I will upload a bunch of pictures.

After my 2 hours of blogging I finally left KS and drove on this little tiny back road highway for most the way. I hit 90 mph passing a slow trucker. That was the most exciting event on the road. I got on to I-40 and took it straight through OK City. I didn't even realize I went by it.

Before I got on the road I had punched the address for the campsite into the GPS. I followed it all the way to exit 104 on I-40. By the way, once you get to those highways down there, they stop numbering the exits in sequence. They are numbered by mile. So exit 1o4 is at mile 104. So as I passed exit 108 I saw a sign for KOA. I thought, hmmm that's wierd. Maybe there is another KOA at 104. So I got off at 104 and the GPS took me down this backroad. I was doing about 70 mph down this backroad passing pretty much nothing. When I got to the road I had to turn onto, it was a dirt road. I took the better judgement and turned around and went back to the KOA at exit 108. Turns out they moved a while ago.

The campgrounds were pretty empty. It was about 3:30 and pretty damn hot. I sent my tent up and went to take a dip in the pool. There were about 14 kids in the pool. I'm pretty sure they were all brothers and sisters. Wouldn't surprise me. The older boy was throwing a football to the younger boys who were jumping into the pool to catch it. They were all talking with a wicked strong southern twang. I felt like I was watching FNL.

The weather started to cool down a bit, so I decided to talk a walk. There was a gas station right up the road so I figured I could by some beer. Nope! Apparently OK doesn't sell beer in gas stations. WTF, mate? Once again, another sober camping trip. Next to the gas station was a Cherokee Trading Post with "Authentic" Native American collectibles. There were some cool things in there, like the flutes and the weapons and the moccassins. But for the most part there were alot of paintings of wolves and half naked hot indian girls. I guess that's authentic. They reminded me of the picture Bret painted for Sally on FotC.

Back down at the my tent I made some dinner then started reading. Nothing else to do. I called it a night around 11 o'clock. Camping alone kind of blows.