Day 38: Williams, AZ to Santa Monica, CA

So sorry that I didn't post in a few days! You will find out why for reasons below. I will update about Thursday and then Friday.

So, Thursday I woke up at 5:30am, thanks to both the desert sun and the kids at the camp site next to me who were already up and playing around. I tossed around for a bit, then decided the hell with it and got up and started my day. I put my tent away (much better than the day before, and I even got it to fit into the bag it came in - success in my book) and cleaned up my camping area. Was packed up and out of there by 7am - impressive for a 26 year old male, right??

The plan today was to get to LA. I was staying in LA with my cousin Kelly, and she didn't get off of work until 7pm, so I had about 12 hours to do a 7.5 hour drive. My plan was to take the scenic route, stop whenever I needed or wanted to, and not fret about not having enough time to get there. I started first by getting some breakfast at a diner in Williams (on historic route 66 no less) and then hit the road. The pine forests and quaintess of Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon gave way quickly again to the desert and boringness.

I soon made it to California, and there I was stopped (as was every car on the road) by a state inspection person. The exchange kind of went like this:

State Inspection Lady: Where are you coming from?
Me: (looking kind of confused, since we are less than a mile into CA from the AZ border). Uh, Arizona. Isn't that where everyone is coming from?
State Inspection Lady: Yes, but where are you off to? You are from Washington, have you been visiting Arizona?
Me: Well, I've kind of been everywhere in the past month...
State Inspection Lady: Just go through. Have a nice day

I did not understand the whole point of the conversation! It was longer too than the Border Inspection stop I had to go through in New Mexico ("Are you a citizen? Go ahead..." So foolproof!) but still funny nonetheless.

Anyway, my day was going well...until my check engine light came on when going through Needles, CA. In hindsight, this was the best place theoretically that the light could have gone off, as it was in a town right before I got into the Mojave desert, and it was during working hours so I could do something about it. I found a service shop who said they would diagnose it for 60 bucks - a little steep, but how can I haggle in the middle of the desert? Two hours later, and they are forced to admit that their machines can read what is wrong with my car. Two hours of me sitting in 110 degree weather, all for naught! In those two hours though, I did the following things:

- sweat through my t-shirt (that one was a given)
- walked to an AM/PM and bought a drink (just like in the old days walking to swim practice at the San Bruno pool)
- stole wireless internet from the hotel across the street
- talked to an old cowboy trucker man who was getting his truck worked on (his job was to take all the empty Miller Lite cans manufactured in Torrance, CA, and drive them to Milwaukee so they could be filled with beer)
- almost feel asleep

Anyway, it was now 3pm, and I still had no idea what was wrong with my car. I conferred with my dad via phone, who said (and I agreed) that I should get a second opinion. So I drove around and found another repair shop. This one took ten minutes, and the guy said that I had a leaky valve on the rear differential, so I should be fine getting to LA. And he didn't even charge me. Thanks Big O Tires Guy!

So, after a long day in Needles, I started on the road again. Drove through the desert, where it got as hot as 115 degrees (or so my car said). Whatever leisurely pace I took BN (Before Needles) was shoved aside to drive a bit more frantically so that I could still get to LA on time. I have never been a speeder though, and I didn't start then!

Finally got to some civilization and drove through the scenic San Bernadino Mountains and National Forest - such a pretty sight! Until I realized that the haziness was smog. Oh well - such is life in Southern California I guess. After the mountains, the massive-ness of suburbs hits you smack in the face, and while I was happy to see more civilization, I soon had to try and survive the process known as "getting around LA on a lot of freeways". Luckily the GPS helped!

I did love having a bit of cold weather, as LA was overcast that day (real overcast, not smog). And I did hit some traffic, but not too much. And I have to say, I enjoy LA drivers, as they are experts at driving in traffic and know what they are doing - you keep moving as fast as you can and for the most part just stay in your lane.

Made it to Kelly's apt in Santa Monica at around 8pm. Kelly works at Interscope Records and has lived in LA since she graduated from LMU in 2008. Her place is so nice - off a small courtyard, all hardwood floors, newly redone kitchen, nice furniture. And two tv screens to boot! Living the LA lifestyle to the finest. Anyway, I took a quick shower since I had sweat so much the day before, and then we were off to dinner with her friend Rob. I was the first one in the family to meet Rob, and he seems like a nice guy. Since we had gone to dinner so late, we got done around 11pm, and I was whooped after a long day! It was back to Kelly's and I was quickly asleep on the couch...

More to come about yesterday!
Joey

Day 37: Grants, NM to Williams, AZ

Let's see, what to say about yesterday?

Woke up and left grants and the campsite. It was super windy in the morning. Have you ever tried to take down and fold a tent by yourself when it's windy? Don't- it is terrible! I finally gave up and threw the thing in my car.

Drove across nothern NM into northern Arizona. I ended up getting a little lost and drove through flagstaff which seems like a cool mountain city. It has lots of pine trees surrounding it and doesn't seem to fit into the rest of the arizona desert motif.

Finally around 1pm made it to my destination for the day- the grand canyon! I am not sure that words or pictures can accurately describe the thing. It is immense, and awe-inspiring, and breathtaking, and many other large positive adjectives I have yet to think of. I wish I had remembered more from my History Of National Parks class! I spent around 4 hours there, and I wish i could have been better prepared to spend more time there. Still, it was amazing.

After that I got set up at my tentsite, then I drove into downtown Williams to find some food and see the town. It is a part of historic route 66 and has a lot of memorabilia to see (and to purchase if you are so inclined). Very cool little town!

Gotta pack up and get on my way. Not sure if i will have Internet access the next couple of days to update this thing-we shall see!

Joey

Day 36: Van Horn, TX to Grants, NM (with a stop at Albuquerque)

Good morning from grants, new Mexico! Was going to update last night but was feeling pretty tired. It was a long day!

Got up and left my campsite at van horn at around 8am. After I drove west for like 10 minutes, I entered Mountain Time Zone- the gift of an hour! I made my way through the rest of west Texas and made it to el paso. What is amazing about this city (besides the shirts they sell that say 'el paso, tx: it ain't kansas' with a handgun picture) is how crazy close it is to Mexico. From downtown el paso, you can see the red border fence. There were times on the freeway today that I was right next to it! Pretty cool (maybe cool isn't the right word. Interesting? Thought-provoking? Who knows).

I got onto I-25 north and headed up to Albuquerque. This was a change in my original plans, but I had the time today and figured when would I get to be in new Mexico again? As the title of the blog says, I was just going wherever the wind took me!

Did you know that new Mexico is the 5th largest state in terms of area? I do now, because the drive felt like forever! Don't get me wrong, it was scenic and such, but the desert setting starts to look monotonous pretty quickly. You go over a hill...and there's another valley that has buttes on all sides and shrubs everywhere. And there aren't many towns on the trip either.

Finally made it to albuquerque after about 6 hours of driving (and after spotting 2 Washington license plates who didn't seem as excited as I did about seeing each other). My first thought is that the city seems kind of small! I don't know what I was expecting but there wasn't much of a huge downtown area. While the residential area was spread out it wasn't as grand as some certain CA suburbs.

My first stop was the ABQ trolley company for a city tour. Since I only had an afternoon there, I knew I probably should do a tour of some sort, and these guys were highly rated on trip advisor. I was not let down- the tour was fun and informative and I saw a lot of the city
(typical tourist stuff and not). The tour was about 90 minutes and went through old town, downtown, historic route 66, the UNM campus, some different neighborhoods, and much more. The architecture was so neat to see, and it was interesting learning about all the different
movies and tv shows that have filmed there posing as different cities. Well worth the money and time. Their website is www.abqtrolley.com - I recommend them if you are in the area!

After the tour I tried to get into the new Mexico museum of natural history but it was closing down for the day - dang! I relegated the rest of my time to the old town area and surrounding stuff. Saw the San Felipe de Neri church which was a mission founded in 1706 and still in use as a parish today. Did some tourist shopping (I am one, after all), ate some dinner at a place the tour guides had recommended, and then it was time to get on the road again.

I drove about 60 miles west to the campground I stayed at last night. Was super windy when I set up my tent (must have been hysterical watching me), but it calmed down eventually and it was a quiet night here. And I am actually wearing a sweatshirt right now- I love cold
summer mornings!! Can't wait for more of that type of weather in northern ca soon.

On my way to the grand canyon today!
Joey

Day 35: San Antonio to Van Horn, TX

Greetings from van horn, tx! What's that you say? You've never heard of van horn? Well, neither had I! Before I picked it on a map as a stoppig place in my journey. But let's go back and start at the beginning of the day...

Woke up in San Antonio at clare's apartment. Jon and Jim were just about ready to leave, so we said goodbye to them as they started their marathon drive back to Ohio. I hung around for a couple more hours bothering clare and packing my things, and then I was on the road again myself!

This marks the end of my friend visits and the start of many days on the road by myself. It felt weird to say goodbye to Dayton friends, and it feels even weirder that I am not seeing a familiar face at the end of the day to talk about it with! Soon enough that will happen again...

Today was pretty straightforward in terms of road maps: drove on I-10 until van horn. Easy! And it got even easier once out of san Antonio city limits, because that's when the speed limit went up to 80. Dang! I stayed at 80 or under most of the time, as I am not one to speed anyways and had heard about the highway patrol that watch west texas like hawks (and this was true, as I saw double digits at least of cars being pulled over).

For the first three hours heading west, the drive was prett scenic. There were lots of trees and rolling hills which then gave way to more mountainous hills and shorter shrubs. Looked kind of like the southwest (or how I would imagine it), and at points it reminded me of central california on 101.

Then I got into the last half of my drive, which was basically flat, treeless, and boring. Luckily it went by quickly! I got to Van Horn around 6pm or so. The city is tiny but is eclipsed on three sides by mountains- very cool. The campground is hilarious- there are chickens and roosters pecking outside my tent (I shooed them away in my best old lady shooing voice).

Did I mention the weather? So beautiful. It is in the 80s probably right now and slightly windy and it just awesome. I could sit outside all day in weather like this!

Hitting the hay early tonight so that I can gear up for tomorrow- exciting new plans I figured out today! I will leave you waiting in suspense for them...

Joey

Day 34: Corpus Christi to San Antonio

Now that the months have changed, I really have a hard time remembering what day of my trip this is!

We all woke up in Corpus Christi and hung around (and ate some delicious muffins purchased from H.E.B. Plus the night before - that store really is a godsend). We had decided the night before that we were mainly going to lounge around for the 4th and not do anything too planned - a good choice on our part! We also discussed our favorite 4th of Julys and sang some patriotic songs (much to Clare's chagrin sometimes).

Jack took Jon and I on a campus tour since we had never seen Texas A&M- Corpus Christi (referred to henceforth as TAMUCC) before. The university itself is beautiful; when you entire campus is on its own island, I think that is pretty much guaranteed! The buildings all have a beach feel and are consistent (consistency of buildings is pretty much key to a campus looking remotely nice). The parking lots are named "Jellyfish Lot", "Seahorse Lot", "Starfish Lot", which I think is awesome because the majority of schools just number or letter their boring lots. The University Center that Jack works in is pretty modern and has lots of windows for that Texas sun. Not too bad of a place!

The three of us went back to Jack's apartment and met up with the others at the pool. After getting a little too much sun the day before (Jenny coined the term "slapped by the sun", which I like better than "kissed by the sun"), I opted to stay in the shade and not look like a tomato. I still am half Aherne, after all!

After hanging out at the pool for awhile (Jack's co-worker Amber came down too), we went back to Jack's apartment and BBQed our late lunch/early dinner. Jack made burgers, chicken, and hotdogs. And some Boca Burgers for Clare the Vegetarian! Jim had made potato salad and some of Jack's other co-workers brought guacamole, chips, and lots of Texas beer (and cherry pie for desert!). All in all it was a feast.

After that we said our goodbyes to Jack and Jenny, and Jim, Jon, Clare, and I got back into the Prius for the ride back to San Antonio. We got back here for a late dinner (Pei Wei take out) and some desert (delicious gelato from Pacciugo near Clare's house). Then it was off to bed early after a long weekend!

It was a fun time with Dayton friends for the past five days and good to see them again. I am ready to get back on the road! I am rounding third on the bases of my roadtrip, let you know how it goes!

Joey

Added some of Clare's pictures below over the days in Texas for you to see!

Day 33: Corpus Christi

Jenny and Clare both brought their Gonzaga shirts to sleep in, and Jack and I have the same Davis shirts. Instant classic picture. Maybe I need to think of more creative gifts to give?

Clare and I in the back of Jack's truck rolling down the highway - thank you absence of Texas driving laws!

Hi again! We had a fun and busy day down here yesterday-let me try and remember it all.

We woke up and everyone got ready for the day (as quickly as you can get ready with 6 people and a one bedroom apt). Jack made us blueberry pancakes for breakfast- thanks dude! After some discussion about what to do, we settled on going to the beach.

Side note: any "discussion" this group does usually consists of a lot of passive "i'm fine with whatever" until one person finally makes a decision. Very productive.

We wet to a beach on mustang island, about 20 minute from jacks house. The beach is a small strip of land right on the gulf of Mexico. The weather was nice- hot but windy. The water was still a little volatile but Alex but we still had fun swimming and getting knocked around by
waves.

After hanging out on the beach for the morning, we went into a town (port aransas maybe?) and had lunch at a local place. They would even cook your catch for you! I forgot the name of the place, sorry...

We came back to jacks and decided on another period of sunshine by going to the pool at jacks apt complex (clare wanted to tan as much as possible). We actually ended up playing volleyball in the pool with these people we met there who were very drunk and very funny. We of course won the game!

After that, we had all gotten a little too much sun for the day, so we went back to jack's, hung out, and got cleaned up while deciding what to do for the night (see side note from above). We eventually made our way across the bay to the "South Texas Sails 2010" event at the coast
guard base. They had ships from different countries (Mexico, USA, Paraguay, and chile) that you could tour. They also had vendors, live bands, and alcohol- what else could our group ask for? Clare tried to zumba her way onto the Chilean ship for a private party, but no such
luck. We then watched the fireworks coming off of the bay, went to Acapulco Taqueria for a late dinner and margaritas, then came home and called it a night! A fun day!

Happy 4th of July! Aka the second christmas in the sammut family

Day 32: San Antonio to Corpus Christi

Jim, Jon, Clare, Jenny

Jack, Clare, Me

Hello from corpus christi!

Started yesterday out in San antonio. Jim, Jon, Clare, and I went to Taco Taco for breakfast (the tshirts say 'the restaurant so nice they named it twice'). It was voted best taco in America by Food Network and had a bunch of accolades on their walls, and it did definitely not
disappoint. So many breakfast tacos!

It was then back to clare's to get ready for the trip. Jon and clare got ready while Jim and I took our cars to get oil changes. Nana has been doing so well on this trip and she deserved a break! Jim has a prius so his car was done very quickly, but the mechanic keep looking at nana and making me nervous (I felt like a parent at the doctor's office with my kid). Everything turned out just fine, and the guy offered me a book of coupons "even though [I am] not from around
here". I politely declined. Thanks express lube!

Since I took so long, got back to clare's late and we rushed to get on the road to corpus Christi. The trip is only about 2.5 hours on one highway, so you think I would be fine with it, considering how long I have been on the road recently. But Texas outside of the city is so
boring! And there was some torrential downpours that we drove through that made me a little nervous but Jon drove through them just fine. And we saved the earth by taking the prius down!

We finally got to corpus Christi and met up with jack and Jenny. You have already met Jenny (I stayed with her in Omaha). Jack is one of my best friends from grad school who currently works at Texas A&M - Corpus Chrisi in he student activities office (working mainly with Greek life). Jenny had flown in on Wednesday right before the storm and had been staying with jack since then.

After we got here and all said hi, we drove to downtown and had lunch at an oyster bar (I was not brave enough to try one though). After lunch we walked down the South Texas Music Hall of Fame (bigger than you would think, but the only name I recognized was Christopher cross)
and then went into the surfing museum. Interesting stuff there!

We then walked around the beach and bayfront type area. It's funny that the city is in Texas, because it really resembles a surfing city in Florida (or so I would presume- never been there) or California. The actual city of corpus Christi is on the mainland and faces the bay, while padre island (not to be confused with south padre island) is where the ocean side is.

Other "fun" facts about corpus Christi:
- the birdiest city in America
- the fattest city in America
- the place where Selena was killed
(see, they're not very fun)

Went back to jacks apt and hung out for a bit- that is really what we do best. Then we went to a local bar (burger & co maybe?) and listened to a cover band (Good Night Avenue), ate some food, and drank some Mexican beer. Good times!

It is nice to be around good friends- we talked about it last night how natural it feels when we are all together and how comfortable we all are. And we make fun of each other incessantly which is so much fun! I am the instigator of most of them I feel...

There are six of us staying in a one bedroom apt, which is a little cramped but good! It ended up with jack and I sleeping on an air mattress in the living room, with said air mattress losing all of it's air after about 30 minutes. So sleeping on the floor instead!

Onto Saturday in corpus Christi!