Day 11

"Wish I was on good Ole Rocky Top, Rocky Top Tennessee."  For all of you who don't know this is the song that is blasted at every Tennessee game.  It's there fight song.  Now if you know my dad, you know that he LOVES this song.  And if you know me, you know that I can't stand this song.  It's one of those songs that just get stuck in your head and it's so annoying.  But to each their own I guess.  Oh BIG THANKS to Rachel for putting 4 versions of the Rocky Top Song on the ipod, that was real great when dad found ALL 4 VERSIONS!!!!!!!  Rachel, does cruel and unusual punishment mean anything to you?? Yeah you will be hearing from my lawyer when I get back!!  

So we visited the University of Tennessee.  Now if you ever want to see team spirit go to UT because it's the middle of June and people all along the streets were wearing Orange.  Dude you're in summer school and there are no sports over summer but hey representin' their school team.  Go Volunteers!!

We looked at the campus and then there is this big field with dancing waters and then across the street is this tower you can ride an elevator up to the top and it over looks the city.  Well Dad and I decide that we want to go up the elevator to the top.  We've been up before a long time ago, so I didn't think much of the elevator situation until we arrived at the top of the ramp that lead us to the elevator.  There are about 5 elevators surrounding the tower that are suppose to lead you up.  Dad presses the button of the first elevator.  No response.  "Oh it must be broken", Dad says.  My least favorite words when it comes to elevators unless that means I don't have to get on one.  So we try another one on the other side and it dings and the button lights up.  Part of me is already freaking out because the other elevator didn't work and the other part wants to see the city.  The doors open up and we step in.  Thump thump thump thump x 12 and you have my heartbeat.  Let me remind you that we are the ONLY people around.  There is no line to go up the tower, no admission.  It's go at your own risk.  We're in the elevator and Dad and I assume that we wanna push the highest floor leave cause we want to get to the top.  Level 8 was pushed, it was pushed but the light didn't go on.  Weird.  The elevator slowly starts to move.  thump thump thump thump x 18 is my heart now.  Is it just me or whenever you want something to end quickly it seems to take 3 times as long?  So we started on level 3 and then the number jumps to 4.  We stay on level 4 for a while and nothing.  The doors don't open and we don't even go to 8.  When we finally stopped and those doors didn't open by heart was thump thump thump thump x 37!!  Oh great I thought, the one time no one else is around and we get stuck in an elevator which is pretty hot inside might I add.  Then Dad presses the open door button and the doors come open.  Don't laugh, it's not funny.  It was scary!  We walk out into the circular ball thing that is on top of the tower.  That view was amazing.  You could see just about everything.  Then it was time to go down the elevator.  I looked for the stair exit and it said emergency exit only.  Secretly I was thinking this is an emergency.  But we had to go down.  The ride down wasn't bad at all actually.  The doors opened and everything, that's always a good sign.  We looked at the fountains, sat on a lounge chair in the middle of the rapids :) now that was cool.  Not many people can get away with that without getting yelled at by the cops but we made it happen.  You gotta do what you gotta do!!

After seeing the University we headed out.  We were actually a day ahead of schedule so we thought we'd try and make it home.  Drove up through the mountains of Asheville and the scenery was definitely way better than Kansas, or Missouri, or eastern Colorado, or Illinois. 

We figured out that we were going to make it home and Dad and I had decided earlier that at some point we were jumping in a lake, we didn't care where but it just had to be done.  So about 20 minutes away from our house we put our bathing suits on and jumped in Jordan Lake.  It felt so nice.  It was about 6ish so it wasn't too crowded.  After our swimming adventure we asked mom to meet us at the Salem Street Pub.  Now if you haven't been there make sure to swing in by and get some wings.  They are rockingly awesome!  Mom didn't believe us that we were home.  So after much time and lots of convincing she finally met us down at the pub!! 

Calibound has reached North Carolina.  We had a VERY successful trip and it was lots of fun!  Now if you ever get the chance to go cross country I highly recommend it.  Make sure you bring a variety of music and a camera.  And remember you are only allowed to go as fast as your car can go in Texas, unless you are 6'3" and know a lot of police officers.   

Song of Today: Barefoot and Crazy by Jack Ingram

Total milage of today: 470.2

Total milage of the WHOLE trip: 5830.6

Talk about a numb butt.  Now the fun doesn't end here...there are many adventures that we still are set out to do, such as well keep reading to find out more ;) 

And the Grammy goes to....haha just kidding but now I would like to thank my mom and sister for letting us go on this adventure.  Nana for hooking us up with that emergency care package (that carried us for a while), the Serrao family for their entertainment and hospitalities, the Outhouses for an awesome lunch, our lawyer who got us out of having to spend the night in a jai...uh forget that last one, but thanks to everyone that helped us out!!

Fun Fact: Dad and I set a new record of the amount of states visited within 11 days, our record is 18!

More to come... 

Day 10

Wow, eastern Colorado, Kansas, and now Missouri. They're all the same only the names have changed. There's a reason they call it the flat lands. Then enter St. Louis and oh how the tables have turned. From john deere riding to urban city. We got to explore the St. Louis area for a while late yesterday. The gateway to the west is what they are known for and when you see the arch it speaks for itself. Right below the arch is a spot marked to let you know that you are standing directly below and rigth smack in the middle. Now remember USE CAUTION when looking up at the arch from that spot. As soon as you look up your balance gets knocked off and you fall straight backward; trust me on this one. Look up at your own risk.
There's an underground museum you can check out. It's super cool, cause it's a tunnel to connect the bottom of the arch way. They are pretty high tech with their security here because they make you go through security like in the airport, it was kind of wild for a museum. Now you can go up to the top in this small tiny barrel which rides like an elevator & it takes an hour to go all the way around. Again: I HATE ELEVATORS, so no thank you. Plus your packed in with 5 people with NO air conditioning for an HOUR!! But I bet it looks pretty cool once you get to the top.
After St. Louis we jetted out to Illinois. Ever been to Illinois?? Well there is only one thing in Illinois, Metropolis. Oh yeah where Superman lives!! You think I'm joking, try again. We stopped by the one place in the United States where there is a gigantic statue of Superman. Now this whole town is based around Superman. There are little shops full of Superman stuff and little statues everywhere. It is so funny. But hey there's gotta be one place in the U.S. where they can praise Superman and who would of thought that it would be in Illinois. It was awesome.
So we left Superman to go to Tennessee. We made great time. We stayed in a town called Cookeville. Pronounce at your own risk!! Before Cookeville we went and say the Grand Ole Opry. We were totally bummed because we just missed a country concert. We didn't get there until about 10:30 p.m. and the concert was over at 9 p.m. Must of been pretty lame if it was only 2 hours and there were about 7 people performing. Cookeville was pretty interesting. Actually not at all. Once you enter flat lands that is pretty much it for about 3 states.
Song of the Day: Out Tonight by Kenny Chesney
More to come...

Night #9

No more roadkill the whole night. But as we continued to drive into Kansas the hot air and humidity continued to rise. Now if you know Dad and I well enough you know that we are smokin' hot people ;) We are always hot no matter what, so camping in that heat was looking absolutely horrible. We saw one campsite that overlooked a dirt field, a flat dirt field, VERY FLAT. And there were very few campers in their nice air conditioned RVs. It was starting to get dark so we opted to drive into the night. We ended up staying somewhere in Kansas. Now Kansas is...well there's really nothing in Kansas. Nothing worth putting on your must see list. There is the Russell Stovers Candy headquarters in Kansas so I guess that's something worth bragging about.
We got to our cheapo hotel late last night and woke up this morning to play some basketball with a flatter than a pancake basketball. Now we know why it was so cheap cause the breakfast was pratically shut down by the time we got back from basketball. That's a different story.
Showered than made our way through Kansas city. Shout out goes to Nana because we finally used up our Subway gift cards for lunch today!! Fun fact #2: A typical pencil can write 45,000 words or draw a line 35 miles long!! Wow.
More to come...

Day 9

If you ever plan on traveling coast to coast I reccomend going through Utah and then Colorado. You will be blown away by the majestic beauty of Utah but Colorado will take it to a higher level. Ice cold rapids of the Colorado river to the snow capped mountains in the Rockies. Can you believe it snow still sitting on the mountains? Doesn't the weather man know it's June? We drove through the "watch for falling rock" roads and saw even MORE wildlife, this time not so close :) we saw a long horned sheep, a bison, some elk, and our first rattle snake crossing (Let's just say that one ended badly). Driving through the mountains in Colorado are just unbelievable, add that to your must see before you die list. Also if you are a big hot chocolate fan, like myself, you should stop by the Eagle Diner in Eagle County, Colorado. It's a 50s style diner where Sandy would be more than happy to take care of you! Big shout out for lunch today, we went to our long time friends the Outhouses, Carol & Purdy, in Firestone, Colorado. BLT's are always great. With home grown tomatoes from their beautiful garden. It was great to see them after long time no see. [Little history lesson: Purdy taught me to swim when I was 4 at the Velvet Cloak Inn on Hillsbrough St.in Raleigh. He apparently did a great job because I have now been on the Raleigh Charter swim team for 2 years]. Now whenever you end lunch with warm, homemade, chocolate pudding you just know it's going to be a great day and that you've been taken care of by people who truly love ya. Big thanks!! We said our goodbyes to the outhouses and hit the road. And that's when we entered flat, cow country. Those beautiful mountains were in our rearview mirror & then suddenly gone altogether :( we've been staring at flat, grassy patches in Kansas for hours now. We can see at least 25 miles down the road. Saw some roadkill as we drove through farmland, we saw a dead deer. Now when I say that I could see for miles I mean it. There are no forests ANYWHERE so seeing a deer on the side of the road was bizzare. I guess when he tried to find what was on the other side it didn't turn out so good. Then the sadest roadkill of all. So you know when you first start driving and whenever you see a squirrel or bird you swerve or slam on the brakes to make sure you don't hit them? Well birds especially, I was told not to worry about them because they will always move, they can always spread their wings and then they're gone. So we're driving down the road when we see this bird trying to take flight. Then it looks like it's having a little trouble, it's in the air but this bird looks like it is doing flips. Then all of a sudden BAM! We got hit by this bird. No we didn't hit the bird, we got hit BY the bird. And now he was really doing flips. It was a sad encounter. We're going to continue to drive tonight and see how far we can get. One thing to remember when traveling cross country make sure to pack all sorts of different clothes because we hit humidity again and let's just say it's one of your worst nightmares if you only have jeans & a sweatshirt.
Song of the day: Thank You by Led Zeppelin
Fun fact: when triggered, a Venus flytrap closes in less than 100 milliseconds. It takes about 10 days for the trap to digest an insect. Surprised you didn't know that, huh?
More to come...

Night #8

Have you ever thought about Colorado?? If not you totally should more often because it's awesome. The weather alone is unbelievable. It's June and it was probably 60 degrees out last night. It was our first camping adventure of the trip and it turned out way better than our last attempt at camping in Texas. We drove up into this state park and first we thought it was closed and we were a little sad. But then our luck changed when we saw a small sign that said something about signing yourself in. Everything was on the honor system, that's how you can tell it's a small town, so we took our deposit envelopes and dropped them in the mailbox. We found our spot number and started pulling out the tent. Dad started to set up the tent while I was trying to get some things out of the trunk. Now I turn around about to bring some stuff over to the site when all of a sudden there was this cat looking thing running across the parking lot. I'm not sure what the heck it was. It had a longish tail like a cat but it's body was bigger more like a mountain lion or a coyote. And it's fur was a dirty yellow but it had brown spots blended into the fur. Dude, it was weird. But whatever it was we did not see it again and for that I was extremely grateful. We set up our "two men" tent, Thanks OPA!! Started unpacking some other stuff and that's when Dad got attacked by a pack of killer mosquitoes. I rushed to the near gas station and purchased the only bug spray in the entire place (turning out to be the most expensive bug spray I have ever bought, it's just the man keepin' us down). Apparently it was worth every penny cause after spraying some of that we didn't see another mosquito. After setting up camp we made a fire and roasted marshmellows! The campsite was so beautiful. The mountains were in the background with a lake in full view. No other state park can ever compare. We watched the sun set over the lake and it was gorgeous reflecting off the water. We didn't see much wildlife after the coyote/mountain lion/bobcat/U.W.O. (Unidentified Walking Object). Saw a couple rabbits and a frog. We out partied all of our other campsite friends by shutting down around 10:00 p.m. WOAH!!! haha It was a little chilly last night but we had some comfy sleeping bags to help us through. We woke up this morning around 6ish. The campsite truly was AWESOME. We didn't only have flushing toliets about 40 yds. away from us but there was also 2 playgrounds, showers, and a place to do laundry. Talk about da bomb :) We packed up camp and set off to the showers. This is a pretty clean shower place for a campsite, it was probably cleaner than half the bathrooms we've stopped at throughout this whole trip so far. So to work the showers you have to insert coins so they can conserve water. Well you must insert a dollar for 4 minutes and then every minute after that you have to insert another quarter. So I put my 4 quarters in and I put in another quarter thinking 5 minutes should be fine. Turns out 5 minutes was way too long. As soon as I inserted coins it turned on and I noticed the water was a little frigid. I turn the knob to go to hot...nothing happens it's still FREEZING COLD!! I knew something had to be wrong with this place it was just too awesome. So I suck it up and take the fastest shower of my life and get out of there. When I get outside, let me remind you we're in Colorado and it's still a little chilly, my wet hair feels like it is going to turn to iclicles any second. Not to mention I am locked out of the car cause Dad is still in his shower. So I'm waiting outside for him to come trying to air dry my hair, doing hair flips and trying to wrap it in my towel. He finally comes out and he's like "oh man, that was nice!" WhAt?!?! He says, "that was almost a little too hot." He had nice, hot running water. Argghh!! Oh well it happens. More to come...

Day 8

Haha did you guys really think I’d leave you hanging like that with no details on our Vegas trip?? Vegas, wow. It still feels like a dream. So last night we went to the pool for a little while and big shout out goes to Oma & Opa for their $25.00 chip to the Rio. While Aunt Donna, Jake, Amber, and I were poolside Dad did some gambling and number one rule when gambling: ALWAYS quit when you’re ahead. Dad took the initial $25 chip and turned it into a huge jackpot winning of $42.00!! Thanks Oma & Opa for sponsoring our lunch at Hooters, Vegas style. After poolside and gambling we hit the strip. Oh my goodness. Bright lights, big city! The first thing we did was ride the tram to all the major hotels in Vegas. Including the Luxor, Mandalin Bay, Excalibur, New York New York, and Paris (with crepes at midnight or as we say those really thin pancakes). The Casino’s were on the bottom floors of almost every hotel. It was unbelievable to see all the machines and tables. I can’t wait to turn 21 and be able to play some poker, Texas Hold ‘em is my game ;) The displays were remarkable; it’s all showy, showy. The more lights and statues, the better. And the water show at the Belagio…words can’t even describe. Music played and the water danced along to the beat. The patterns it made were so cool. People were lined all in front of the hotel for what seemed like a mile down. When it started everyone jumped because it was so loud but it was so amazing. Visiting all the hotels was awesome because you saw all the different displays. Throughout our hotel touring we acquired a guitar which was the conservation starter of the night and made us a lot of friends along the way. The streets were crowded with people, we saw a few bachorlette parties being taken place and one wedding procession happening right in front of a restaurant. Hey whatever floats your boat I guess. We got to ride a head banging roller coaster ride while in New York New York, no really it was head banging cause it slammed your head against the headrest around every turn. There were a few cork screws, a couple loops, and some pretty steep hills with some barrels to thrash your head around. The Paris hotel was pretty cool with the Eiffel Tower sticking out of it and you could take an elevator all the way to the top. Haha sorry Jake you will never get me to ride that elevator ride, give me any roller coaster no problem but elevators uh no thanks. The walkways in the hotel were fake cobblestone to make it look like the real thing; there were little shops and cafés with small tables in front so you could get the feel of the Paris life. We made a crepe run while in Paris, we downed FOUR crepes. Oh man, can you say delicious?? After Paris we attempted to find our way back to the hotel. Now remember this: shortcuts are not always shorter if you don’t know where they are going to lead you. Our adventure started by trying to cut through the mile shop mall which actually ended up leading us near our hotel but we just wanted to walk around the WHOLE mall twice before finding an exit. I’m not gunna mention any names but someone had a genius idea; instead of going the way we went after lunch back to our hotel we should try this “shortcut”. Famous last words haha well big plus we did walk off those really thin pancakes. Once at the hotel we all crashed. We were wiped, I guess Vegas has that affect on people. This morning we called the valet (oh yeah did I forget to mention the hotel had a valet?) and said our goodbyes to the Serrao’s (minus one) clan. Big thanks goes to Uncle Frank and his company for putting us up in that magnificent hotel, it rocked! Another big thanks goes to the whole Serrao family for putting us up for two nights and hosting us mucho appreciado!! Any one up for a burrito?!?
Left Nevada for the beautiful mountains of Utah. Talk about breath taking, I’ve never seen anything like it. The way the mountains are carved out, it just makes you feel so small. How did the settlers bring wagons over them and what convinced them to keep going? I mean how did they know that water was going to be on the other side of those mountains? That’s been the big debate so far, that and how long do we think it’ll take to climb one of those mountains. We stopped in Hurricane, Utah to go see Riley. That was awesome. He seems to be doing really good and it was great to see him. Thanks Aunt Suzie for setting it up for us and also the directions were perfect, our personal favorite was the “pass truck lane 500 ft., ½ way down truck lane dirt road on right by pile of rocks about 3 ft high” we totally knew what you were talking about.
We’re driving through the mountains right now and there are truck runaway areas about every 6 miles and a “test brake area” about every 15 miles. Apparently it gets pretty intense out here.
Day 7 mileage: 274.5 miles
Total driving as of today at 7:11 p.m. eastern time: 3515.4 miles
Song of today: Barefoot and Crazy by Jack Ingram
Were not sure about our plans for the night but it’s sure to be interesting. More to come…

Day 8

We hit vegas. 7 words for ya, What happens in vegas stays in vegas. Going to Utah today. More to come...

Day 7

Calibound has reached cali. We've beached it, surfed it, and strutted our stuff on the streets. Yesterday we beached it all day and the surf was pretty slow down at Doheny beach. It was more of lake Doheny, the waves were pretty much nonexistent. But they eventually picked up and we got some good quality hours in. Next was Chronic Taco thee best taco place in the world. They make these ginormous burritos and awesome fish tacos. After the beach we played some basketball and hung with the neighborhood kids for the rest of the night, party animals. Today we drove to VIVAAAA LASSSS VEGGASSS!!!! Short car ride today only 4 and half hours YAY!! Now if you've never driven from Cali to Las Vegas let me warn you now fill up on gas before you leave cause there is absolutely nothing in between. But once you enter Vegas your jaw just drops, the sights are so cool to see. It's like seeing all the mayor cities in the world all brought together into one. We've got New York, Paris, even M&M world it's pretty awesome if you ask me. And M&M world is not only one floor but FOUR FLOORS. Pretty Crazy. Now our hotel is absolutely amazing. We're staying at MGM Grande,the signature. Talk about jaw dropping. This place is ridiculous, it has over 30 floors, which was really fun when Amber decided to make the lights in the elevator look like a Christmas tree, making us stop at almost EVERY floor in between our room on the 22 floor. Thanks Amber, at least there was no farting on this elevator ride unlike the one in the coca-cola store. Yeah, you don't wanna know! Now we're about to go to the pool and then go out on the strip once it turns dark. The lights and water show I hear are one of the best parts. Not to mention the lion exhibit INSIDE our hotel, RAWR!! So far only $7.00 has been lost in gambling money, but seeing the blackjack tables and craps tables are tubular dude (I've picked up some surfer talk ever since I've been out here). Can't wait to try out some of my other accents; more to come...

Day 6

Ahh cowabunga dude. We're surfin' it up today. Last night we hit the pool and again dad tried to take away my title but don't worry it didn't happen. We've been hanging at the house and we had homemade pancakes for breakfast!! Home-cooked food after almost a week of fast food is paradise. We'll be at Doheny today and then headed to Vegas tomorrow. Oh yeah this is happenin'. We'll be live tomorrow and i'll get to write and more to come...

Day 5

Wow, what a short day comparatively. We finally made it to the west coast!! After yesterday we were pretty exhausted so we called it a night after quickly jumping into the pool and playing a quick round of beach volleyball. Of course I won, I mean if you ask the other party (Terrence aka daddy-o) he might debate something different but all in all we know who truly won, mwah! We crashed in some pretty comfy beds if I say so myself. Breakfast was quite tasty, omlets are always a personal favorite. Then we packed up and headed out. Our trip today took about 5 and half hours, YAY for short car rides. Then we made it here. The weather has changed big time, the difference between here and Texas is awesome as in you can actually step outside without dripping in sweat. Now we've just been chilling at the house and Amber and I just got back from a bike ride.
Song of Today: Chicken Fried by Zac Brown Band (Zac Brown Band is holding strong with 2 top songs this week)
More to come...

Slideshow Attempt

Hey everyone,
So I tried to get a slideshow up and running but since technology and I aren't on the best of terms it's not being very friendly. It's cutting off all the pictures but if you look at the picture to the right --> underneath is a button that says "make your own" and then next to that is another button which is partically cut off. You want to click on the partically cut off one and then another window should pop up and then click "view album" and then some pictures should show up. There's not a lot there but I will hopefully get more up soon. Sorry, I'll try being nicer to my computer and maybe it'll return the favor. More to come...

Night #4

Longest travel day EVER. After 12 hours in the car your butt starts to get a little numb. Yeah you heard me right, 12 HOURS!!!! Lucky for us we picked up two hours today so we get to sleep in a little tomorrow, YAY for sleep. So it's currently 11:15 p.m. eastern time but in Phoenix, AZ it's only 8:15 p.m. The majority of today was spent in the car and consisted of trying to find a cooperative radio station. But in the middle of nowhere it's a little hard. Each time a good song came on static would start to take over, so the iPod was plugged in for a while, props go out to Rachel for setting up our song lists. If it's on the list, it's on the list...sure Rachel :)
Two major non-family shout outs go to our buddy Jimmy Cryspin who sponsored our hotel room and dinner at the very lovely Embassy Suites right in the city. You so totally rock dude!! The view is pretty killer; we open our front door to over look the pool that is surrounded by palm trees. And the mountains that line the city look like a backdrop from the movies, postcard perfect.
Second shout out goes to KNIX 102.5 FM best country music north of Tucson and hopefully will lead us in Cali. Representin!!
We made it for happy hour at the hotel and had complimentary (our new favorite word) hors d'oeuvres and drinks. You should see the mustaches on some guys in Arizona they are pretty funky lookin'. Por ejemplo [this is me practicing my Spanish, I mean we did see Mexico today, well we could see the fence that tries to keep immigrants out] : so we're sitting at a table & a man sitting at the end of the bar has a pretty bushy mustache, but it's not only bushy, it comes to the corners of his mouth and is then twisted, looking almost gelled, up at the ends. Like those French chefs you see in the movies. Haha it was...different.
No interesting road kill stories for today but we did have to go through an inspection check point, to make sure we weren't smuggling anything or anyone. Just to make sure no one would be confused we turned up our country music and sang along; we didn't want them thinking we were illegal or anything so we thought the country music might help.
Song of the Day: Sounds Like Life to Me by Darryl Worely
Tonight's a relaxing night, maybe hitting the pool later on but sweet dreams and more to come...

Day 4

Spending the night in central Texas last night was interesting to say the least. But it’s not a road trip without some adventurous stories right? We got up and ate breakfast with some former military people who couldn’t help but complain about our government. Coolest thing ever: waffle maker in the shape of Texas, so I ate Texas this morning. This morning we entered into western Texas and hit the only point of interest for about 200 miles, Davey Crockett’s monument. It’s the only thing in town and when I say only thing I mean ONLY THING. The town is basically surrounding this little monument. Now we’ve just been driving and we still have a ways to go before El Paso. So far no armadillo sightings :( but we still have New Mexico. We hit the 80 mph road (80 mph optional, give or take a few 20, it’s just joke mom) and it’s pretty sweet. You can see for miles in either direction. Just plateaus, mountains, and valleys. Ain’t no mountain high, ain’t no valley low, ain’t no river wide enough baby to keep me from getting to you.
Total miles of day 3: 667.4
Total as of 12:05 eastern time: 1921.5 miles
More to come…

Night #3 Fiasco

Things didn’t exactly go as planned, but then again they never really do. Here’s our story. We were all set to camp out tonight, called ahead to a couple of campsites to make sure everything was on the up and up. Even asked to see if other people would be camping out too, just to make sure we wouldn’t be the only losers sleeping outside on a hot summer night in Texas. Everything was looking pretty good. The two campsites we scoped out had swimming pools, riverside views, flushing toilets :-), a pavilion, and nice shady areas with hopes of a nice cool breeze. We take our exit and type the address into our GPS and start following our British lady’s accented directions. Let me remind you it’s already 9:30 and the sun has already set (which by the way was beautiful to watch. The sun set right over the hills and half the sky was still blue with clouds while the other half was turning a light golden, orange. I’ve seen the sun set on the ocean, but this kind of sunset is something completely different. It was slower and the colors were entirely different) so it is pretty dark out. We’re now off the exit and following these curvy back roads. It’s just the road, and mounds of sand on either side. We’re the only ones on the road and not gunna lie it was a little erie. So we follow the directions to the end of the road and then we see a sign that says “end of paved road”, WHAT?!?! So we take our assigned left onto a road and then we spot another sign that says “dead end”…are you kidding?? Ha I wish we were. It was a long gravel road with bushes on either side, it looked like something out of those scary movies when the family is driving down the road and all of a sudden they get a flat tire and have to pull over oh and then members of the family just start disappearing, what a coincidence. So trying to avoid as many scary movie scenarios as possible we quickly booked it out of there, having to cross a one lane bridge blocked off by construction cones. We pulled into a nearby town, gassed up the car and asked where the other campsites were located. The directions seemed easy enough, so we found our first campsite of the night. The State Park in Junction, TX, wide open to ANYONE. There was no gate on this campsite and there was also NO OTHER CAMPERS but there was some local wildlife, deer. “There had to be a hundred thousand, maybe even a million. It’s gunna take hours before we get this cleared”(Name that movie).
Tonight was the night for deer cause we saw at least 50. We tried to see if we could get some luck at another campsite the lady at the gas station told us about only about a mile away. We found it, again more deer, and it was closed for the night but there was a late parking area but then you had to pay a ridiculous amount pretty much the same as the nearby motel, Lazy T’s. So we tried ANOTHER campsite. This one was five miles away and this was the creepiest one of all. We followed the signs that lead us into the park. Now we’re in the park and we are on some remote roads, way far off any exit, and the first sign we spot is one that says “watch out for snakes”. Now just pause a second and let that sink in. CREEPYYYYY!! Why would you wanna camp in the middle of the woods where you know it’s basically going to be a snake haven? Despite the sign we continue to drive down this rocky road (Rachel’s favorite ice cream). There’s another wooden sign that says park headquarters 1.5 miles. We continue to drive. Along this mile and half we were chased by deer, followed by some jack rabbits, and even had a standoff with a raccoon that had no intention of backing down. Reached the headquarters and the parking lot was empty, and no lights on inside the “headquarters” if that was even what it truly was. Not to mention there wasn’t any other campers in sight. We turned the car around and exited the park asap. Now the night isn’t so young anymore and the wildlife seems to be even more abundant. Next we plug the GPS in and try to find anything even semi close to where we were. Oh wow, gee how convenient the GPS can’t find satellite. Great. We drive and eventually get some signal. So our camping experience didn’t go as planned and we end up spending the night at a hotel. But let me just describe to you our hoteling experience. So you know that Verizon wireless commercial where the guy goes into the hotel and the guy behind the counter looks kind of creepy and tells the man that he won’t get any signal, trying to scare the guy off. Then the customer explains that he has Verizon so he can get signal anywhere, and the guy behind the counter hands him the keys and says, “Well…towels are kind of scratchy.” We located that hotel without any signal. Let me just say this, I didn’t go into the bathroom without my shoes on.
Traveler trip of the day: Always use your military discount, best price in town!
More to come…

Night #3

So you all remember the Alamo?? Haha well it might be a little hard to miss if your driving in San Antonio. You'd think they'd have a huge shrine the way everyone talks about it but no, false, it's smaller than the World's Largest Frying Pan (Highway 40 and go into Rosehill, NC take exit 380 and a right off the exit & a right at the first light and then about a quarter mile down the road it's on your right!). Now let me remind you the world's largest frying pan holds up to 365 chickens and weighs 2 ton (4,000 lbs). Now if you haven't seen the frying pan make sure to stop by next time on your way to the north carolina beaches, life is not complete without seeing it. We saw the Alamo which took a total of about 5 minutes, snapped a few pictures and badda bing badda boom we were done with that! Next was the riverwalk. One word, WOW!! It is beautiful, like a mixture of downtown Santa Barbara and Boston's Fannell Hall on a river. If you haven't already seen it make sure to add it to your "must see before I kick the bucket" list. I suggest going when it's NOT 95 degrees and when the sun isn't scorching. We took the riverboat which took us all throughout the heart of the city. Again, dying from heat exhaustion, but absolutely gorgeous. The way the trees drap over the river and the little shops all along the sidewalks, it's so awesome. Fun fact: at the end of the year about 200 people will have fallen into the river right off the sidewalk, GO NIMRODS!! According to our tour guide, more often than not those falls occur on friday, saturday, or sunday nights. We left the city to drive out to see Dad's old air force base, Lackland A.F.B. which is where we got to see DAVEY. One of the many surprises that Dad has hit me with. That was AWESOME!! He's growing a mohawk, crazy kid :) we took him to dinner at this build your own bowl of stir fry. Pretty cool, just don't overload on those spices otherwise your normal little stir fry will turn into one hot tamale. He showed us a little of the grounds and then had to go for some type of inspection,bummer dude. He says he misses everybody and can't wait to be able to see everybody. We left him and now were driving to our campsite somewhere in Junction, TX. Well see how this goes our first camping experience of the trip, yeah I'm pretty intrigued to see how it goes too.
Song of today: All My Ex's Live In Texas by George Jones.
No more armadillo sightings but we did see a dead cat, second of the trip, and a LIVE deer in the median. Also had a second encounter with a hobo and we were harrassed by a piegon, yeah let's not talk about that one.
It appears these budget cuts are greatly affecting our sleeping accomidations let's hope for a turn in the stock market soon, PLEASE!!! More to come...

P.S. The Texas sun is HOTT!!!

Day 3

With the overwhelming heat and humidity we opted out of camping for a low budget, sub-par inn that was no doubt at one time occupied by the hobo. But nevertheless the air conditioning worked and we were ALMOST bug free. (WARNING: Staying at hotels like this is not advised for people without dads that are 6’3” and have already had a long day on the road, keeps the rift raft out if you know what I mean) Total miles traveled yesterday: 845.3. Total to date [as of 2:24 p.m eastern time]: 1322.1 miles.
I drove through the Bayou in Louisiana which was a little creepy truth be told, thanks for the heads up Mr. Tom! Now if you’ve never seen a Bayou it’s…well it’s like in the movie The Rescuer’s with the mice, the alligators, and the girl Penny. Yeah I’m going old school or as old school as you can get as a seventeen year old. But it has trees EVERYWHERE and swampy waters with sticks and mud. Basically if you fell off the bridge we were driving you’d probably be eaten alive by some alligators or snakes. I was offered $100 to swim across but as tempting as that sounded I had to turn it down in best interest of my survival.
Go big or Go home, it’s the Texas way. We crossed the Texas border and had our first alligator encounter, feisty little devils. Along with our first ever alligator snapping turtle, didn’t even know they existed and sad to say it might of put an end to Dad’s soccer career but that’s still debatable. I got to drive through Texas into Rice University, WOOHOO!! But once again I am totally cursed; construction around every bend. Another college on the list. Hey Mr. Petteway is that better than Auburn? I mean this is my name sake? Rice, Home of the Owls, got to tour the football stadium. I have never seen grass so green before in my life. Then while trying to leave Rice Dad got in trouble with ANOTHER police officer, something about going the wrong way on a one way street but uh…more details on that later. But no police reports have been filed yet and that’s always a big plus. For more information please go to www.riceuniversity.com/policeblotter/06-16-09.html
As far as border crossing goes it’ll be a while. When we first got into Texas we shortly realized that it is 847 miles until El Paso, heck no Joe we ain’t driving that many miles. As far as road kill goes we have spotted two more dead armadillo’s (total: 3), one while leaving Louisiana and another while driving outside Houston. Another shout out goes to Nana for sponsoring lunch again today and that adventure trip “emergency” kit is totally coming in handy :)
Now we are headed to San Antonio for, well more to come…

Night #2

It's the night of day 2 and we're fried. The time change difference is pretty cool, at least going out here it will help us, but coming back it'll be...well a race against time. We got into Mississippi a little after 4:00 and saw the remains of Hurricane Katrina. It's amazing to see how much has been done and all the things that still need to be fixed. Stairs from front porches leading to nowhere, it's so hard to picture how water can do that much damage. The sand on the beach is SUPER white, it's crazy. And the water is...uncomfortably warm if you ask me. Quick survey: anyone gone swimming in the Gulf of Mexico before?? Well we can cross that off our list of things to do. Yup that's right we went swimming and we could walkout pretty far, it was bizzare. The water was so shallow and murky with debri still scattered everywhere. After quickly jumping in we drove down the strip and saw more houses or I guess more foundations than actual houses.
We got into Louisana after some "confusion" of which bridge would take us across. Then we saw the Superdome home of the New Orlean Saints. Next we headed to the French Quarter, which if you've never been it's basically a bunch of bars packed into 5 streets. But with all the signs and lights it looks really cool. Now the smell is something completely different. The smell is TERRIBLE. Picture everyone in one city not showering for about, oh i don't know, 2 months and that's the smell mixed with car exhaust and the wind blowing HOT air. After having a extremely bad piece of pizza we walked down to see the harbor. Dad and I are walking back from looking at some of the boats when this guy walking with another guy calls out to Dad (dad's wearing a N.C. State shirt). We see a few homeless people in the park, and dad says how things have gotten even worse after the Hurricane. So the shirtless guy asks Dad where we are from because he's from N.C. too. We tell him Raleigh and then he tells us he's a hobo, yeah like we couldn't tell by the no front tooth thing and a gold bottom tooth but thanks for the confirmation dude :) It was so funny! After our harrassment from the hobo we went to the New Orleans Zephyr's minor league baseball game. We watched them win 2 to 1 against Omaha AND we were on the BIG SCREEN twice!! It was awesome. Out of all 34 fans that actually attended the game it was an honor. I can't tell you how hard we worked to get up there, all i can say is there was a lot of dancing involved. haha well sweet dreams for now and more to come...

Day 2

Hey everyone!! So we ended up leaving last night around 9:30 which put us outside of Charalotte a little after midnight. Those Embassy Suites rock!! We woke up this morning, quite grumpily might I add, to a 5:45 wake up call. START YOUR ENGINES!! We filled up on breakfast taking a few things with us cause who knew when or if we'd be eating again. And who knew you HAD to wear shoes at the Embassy Suite breakfast area? Then we headed out around 7:00ish. As of 2:30 eastern time we have crossed South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama's borders. Big shout out goes to Nana who sponored lunch at subway, gotta love those $5 footongs :)and there's a new consideration for college, Auburn University, it's freakin sweet, sorry mom. Plus I heard their basketball team is looking a little wimpy so I might help 'em out a little. I got to drive pretty much all of Georgia and halfway into sweet home Alabama, and I have been cursed with construction so Ricky Bobby had to take over and get us out of that catastrophe. Those popo are EVERYWHERE but I won't go into details about that. Oh and first sighting of a dead armadillo was in Alabama, poor guy. Top Song of today is Whatever It Is by Zac Brown Band I swear I think we've heard it at least 9 times today. On our way to Mississippi more to come...

Day Before Departure

AHHH!!! It's Sunday night and were still debating on whether to leave tonight or early tomorrow morning.  Right now it's looking like tomorrow morning. But big props go out to Dad and his soccer team Congrats on making it to the finals in soccer.  GO GREEN!! They played a tough game today which went into overtime and then sudden death, it was a nice try and they played real hard and ended up losing by one :(  BUT there is a big upside they are now going to be sponsored by the Salem Street Pub that's a big plus.  Well packing still needs to be started.  More to come...