The Return
Hello all. I write this in my new home for the next month in San Diego, California. I'm here baby! And about time. This trip was loooonnngg clocking in at almost 2 weeks, but interesting. I'll be moving to another part in San Diego in November and I'm going to try to visit often. I'm definetly pushing for a late October visit and such. The one thing that sucks? I miss everybody? I miss all my friends and my mother. I'm a mama's boy so sue me. ^^ I made need monthly visits in the beginning to quench my homesickness.
Well the trip, like I said was long. I'll break it down state by state.
New York: We left at 7:00 on a Saturday night and my brother picked up his two friends, Theresa Howe and Susan Werner. I was a little shy around them, but as the trip went on they became alright. We didn't do much in New York besides driving.
New Jersey: Same ol' driving. Smelled a lot. :P
Pennsylvania: We stopped to eat here at night at a Cracker Barrel. Not my favorite restuarant, although Susan loves it. There are Cracker Barrels at nearly EVERY exit. In the country. It's ridiculous. Regardless I got sick from it which I will tell you in time..Hah. We stopped here for a hotel.
Maryland: I got sick the next morning and threw up in a Maryland McDonalds. It was prob. from the rancid Cracker Barrel burger. I had incredibly horrible cramps the whole day too from it. Disgusting. We drove all the way through in Maryland. Didn't do much.
West Virginia: We reached here the second day and was the first state all of us hadn't been too so naturally we stopped somewhere. My brother's friends like to visit Natural Parks so went to this in the middle of nowhere area of West Virginia park which had several waterfalls, an abandoned mill and these rocks that were huge. Not my thing but a chance to get out of the car. We went to a Bob Evans that night. Good food. Bought a portable CD Player at a Wal Mart there and tried Oreo Cakesters. Very good! Like them lots. Tried to find them in other states but to no avail. I guess they only sell them in West Virigina...:(
Kentuckey: We came here with really no plans until we found a National Park to visit. Mammoth Cave is this HUGE underground cave that goes like 300 ft. under the ground. When you enter theres loads of Spider Crickets crawling around and you have descend upon hundreds upon hundreds of very narrow stairway until you reach an opening. Really neat place, had very funny tour guides. Reccomend a visit to this place if you find yourself in Kentuckey.
Tennesee: Ahhh...Tennesee. Nice state. First thing we did was went to Graceland which I wanted to go to. Graceland is actually an incredibly dumpy town except for the Elvis center and his manor. Everything else looks like its falling apart. Regardless, we toured his manor which was really neat. I like stuff like that, and seeing his incredibly 70s household was awesome. He had themed rooms like a jungle room and this HUGE room where he kept all of his cars. He even had a stable where he kept horses. After Graceland, we headed to Nashville and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. My brother collects shot glasses from there so that was not the first, nor the last Hard Rock of the trip. We walked around Nashville and promptly agreed it was incredibly empty. No one was on the street walking which is nothing like New York City. Still a nice place. Lots of country music blasting though.
Arkansaw: We barely passed through here. I had KFC here and then we drove through it. Honestly, what could we do there anyway?
Louisiana: Ahhhhhh. What a place. Incredibly over sexed, New Orleans is, yep yep. SOOO many gentleman's clubs, strip joints. And not afraid to totally show you naked women out in the open too. Giant signs on the buildings of naked women totally un-obscured. Its crazy. They had LOADs of signs for Mint Juleps there which was hilarious. Austin would love it there. We went on a Haunted Cementery tour which was OK. Sorta interesting, we were in the same cementery that was in the movie Easy Rider that apparently the actors defaced and defiled in it without the cememtery knowing. Kinda makes me wanna see the movie. I really didn't see much of the wreckage from Katrina although we didn't really leave New Orleans as were told to stay only on one street there to be "safe". All in all a fun city. Lots of swamp.
Texas: So sooo big. SOOo big. Took forever. The first thing we did in Texas was stop at a gas station and this teller there named Charlie told us his life story and how people robbed this store a lot and such. We promptly left, but Charlie was a fixture in many a joke from then on. In Texas we visited Houston which was a very nice city. We didn't really do much in it, but I liked it nonetheless. Texas was mostly driving and a lot of driving to boot. Very hot there too.
New Mexico: New Mexico was nice. We actually spent three days here which is odd. We went to Carlsbad Caverns which is this giant cave similar to Mammoth Cave. We missed the tour but we got to see the bats fly out of the cave at night which was awesome. They fly out in a tornado like motion and there are like five million of these things flying out at once. Really neat. We also went to Roswell, the historic alien sighting area. Was alright, went to a museum and stuff. And went to this park called White Sands which has these mounds of white sands over a patch of random bushes. Was kinda boring heh, but we got to see Fire Ants and Scorpions.
Arizona: Hot all the way. Went to Phoenix which I actually liked a lot. I think Phoenix was my favorite city. And they have a lot of interesting things to do down there. We didn't stay long unfortunetly, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
California: Yay! The Final leg of the tour. We first hit this place called the Joshua Tree National Park which had some trails we hiked on and we climbed these awesomely huge rock formations. A lot of fun. Then we headed to Los Angeless and walked around Hollywood and went to the La Brea Tar Pits. We then went to Universal's CityWalk and ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp place was was cool. After that we headed to San Diego where I slept at my dad's apartment and I sit here today.
All in all an incredibly memorable trip, one I'd love to take with my friends as well. Although not with my car. Its already suffered enough. *pets green Echo gently*
Well the trip, like I said was long. I'll break it down state by state.
New York: We left at 7:00 on a Saturday night and my brother picked up his two friends, Theresa Howe and Susan Werner. I was a little shy around them, but as the trip went on they became alright. We didn't do much in New York besides driving.
New Jersey: Same ol' driving. Smelled a lot. :P
Pennsylvania: We stopped to eat here at night at a Cracker Barrel. Not my favorite restuarant, although Susan loves it. There are Cracker Barrels at nearly EVERY exit. In the country. It's ridiculous. Regardless I got sick from it which I will tell you in time..Hah. We stopped here for a hotel.
Maryland: I got sick the next morning and threw up in a Maryland McDonalds. It was prob. from the rancid Cracker Barrel burger. I had incredibly horrible cramps the whole day too from it. Disgusting. We drove all the way through in Maryland. Didn't do much.
West Virginia: We reached here the second day and was the first state all of us hadn't been too so naturally we stopped somewhere. My brother's friends like to visit Natural Parks so went to this in the middle of nowhere area of West Virginia park which had several waterfalls, an abandoned mill and these rocks that were huge. Not my thing but a chance to get out of the car. We went to a Bob Evans that night. Good food. Bought a portable CD Player at a Wal Mart there and tried Oreo Cakesters. Very good! Like them lots. Tried to find them in other states but to no avail. I guess they only sell them in West Virigina...:(
Kentuckey: We came here with really no plans until we found a National Park to visit. Mammoth Cave is this HUGE underground cave that goes like 300 ft. under the ground. When you enter theres loads of Spider Crickets crawling around and you have descend upon hundreds upon hundreds of very narrow stairway until you reach an opening. Really neat place, had very funny tour guides. Reccomend a visit to this place if you find yourself in Kentuckey.
Tennesee: Ahhh...Tennesee. Nice state. First thing we did was went to Graceland which I wanted to go to. Graceland is actually an incredibly dumpy town except for the Elvis center and his manor. Everything else looks like its falling apart. Regardless, we toured his manor which was really neat. I like stuff like that, and seeing his incredibly 70s household was awesome. He had themed rooms like a jungle room and this HUGE room where he kept all of his cars. He even had a stable where he kept horses. After Graceland, we headed to Nashville and ate at the Hard Rock Cafe. My brother collects shot glasses from there so that was not the first, nor the last Hard Rock of the trip. We walked around Nashville and promptly agreed it was incredibly empty. No one was on the street walking which is nothing like New York City. Still a nice place. Lots of country music blasting though.
Arkansaw: We barely passed through here. I had KFC here and then we drove through it. Honestly, what could we do there anyway?
Louisiana: Ahhhhhh. What a place. Incredibly over sexed, New Orleans is, yep yep. SOOO many gentleman's clubs, strip joints. And not afraid to totally show you naked women out in the open too. Giant signs on the buildings of naked women totally un-obscured. Its crazy. They had LOADs of signs for Mint Juleps there which was hilarious. Austin would love it there. We went on a Haunted Cementery tour which was OK. Sorta interesting, we were in the same cementery that was in the movie Easy Rider that apparently the actors defaced and defiled in it without the cememtery knowing. Kinda makes me wanna see the movie. I really didn't see much of the wreckage from Katrina although we didn't really leave New Orleans as were told to stay only on one street there to be "safe". All in all a fun city. Lots of swamp.
Texas: So sooo big. SOOo big. Took forever. The first thing we did in Texas was stop at a gas station and this teller there named Charlie told us his life story and how people robbed this store a lot and such. We promptly left, but Charlie was a fixture in many a joke from then on. In Texas we visited Houston which was a very nice city. We didn't really do much in it, but I liked it nonetheless. Texas was mostly driving and a lot of driving to boot. Very hot there too.
New Mexico: New Mexico was nice. We actually spent three days here which is odd. We went to Carlsbad Caverns which is this giant cave similar to Mammoth Cave. We missed the tour but we got to see the bats fly out of the cave at night which was awesome. They fly out in a tornado like motion and there are like five million of these things flying out at once. Really neat. We also went to Roswell, the historic alien sighting area. Was alright, went to a museum and stuff. And went to this park called White Sands which has these mounds of white sands over a patch of random bushes. Was kinda boring heh, but we got to see Fire Ants and Scorpions.
Arizona: Hot all the way. Went to Phoenix which I actually liked a lot. I think Phoenix was my favorite city. And they have a lot of interesting things to do down there. We didn't stay long unfortunetly, but I enjoyed it nonetheless.
California: Yay! The Final leg of the tour. We first hit this place called the Joshua Tree National Park which had some trails we hiked on and we climbed these awesomely huge rock formations. A lot of fun. Then we headed to Los Angeless and walked around Hollywood and went to the La Brea Tar Pits. We then went to Universal's CityWalk and ate at the Bubba Gump Shrimp place was was cool. After that we headed to San Diego where I slept at my dad's apartment and I sit here today.
All in all an incredibly memorable trip, one I'd love to take with my friends as well. Although not with my car. Its already suffered enough. *pets green Echo gently*