We hear there's more to life than being really, really, ridiculously good looking. We're going to find out what that is ...
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Closing in on Tennessee
Wednesday, August 25, 2010
Day 5 : New Mexico -> Texas -> Oklahoma -> Arkansas
We covered a lot of ground today, a lot of flat, flat ground. It was very flat. And there was enough of it that we can now officially revise our target landing date to Friday (previously we estimated Saturday). We currently sit at just over 3k miles (out of about 4k total for the entire return trip), meaning we only need to average 500 over the next two days which seems more than do-able.
We're spending the night about a hour west of Little Rock, AR. Tomorrow we will spend most of the day in Tennessee, passing through Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville as we make our way east.
Here are a couple of the photos we snapped today:
We're spending the night about a hour west of Little Rock, AR. Tomorrow we will spend most of the day in Tennessee, passing through Memphis, Nashville, and Knoxville as we make our way east.
Here are a couple of the photos we snapped today:
Back on the road
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
State Seventeen
It's 8:56PM and we're somewhere on I-40 in the middle of Arizona. The goal for tonight is Albuquerque NM; we should be arriving in about three hours. We're driving a little later than usual today because we're developing an evil early-arrival-in-Virginia plan that requires just a few more miles today.
Ray, who is currently driving, just went into a crazy rant involving US state names, and now reports that New Mexico will be the 17th state of our trip -- hence the title. He wants me to say something like 'today, we will annex the 17th state into the Bronited States/Brofederation/Bro Union/Brotopia.' I told him that might give people the wrong impression. In related news, when we cross into New Mexico, we will have officially left Pacific time. Technically, we are already on Mountain Time, but Arizona has that funky 'we don't believe in daylight savings' thing going.
We've seen some epic scenery in the past 36 hours. Rolling into Vegas last night, we were treated to an amazing red desert sunset, followed by a beautiful full moon and, eventually, the bright city lights of Las Vegas. This morning, we crossed a bit more desert before reaching the Hoover Dam, which is surrounded by awesome red rocky scenery. The dam itself was impressive, but we didn't stop to admire it in full, being the people-with-places-to-go that we are.
After the Hoover Dam followed about an hour of Hungriness until we reached Kingston. There, we acquired breakfast and lunch at Subway. We ate on the road and we respectively napped and drove to Grand Canyon National Park (about 2.5 hours).
The Grand Canyon was just stunning. We stopped at three overlooks of the south rim on our way east. We ventured onto some of the rocks at our last stop, so now we know what it feels like to look down a sheer cliff of about half a mile. Also strange: looking down and seeing a large, circling bird of prey from far above. It's hard to do justice to the place -- I would rate it among the most impressive vistas on the trip (together maybe with our incursion into the Rockies three months ago). Ray says he agrees.
The trip out Grand Canyon NP treated us to some beautiful distant views of the landscape immediately surrounding the canyon proper. We slowed down a bit to admire them from the car; after that we turned back to Interstate 40 through Cameron and Flagstaff. At dinner, at the venue (other than Taco Bell) that will not be named, we decided to push today's itinerary out to Albuquerque. And that's where we are now: on I-40, in the dark, crossing into the seventeenth state on our trip. Pictures to follow once we reach greener wifi pastures.
Ray, who is currently driving, just went into a crazy rant involving US state names, and now reports that New Mexico will be the 17th state of our trip -- hence the title. He wants me to say something like 'today, we will annex the 17th state into the Bronited States/Brofederation/Bro Union/Brotopia.' I told him that might give people the wrong impression. In related news, when we cross into New Mexico, we will have officially left Pacific time. Technically, we are already on Mountain Time, but Arizona has that funky 'we don't believe in daylight savings' thing going.
We've seen some epic scenery in the past 36 hours. Rolling into Vegas last night, we were treated to an amazing red desert sunset, followed by a beautiful full moon and, eventually, the bright city lights of Las Vegas. This morning, we crossed a bit more desert before reaching the Hoover Dam, which is surrounded by awesome red rocky scenery. The dam itself was impressive, but we didn't stop to admire it in full, being the people-with-places-to-go that we are.
After the Hoover Dam followed about an hour of Hungriness until we reached Kingston. There, we acquired breakfast and lunch at Subway. We ate on the road and we respectively napped and drove to Grand Canyon National Park (about 2.5 hours).
The Grand Canyon was just stunning. We stopped at three overlooks of the south rim on our way east. We ventured onto some of the rocks at our last stop, so now we know what it feels like to look down a sheer cliff of about half a mile. Also strange: looking down and seeing a large, circling bird of prey from far above. It's hard to do justice to the place -- I would rate it among the most impressive vistas on the trip (together maybe with our incursion into the Rockies three months ago). Ray says he agrees.
The trip out Grand Canyon NP treated us to some beautiful distant views of the landscape immediately surrounding the canyon proper. We slowed down a bit to admire them from the car; after that we turned back to Interstate 40 through Cameron and Flagstaff. At dinner, at the venue (other than Taco Bell) that will not be named, we decided to push today's itinerary out to Albuquerque. And that's where we are now: on I-40, in the dark, crossing into the seventeenth state on our trip. Pictures to follow once we reach greener wifi pastures.
Time for some night driving
Just booked a room in Albuquerque, about 260mi away. Should make there by midnight.
Leaving Grand Canyon
Leaving Las Vegas
Day 3 : Sequoia to Vegas
Today we saw the big ones. They were big. Really big. You just won't believe how bind-boggling big there were. I half-expected to see an ewok.
Additionally, Pieter and I were particularly impressed by how well managed the the park is. We drove the "Generals highway" and took the short hike down the the grove featuring General Sherman, the largest living thing in the world. After the park we crossed the Mojave desert and finally ended up in a glass pyramid in Las Vegas.
Tomorrow we head for the grand Canyon.
Here are some of the best pictures. I've included a video-comparison of a re-enactment of my favorite scene from Vertigo. I couldn't resist.
Additionally, Pieter and I were particularly impressed by how well managed the the park is. We drove the "Generals highway" and took the short hike down the the grove featuring General Sherman, the largest living thing in the world. After the park we crossed the Mojave desert and finally ended up in a glass pyramid in Las Vegas.
Tomorrow we head for the grand Canyon.
Here are some of the best pictures. I've included a video-comparison of a re-enactment of my favorite scene from Vertigo. I couldn't resist.
Longer version of the original here.
Monday, August 23, 2010
Leaving Sequioa
The giant forest was amazing, there are many pictures to come. It took longer to see than we anticipated so we've revised the plan slightly to swing south of death valley and straight on to Vegas.
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Day 2 : John Muir's Yosemite
Staying a couple hours closer than we originally planned turned out to be a win as we were quite happy to spend a couple extra hours in John Muir's Yosemite.
Yosemite is spectacular.
It started about an hour away when the flat and uninteresting sparsity spanning much of central California gave way to rolling yellow grasslands. The rolling hills soon became larger until we found ourselves winding up thousands of feet just outside of Yosemite proper. As we approached the trees embiggened rapidly ... well past the point of reasonableness.
Our first major sight was El Capitan. I only wish our pictures could do justice to a 5000ft shear rock-face.
By this point, however, we were on the verge of starvation after an unspectacular breakfast 4 hours earlier at the Hampton Inn, Sacramento. After managing to land some reasonable food, we launched into a 3 hour hike. Aiming for speed we brought nothing, not even water, and basically ran up the John Muir trail consisting of what seemed like a dozen switchbacks, a long natural granite staircase, and more boulders than you can ask "where did you come from?" All en route to a scenic overlook of giant rock features including "half dome" as well as two large waterfalls. (see photo of Pieter and I below). The huge number of scenic vistas throughout the valley is almost unbelievable.
The hike was more intense than we imagined and by the end we were not only parched, but satisfied that we had followed in John Muir's footsteps enough that it would be ok to depart (though not without great sadness). We snapped plenty of photos as we left and headed to Fresno where we find ourselves staying tonight, about 1100 miles into our trip.
Tomorrow will be a long day. We head for Sequoia, NP. Then we drive though Death Valley, NP on the way to Las Vegas where we'll spend the night.
Yosemite is spectacular.
It started about an hour away when the flat and uninteresting sparsity spanning much of central California gave way to rolling yellow grasslands. The rolling hills soon became larger until we found ourselves winding up thousands of feet just outside of Yosemite proper. As we approached the trees embiggened rapidly ... well past the point of reasonableness.
Our first major sight was El Capitan. I only wish our pictures could do justice to a 5000ft shear rock-face.
By this point, however, we were on the verge of starvation after an unspectacular breakfast 4 hours earlier at the Hampton Inn, Sacramento. After managing to land some reasonable food, we launched into a 3 hour hike. Aiming for speed we brought nothing, not even water, and basically ran up the John Muir trail consisting of what seemed like a dozen switchbacks, a long natural granite staircase, and more boulders than you can ask "where did you come from?" All en route to a scenic overlook of giant rock features including "half dome" as well as two large waterfalls. (see photo of Pieter and I below). The huge number of scenic vistas throughout the valley is almost unbelievable.
The hike was more intense than we imagined and by the end we were not only parched, but satisfied that we had followed in John Muir's footsteps enough that it would be ok to depart (though not without great sadness). We snapped plenty of photos as we left and headed to Fresno where we find ourselves staying tonight, about 1100 miles into our trip.
Tomorrow will be a long day. We head for Sequoia, NP. Then we drive though Death Valley, NP on the way to Las Vegas where we'll spend the night.
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