The Road Trip summary :

(Route roughly marked as the red line)

Left : Boston, Massacheusets on August 28th 2005. Mileometer = 129207

Arrived : Orlando, Florida on September 18th 2005. Mileometer = 137284

Via: Niagra Falls, Chicago city, The Bad Lands, Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming Desert, Seattle City, Mt. St. Helans, Portland City, San Fransisco, Alkatraz Prison, Santa Cruz, Los Angeles, Hollywood, Los Vages, Grand Canyon, The Hoover Dam, Albuquerque, Amerillo, Mississippi River (x2).

States: Massacheussets, New York state, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indianna, Illinois, Wisconson, Minnisota, South Dekota, North Dekota, Wyoming, Idaho, Washington state, Oregean, California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Louisianna, Alabama, Mississippi, Georga and Florida. (24 states).

Money spent on gas: (roughly) $1200.

Total distance : 8077 miles.

Day 22

Left: Childress, Texas at 7:30am
Arrived: Orlando, Florida at 5:30am (the next day)
States: Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, Georga, Florida.
Distance: 1387 miles.

I'm writing this from Orlando, Florida. The final destination of our C around America. The mansion (complete with pool and 2 hot tubs) is a far cry from the camp sites we've been staying in on the road trip (not that they weren't deadly craic).Yesterday we completed probably the longest drive I'll ever do. The drive totalled at a quite impressive 1387 miles. Ittook just over 22 hours and crossed more than half of America (with 4 15 minute breaks). It started at 7:30am central time(GMT +7) in Childress, Texas. The first 4 and a half hours (which I did.. at one stage I thought I was a humming bird) wasuneventful enough except for Dallas at which point we (okay, I) took two wrong turns in quick sucession which put us a bitoff our way. Luckely I noticed and after some seriously questionable lane changes. We decided to ignore warnings about thestate of Louisianna and just drive through it to avoid a big detour. Our path took us through Montgomery which is where a lotof the peeps from New Orleans went. The place seemed fine though and the accents there are by far the best in America (with North Dekota a second best, if you've ever seen the film Fargo then you know exactly what they sound like.. "oh ya..").Infact. the whole LO., Alabama, Georga and Mississippi area have brillo accents.The drive went on to Alabama and Mississippi (the latter where we hit some heavy fog for an hour or so). We also very narrowlymissed a seemingly suicidal fox who ran infront of our car despite our best efforts to convince him it wasn't worth it.These mid west states are seriously hot. It was over 40 degrees C (keeping in mind it's not even summer still).It was dark by the time we hit Alabama so we loaded up on Caffine as obviously with 750 miles to go, we were going to be drivinginto the night. We saw a truck on fire not too long after 10pm. An omen to stop we thought? Probably, but sure keep drivin...Close to the Georga/Florida our speeding caught up with us.. A police car drove by, turned around and pulled us over. - "thereason I stopped you is I checked you at 72 in a 55 zone". We got a ticket but just a curtisy warning. Probably cause we'reIrish. He was actually really sound. We finished the last 300 miles down the i45(?) in the dead of the night with mostly no traffic and road trip music blairing.It was wierd to hit the second morning rush of a single drive approaching Orlando.We got to the house at 6:30am (GMT+5) after driving through 5 states and 2 time zones. It was the only way to end a road trip of such propoetions really. Good Times.



The sun rising as we were setting off.













7500 miles worth of splatted bugs.















the mississippi.. eh again.














Georga.













..and Alabama
















The ticket we got when we were pulled over in Georga.












This handy trick means you can better utalise the 2 mins you stop to refuel.












Florida, the last state on Road Trip '05.

Day 21

left: Grand Canyon, Arizona at 6:30am
arrived: Childress, Texas at 9:45pm
States: Arizona, New Mexico, texas
Via: Grand Canyon; Flagstaff, Arizona; Amerillo, texas; Albuquerque, New Mexico;
Distance: 818 miles

We got up at 5:30am to watch the sun rise over the Grand Canyon which was spectacular. You could see the light fillingthe Canyon as it rose. It really is hard to appreciate how big the canyon is... It's huge!At 6:30am we hit the road for Dallas. We stopped in Albuquerque in New Mexico for a while (simply to find the IsotopesStadium) but to be quite honest it's a bit of a crap hole (and by a bit, I mean total)). We crossed back into the central time zone at about 2pm upon crossing into Texas. Speed inforcement had been pretty lax since Nevada so we kept drivin in Texas about 85 to 90 mph..bit of a mistake.No more than 15 miles into Texas, an unmarked police car went by (we're not sure which it was but we picked itup on the detector (which are legal here). About 15 mins later a marked State Trooper(cowboy hat and all) drove by and stared across at us.When he crossed the median and came up behind us it was time to start worrying. He drove right up behind us for a minute or so (presumably running the plates). He then pulled even with us and stared in for another two or thre mins. Obviously, we had slowed down at this stage and I took out a map to play the confused forlorn tourist card. He drove on then really slowly ahead. I guess that's the Texas warning. We stuck to the limits after that.We drove through Amerillo after that, which is actually quite a big city.Just as it was getting dark, at about 7:30pm we were driving through endless vast flat lands when we drove into one holygrape sandwige of a lightning storm. It was the most violent storm I'd ever seen. Lightning every second or so. I was deadimpressed with getting a photo of a forming tornado (untill later when we saw a fully blown motha' tornado). We drove on foranother hour or so until the storms got really bad. There were tornado warnings then so we stopped in Childress, about halfway across texas. It was then I got the photo (below) of the tornado lit up by the lightning strike. Turns out, when peoplego tornado hunting, the flatlands outside Amerillo is where they go. It had more tornados than anywhere else in America.



Quite the cross road. Pheonix, the one city we never made it to on the road trip

















The sun coming up shining into the Grand Canyon.











Where we were now.















Howdy!














Is this the way to Amerillo? Apparently, yes, yes it is.












The first tornado forming.














The tornado lit up by lightning as it was coming towards us. I really couldn't believe what I was seing at the time. In hindsight it probably wasn't such a good idea to stay out and watch it in all the lightning but, sure if there's any way to go, it'd certainly be the most exciting.

Day 20:

left: Las Vages, Nevada at 1pm
Arrived: Grand Canyon, Arizona at 7pm
via: The Hoover Dam, Nevada/Arizona state line; part of the olf route 66
States: Nevada, Arizona
Distance: 273 miles

We hung around Vages for an hour or so before hitting the road for the Grand Canyon. We stopped at the Hoover Dam on the State Line between Nevada and Arizona for a while. I think it's the one of the biggest Dam in the world, it's pretty impressive not to mention huge. We drove on Historic Route 66 for a few miles, it's the famous (over here anyway) route that people used to take across the country. Before getting back on the way to the Grand Canyon. We got there about an hour after sunset. It actually looked quite good in moonlight. It was too dark to et any photos though.




It was so hot in the car by about 12 in the afternoon, that the bananna was cooking when we opened it.












I think the route ran from Chicago to Los Vages.
















Down one side of the Hoover Dam. This thing was big.

Day 19:

Left: Santa Monica, Los Angeles at 11:30am
Arrived:Los Vages, Nevada at 5pm
States:California, Nevada
Distance: 310 miles


We hit Sunset Blvd. at about 11am, we drove around Beverly Hills and Hollywood for about an hour or so. We didn't see any stars but did get the obligotory photos with the Hollywood sign (although it's impossible to get that close to it).
After a while we left LA and drove east for teh big LV, Los Vages. I'd been looking forward to here more than anywhere else. The last few days have been a bit of a reanactment of Fear and Lothing in Los Vages (the book) so teh fact that we were rollin through teh (suprisingly hot) Nevada desert only served to further this sense of Deja vu.
We got into Vages at about 5 and went around some hotels looking for last minute deals. After a while thinkin of staying in some crappy place outside of teh main area we decided to splash out and stay in the Hotel Tropicana. It's one of teh big theamed hotels with a huge casino (one of the main reasons we stayed there). We hit the town at about 10pm or so and walked up and down teh strip (which is 3 miles long). It's exactly the same as it's portrayed on TV. more lights than you can shake a very large stick at and shows, water fountins and flame shows going on everywhere. We checked out the big casinos on the strip. They're all really cool. We got a load of used cards from them.
We headed back to Tropicana at about 12 and hit the Texas Hold 'em tables at about 1am. We both bought in for 40 dollars and were up and down for a while. We were eventually eaten up by the 'sharks' (the standard wasn't actually all that good, but it was really imtimadating playing in Vages) by 4:30am (they pump the casinos with oxygen so you don't get tired).
I got to bed around 5:30am, Vages is the coolest place in the whole world. I'm deffinatly coming back.




Sunset Bvld. It's all happening there.













Hollywood Bvld. At this point we were just trying to find the big sign.













Look in the back left corner. It was as close as we could get.











The gun laws in Nevada were relativly lax.
















The (very very hot) Nevada Desert.














Vages during the day.













And Vages at night:

Day 18:

Left: Santa Cruz at 5am
Arrived:Santa Monica, Los Angeles at 3:30pm
Distance: 418 miles

We got up at 5am to get Kev to the bus station on time, he's flying home from San Fransisco (via Boston) today. His plan was always tojust come across to the west coast... so it's just me and Simon now. We hit the road at about 5:30 for L.A., we kept drivin down the 101. It's another beautiful day so the pacific looked amazing as we drove down along it. We passed through Big Sur (two Thrills songsin one day..what a trip) at about 11am and kept drivin South towards LA. We got into LA at about pm and we headed to Santa Monica which is on the sea beside Beverly Hills and Hollywood to meet up withAlisa, a girl I met up in Boston. She's a friend of Joe, a guy we worked with in Weston. We hung around Santa Monica State Beachand the touristy area on the pier for a while then me up with Alisa. After a few hours there, we went to a party in Westwood, LAbeside UCLA. The people at teh party were incredibly sound (their party eh catalysts are slightly different from the Irish). After the party we cruised around LA in Alisa's boyfriend's black S.U.V. (quite the cliched car there but incredibly fun nevertheless) we crashed at Alisa's for the night then. PArtyin in LA was different from Ireland to say the least, it wascool all the same.






Nearly there...










One of the many photo's from the 101.
















An incredibly scary looking forest we encountered on the 17 mile drive, a scenic drive in Santa Cruz.












And we are presently...













The sun setting over Santa Monica beach.















The whole way into LA, every 2 or 3 miles there'd be skid marks leading straight into the barrier or pillars, it was slightly unnerving.
















Where the interstate splits on the way into LA.













Santa Monica Peir.














There was more popo in LA than anywhere I've ever seen.

Day 17:

We pretty much just hung around the beach all day. The most eventful part of the day was when, during our BBQ, our camp gotattacked by a large family of racoons (no lie). They look cute with the black spot over their eyes like they're wearinggoggles...but they're not! We had to stand in around the food swinging sticks for a half hour until they eventually gave up.












The beach at Santa Cruz




One of our many open fire BBQs.

Day 16:

Left: San Fransisco at 6:45pm
Arrived: Santa Cruz at 9pm
Distance: 88 miles

We headed into San Fransisco city at about 11am and went around some of the touristy places. At 3pm we got on a boat out to Alcatraz prison. You can walk around the island (which is actually a bird sanctuary) and look around the prison there.
We did an audio tour where you're givin head phones and you walk around the inside of the prison and listen to the tour. The prison itself was cool, we stood just outside Al Capone's cell. People have escaped from the prison contrary to popular belief (or what I thought anyway).
We headed to Santa Cruz (about 80 miles) at about 7pm and had a great BBQ over an opne fire followed by quite the drunken walk on the beach. hey, it's california, why not?

SF city from the boat out to Alcatraz.

Day 15:

We pretty much just just hung around San Francisco today.

We went to see the SF 49ers in an NFL game. Despite what several scalpers assured us, we managed to get tickets at the box office for face value. We tailgated for about an hour before the game (and by tail gated, I mean boozed, although some of the people there are so prepared, generators and all. They sit there in the car park with a huge BBQ going and a tv and all, its crazy).
By the time the game came around we were tipsy enough to proclaim ourselves 49ers fanatics and act accordingly.
They won by 3 points, it was a class game.
In the hostel we were staying in we were sharing a room with a gu from Swords. Infact. I'd say atleast half of the hostel was Irish. It was a refreshing change from being totally surrounded by Americans for the last few months (not that the Americans aren't sound but you know..).
We headed out to sample the night life of SF at about 10pm. We headed into the centre of town first which was dead enough (it was a Sunday) so we got into a taxi and asked for somewhere good. He dropped us at a night club outside the city and sure enough it was hoppin. That was great craic although a girl at the bar offered the following advice upon hearing we were Irish - "watch out for the trannies". It was a very cautious night after that..


Tailgating before the game.















A photo from some stage of the game.














Quite easily the wierdest thing about america : Eddie Rockets is called Johnny Rockets. *shudder

Day 14:

Left: Redwood SP, California at 10:30am
Arrived: San Fransisco city, CA at 11:10pm
States: California
Distance: 411 miles

"Are you going to San Fransisco?" - yes, yes we are.
We hit the road pretty early as its a pretty long drivfe to SF. We hit the 101 and went along the coast again.
I'm pretty sure when we're sittin in a lecture in Febuary I'm goin to think of the day we drove down california on a beautiful blue sky day with road trip music blairing.
We had a bit of a close call in the mountins on teh way into SF city (which are suprisingly big). Route 1 was diverted through this big mountin range and we were seriously low on petrol. I was quite sure we were going to be pushing the tank that is the Dodge when all of a sudden we were crossing the Golden Gate Brigde. Kev again used his bargaining skills to get us a hotel room worth 150 dollards for 50 due to the shower being slightly damaged. He's a good man.

How could we resist?

Ah yes.

















We hung around the beach for half an hour or so to watch the sun going down.

Day 13:

Left: Lookout SP, Oceanview, Oregon at 11am
Arrived: Redwood state park, California at 9:30pm
States:Orenean, CALIFORNIA
Distance: 233 miles

We (as the song goes) were cruisin down the 101 for most of the day. It hugs the pacific coast the whole way down the west coast. The views are amazing altogether. The day started off bad but by mid day we had a perfect blue sky. The pacific was rough but it's every bit as blue as they say it is. We stoped for about an hour to walk around a beach along the pacific then kept driving down towards redwood state park (those threes are feckin huge, it was dark by the time we got there and it was quite the eree drive through that forest trying to find the camp site). The headlights on our whi[ aren't the strongest and the only way to get them to shine in any way brightly is to hold the light switch half on. I'm seemingly the only one who's mastered negotiating these country roads with my left pinky holding the full lights on. Nevertheless, we got there in one piece and (after finding that both of our torches were, yet again, broken) clumsily put up the tent for the night.



The Golden State. I think it was at this point it sunk it that we had made it across the country.















One of the many, many pictures we took of the coast.

















The sun going down over the pacific.