Coast to Coast - Part 1
Coast to Coast - Part 1
This was an epic trip across the entire United States. Coast to coast. Over 3000 miles, 10 states, 2 brothers, a girlfriend, and countless new friends. Memories that will last me a lifetime.
Nick Pope and I left Vancouver early Saturday morning, and arrived at LAX at around noon. We struggled to get an Uber from the airport (turns out there is a geofence... thanks for letting us know Uber), but eventually caught a cab. Google Maps is great, except when it's not and ends up costing you $120 for a cab ride that should have costed $60.
We pick up the RV, and finally get on the road at 4pm. This thing is huge, I'm talking a 28 footer, with sleeping room for at least 6 (you could make 8 work though). We nickname it the Canyonaro for the turning radius, acceleration rate, gas consumption, and size. It was to be our living quarters for the next 4 days as we sped across half the US to Dallas, TX.
We got out of Los Angeles as quickly as possible, not because we had no interest in the city, but because we had to make up for lost time. We pulled over around 8pm and stuffed our faces with In-n-Out. Nick casually mentioned that Austin now had them. I was jealous once again for him moving down there, which had spurred the whole idea of this roadtrip. The burgers were fantastic, easily the best fast food burgers I've ever had. The fries reeked of disappointment, although I later learned I should have gotten them animal style.
After getting our fill of grease, we grabbed energy drinks and snacks from the gas station across the road, and continued to Las Vegas. Hunter S Thompson and Fallout New Vegas was our inspiration for taking the I-15 instead of the 40. "Just a flat-out high speed burn through Baker, and Barstow, and Berdoo" but ours was in reverse order. As we crossed the state border, our engine whining from the 2500 ft climb, we saw familiar sites from Fallout: Primm and it's fantastic roller coaster, Goodsprings and Sloan, and finally Sin City illuminated the night sky as we approached. It was 11pm, I was exhausted from driving. We parked at Walmart and loaded up on essential supplies such as 8 gallons of water (we were crossing the Arizona desert tomorrow), snacks, pillows, sleeping bags, and found ourselves a quiet suburban road to park on. The night was surprisingly cold, but I guess that should be expected from camping in a desert environment in December.
We woke up early, and grabbed some food and bad coffee from a breakfast joint I found on Yelp that praised the place's cheap and quick service. Off we rode, leaving Las Vegas behind, knowing that it wasn't a place we needed to spend time, that was for another day, another trip. We arrived in Boulder City, a city founded from the thousands of workers who toiled away for years on Hoover Dam. That Dam was impressive, so impressive that Nick and I had to pull around and visit it. We spent a few hours walking around, taking photographs, learning about the history, the literal blood, sweat, and tears that went into building this incredibly impressive engineering feat. This was one of the highlights of our trip, but we quickly realized that this was a day that called for 8 hours of driving, so we headed back to the Canyonaro.
The 93 to Kingman is a brutal yet impressive area of Arizona. You can only wonder what the settlers who made their way across this landscape were thinking. Does it end? Will we find water? At Kingman we got on the I-40, a piece of asphalt we would call home for the next 3 days. We took occasional detours, stopping off on various towns on the 66 such as Seligman and Ash Fork. We arrived in Flagstaff around 5pm, in time for dinner. Here was where we met our first Ingress player, Nathan Renn. Nate was a gracious host and was nice enough to walk with us as we smashed and captured as many portals as we could in the downtown area. Sadly, we had to leave much too earlier as we realized our time spent at Hoover and the Route 66 towns had put us behind schedule. We said our goodbyes, and spent the next 90 minutes driving to Winslow in thick fog, stuff that you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you, even though you were going 75mph down the interstate.
We finally had enough, my palms sore and sweaty from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. We pulled over at a truck stop and asked if it was ok if we spent the night in the parking lot. The attendants nodded yes, and pointed to where we should park. We setup the RV, relaxed, and fell asleep quickly. It was much warmer at this lower altitude, compared to Flagstaff and the night we had spent in Vegas.
When we awoke, we grabbed some breakfast at the Denny's and each paid $12 for some nice hot showers, something badly needed. Refreshed and fed, we head out on the road. Our goal was lofty: finish our drive through Arizona, all of New Mexico, and end up in Texas. As we approached the state border of New Mexico and Arizona, the landscape changed into beautiful multi-coloured Mesas. Reds, oranges, purples and yellows layered the landscape, and was one of the more beautiful sections of the I-40 by far. As we roared through Albuquerque we put on Weird Al's tune of the same name, blasting it loudly and singing along. The song lasted most of the drive through the city, and soon we were on our way east. New Mexico soon turned into long plains of grass and bushes, sparse trees, and a bit of monotony. We started having to pull over more frequently as I was losing my concentration, having been driving for 8 hours already. We took a small detour to meet someone in Clovis, NM. We had a quick bite to eat with them, but it was already 9 at night and we had 2 hours more road to cover to get into Texas and our stop for the night.
Those last 2 hours of driving on what was already a long day of driving were brutal, my eyes wanting to shut and my body wanting sleep, but Nick and I rolled down the windows, turned the music up high, took some caffeine pills, and powered through. My brother stared intently at me, making sure that I wasn't loosing the concentration needed to keep the Canyonaro on track to Lubbock. When we arrived, we found a truck stop and pulled in, and I collapsed in my bed, falling asleep in my clothes for the day. Almost 600 miles of driving had taken a big toll on me, and I slept in until 9am the next day.
Upon awakening, I slowly got ready and reheated my leftovers from the morning before. The perks of an RV are you have a full kitchen including refrigerator and microwave. Nick and I decided to explore Lubbock a bit before we headed out, so we visited Buddy Holly's statue, Stubb's BBQ original location, and Texas Tech - a very impressive university.
We headed out of Lubbock, feeling a little bit sad that it was our last full day with the RV. We made another extended stop in Abilene, and met a very nice fellow by the name of Doc Holly. Yes, this was his actual name, and I was really excited to meet a Texan by the name of Doc. I think that's something crossed off the bucket-list. The town was very cool, and had a statue park which was currently dedicated to Dr. Suess and all his creations. The Lorax, The Grinch, The Cat in the Hat all were there, and we got a few photos with them. By this time, we realized that we were running a touch behind, so we jumped in the RV and headed off to Dallas.
Dallas started off not so great, to be perfectly honest. The highway system is a nightmare to navigate for those unfamiliar, and we were trying to avoid toll roads at all costs. The tolls themselves would be cheap, but the rental company would charge a $70 processing fee if we accidentally ended up taking one. What should have taken 45 minutes to get to the restaurant where we were to meet Nick's girlfriend ended up taking over 2 hours with the drivers there being very unforgiving to a vehicle the size of the Canyonaro trying to merge through rush-hour traffic. We finally ended up at the restaurant where Adrianne Masling awaited Nick. We were also meeting more Ingress players, which included john a. gorman, Dinesh Gundu, and many other wonderful Dallas players. After finishing eating, we built a small farm and piled into the Canyonaro. 10 of us drove around Dallas, building L8 portals everywhere we went, causing mayhem, and getting an awesome tour of the city by John. We wrapped up around 2 in the morning, shook hands, hugged, and parted ways with our new Dallas friends. I can't wait to go back, they are a seriously awesome group of people.
We camped outside the restaurant, and in the morning, drove to the RV drop-off location. Our transfer was complete, my time of solo driving was complete, and we hopped in Addy's car, off to Austin and more adventures.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
#ingress #roadtrips #coast2coast #brothers #friends
https://plus.google.com/101442971235716218386/stories/b5ea1835-1448-38ef-9d48-7a9f09bab8e114a7dbd75e2
This was an epic trip across the entire United States. Coast to coast. Over 3000 miles, 10 states, 2 brothers, a girlfriend, and countless new friends. Memories that will last me a lifetime.
Nick Pope and I left Vancouver early Saturday morning, and arrived at LAX at around noon. We struggled to get an Uber from the airport (turns out there is a geofence... thanks for letting us know Uber), but eventually caught a cab. Google Maps is great, except when it's not and ends up costing you $120 for a cab ride that should have costed $60.
We pick up the RV, and finally get on the road at 4pm. This thing is huge, I'm talking a 28 footer, with sleeping room for at least 6 (you could make 8 work though). We nickname it the Canyonaro for the turning radius, acceleration rate, gas consumption, and size. It was to be our living quarters for the next 4 days as we sped across half the US to Dallas, TX.
We got out of Los Angeles as quickly as possible, not because we had no interest in the city, but because we had to make up for lost time. We pulled over around 8pm and stuffed our faces with In-n-Out. Nick casually mentioned that Austin now had them. I was jealous once again for him moving down there, which had spurred the whole idea of this roadtrip. The burgers were fantastic, easily the best fast food burgers I've ever had. The fries reeked of disappointment, although I later learned I should have gotten them animal style.
After getting our fill of grease, we grabbed energy drinks and snacks from the gas station across the road, and continued to Las Vegas. Hunter S Thompson and Fallout New Vegas was our inspiration for taking the I-15 instead of the 40. "Just a flat-out high speed burn through Baker, and Barstow, and Berdoo" but ours was in reverse order. As we crossed the state border, our engine whining from the 2500 ft climb, we saw familiar sites from Fallout: Primm and it's fantastic roller coaster, Goodsprings and Sloan, and finally Sin City illuminated the night sky as we approached. It was 11pm, I was exhausted from driving. We parked at Walmart and loaded up on essential supplies such as 8 gallons of water (we were crossing the Arizona desert tomorrow), snacks, pillows, sleeping bags, and found ourselves a quiet suburban road to park on. The night was surprisingly cold, but I guess that should be expected from camping in a desert environment in December.
We woke up early, and grabbed some food and bad coffee from a breakfast joint I found on Yelp that praised the place's cheap and quick service. Off we rode, leaving Las Vegas behind, knowing that it wasn't a place we needed to spend time, that was for another day, another trip. We arrived in Boulder City, a city founded from the thousands of workers who toiled away for years on Hoover Dam. That Dam was impressive, so impressive that Nick and I had to pull around and visit it. We spent a few hours walking around, taking photographs, learning about the history, the literal blood, sweat, and tears that went into building this incredibly impressive engineering feat. This was one of the highlights of our trip, but we quickly realized that this was a day that called for 8 hours of driving, so we headed back to the Canyonaro.
The 93 to Kingman is a brutal yet impressive area of Arizona. You can only wonder what the settlers who made their way across this landscape were thinking. Does it end? Will we find water? At Kingman we got on the I-40, a piece of asphalt we would call home for the next 3 days. We took occasional detours, stopping off on various towns on the 66 such as Seligman and Ash Fork. We arrived in Flagstaff around 5pm, in time for dinner. Here was where we met our first Ingress player, Nathan Renn. Nate was a gracious host and was nice enough to walk with us as we smashed and captured as many portals as we could in the downtown area. Sadly, we had to leave much too earlier as we realized our time spent at Hoover and the Route 66 towns had put us behind schedule. We said our goodbyes, and spent the next 90 minutes driving to Winslow in thick fog, stuff that you couldn't see 10 feet in front of you, even though you were going 75mph down the interstate.
We finally had enough, my palms sore and sweaty from gripping the steering wheel so tightly. We pulled over at a truck stop and asked if it was ok if we spent the night in the parking lot. The attendants nodded yes, and pointed to where we should park. We setup the RV, relaxed, and fell asleep quickly. It was much warmer at this lower altitude, compared to Flagstaff and the night we had spent in Vegas.
When we awoke, we grabbed some breakfast at the Denny's and each paid $12 for some nice hot showers, something badly needed. Refreshed and fed, we head out on the road. Our goal was lofty: finish our drive through Arizona, all of New Mexico, and end up in Texas. As we approached the state border of New Mexico and Arizona, the landscape changed into beautiful multi-coloured Mesas. Reds, oranges, purples and yellows layered the landscape, and was one of the more beautiful sections of the I-40 by far. As we roared through Albuquerque we put on Weird Al's tune of the same name, blasting it loudly and singing along. The song lasted most of the drive through the city, and soon we were on our way east. New Mexico soon turned into long plains of grass and bushes, sparse trees, and a bit of monotony. We started having to pull over more frequently as I was losing my concentration, having been driving for 8 hours already. We took a small detour to meet someone in Clovis, NM. We had a quick bite to eat with them, but it was already 9 at night and we had 2 hours more road to cover to get into Texas and our stop for the night.
Those last 2 hours of driving on what was already a long day of driving were brutal, my eyes wanting to shut and my body wanting sleep, but Nick and I rolled down the windows, turned the music up high, took some caffeine pills, and powered through. My brother stared intently at me, making sure that I wasn't loosing the concentration needed to keep the Canyonaro on track to Lubbock. When we arrived, we found a truck stop and pulled in, and I collapsed in my bed, falling asleep in my clothes for the day. Almost 600 miles of driving had taken a big toll on me, and I slept in until 9am the next day.
Upon awakening, I slowly got ready and reheated my leftovers from the morning before. The perks of an RV are you have a full kitchen including refrigerator and microwave. Nick and I decided to explore Lubbock a bit before we headed out, so we visited Buddy Holly's statue, Stubb's BBQ original location, and Texas Tech - a very impressive university.
We headed out of Lubbock, feeling a little bit sad that it was our last full day with the RV. We made another extended stop in Abilene, and met a very nice fellow by the name of Doc Holly. Yes, this was his actual name, and I was really excited to meet a Texan by the name of Doc. I think that's something crossed off the bucket-list. The town was very cool, and had a statue park which was currently dedicated to Dr. Suess and all his creations. The Lorax, The Grinch, The Cat in the Hat all were there, and we got a few photos with them. By this time, we realized that we were running a touch behind, so we jumped in the RV and headed off to Dallas.
Dallas started off not so great, to be perfectly honest. The highway system is a nightmare to navigate for those unfamiliar, and we were trying to avoid toll roads at all costs. The tolls themselves would be cheap, but the rental company would charge a $70 processing fee if we accidentally ended up taking one. What should have taken 45 minutes to get to the restaurant where we were to meet Nick's girlfriend ended up taking over 2 hours with the drivers there being very unforgiving to a vehicle the size of the Canyonaro trying to merge through rush-hour traffic. We finally ended up at the restaurant where Adrianne Masling awaited Nick. We were also meeting more Ingress players, which included john a. gorman, Dinesh Gundu, and many other wonderful Dallas players. After finishing eating, we built a small farm and piled into the Canyonaro. 10 of us drove around Dallas, building L8 portals everywhere we went, causing mayhem, and getting an awesome tour of the city by John. We wrapped up around 2 in the morning, shook hands, hugged, and parted ways with our new Dallas friends. I can't wait to go back, they are a seriously awesome group of people.
We camped outside the restaurant, and in the morning, drove to the RV drop-off location. Our transfer was complete, my time of solo driving was complete, and we hopped in Addy's car, off to Austin and more adventures.
Stay tuned for Part 2.
#ingress #roadtrips #coast2coast #brothers #friends
https://plus.google.com/101442971235716218386/stories/b5ea1835-1448-38ef-9d48-7a9f09bab8e114a7dbd75e2
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