Monday, June 24, 2013

Epic Road Trip - 4 Girls, 4 States, 1 Day

Road Trip Beginnings

State 1 - Our Departure State
First stint of driving and
the bestie as co-pilot!
So the Bestie is currently over visiting, and it is a great excuse to go out and see the sights that the US of A has to offer, and in this case one of the natural wonders of the world - The Grand Canyon, Arizona.

Although relatively close America-speaking, it is still a good eight or nine hour drive away, so a road-trip was on the cards.
The Back-Seat Drivers!

Roping in a friend from work who in turn roped in another friend of hers, the party was set for four and planning began.

The chosen route took place over two and a half days, with the first half day covering four different States. We set off in California, drove through Nevada, touched on Utah and finally turned in for the night in Page, Arizona.


California


Alien Jerky brought in Fresh! The Bestie made a new friend!
Frantically packing for an epic weekend and running a little behind schedule, we set off from Laguna Beach and set off to meet the remainder of the crew in Corona. The toll roads that we used took us right through the mountains, but they were nothing in comparison to the sights we would see later in the trip.
Bacon Beverage Anyone?

Bakers Broken Thermometer
One of the scheduled stop breaks was in Baker, one of the last towns in CA before you cross the state border.

Two things memorable about this place that I learned from past visits was that it was home to the worlds largest (now broken) thermometer, and there is a shop called Alien Jerky that plays off the Area 56 conspiracies and sells really good beef jerky! 


In the middle of the desert and not a consonant to be found!

Nevada

State 2 - Just passing through!

New York, New York - The Strip
Our route took us right by Las Vegas, and although our itinerary did not include the world renowned party city, it would be wrong not to at least show the Bestie, a Vegas virgin, the strip (Las Vegas Boulevard rather than any of Vegas's other activities in case you were wondering!!!).

Posting the Bestie firmly in the front seat and opening up the sun roof, armed with a camera we cruised the strip allowing her to see the fantastic and extravagant hotels that the city has to offer. 
The bridge isn't really broken, but it is hard to hold the camera straight when you are driving
with your head out if the sunroof!
Quick photo in front of the sign to prove that we were here and then were off on our way again.
See! We were definitely here! Albeit a very short stop!

Utah


State 3 - this was all we saw of it!
As much as I would like to give you a glowing account of this state, I can't. By the time we got here, it was already pitch black. What we did experience here though was a crazy lightening storm in the distance. We had no rain, and even with the windows open there was no sign of any thunder. In fact, everything seemed so calm and still it was almost eerie.

The light show was spectacular. I didn't do a very good job of capturing it, but here is a short 5 second snippet of the show we witnessed for around 40 minutes.


At this point of our drive, we are driving through miles and miles of desert barren land. It was dark and stormy in a long straight road, often without another car in sight. Classic horror movie set up! Not necessarily the best time to have an overactive imagination like mine.

Arizona


Yes I realise this was
taken in daylight - we
had to cheat and take
it the next day as we
kept missing it! 
We dipped in and out of our final State for the day on the final leg of the journey. It is hard for me to write anything too descriptive here, as most of it was passed through in the pitch black dark. The day did however end in utter confusion. Our GPS and our mobile phones could not decide what time zone we were in. We either arrived there at 12am or 1am, either way having been on the road for around 13 hours. We may have got up an hour earlier than we needed to the next day, but then day two is a whole other story.

I was worried about the length of the time in a enclosed environment and how it would go down. It was the longest road trip that I had ever done, but it was much more fun than I had been expecting. We laughed so much, told stories and found old fashioned ways to amuse ourselves along the way. It was the first, but definitely not the last I will take whilst I am out here.

Whilst we were on our way, another friend sent us a link which is great for anyone planning a road trip. On this occasion we had a very tight schedule, but future road-trips will definitely be planned using RoadTrippers for our USA adventures! I am looking forward to already planning the next one!! :)


Sweet Dreams Ladies! :)

2 comments:

  1. "Old fashioned ways to amuse ourselves" is totally the best way of describing what we were doing, ha ha ha! :-D

    ReplyDelete
  2. Road trips are really perfect plan if you have so much time for vacations and also if you really want to enjoy every moment of vacations.These trips boast up your energy level to great extent.

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    ReplyDelete