My road trip novel
I'M ALIVE! And I guess I have some stories to tell. Reading this is a long and arduous task, so to make it easier on you, I have included many pictures.
So...I moved to Los Angeles about 3 weeks ago. (And at the rate I'm writing this, it will actually be a month. Or maybe two. Jokes. Well, almost a month.) I suppose that's a pretty big thing. I got a job at Ace Gallery in downtown L.A. and I basically do anything and everything you can think of concerning and or relating to photographs. I packed up little baby Yaris with everything that I could, bought a nerdy cargo bag for the top of my car (which Michael and I subsequently tied to the inside of the car because it didn't work, as it was made for a substantially larger car, namely one with 4 doors), grabbed little brother (who so frequently finds himself in a car with me for extended periods of time), and headed out.
Having never driven cross-country, it was definitely a wonderful experience. I escaped the flat, little, coastal Georgia bubble that is Savannah and traveled for 3 days, the majority of which were spent driving through the desert, which is primarily lonely and hot. Little brother was my trusty travel companion, and at this point, I would like to thank him profusely for being there with me, but also apologize for how boring it was. However, once Michael showed me that, if you create a Third Eye Blind station on Pandora, you will most definitely enjoy hours upon hours of 90's music bliss, including, but not limited to, Matchbox 20, The Gin Blossoms, Matchbox 20, Matchbox 20, and Collective Soul. And stuff straight from Can't Hardly Wait. Oh, and The Goo Goo Dolls, usually Name, at which point I would turn up the volume, because that's just the best song ever. Ever. Anyway, so with our wonderfully typical 90's music and a strange affinity for beef jerky (never again), we traveled from Savannah to Little Rock to Albuquerque to L.A.
Day 1
We made excellent time the first day, exactly 12 hours, and were disappointed that, even though we traveled for what most definitely was forever, everything looked just like Ohio. Everything. Flat and green and a bunch of cows. That is all. I mean, cows generally make me quite happy. I even saw one running! And that's when I realized, I'd never actually seen a cow do anything. Ever. Until that moment. But I digress.
Day 2
Once we left Arkansas and headed towards Oklahoma, things started to change. That's also where I realized that we really were in the middle of nowhere. Absolutely nothing. Which was beautiful, but it was also quite unsettling. Little Rock to Albuquerque was an awful, boring, long, 14 hour day, EXCEPT for the fact that we stopped at Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, TX. (And also that we started eating beef jerky, which at this point was a good idea, however I would eventually retract that statement.)
At Cadillac Ranch there are 10 old Cadillacs planted upright in the middle of a dusty field. You're allowed to spray paint them and climb all over them and it's free! After seeing the largest cross in the western hemisphere earlier in the day, it was going to take a lot to impress me, but Cadillac Ranch was far better and Michael and I were both glad that we stopped in the middle of a field to climb on some old spray-painted cars.
It was either before or after Cadillac Ranch that I got pulled over for speeding (as I most definitely was), but the Texas Highway Patrol officer took one look at how pitiful, tired, and dirty Michael and I looked (probably also taking into consideration that my car looked absolutely ridiculous) and told us to be careful and slow down. So, no ticket, just paranoia for the remainder of the trip. Since everything from this point on was pretty unremarkable, I'd just say that we made it to Albuquerque eventually in life, ate dinner at 10:30pm, and watched some dumb Sci-Fi channel movie about a giant bone-eating skeleton creature, which was fittingly set in the New Mexico desert.
Day 3
I thought that Michael and I had made really great time, considering we had been driving for 2 days in the middle of nowhere and we wanted to die. But the last day, we just gave up, and ended up stopping every hour once we got to Arizona: The Land of Creepy/ Tempting Themed Tourist Traps. I don't know where they came from, but everyone seemed to have gotten their hands on either fossils, meteorites, petrified wood, or all three. I doubted the legitimacy of the claims they made on the billboards that were placed every 5 1/2 feet, yet I still found myself oddly fascinated. Also, you could get me to go anywhere- as long as it contained the word "dinosaur." We missed the exits for most of these places, which proved to be for the best, because as we drove past them, we realized that they all looked like places that a crazy person would use to lure unsuspecting travelers, trap them, and recreate a horror movie.
So we ended up going to Geronimo's, which claimed it displayed the largest piece of petrified wood in the world. (Lies.) But we fell for it, and soon we found ourselves speeding into the dusty gravel parking lot of Geronimo's. Obviously, the petrified wood couldn't possibly be the largest, since Petrified Forest National Park was two exits away. I bet they thought no one would ever catch that one. You can't fool me.
Geronimo's was really a tacky gift store that sold turquoise jewelry and supremely attractive, neon Arizona t-shirts. The entrance constructed completely of geodes, which I was instantly fascinated by because it was sparkly. However, they didn't have a shirt in my size and their resin-cast scorpion paperweights were too expensive, so we both left empty- handed.
We stopped a few more times at creepy gas stations and such, pondering NPR and continuing to eat beef jerky for no particular reason. I found it odd that we were being wooed by the sultry, comforting voice of Ira Glass and eating salty, dried, see-through meat. I don't know why, I just thought NPR and beef jerky made an unlikely combination. But hey, you only live once, right? We eventually stopped at a Dairy Queen in the middle of the Mojave Desert, teaching both of us that ice cream in the desert is a hard feat to accomplish. We had a little impromptu photo shoot of the landscape behind the truck parking lot at the Dairy queen, which was, charming, to say the least. But those mountains. I just can't get over them.
36 hours 7 minutes/ 2421.77 miles later, we made it safely to L.A., where we subsequently passed out. Comatose. For at least 14 hours. (Thank you Jason for letting your newly employed, homeless girlfriend live with you until she finds her own place to fill with all her stuff and decorate with the Swedish wonders of Ikea.) I only wish that I had had more time to explore on our adventure. We sped through some of the most amazing places I've ever seen and I just wish I had been able to spend some time wandering around. Even so, it was a pretty indescribable experience.
That may be an abrupt ending to my ramblings, but I'm going to call it a night, with the promise of more posts. Pinky swear.
So...I moved to Los Angeles about 3 weeks ago. (And at the rate I'm writing this, it will actually be a month. Or maybe two. Jokes. Well, almost a month.) I suppose that's a pretty big thing. I got a job at Ace Gallery in downtown L.A. and I basically do anything and everything you can think of concerning and or relating to photographs. I packed up little baby Yaris with everything that I could, bought a nerdy cargo bag for the top of my car (which Michael and I subsequently tied to the inside of the car because it didn't work, as it was made for a substantially larger car, namely one with 4 doors), grabbed little brother (who so frequently finds himself in a car with me for extended periods of time), and headed out.
Having never driven cross-country, it was definitely a wonderful experience. I escaped the flat, little, coastal Georgia bubble that is Savannah and traveled for 3 days, the majority of which were spent driving through the desert, which is primarily lonely and hot. Little brother was my trusty travel companion, and at this point, I would like to thank him profusely for being there with me, but also apologize for how boring it was. However, once Michael showed me that, if you create a Third Eye Blind station on Pandora, you will most definitely enjoy hours upon hours of 90's music bliss, including, but not limited to, Matchbox 20, The Gin Blossoms, Matchbox 20, Matchbox 20, and Collective Soul. And stuff straight from Can't Hardly Wait. Oh, and The Goo Goo Dolls, usually Name, at which point I would turn up the volume, because that's just the best song ever. Ever. Anyway, so with our wonderfully typical 90's music and a strange affinity for beef jerky (never again), we traveled from Savannah to Little Rock to Albuquerque to L.A.
Day 1
We made excellent time the first day, exactly 12 hours, and were disappointed that, even though we traveled for what most definitely was forever, everything looked just like Ohio. Everything. Flat and green and a bunch of cows. That is all. I mean, cows generally make me quite happy. I even saw one running! And that's when I realized, I'd never actually seen a cow do anything. Ever. Until that moment. But I digress.
Day 2
Once we left Arkansas and headed towards Oklahoma, things started to change. That's also where I realized that we really were in the middle of nowhere. Absolutely nothing. Which was beautiful, but it was also quite unsettling. Little Rock to Albuquerque was an awful, boring, long, 14 hour day, EXCEPT for the fact that we stopped at Cadillac Ranch outside of Amarillo, TX. (And also that we started eating beef jerky, which at this point was a good idea, however I would eventually retract that statement.)
At Cadillac Ranch there are 10 old Cadillacs planted upright in the middle of a dusty field. You're allowed to spray paint them and climb all over them and it's free! After seeing the largest cross in the western hemisphere earlier in the day, it was going to take a lot to impress me, but Cadillac Ranch was far better and Michael and I were both glad that we stopped in the middle of a field to climb on some old spray-painted cars.
It was either before or after Cadillac Ranch that I got pulled over for speeding (as I most definitely was), but the Texas Highway Patrol officer took one look at how pitiful, tired, and dirty Michael and I looked (probably also taking into consideration that my car looked absolutely ridiculous) and told us to be careful and slow down. So, no ticket, just paranoia for the remainder of the trip. Since everything from this point on was pretty unremarkable, I'd just say that we made it to Albuquerque eventually in life, ate dinner at 10:30pm, and watched some dumb Sci-Fi channel movie about a giant bone-eating skeleton creature, which was fittingly set in the New Mexico desert.
Day 3
I thought that Michael and I had made really great time, considering we had been driving for 2 days in the middle of nowhere and we wanted to die. But the last day, we just gave up, and ended up stopping every hour once we got to Arizona: The Land of Creepy/ Tempting Themed Tourist Traps. I don't know where they came from, but everyone seemed to have gotten their hands on either fossils, meteorites, petrified wood, or all three. I doubted the legitimacy of the claims they made on the billboards that were placed every 5 1/2 feet, yet I still found myself oddly fascinated. Also, you could get me to go anywhere- as long as it contained the word "dinosaur." We missed the exits for most of these places, which proved to be for the best, because as we drove past them, we realized that they all looked like places that a crazy person would use to lure unsuspecting travelers, trap them, and recreate a horror movie.
So we ended up going to Geronimo's, which claimed it displayed the largest piece of petrified wood in the world. (Lies.) But we fell for it, and soon we found ourselves speeding into the dusty gravel parking lot of Geronimo's. Obviously, the petrified wood couldn't possibly be the largest, since Petrified Forest National Park was two exits away. I bet they thought no one would ever catch that one. You can't fool me.
Geronimo's was really a tacky gift store that sold turquoise jewelry and supremely attractive, neon Arizona t-shirts. The entrance constructed completely of geodes, which I was instantly fascinated by because it was sparkly. However, they didn't have a shirt in my size and their resin-cast scorpion paperweights were too expensive, so we both left empty- handed.
We stopped a few more times at creepy gas stations and such, pondering NPR and continuing to eat beef jerky for no particular reason. I found it odd that we were being wooed by the sultry, comforting voice of Ira Glass and eating salty, dried, see-through meat. I don't know why, I just thought NPR and beef jerky made an unlikely combination. But hey, you only live once, right? We eventually stopped at a Dairy Queen in the middle of the Mojave Desert, teaching both of us that ice cream in the desert is a hard feat to accomplish. We had a little impromptu photo shoot of the landscape behind the truck parking lot at the Dairy queen, which was, charming, to say the least. But those mountains. I just can't get over them.
36 hours 7 minutes/ 2421.77 miles later, we made it safely to L.A., where we subsequently passed out. Comatose. For at least 14 hours. (Thank you Jason for letting your newly employed, homeless girlfriend live with you until she finds her own place to fill with all her stuff and decorate with the Swedish wonders of Ikea.) I only wish that I had had more time to explore on our adventure. We sped through some of the most amazing places I've ever seen and I just wish I had been able to spend some time wandering around. Even so, it was a pretty indescribable experience.
That may be an abrupt ending to my ramblings, but I'm going to call it a night, with the promise of more posts. Pinky swear.
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