Playing the waiting game has its advantages...

The weather is beautiful and the atmosphere is completely intoxicating. Park your car down the road, grab a backpack, and set off for a composed, relaxing day at Hermosa Beach. Mind you all the stereotypical saying about Los Angeles folk are completely true, but down at Hermosa Beach it is completely opposite. This is the most placid environment in southern California and also one on the most active. With its wide, flat, sandy beaches, this place holds the perfect venue for beach volleyball: aptly naming it the beach volleyball capital of the world. The path that runs parallel with the ocean can be filled with hundreds upon hundreds of people. Everyone was enjoying the aura that is Hermosa by rollerblading, biking, skateboarding, or simply walking along enjoying the sun and surf. Without a consideration in the world, take a book, a towel, and some good music and enjoy the sunrise as it sets on your perfect day at Hermosa Beach.

3400 miles later....and we made it!!!

Oh good old California. It's a totally different environment out here, and its scary. But, the strongest adapt and overcome. My next step in the next few days is to settle down and acclimate to my new home. Another good idea is to find a job I suppose. Don't worry I've been doing that right along. I've already had a few interviews and another one coming up on Wednesday. If I could toast with everyone right now, I'd say raise it up!!! And here's to the future. Thanks to everyone who kept checking the blog, it really meant a lot to me. Hope everyone is doing well at home and remember to stay in touch. One must never forget where they came from or lose track of where they want to go.

going going to cali cali

What a sigh of relief!! The california sign not to far in the distance, and the rest of my life waiting for me to catch up.

WOOHOO made it to Nevada

We finally made it to Nevada, seeing how it was only 100 foot drive after the Hoover Dam. Not a lot of pictures were taken after this point due to our luxurious stay on the Vegas Strip. Some of the biggest highlights of Vegas was staying at New York New York, winning lots of money on the craps table, and not remembering anything after that, do to the copious amounts of free drinks offered to us.

more dam

Hoover was the greatest engineer in the world since he had drained, ditched, and dammed the United States in three years

Well, B.B. and I wanted to find the closest tourist location to Las Vegas so we didn’t have to stay there two nights in a row. Only because we wanted to try and salvage as much bankroll for the big day in the casino. We did a little research and found that the Hoover Dam was only a half hour drive from Vegas. The Hoover Dam, also known as Boulder Dam, was another monster human construction. The amount of concrete used for this project they said could make a 4-foot sidewalk around the entire world. That’s a lot of concrete! The Dam blocks of part of the Colorado River that separates Arizona and Nevada. So, on the Arizona side it can be noon, then as soon as you get to the other side its 11 in the morning. Hoover Dam also created Lake Mead. It is the largest man-made lake in the United States. The Lake extends over 100 miles behind the dam. The best part was the hotel we stayed at had an amazing view over the lake (no picture to justify…sorry). Anyways, this place was a pretty big tourist trap. Gift shops, restaurants, tours, movies, everything you could think of; and it was all about Hoover. We took the shorter of the two tours offered and headed down to the bottom of the Dam where the generators are. This is a national historic landmark, our awkward little tour guy named Eric told us, and we weren’t to stray away from him due to unknown consequences. We took this giant 55-person elevator down to the ground floor where he began telling us how the Hoover dam was constructed. All in all, this was definitely a good day trip. Pay the little bit of money, for the admittance, and learn the good things that the human race has actually done for our society. It only cost 50 million dollars to build the Dam and made all of its money back in just over a decade. It also provides the majority of the southwest with water and energy. Just imagine what our multi-trillion dollar war money could have gone to….take care everyone, and more to come later.

Grand Canyon

Close your eyes and picture how big the Grand Canyon is. Okay now multiply that time 20 and that is how big this place was. I always imagined this place being huge but what a breathtaking place to visit. Seeing something like this really puts things into perspective on how small we all really are in the world. This place was carved out from the Colorado river that took over 6 million years…. unbelievable. We were coming from the southwest, so we went straight to the southern rim. We entered the national park right near Mather point. After hanging out there for a while we drove about a half hour east to the desert view. It seemed as if each point had its own characteristic and displayed the Grand Canyon in a different light. Once we got to Desert View point and parked, all you could see in the distance was a huge watchtower. The Santa Fe Railroad hired a designer to build a gift shop/rest area in the mid 30’s. She designed it after a prehistoric Indian tower. The bottom is a complete touristy gift shop, then as you go up the winding steps to the top, the walls of the tower are blanketed with murals by a Hopi artist. The Tower, standing 70 feet, is the highest point on the south rim and provided an amazing view of the surrounding areas. The Grand Canyon comes highly recommended and needs to be visited by everyone.

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blog is going crazy

I'm trying to upload pictures of the grand canyon and this blog is acting up. They will be up as soon as possible!!! Thanks to everyone who checks them out

heads up

just a few things...if anyone wants to post comments on any posts, feel free to. and also to view larger pictures you can click on the ones in the blog and they get bigger, so yea......grand canyon blog up soon!!!

Meteor Crater

We finally got to the Meteor Crater. It’s located about half way between Flagstaff and Winslow. Once we got through the museum and actually got to see this destruction that a rock falling from the sky could have on earth, it was jaw dropping. It was suggested that this meteor was about half a football field in diameter and it created a huge 2-mile whole in the ground. Another interested fact that was stated in the museum was that NASA actually brought its astronauts to the meteor site for training. The reason being because it would resemble the physical aspects, minus the whole gravity attribute, that they would eventually experience on their trip to the moon. So if you ever expect to go, just be prepared to shell off $15 for the viewing of the United States largest pot hole!!

Well, I’m a standing on a corner in Winslow, Arizona

It all started when we tried to go to the meteor crater at 10 o’clock at night and realized it closed and wouldn’t reopen until 8 the next morning. We checked with Yolanda and the closest hotel was about a half hour behind us. So we typed it in and headed back. We rolled up to our quaint little motel 8 and the sign said welcome to Winslow, AZ. As we parked B.B. mentioned that he thought he heard the name in some song. So after a little research we realized how famous the Eagles made this little town off of route 66. So we woke up extra early and got our picture taken on the famous corner. This was just another nice surprise and some interesting history on our trip.

Made it to the Copper State!!!!

Sandia Peak

We woke up from our night out and had the whole day to do whatever we wanted. Why not go to the world’s longest passenger aerial tramway? This place was intense. There is almost an 11,000-foot summit and you are able to see from miles around. Looking over the summit you could see as far northeast as Santa Fe and northwest to Los Alamos. Once we got to the top it was interesting to see the other side of the mountain was used as a full-fledged ski resort. At the peak there are observation stations as well as a full restaurant/bar area. The tour guide was sure to announce to everyone that once we got up there that one alcoholic drink would equal at least four drinks due to the high elevation. So, B.B. went to go try out his theory, and low and behold, the guide was correct. I even called my parents from the peak and it was pretty difficult to catch my breath. The cold temperature definitely put a damper on our exploring circumstances, but still an incredible day trip.

Sandia Peak Pictures

Night out on the town in Albuquerque, NM

Talk about living like kings!! We were directed to the Luxurious Radisson hotel in downtown Albuquerque through a haunted hotel website. Apparently an old employee went up to the top floor and caught her husband cheating with another women. Later that night she proceeded to hang herself on the third floor. She walks around at night looking for her husband. B.B. and I were pretty excited about running into her. So, we booked the hotel and went out for a night on the town. The hotel had a shuttle service and Danielle, our trusty Chauffer, showed us the hot spots. The two local bars were a real good time. We started out showing people how to party at a little Irish pub, and then they showed us a few tricks. Two words came out of their mouth, GIN SNIFFER. What the hell is a gin sniffer? Well, the bartender turned two shot glasses upside down and poured gin on the bottom of the shot glasses. After she put the bottle of gin away she threw two straws down next to us. The next thing to do was to follow the name of the shot. Let me tell you one thing, not a good feeling, but it was a great experience with our newly found New Mexican friends. From there we moved to the club down the street. At the dance club B.B. ran into this wannabe New York thug in the bathroom that thought we were the greatest thing since sliced bread. I don’t think he knew that he was nothing like a New Yorker and he also had terrible replica Yankees hat. After we were completely exhausted and belligerent it was time for Danielle to pick us up and head back to the hotel for some long awaited shuteye. Our last venture before bed was to find a ghost. Not allowed to enter the third floor of the hotel due to “reconstruction” we covertly found a back elevator that brought us to where we needed to be. The only thing that went wrong was that all the rooms were completely locked up and no one was able to enter. After a disappointing ghost hunt, but some great nightlife memories, it was time to rest up for what would come the next day, Sandia Peak.

Alien Land (Part 2)

We showed up at the Roswell Museum about an hour before they closed. The man at the counter said we wouldn’t have enough time to see everything so he only made us pay a couple dollars. We spent about 20 minutes in the establishment and it was about 15 minutes too much. They had a lot of interesting ideas about aliens, crop circles, and the occasional UFO that has been spotted there. Unless someone is very interested in the whole idea about extra terrestrial activity here on earth, I wouldn’t recommend the visit.

Alien Land (part 1)

Roswell, New Mexico is definitely not filled with the brightest crayons in the box. Nevertheless, B.B. and I were going to take full advantage of our surroundings. Our first adventure was right at the entrance to the town. Townies and their beloved four legged friends were all there to greet us, mostly because the sign was in their front lawn. It also seemed as if the general population was completely fed up with the tourists that came in due to the popularity their lovely little town gained during the alien craze. After the visit to the alien museum, which I will be sharing a little later, we ended up at a little tricked out bar/restaurant called Farley’s III. While there we enjoyed our dinner and washed it down with a pitcher of ice-cold alien amber ale. Another cool thing they handed out at the bar were these little hand held quiz machines that were all networked together and played by whoever was seated at the bar. You would type in your name and the questions and scores were projected onto LCD monitors that surrounded the bar. One of our opponents at the bar was this out spoken lass that made fun of us at one point for being “Yankees.” One could tell after the first round of this game that B.B. and I had a aged Patron on our hands. After being completely dominated at trivia and empty pitcher in hand it was time to run away with our tails between our legs . We went to pay for our meals and the bartender came up to us and said he had lost our ticket, and that we didn’t have to pay. With no second thoughts B.B and I looked at each other and ran out and hit the road. Roswell gave us tons of conspiracies, weird characters and a free meal. Touché Roswell, Touché.

Welcome to New Mexico

We Came-We Saw-We kicked Ass

After to many miles it was finally time to get out of that monstrous bad land they call Texas.

You know you’re a redneck if…

You work or shop at Redneck Trailer Supply. The picture explains it all

Never drive through western Texas…….EVER

6 hours of driving though nothing but miles and miles of empty terrain. There’s really nothing to write about it. I am just using this as a caution label for anyone who ever decides to try it. It also gives me a chance to bust out some of my black and whites.

Our kitty playground adventure

The drive though Texas was pretty much filled with nothingness except for our newly found family of cats in some random, rundown playground. We hadn’t got out of the car in quite a while and we ran into this really small town somewhere in western Texas. We decided to get out and stretch it up, and as we were this little cat peaked it head out from behind a BBQ pit. So, being the animal lovers we are, we go take a stroll over. The best part was the closer we got to this picnic area the more heads started popping out. There had to have been at least 10 cats that we saw all huddled together. The only thing food wise we could offer were the last of our crumbled cool ranch doritos. Emotionally though, we offered them a free ride west-unfortunately no takers. So after the feeding frenzy we booked it to Roswell, NM

Texas+Wellington=Steak

We made it to TEXAS!!! Our final stop in the Lone star state was a pretty big city called Killeen, Texas, population 100,000 people. This place seemed like it was going to be a little whole in the middle of Texas, but it ended up be very urbanized and heavily populated. The reason being is because of Fort Hood, a large military base a couple miles down the road. About half the population was soldiers, so the other half consisted of the family of the soldiers. Even going out to eat at the steak house down there we could tell how their economy was heavily dependent on the soldiers (and their families) stationed there. After dinner James hooked us up with a place to crash, and all B.B and I could do was pass out to regain some energy for more road trip action the next day.

Out of the way for Indiana

It all started out that we would attempt to hit as many state borders as possible to take pictures in front of the state sign. Little did we know, how far out of the way we would travel to succeed in our mission. Who goes to Indiana on their way to Texas, just so we could have that picture?? WE DO-because we could!! After Yolanda, our trusty GPS device, slowly took us through as many back roads as possible to reach our destination, the icing on the cake was explaining to the local police that we were indeed tourists…not terrorists. B.B. spurted out frantically as the police drove up to us that we were in fact tourists, just looking for a simple picture. Little did we know that the cop thought he said we were terrorists. But, after making simple conversation about the 200-yard barge that was slowly passing us in the background, he let us take our picture in the cold frigid night air. After another couple great pictures, we didnt gather up enough energy until our arrival into Texas.

Why does Ohio Exist?

Can we just start off by saying that if we didn’t stop at White Castle in Cleveland, Ohio, Ohio would have been the worst experience of our lives. The terrible weather led to even worse road conditions. Bad drivers, cars and 18-wheelers alike, were out to take vengeance on not only us, but what the all-mighty had in store for the roads of Ohio. Passing accident after accident made us realize that we were going to be there for even longer then we anticipated; making it ever more apparent that we would have to make up time at a later date. After reaching Cincinnati we both came to the conclusion that we would drive straight to Texas, making up as much lost time as possible. Moral of this story…. avoid Ohio at all costs!!!

The Pennsylvania experience that we pulled directly out of Super Troopers…minus the overdose on marijuana.

To get to Ohio from New York, we had to drive through Pennsylvania…. and of course we had to run into the one state trooper that obviously wanted to beat us up, psychologically, like a red-headed step child. It all started with the unconscious slamming of the breaks after seeing the cop car a mile down the road. That was the easiest part of the situation; do to my constant practice over the years. After passing him on the side of the road, one must always check the rear-view mirror, making sure he doesn’t pull out of his weathered parking spot to prey on none other, but YOU!! But of course, he did. I proceeded to set my cruise control at 2 miles over the speed limit and coasted down the highway. He, on the other hand, decided to fly by me going at an unnecessary fast pace. After a deep sigh of relief, from both B.B. and me, we then see him slam on his breaks so he is able to pull in directly behind us. After tailgating us for at least 5 minutes, he then pulls out and drives parallel with us for another 3 miles, starring at us intently. Thank god, after finding no probable cause to pull us over, he must have decided to run away and waste more of his life keeping the highways of Pennsylvania safe from trouble adolescents like myself. Mind you, at the time of my break slam I was going no faster then 5 miles over the speed limit. The moral of the story is, bored cops make for great buzz kills.

ohhhhhh, good old buffalo!!

Today marked our first stop on this long stretch across this vast land. To the close minded it would almost seem unnecessary to visit buffalo, of all places, for our first stop. I felt completely obliged to visit my old stomping ground to say farewell to so many people that changed my life. Old friends and new faces alike were there to bid us a final goodbye and good luck. It was a night of all to serious games of “Drunken Foose”, and trying to create as much drama with the people above us and below us with our excessive loudness. All in all we succeeded at having a great last night with some grand people. I was hesitant to take the camera out in our befuddled state, so I’ll save the visual stimulation for a later date. We’re going to try and make it to white castle for dinner, and stop in the Midwest for a break. Haunted hotels, the world’s biggest cockroach, and the infamous Cadillac farm is still in our dreams. So stay tuned and talk to you all later!!