The Rest... of the Story

Day Nine, Saturday, August 27

The time on the road was starting to catch up to us, so we decided that our day in Vegas would start out extremely relaxed. Basically, we sat around in the hotel room and watched the news coverage of the impending doom of Hurricane Irene's landfall on the east coast. Later in the day, we headed to the Sunset Station Casino for buffet, Las Vegas' signature "dish". Donna Mae and her sister both had two-for-one coupons, so we ate free - fine with us! The food was pretty good for buffet and the desserts were excellent. I think I got my money's worth.

Dinner!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and prepared to go out on the strip. First off, we headed into a different area of the city to pick up one of Dana's best friends from high school, Katrina. It was great to meet her after a year and a half of hearing stories about Dana and Katrina, and she seemed to like me pretty well. We then headed into the strip and met Meaghan, another of Dana's friends from when she was younger. Meaghan was staying at the Mandalay Bay, being put up by Gamestop as a store manager and attending a video games-related convention.

We walked up the strip a bit and into the Bellagio to gamble away some money. Dana and I both let about $12 apiece walk away from us just playing the penny slots. It was pretty worth it just to say we gambled a bit in Vegas while we were there. I think the trio had a lot of fun reminiscing and getting a bit sloshed. After the casino, we bid Meaghan a good night and Dana, Katrina and I stopped by a parking lot filled with food trucks outside a bar. If only we were more hungry! Still, we managed to get some delicious Hawaiian style shave ice.

The Strip

Waiting in line to go back to Mandalay Bay - three best friends!

Hawaiian Shave Ice on the Mainland!

Yum!

We hit the hay fairly late, but it was neat to meet (and re-meet) Dana's friends and see plenty of the Vegas strip. Even though we only ventured onto the strip once, I think I had my fill of Las Vegas.

Day Ten, Sunday, August 28

Our last day was reasonably quiet and a fairly short drive. On our way out we picked up some delicious In'N'Out and we were on our way. We didn't have too many stops thanks to the fact that the majority of the drive was through the desolate areas of eastern California. There wasn't a whole lot to see except straight, flat desert for quite awhile, but once we got into the metropolitan area of Los Angeles, there were a couple stops we decided to make.

Cullyfohnya

Pretty Warm

Our final Madonna of the Trail was in a city called Upland, California. We pulled into a McDonald's parking lot and walked over to its resting place, overlooking the highway from a small median on a sidestreet. She was like all the others, of course, but this was number five out of a total of twelve, and our last of the trip. She was special!

After a brief discussion about how most of the pedestrian crossing buttons are placebos, we were on the road again. Before long, we were in Los Angeles proper and decided to make one final stop before reaching our final destination: Dana's uncle's house. It took a good ten minutes to find proper parking (perplexing given the fact that you basically have to have a car to get around), but it was worth it.

Challenger Disaster Memorial

The Challenger Memorial stands in a pretty non-descript area of Los Angeles, but it's really tastefully done. Obviously, it takes the form of a large space shuttle and a few plaques commemorating the loss of the shuttle's crew. This stands in the "Little Tokyo" area of the city, hence the bilingual nature of the memorial and its specific appreciation of Colonel Onizuka. Entertainingly, there was also a nice little shop we wandered into a little shop filled with Japanese stuff.

Really awesome art on the side of the store

Dana bought the creepiest thing ever

So, with all those miles traveled, we headed to Agoura Hills. We arrived and hung out for a little while with Christopher before he took us to the hotel he'd made reservations at. Hurricane Irene had blown through the east coast this last weekend, and Chris told us it might be a day or two before we could fly home. So, we settled into our final hotel of the trip.

That night, Christopher and his wife Veronica took us out for Indian food - it was lovely. We were dropped back off at our hotel to get some rest for our (unplanned) free day in Los Angeles!

Day Eleven, Monday, August 29

This ended up being a pretty low key day, with just a few exceptions. The first was thanks to the horrible traffic in Los Angeles. It really hadn't bothered me the last two times I drove in LA, but in the span of about four hours I almost got hit by three different drivers who nearly slammed right into me. I used my three annual car honks in one day.

Anyway, we headed to the beach just to say we'd seen the Pacific. Venice Beach was nice, and walking up and down looking at the "freaks" was entertaining as always. Later in the day we grabbed some ice cream to top off the day and retreated back to the hotel for an early wake-up.

Venice Beach

Day Twelve, Tuesday, August 30

We roused from bed at about five in the morning in preparation for Chris arriving and taking us the airport. Thanks to the hurricane, the only flight with potential space was flying to Dulles, so we decided to strike while the iron was lukewarm. We were a bit out of it, but getting on the flight turned out just fine. We said goodbye to Chris (and the car) and piled onto the 777.

After landing in Dulles, we figured out that we needed to take a bus to the heart of the District of Columbia. From there we hopped two trains to Union Station, and from there we caught the Amtrak up to Philadelphia. The ride was a couple hours, so we settled in to what turned out to be an Acela train. Thanks to flooding caused by the rain from the storm, no trains were running north of Philly, and a bunch of trains were delayed or stranded up north. So, we got a super great train with WiFi, and even got to make a stop at the cafe car for some dinner. Before we knew it, we were at 30th Street Station in Philadelphia. Dana's dad showed up a few minutes later and before we knew it, we were home.

Great trip with an interesting end. For whatever reason, even after driving for more than sixty hours, I'm ready to go again! Thanks to everyone for reading about our adventures - I'll make sure to keep you updated on the future!

Enter Las Vegas

Day Eight, Friday, August 26

The day started more casual than most, with me stopping down at the lobby to grab some breakfast and no real urgency with when we were leaving. Well, until eleven rolled around and checkout was fast approaching, that is, at which point we got everything packed out and headed out, leaving Flagstaff in the rear view.

Our first stop of the day was the Road Kill Cafe on Route 66. I'm pretty sure there are a lot of places with this moniker and the jokes that my father would make when I was a kid about "you kill it, we grill it" were aimed at a more generic concept, but it was cool to stop in and grab some lunch.

The food was okay (as the sign said, "lousy food, hot beer") but acceptable. Dana's sandwich, however, was amazing, so maybe I just ordered the wrong thing. It was pretty cheap, too, since it was obviously just a themed diner like any other. Our next stop was a ways down the Mother Road - a zoo, actually, in the middle of the desert.

Llama that loved following us around

Anthony the baby lion

It was reasonably cheap to get in for a zoo ($18 apiece) and the animals were beautiful. They had at least a dozen tigers alone - I would assume they're all rescues from the nearby Las Vegas area. Keepers of the Wild is a non-profit habitation shelter for animals that are unable to be released back into the wild. They don't believe in breeding them, and for all intents and purposes are more of an animal sanctuary than a zoo. They have the simple goal of taking in abused and neglected animals and allowing them to live out a peaceful and reasonably happy life. A lovely and admirable stop on the adventure!

After the habitat, we headed further down Route 66 and stopped to take a picture of a giant thing (yes!) on the side of the road. Dana was a little worn out from the heat and sun, so she took a picture from the car.

A big tiki! Pulling up to it, it reminded me of a great big green moai statue, like the ones on Easter Island. Route 66 was peppered with nostalgia, not the least of which were a few sets of the old Burma Shave signs, warning variously about speeding and starting forest fires with their trademark clever rhymes. We exited the historic road and merged back onto the interstate briefly before taking a US highway north toward the Hoover Dam.

The Hoover Dam was absolutely spectacular. The scale of the entire thing and the fact that it was built eighty years ago is still daunted, as is the new bypass bridge right next to it. If you're ever in the area, go see it, and take the tour, too - it's $11 a person and you get to go down to the bowels of the dam and see the actual generators operating.

After the Dam, we decided to head the hotel and relax for a bit. Dana got in touch with her friends and family to work out times to go visit, and that evening we headed over to her step-grandmother's apartment. Donna Mae was an excellent conversationalist and a lot of fun to be around, and Dana appreciated another point of view on familial events of the past few months. It was great to meet her and we're heading to dinner tonight with her and her sister. It will be lovely!

Anyway, today is set to be a relaxed day in the hotel, and tonight we're going to the strip to hang out with Dana's friends Meaghan and Katrina. Hopefully afterward we'll have some opportunity to drive an hour out of the city for some primo stargazing, as well. Until then!

States: Arizona, Nevada

Cities: Flagstaff, Boulder City, Henderson

I Like Big Buttes and I Cannot Lie

Day Seven, Thursday, August 26

Action-packed day today, to be sure, despite the fact that we only really had three destinations. We woke up and were on the road a little bit earlier than usual, aided by the fact that we were now in the Mountain Time Zone. We grabbed a quick bit of breakfast from the lobby and we were off, headed up toward the first stop of the day, the Four Corners. On our way up, we caught US 491, formerly the Devil's Highway, US 666. Spooky! After crossing the border from New Mexico and into Colorado and back, we were there!

Dana at the Four Corners

All the states have these cool seals on their quadrant

It was a fairly cool monument. Additionally, it was surrounded by little shops operated by the Navajo, selling jewelry and t-shirts. Interestingly, in our drive from Farmington to Four Corners, we crossed into the Navajo Nation, a largely independent region occupying pieces of Utah, New Mexico, and Arizona. We would remain within the Nation on the drive to Monument Valley, our next stop.

And speaking of, as we drove through the Utah area, we'd began catching sight of the huge red-brown rocks, called variously buttes and mesa, depending on how broad they were on the top. They were absolutely beautiful, but nothing really prepared me for the awe-inspiring Monument Valley.

The Three Sisters

East Mitten

West Mitten

View from the restaurant, "The View"

Lunch was delicious - I had an "Indian Taco", which consisted of blue corn fried bread with a topping of beans, chicken, salsa, and tomatoes. Absolutely delicious and great. After we ate, we headed out in the car to stumble our way to the monuments. The long track was about seventeen miles long, so we cut it a bit short. The going was rough, but the Infiniti did a heroic job of bouncing over the rocks and bumps.

The final stop for the day, after about a three hour continuous drive, was the fabled Grand Canyon. Of course, I knew what to expect to some extent, but what I saw surprised the hell out of me in a wonderful way. Absolutely stunning!

We wandered around the Grand Canyon National Park for a bit and decided to take off toward the hotel a little before sunset. We enjoyed a lovely light show provided by the thundercloud off to the southeast as it got darker and darker. Desert thunderstorms are beautiful and seem to rarely come with rain. We arrived at the hotel a little after eight and, after a quick Del Taco run, settled in for tomorrow.

States: New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona

Cities: Farmington, Grand Canyon Village, Flagstaff

On the chopping block for tomorrow:

• Heads roll
• Dam it
• Aminals!

See you in Las Vegas!

Time to Break Bad

Day Six, Wednesday, August 24

Ah, long day of driving once again over with!

We awoke a little earlier than we had the past few days, mainly so that we could head down and grab some breakfast in preparation for a long day; we probably wouldn't be eating lunch until closer to dinner time. We hit up the Wal-Mart in Amarillo on our way out of town to pick up some spray paint and off we went.

Our first stop was the Cadillac Ranch, just outside of Amarillo. Similar to (and inspiration of) the VW Ranch from yesterday, it features ten of the eponymous vehicles with their noses buried in the ground, sticking up and covered in graffiti. That's where the spray paint comes in! I got "True Blue" and Dana got a fluorescent pink, so it worked fairly well to spray down a coat of blue and then spray pink over it.

D'aww. Of course, right after writing that, the wind caused a lot of my spray paint to fleck all over Dana. Boo. Stupid me. We stopped at a nearby gas station to clean up a bit and booked west on the interstate once again.

After awhile we exited onto what was once Route 66 and drove it for a dozen miles or so until we came through a town known as Adrian, TX. Adrian is notable in that it's the midpoint of the former Route 66. There's a little "Midpoint Cafe" at this spot and a few signs marking it as such.

There's me trying to decide which way we're supposed to go. Anyway, we dropped by the gift shop and I picked up a cool sign that shows all the cities that Route 66 goes through all the way to Chicago in the east and Los Angeles in the west. Pretty boss, I must say. Oh, and the Route 66 memorabilia didn't end there, since our next stop was a vintage sign on the Mother Road.

Pretty cool, right? I thought so. After some research, we found that many of the communities that were once situated on Route 66 were boomtowns in the middle of the century, but gradually declined once the interstate superseded it. McLean and Shamrock were probably victims of this, which is why they look basically like ghost towns now. Well, that and the fact that it was well over one hundred degrees, anyway.

Next up was Albuquerque. Our first stop was the National Museum of Nuclear Science and History, which featured an array of historical information and artifacts about the development and use of nuclear weaponry and technology. It was really enlightening, and the array of artifacts and models they had was impressive.

Nuclear artillery cannon

The Davy Crockett, the only single-man-capable nuclear weapon

Models of Fat Man and Little Boy

In the midst of looking at all the missiles, planes, and land vehicles out back, Dana looked behind her to find a snake slithering past with a distinctive diamond pattern. It was neat to see the little reptile crawling through the dirt, since we don't really have snakes of even that size back in New Jersey.

Next up was lunch/dinner, which we bought at a high-rated Mexican place called The Taqueria Mexico. As one would expect, the food was absolutely fantastic and authentic. After polishing off our food, we headed south to check out Albuquerque Studios, a television and film studio where, among other things, Breaking Bad is shot. Of course, we couldn't see much on the lot, but it was cool to see, and on the way we even saw a giant stone snake built for the University of New Mexico.

Main gate of the studio

Big snake

Right near the lot. Look anything like Breaking Bad scenery?

Our final stop on the way out of town was our fourth Madonna of the trip, placed downtown in Albuquerque to mark the coast-to-coast route of the National Old Trails Road. This one was relatively easy to find, and we parked for a second just to walk over and take a few pictures. It was good to see her again after over 1,100 miles.

Four Madonnas down, eight to go. Well, we won't see them all this trip, but it would be pretty cool to make it a goal to see the rest of them on future travels. After the Madonna, we'd worn out our Albuquerque welcome, so we headed northward toward our hotel for the night in Farmington, New Mexico. After hitting a traffic jam and watching some really sweet desert lightning in the distance, we were on the open road. We stopped to take a few pictures on the way.

"The Mexican Hat"

Western New Mexico was absolutely beautiful, and oddly enough, it rained quite a bit on our trek up north to Farmington. As we headed across the desert, our elevation breached 7,300, and we crossed the continental divide: the division where the watershed changes from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific. We got to our hotel at around nine, checked in and promptly collapsed on the bed.

States: Texas, New Mexico

Cities: Amarillo, Albuquerque, Farmington

Coming up tomorrow:

• Grand Canyon
• Four Corners
• Monument Valley

Yeah, no kitschy stuff tomorrow! The real deal. See you in Flagstaff!