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!