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the first day. first time driving 90mph for long periods of time in high crosswinds. drive fast, pass people for an hour, pull off to take some pictures and stretch, get back on I-5 and pass everyone again. rinse, repeat.
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 24 items.
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second day. leave bakersfield and start driving east into the mojave. stop at a town called mojave, eat at the jack in the box there, look at all of the airplane graveyards, continue on to barstow. arrive in barstow, take pictures at the grocery store i stopped at. get on 15 and start driving to vegas. hit major construction halfway to the state line. apparently I-15 is 'new' -- still being paved. road goes down to one lane, speed limit drops to 25mph, get stuck behind an asphalt truck. cruise into vegas around 4
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 43 items.
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stay in vegas for 2 nights. walk into hilton wearin dusty jeans, boots and an undershirt - get asked if i'm a rockstar by 2 drunk guys on the elevator. next day head on over to lake mead and hoover dam. both are really big, and attract lots of people. drive around, take pictures of the dam and powerlines from different angles. inadvertantly take good pictures of a helicopter i could barely see. go back and cruise the strip nightlife. wake up early and head back over hoover dam one last time.
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 52 items.
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first day driving through the real desert. nothing of note between hoover dam and phoenix -- just signs warning of severe dust storms. hope to get stuck in one, but no luck. first night sleeping at a rest stop. crossed into new mexico as the sun was setting, stopped at the first rest stop i saw, took some pictures of the sun and passed out in my car. woke up the next morning at 5am freezing my ass off. ate a granola bar, brushed my teeth with bottled water and kept on driving
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 28 items.
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first really long day of driving [550+ miles]. listen to pink floyd as i drive east through the desert into the sunrise. stop at a chevron in las cruces to fill up, some guy pulls up behind me and asks me where the denny's is -- i point to my california plates as i tell him i have no idea. i glance at his utah plates and tell him to follow me as i punch it up on the gps. 20 minutes later we're scarfing down the worst hashbrowns and eggs i've ever tasted. drive out to the white sands missile range, but couldn't take any pictures. drive a little further and get to the white sands national monument where it's over 110 degrees at 10 in the morning. call dad from the half-melted payphone [it was father's day i think]. walk around on white sand in boots and jeans -- get sand everywhere. see people 'snow-sledding' down sand dunes, wonder what planet i'm on. forget to take pictures. drive through alamogordo and roswell. fuel light comes on somewhere between portales and clovis. pull into chevron station in clovis on fumes. drive to amarillo, eat at the whataburger next to the hotel i'm staying in. pass out
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 42 items.
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wake up in amarillo, half my morning disappears as i figure out i've driven through two time-changes, decide to get the hell outta texas. hop onto interstate and drive to oklahoma city. get there, drive around, get back on interstate, drive to little rock. drive into giant rainstorm, get to little rock, check into holiday in at the airport -- airport is actually 10 miles away. sit in hotel room amazed at driving over 600 miles in one day
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 5 items.
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find myself at a rest stop in maryland one week after driving to little rock [visited folks in atlanta]. have no destination, call up friend in napa and ask him where i should go. we decide on dc. drive to dc, drive around dc for 2 hours looking for parking. find parking. walk around dc soaking wet [record high temp]. take a bunch of pictures like every other dumb tourist. get lost trying to leave, wind up in pentagon parkinglot. afraid to take pictures of pentagon. drive to philadelphia, drive around philadelphia, decide to drive to atlantic city. get to atlantic city at 1am, can't find a hotel room. drive back towards philly, stop at a rest stop on the turnpike at 3am to pass out
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 44 items.
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wake up in mcdonald's parkinglot, decide it's time to drive to nyc. crawl 10 feet over the gw bridge in one hour -- realize i don't really want to drive around nyc all day, drive to stamford instead. eat at a starbucks in stamford, sit outside cause it's under 80 degrees for a change. second-hand smoke half a pack of marlboro's from the kid sitting next to me. realize i haven't showered for several days and now smell like cigarettes -- decide to find a beach. pay $15 to get into a beach, walk around taking pictures of random people. hop in the atlantic, scrub body with sand, feel filthier when i get out. figure it's time to pay for a shower -- drive to new haven and check into holiday inn at yale. shower, walk around small college town, get mistaken for someone's roommate, eat pizza at some 'standing room only' pizza joint, get reminded of berkeley, walk back to hotel room and read The Beach.
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 7 items.
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one week later after bustin up providence, boston, concord, rutland, albany, pittsburgh, indianapolis and chi town: i'm driving west. watch fireworks in omaha, drive to sioux falls, remember they're doing that crazyhorse carving somewhere out here -- decide to go check it out. get there as the thing is closing, only pay half-price to get in for 20 minutes. freeze my ass off taking pictures, realize i am without a destination and wyoming is the closest border. sleep at a rest stop somewhere in wyoming. park under a "no sleeping or camping" sign -- forget to take picture next morning.
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 5 items.
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blow through wyoming -- see a bunch of cows and horses, watch a truck drive right off the road into a ditch, follow a truck with a fully stocked gunrack for about 50 miles before i realize i'm the only non-truck on the road and have california plates -- pass about 50 cars while wishing i was in seattle. cross into montana and feel like a grain of sand. do 110+ for about an hour before i realize that it cant be that good for my car. stop to take pictures, amazed by the views. wonder why nobody lives up here, drive to butte and realize why. eat at a hardees 6000 feet up in butte, start looking for trees, almost get pulled over driving 50 in a 35, can't find any trees, decide it's time to get the hell out of montana. stop at a rest stop outside the idaho border. a car with washington plates i passed several times that day pulls up next to me, talk to the occupants for about an hour about washington and california and how montana sucks. drive to coeur d'alene -- mental note: northern idaho rocks. drive into washington -- understand why spokane sucks, fall asleep at a rest stop outside of spokane wondering how i drove 850 miles in one day..
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 10 items.
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start driving toward seattle. wonder why nobody told me east washington was a desert wasteland. get reminded of arizona -- get sad as i realize my trip is almost over. pass about 90 lettuce fields, don't see a single appletree. arrive in Seattle around 1
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 19 items.
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cruise into seattle and drive around. stop at a starbucks for one last time in the place where it all started. go to the seattle center and walk around taking pictures of weird shit. call up some people and tell them i'm back on the west coast. sit by a big fountain that plays music, hear nirvana a couple times, walk around in dirty clothes taking pictures of pidgeons and trees. decide it's time to find a hotel room. drive around seattle the next day. finally admit that it's time to head home. hop on 5 and head south. blow through portland without stopping [except for when the traffic sucked]. stop at a chevron outside of eugene -- almost get arrested as i attempt to pump my own gas. feel violated as i watch some old dude put gas in my car. decide oregon sucks for this reason alone. sleep at some rest stop outside grants pass. wake up the next morning at 4am freezing and drive home
Last changed on 01/31/06.
This album contains 27 items.
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