crosscountrytrip

    A dream, a journey, our cross country trip began on July 22, 2001. It was to be a loop - west through the upper middle part of America, south along the west coast, and back east through the south - 27 days and over 9,000 miles in the car, Nissa and I, together.
    We had been talking about a trip like this since we began dating, one year and four days before. Now it was becoming a reality. We had spent most of that year saving our money, scrounging and penny-pinching, in order to afford the trip. Although we hadn't been sure of our ability to make the trip, for financial reasons, until just weeks before we left, the couple of months previous were entirely enveloped by getting ready for the possibility. A lot of sacrifices and stress were absorbed in the process of preparation, but from the moment the trip began it was all worth it.
    That moment came at 3:06pm on a Sunday. We had planned to leave by 10 or 11 in the morning...but delays due to packing the car nixed that idea. Finally, we had the car packed tight with all of the ingredients for a month on the road, a recipe we had no experience with or knowledge of, we were finally getting in the car - unshowered, hungry, and tired.
    Resolute, we set off from Connecticut, brushed through a touch of New York and hit Pennsylvania - hit it like a butterfly hits a spider web. The anticipation of the West, of California, of the traveling made us feel somewhat stagnate. The tree-enclosed roads of Pennsylvania seemed interminable to us aspiring explorers! Our first 7 hours of traveling knocked only 376 miles off our total and left us in a grimy little motel somewhere near the Poconos that cost too much, disgusted Nissa, and disappointed me. But, we told ourselves, California was just a little further down the road!
    Attempting to get back on our schedule, which we had fallen behind due to our late departure, we drove for about 14 hours the next day - from Pennsylvania, through all of both Ohio and Indiana, and into Illinois. Stressing that the plans that I had personally designed using Triple A-provided maps were insufficient, I drove all 625 miles myself that day.
    This long, long day did yield satisfying results - we arrived that night at the home of Aunty Judy and Uncle Maurice in Belvedere, Illinois. My great aunt and uncle provided Nissa and I with the delight of their own motor home for our comfort that night. We slept well, exhausted from the day and relieved to not be back at the Hitching Post motel in Pennsylvania!
    Early the next morning we left my family's hospitality reluctantly, but with great
excitement as we knew we were on the edge of the old frontier!
    Already we had seen dramatic changes in landscape. The small-mountained forests of Connecticut had grown into the gigantic trees and valleys of Pennsylvania. As we moved west through Ohio and Indiana the trees got shorter and the land flatter. By the time we got to Illinois the trees were small and sparse - farmland was visible for broad stretches. Then, as we drove through Iowa, I was amazed by the gigantic hills not just rolling but crashing all around us - and it was all farmed! In the journal that we both kept on the trip, Nissa wrote, "The landscape here is beautiful - rolling hills and lots of farm houses - I love those." And I marveled at how on this land, "It seemed like 2 people could have been 50 yards apart and hidden from each other by the contour!" Then, in Nebraska it was clear we had reached cowboy country as sky met land on the horizon, uninterrupted for all 360 degrees.
    We spent our third night on the road at an RV Park in Henderson, Nebraska.There were no showers but the man said we could stay there for free if we wanted. This we did. The lack of showers was tolerable but, as Nissa wrote, "It was incredibly buggy. They were Everywhere! They got in the car and on us and they were big & black!" Then in the same breath she added, "This is so great!" I was a little less enthusiastic about the bugs, but we were having a fantastic time.
    The following day we zipped through Western Nebraska and into Wyoming, where we stopped at the state's Lincoln Monument and the Tree Rock - a tree growing out of a boulder that was an early tourist attraction when automobiles were new. We camped that night in Arlington, Wyoming. Our campsite was in the shadow of mountain ridges that were lined with modern-day windmills that generate electricity.
    Day 4 brought us into Utah, where Nissa wrote, "It's much more beautiful than I would have thought. Lots of red rocks & mountains and caves and wow!" That night we arrived in Salt Lake City. We camped in a KOA right in the city and explored the Pioneers Museum, the Salt Palace, and some other Mormon landmarks before driving out to the Great Salt Lake. The lake was stinky but pretty. They were already, clearly, preparing for the 2002 Winter Olympics.
    As we left Salt Lake City we drove through the Great Salt Desert. This 75 mile stretch of highway was lined on both sides with blinding-white salt for as far as the eye could see. A picture of the area could resemble the deep-freeze of Antarctica!
    The next day included Nevada. We stayed in a town called Lovelock. All things here were distracted by the knowledge that we were only a few hours from California!!!
    We reached the sought-after state very early in the afternoon on Saturday, July 28! We were in California!!! We had made the trip in only 6 days of travel that costed us a total of only $350!
    We made our first stop on Californian soil at the Honey Lake Rest Area off Interstate 395, northwest of Reno. There we had a typical lunch for our westward trip: cold franks and beans, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, a little watermelon, V8 juice, and gatorade.
    Within the next few hours we visited the Hat Creek Lookout, from which we were able to see Lassen Volcano, Mount Shasta, and a large forest fire! We also stopped to glimpse McArthur-Burney Waterfalls!
    Our goal for that night was to get to Crescent City, California - the northern most city on the California coast. But, there was a gambit of California wilderness between us and our destination. So, we set off on the trip within a trip which included several hours on the Klamath River Highway which, though beautiful, had a speed limit of about 25 miles per hour. This speed limit was enforced not by law, but by the outrageous zigzagging of the road and blinding sunlight funneled onto our windshield by the surrounding valley. We did not arrive in Crescent City until shortly after midnight on this first California night, at which time we found an empty camp site in Florence Keller Park. Here we discovered the beauty of California state parks: they are cheap, gorgeous places in pristine settings at ridiculously low prices -- with no showers. Beginning to catch a pattern, we paid the $10 to stay in a camp site that was walled in by Redwood trees!
    This was the coldest part of our trip. And, I would say, it was also much more humid than any other part of the country that we visited. So, we woke up the next morning shivering cold with the feeling that we had just been swimming. The air was palpably thick, and we had no place to shower. BUT, we were in California and the mystique of this state fought off all such problems!
    That morning we rushed into the main part of Crescent City. We were looking for Route 101, which would lead through all of the Redwood trees and almost all the way to Los Angeles. Before making it into the forests though, we were sidelined by the Pacific Ocean! The rocky beaches were grey and foggy but refreshing - the Pacific! With it as our welcomed companion as we ventured on.
    We soon came to the Trees of Mystery in Klamath, CA. This site, marked by the more than life size statues of Paul Bunyon and Babe the Blue Ox, is a gallery of Redwood oddities, several of which have been featured in Ripley's Believe It Or Not. For instance we saw the Family Tree - a Redwood with 12 other independent Redwoods growing on it. There was also a section of carvings of folklore characters - Paul Bunyon and his friends.
    Before leaving we stopped in the gift shop and it was as if we caught a virus - from that moment on we had to stop in every Redwood shop we saw! And, there is no shortage of such shops between Klamath and San Francisco!!
    The next tourist trap into which we fell was the Tour Thru Tree. Here, for only $2, you could drive your car through a live Redwood Tree - just like in National Geographic!
    We spent that night in The Emerald Forest campground in Trinidad, California. On our way there I was transfixed by the Pacific, her protruding rocks and protective cliffs just off the right side of the car. I insisted on stopping at one turn-off that seemed to have a nice view. Upon doing so, we heard a strange noise - like a barking. When we got out the binoculars, to our amazement, we found wild sea lions laying on partially submerged boulders in the sea!
    The next morning we got our first up-close view of the Pacific Ocean. We skirted a small, pretty white lighthouse to get to a narrow staircase that lead down the steep cliff. At the bottom we explored this strange beach, finding seaweeds that I had never seen before in the gravely sand. Submerged between the vast sea on one side and the lush jungle that inhabited the cliff on the other side, I was reminded of images of Hawaii. After collecting rocks and taking pictures enough to satisfy ourselves for a while, we carefully climbed up the jungle, avoiding the abundant banana slugs that oozed their way under foot.
    With smiles, we continued down Redwood Highway, detouring to drive on the Avenue of the Giants: a road quite cluttered by the giant trees. In Legetts, CA, we stopped at Confusion Hill - a sideshow of optical illusions and tricks of perception. Then, we came to The House Tree - a single Redwood that had been hollowed out and made into a small house. Later we also stopped at the Chandelier Drive Through Tree, again imitating the lumberjacks of National Geographic. Also on the Avenue of Giants we stopped at the Lady Bird Johnson Grove, an area dedicated by the former First Lady as a refuge for the Redwood biosphere; and also at the Founders Grove which includes the tallest tree in the world(although we did not make the 7 mile hike to see this tree, we did get to walk right up to the tree that was the tallest until it fell in the 1990s). At the end of this long, tall Redwood day we found ourselves in Petaluma - a northern suburb of San Francisco. We camped there in a KOA.
    On Day 9 we hustled across the Golden Gate Bridge into San Francisco. Ironically, I would say that I have driven across the Golden Gate, but have never seen it - the fog that morning was so thick that we couldn't see more than a third of its span! But, during our jaunt in Golden Gate Park we were able to see Alcatraz looming off-shore. Then we parked near Pier 39 1/2 and explored. We were soon drawn to the Ripley's Believe It Or Not Museum - one of our goals in the city as we had been reading some of his books while we drove. We had a really great time in the museum and then wandered, in the car, through some of the San Francisco neighborhoods. We tried to soak in as much of their San Francisco-ness as we could before we got back on the highway toward Monterrey. We ended the next day in a nice campground, Onterra @ Monterrey Bay, in Marina, CA.
    We woke up to a Wednesday that brought not only the first day of August, but also one of the world's finest aquariums in the world - the Monterrey Bay Aquarium! It stood high above all other aquariums I've ever been to. The quality of the exhibits and the creativity with which they were displayed made its reputation well-deserved!
    The aquarium is on Cannery Row, of John Steinbeck fame. Just down the Row is the Bubba Gump Shrimp Company. This was quite the shock to me - I didn't know such things existed! But, I was thrilled to find it out and bought some souvenirs there.
    That afternoon we began heading down the Big Sur!! This is a stretch of Route 1, from Monterrey to San Simeon, that is far and away the most amazing driving I have ever done! It is high above the Pacific, but right on top of it with no guard rail between the car and the fishes! Looking out the right side of the car would show a sheer drop to the ocean in the foreground and the blue sea and sky on the horizon! Looking to the left would often require looking out the sun roof as it was a wall of mountain for some height, again resembling the Hawaiian motif we discovered in Trinidad. The road was windy, shooting deep into the mountain side and then whipping around to a hair-raising hairpin projection into the sea again! It was like this the whole 90 miles! There were scenic overviews where you could pull over literally every 2 or 3 minutes - yet each one was nearly irresistible as your eye was drawn to the horizon, the cliffs, the friendly Pacific, and the aesthetic experience borne by gazing into it all!
    We stopped that night in Templeton, CA at Plaskett Creek State Park. From our campsite you could see the ocean, but we didn't settle for that. We packed up our dinner and walked down another long staircase, from a cliff just across the highway, down to Sand Dollar Beach. In this romantic, idyllic setting we kept each other warm while watching the western horizon as the setting sun met the sea. And, it was good.
    Our tenth morning on the road brought us to the end of the Big Sur. But, any sadness from this event was quickly replaced by amazement as we arrived at the Hearst Castle! Set on a mountain top in San Simeon, W.R. Hearst had spent this his life building this palace. It was as impressive as any other I've ever seen! The outdoor pool and its surrounding classic greek statues floating on the virgin landscape panorama stands out in my mind with the indoor pool, ornately lined with gold. But the fact that this man was wealthy enough to outbid Rockefeller for some of the art on display and still keep a zoo on the grounds (of which the descendants of the zebras were still visible to us) was also impressive!
    With our imaginations swimming in dreams of riches, we rejoined Route 101 and continued South. We camped that night in Valencia, a northern suburb of Los Angeles. We didn't stay there long at all, though, as we were up early the next day to get into Hollywood!
    We got up early and rushed into L.A., driving until we saw the Hollywood sign! We parked just off Hollywood Boulevard and visited Mann's Chinese Theatere and ogled at the stars in the cement. Then we took a tour of Paramount Studios. Although this tour consists mostly of looking at locked garage doors inside of which, our guide promised us, they filmed famous TV shows, it was a fun experience. We did sit on the bench that begins and ends Forest Gump and visit the site where they made the magic of Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea in the Ten Commandments, Lieutenant Dan fighting the storm in Forest Gump, Tom Hanks struggling in Joe Versus the Volcano, and many other ocean scenes. Then, as our friends back home on this Friday night were dumping their money into tired movie theaters or beat bowling alleys, we went to the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica! The Third Street Promenade is comparable to South Street in Philadelphia or Quincy Market in Boston, but it's much better. It's a cluster of shops and restaurants on a street closed to automobile traffic and filled, instead, with street performers and vendors. We bought dinner here, did lots of shopping and strolling, and got henna tattoos. It was a fabulous, wonderful time - and we capped it off by going to a nearby pier and boardwalk that are reminiscent of Wildwood, New Jersey.
    When we got tired we left and used these nighttime hours to drive as near to San Diego as we could get. As we got close we began looking for a place to stay...but found out that everything, and I mean everything, was booked solid for the night. It was this way, we found through the helpful research of desk workers at campsites and motels, for several miles to the north. In desperation, we finally broke down and were going to buy a $100 room at an overpriced motel - and found out that even these were entirelyunavailable! So I did some pleading with the nighttime desk worker at the Best Western in Oceanside, CA and he said that Nissa and I could park safely in the parking lot for the night and it would be ok with him, and that in the morning we could buy a shower for $10. This we did.
    We were up very early the next morning, but got a late start on our day. When we got moving we went to the BEACH! The Pacific Ocean had been calling to me since we got to California. Now that we were in the warmer climate of the south, Nissa was drawn to the hot sand and calm sun as I was spotting waves with my name on them! We found the shore right in Oceanside, rented a boogie board, and off I went into the largest, most violent waves I've ever experienced while Nissa soaked up the sun's color!! There were six and seven footers that came thundering in like tidal waves through my quaking body. It was all I could do just to get to where they were breaking! I only caught 3 or 4, making attempts both with and without flippers on my feet. I was so violently thrashed that I was quickly exhausted and my feeble attempts were soon entirely ineffective in getting past the breakers.
    So, we packed up and headed to the San Diego Zoo! Now, it is supposed to be one of the best zoos in the country. I've been to a bunch and I'd say that the San Diego Zoo and Bronx Zoo are definitely in a league of their own, but that overall the San Diego Zoo might score slightly higher. I was very, very impressed with its exhibits, layout, and creativity. It was a great time and we retired that evening to Campland On The Bay in San Diego.
    On Sunday, August 5, we went to what the Best In America web site rated the number one zoo or aquarium in the nation: Sea World California. We spent about 10 hours there and weren't bored for a moment! We saw many amazing animals, watched Shamu jump, dive and splash, and hand-fed dolphins! I think the highlight for Nissa was a show called, "Cirque de la Mer" - a take-off on Cirque de Soleil. It was a really great amphibious acrobat show! After a full day there, we set off on the highway east, making the turn to complete our loop. We were trying to shorten the long drive ahead of us - to the Grand Canyon. This night we made it as far as Anza, California.
    We could not have predicted that night what the trek the next day would be like. The drive through the Mojave Desert showed me went it meant to have sweat pouring off of you. At 120 degrees, there were highway signs warning us not to use the airconditioner as it would make the car break down. Every quarter mile or so, along one highway, there were large cement wells of water for the radiators of overheating engines. We stopped at Vidal Junction, the crossroads of Routes 177 and 95, for lunch. Shortly after we crossed the state line from California into Arizona. We had reached our destination, marveled in it, and exited without resting. But, there was still a lot of traveling ahead of us!
    We woke up on Tuesday, August 7 in a teepee at the Grand Canyon Traveler Village RV Resort, just outside the gates of Grand Canyon National Park. We hurried to get to a nearby airfield where we would be going in a helicopter with Air Grand Canyon - our first view of this great hole in the ground was to be from the air.
    Yea, so, you might say it's big! It defies words. In reality borders on overwhelming our imagination as Nissa and I struggled to find perspective for it. I think we, therefore, found it to be impressive but not as awe-inspiring as we had expected. Don't get me wrong - this just means we didn't keel over. We were definitely blown away and took rolls upon rolls of pictures and spent many a moment just staring!
    That night we took a break from driving and returned to the same teepee as the previous night, before heading back down to Interstate 40 and more of the east in the morning.
    As we had driven west we were doing regular groceries and preparing all of our meals ourselves. This had begun to fade in California, and by this point we had resorted to usually buying 2 meals a day. On this particular morning we ate at a place called Mrs. Brown's - I had pancakes with strawberries and homefries and Nissa had poached eggs, bacon and toast.
    Eastern Arizona and western New Mexico provided some very good sightseeing. First we came to the Meteor Crater. This gigantic hole in the ground, like the one before it, was hard to put in perspective. But, it became clear that you could put some number of hundreds of football fields on its floors and that it was definitely caused by an intergalactic impact in eons past. Then, in New Mexico, we came to the Petrified Forest National Park. Now, no matter what you might expect, there is no actual forest here. It is a collection of prehistoric trees that were swallowed up by the land when the continents were one (Pangea), sucked down deep and crystallized, and have now been pushed to the earth's surface as the continental plates have shifted. Petrified wood exists in many other places, but this particular site was set aside by the government, because it is the biggest and most impressive, so that it would not be disturbed. Set in the Painted Desert, it was quite beautiful and very interesting. That night we reached Grants, New Mexico where we stayed in the Franciscan Lodge on historic Route 66(which runs with I-40 here).
    Continuing east we passed through Albuquerque, stopping briefly in the city's Old Town, and then headed south towards Roswell. I had meddled with our route to take us through this cult-famous town where we visited the UFO Museum. Realizing that we were headed right towards another national park, we stayed that night in the Carlsbad RV Park & Campground in Carlsbad, NM before going to the Caverns in the morning.
    Nissa had been to different caverns before but I never had. What a way to start! Carlsbad Caverns National Park was absolutely breathtaking! As we descended the 750 feet into the main cave, I felt like a wide-eyed toddler at Disney World, and this feeling didn't leave me at all during our self-guided tour. It was amazing and so very interesting to learn about. Nissa still understands how and why all the stalagmites and stalactites form better than I do, but I did find it very interesting!
    When we left the caverns we continued to the southeast - heading towards Uncle Matt's place in Texas. My father's brother had moved to Austin just a few months before. We planned to get free lodging with him as we crossed the Lone Star State. We entered Texas late in the afternoon and drove all the way through the broadest part of the state almost entirely in the dark. At this point I would still say I have not at all seen Texas, but it was nice to see Uncle Matt and there were still more bright spots left in our trip!
    After leaving Uncle Matt's hospitality early on Saturday, August 11, we drove the 550 miles to New Orleans! Arriving late, we camped in the Mardi Gras campground - on the east side of the city.
    Upon waking up the next morning we headed straight to Vieux Carre, the French Quarter! It being Sunday, the French Market was in full swing and we wisely did a bunch of souvenir shopping there - the same stuff sold for ridiculously inflated prices anywhere else. From here we headed to the Mississippi River where we took a steamboat cruise! The cruise took us to the site of the Revolutionary War's Battle of New Orleans, and it fed us along the way - the bread pudding was fantastic, and we also enjoyed the jambalaya, gumbo, and other creole classics! When we got back to shore we strolled around Bourbon Street a little before going back to our site at the Mardi Gras Campground.
    The next day we were scheduled to get to Pensacola, Florida. But, I knew this was only about 250 miles and I didn't feel like we had learned enough about New Orleans. So, we took a walking tour of the French Quarter by a company called Native Tours. Our guide was Barbara Robichaux and she was excellent! She brought the creole experience alive right in front of us, telling us about the history, culture and customs of New Orleans. We also learned a bit about voodoo, visiting the grave of Marie Leveaux, the voodoo queen, and visited a real voodoo shrine and got to meet the present-day priestess. It was fantastic! Before we left we ate in The Alpine on Chartres Street - I can still taste my blackened shrimp po'boy!
    On Monday, August 15 we zipped through the southern spouts of Mississippi and Alabama, into the panhandle of Florida. We stayed in Big Lagoon State Park, in Pensacola. We were awoken quite violently in the morning by a piercing roar that put knots in my stomach for more than a few seconds. Early in that day we found out that we were right next to the training area for the Blue Angels, the military's elite flight group. They had been practicing that morning!
    After recovering from that fright, we visited the Civil War Soldiers' Museum on Palafox Road in Pensacola. We also made the drive out to the Pensacola beach (rated the most beautiful in Florida by Fodor's) and boardwalk. It was late in the day and we were spooked by recent shark attacks, so we stayed out of the water. But, the sand there was so fine and white and soft! I had never seen sand quite like that and was very impressed! On our way back to the campsite we stopped at Dippin' Dots and had "the ice cream of the future." I had never had Dippin' Dots before but they were good and an exciting idea!
    Back at Big Lagoon State Park, the flyovers weren't so jarring in the morning. We spent that day heading north through Alabama to get to Columbus, Georgia. We were going to visit Nate at Fort Benning! We did get to see him and where he lived and had dinner with him at an Appleby's! It was really, really great to see him; but it was also very short as we could only spare the one evening and his nights end early - his days beginning even earlier! We continued north a little way after leaving him and camped in Lake Pines Campground in Midland, Georgia.
    We drove from there to where Uncle Nick(my grandfather's brother) lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee the next day! I had never been to Chattanooga, but had heard so much about it from my family - I was so happy to finally be there! We arrived relatively early in the afternoon! We got big hugs from both Aunt Estelle and Uncle Nick and they swept us inside to begin a day of incredible and fantastic hospitality! At this point our schedule was much less negotiable, the end of out trip nearing. But they made the most of our half day with them! After freshening up, Uncle Nick drove us out to Rock City. Rock City is apparently quite famous in that region of the country. It is a series of rock formations and viewpoints(from one of which you can see seven states!) that, when it first opened in the 1890s, must have been the absolutely biggest thing imaginable because the Grand Canyon and Carlsbad Canyons and places like that had not been explored yet! AND, even after having visited these famous places, Rock City was still very impressive to both Nissa and myself and we had a great time! We also enjoyed the
underground section of fairytale sculptures. Then Uncle Nick took us to part of the battlefield
of the Civil War Battles of Chattanooga. We went to the spot where canons, representations of
which still stood, rained cannon balls down on "the battle above the clouds." Then we went back to their house to get Aunt Estelle and they took Nissa and I out to dinner. We went to a
buffet of Chinese food and it was really good. After that we went to a bridge in Chattanooga that Uncle Nick said is the longest walking bridge in the world. There is a plaque on this bridge in memory of Auntie Theresa(my grandfather's sister).
    The next morning we left Uncle Nick's place and drove the 480 miles to Nissa's Uncle Kevin's place in Greensboro, North Carolina. Her mother's brother had a really nice house and took us out to a really nice dinner. It was nice to meet more of Nissa's family! I really enjoyed the visit and Nissa seemed very happy to catch up with Kevin.
    From Greensboro, we drove through Virginia to Washington D.C. where we stayed in the apartment that I would be moving into at the end of the summer. My roommate, Patrick, was already living here and took us out to a fantastic dinner! Then Nissa and I went out and ran around the Jefferson and FDR memorials in the District!
    Late the next morning we reluctantly departed for the final leg of our journey. That day we drove from the nation's capitol, through Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New York and into our homestate of Connecticut. Ending happily, we knew we had accomplished something most people would spend their lives dreaming about but never accomplish.
    We felt good; happy and fresh, the trip behind us, the journey ahead.

Click to THE Cross Country Road Trip: Statistics of Traveling and Expenses
                             (Use this to help plan YOUR cross country trip!:-)

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