Road Trip: Day 5

Sorry, I'm writting this a few days late. Here is the update for the last day of our trip.

What a long day. We arrived in San Jose at 7:30am on Thursday. That's right, 2800 miles in 3 days. I talked my dad into pulling an all-nighter to beat my mom and grandparents home (they flew back from Georgia on Thursday morning). At first, my dad didn't want to drive all night, but I tricked him into it. I told him he was right, we should stay at a hotel room because he was getting too old to pull all-nighters on road trips. I told him he couldn't keep up with me anymore. It worked.

So, we left El Paso, TX at 7:00am local time and headed toward New Mexico. We spent the majority of the daylight traversing New Mexico and Arizona. As we entered California, we decided to go all the way to LA. We didn't want to fight traffic the next morning, so we went through the city at about 10:00pm.

Ok, cool story. I learned some trucker language on Wednesday night. I was passing a trucker in a big rig when he flashed his headlights at me. I learned that this was the signal to tell me that it was clear for me to come back into the right lane. Well, if they can do then I can try it too. I purposefully went slower so truckers would have to pass me (I know, lame huh). When they signaled to merge back into the right lane, I flashed my headlights to help them out. To my surprise, the trucker flashed his tail lights at me, to say thank you of course. I felt like I was in a special club or something. Although that's not exactly a noteworthy club.

After getting through LA, we drove up to San Luis Obispo and took an hour long nap. Then we grabbed some more coffee and I finished off the trip by driving the remaining 3 hours to San Jose. My own bed never felt so good.

In conclusion, our trip was successful. We made it back to San Jose without an car trouble, major setbacks, or other problems. I'm still recovering, but it was fun. Thanks for following along.

Road Trip: Day 4

(9:17pm PST)
I’m now sitting in a comfortable hotel in El Paso, Texas surfing the web. My dad and I drove over 800 miles today from Shreveport, Louisiana to El Paso, Texas. At a cool 60 miles per hour in our rental truck, that translates to almost 14 hours of actual driving time, not counting stops to relieve ourselves and get some more food and coffee. We are ahead of schedule and I think we may get back to San Jose in 4 days instead of 5. We’ll see I guess.

Texas is a huge state. We spent the whole day driving and there were only oil wells and scrub brush as far as the eye could see. It also rained all day today. We drove right through a major storm system that was moving east. It poured for hours at a time and there was lightning occasionally. It seemed that every time we got into some heavy rain I was driving the truck. When my dad drove, the weather was pleasant and we didn’t encounter any nasty rain. Oh, well. Our plan is to get to the border of Arizona and California tomorrow. I think we may even get farther than that if we can keep that same pace we had today. I’m going to take a hot shower and go to bed. Good night.

Road Trip: Day 3

(12:42pm PST)
We are just about to cross the Alabama/Mississippi border, Ya’ll! After getting started this morning at 8:30am Eastern Time, we have driven almost 400 miles. We gained an extra hour of time when we crossed into the Central Time Zone. We expect to make it to Shreveport, Louisiana tonight. I haven’t acquired a southern accent yet, but its on the tip of my tongue. Well, more to come tonight.

(2:48pm PST)
I just finished watching the movie Unbreakable in the truck. I brought my computer and I let my mind take a vacation while my dad drove us across the state of Mississippi. Its just about dark here and we are going to switch drivers here soon. I’m gonna need a good cup of truck-stop coffee to gag me awake. I am going to keep writing updates as we travel since I brought my computer. My next update will be from Louisiana. That’s all from Mississippi, ya’ll.

(2:52pm PST)
Oh, I almost forgot. This trip has given me the opportunity to think about stuff and clear my head. Thus, I’ve discovered a new passion of mine: southern sweet tea. That right, this beverage is amazing and I’d recommend driving to Georgia just for the sweet tea. Its worth it.

(8:29pm PST)
Its 10:30pm here in Shreveport, Louisiana. We made our goal and we are tired. I drove the last 150 miles to arrive here and I think my dad and I are going to go to bed soon so we can get up at 5:00am and get on the road by 6:00am. We’re hoping to get all the way across Texas tomorrow. Its weird because we went across Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana today and tomorrow we are going to spend the same amount of time going across most of Texas. Anyway, I’m going to bed, I’m tired. Oh, the hotel we are staying at does not have internet access so I’ll have to upload this tomorrow (I know what you’re thinking, “What! No internet! How can that be!”). Apparently, there is no internet in Louisiana. Luckily, tomorrow we’ll be in Texas. I here they have the internet there.

Road Trip: Day 2

(9:48pm PST)
Today is finally over. I thank God I’m still alive after all the work we did today. I’d like to say that this was the hardest day of our trip, but I don’t want to speak too soon. We packed up the rental truck with stuff from 9:00am – 10:30pm (with breaks for lunch and dinner of course). Then, to top it all off, we hooked up the trailer which we will be hauling my Mom-mom and Pop-pop’s Ford Crown Victoria on. Let’s just say, the truck moaned and groaned a lot when we pulled out of the apartment complex to drive over to our hotel tonight. We finally finished getting everything set up at about 12:30am. What a day. I’m going to bed because we are going to try driving 700 miles tomorrow and hopefully make it all the way to Shreveport, LA. I know, crazy eh. Well, more to come tomorrow.

Road Trip: Day 1

(1:46pm PST)
Today is a travel day. My parents and I left the Bay Area at 9:00am this morning. Our flight made a connection in Denver Colorado. I got the window seat and I must say, the Rocky Mountains are one of the most beautiful things God created. The snow looked like powered sugar on the mountain tops as we sailed thousands of feet above the Rockies. It was a brisk 30 degrees in Denver, but luckily we didn’t have to leave the airport terminal.

Our plane left Denver and we headed to Atlanta Georgia at about 1:30pm Mountain Time. Currently, I am cruising at 563 mph at 39, 777 ft. in a Frontier Airlines A319 Airbus. Not that this information is important at all, but there is a cool flat-panel screen on the back of every seat that shows a live map with a little plane showing where we are right now. As a matter of fact, we are right over top of Wichita, Kansas right now. I’m excited, how about you?


(2:12pm PST)
I broke two records today. Are you ready? I traveled at 650 miles per hour in an airplane today and flew at over 40,000 feet. Crazy huh. I think it’s amazing that I am moving at over 600 mph and I feel the same and as when I sitting still. By the way, I’m fascinated with Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (just ask Jon Renfro). By the way, Little Rock, Arkansas is coming up on the right. That’s all for now.

(8:15pm PST)
Its 11:15pm here is Perry, Georgia. We just arrive about 30 minutes ago and spent some time at my Mom-mom and Pop-pop’s apartment before we checked into the hotel. Just to back-track a little bit, we landed in Atlanta, GA at about 6:30pm local time. We then got out rental car and headed for Perry, GA where my Mom-mom and Pop-pop live.

Ok, funny story about the rental car situation. If you know my mom at all, she can get a little worked up about things when you throw her a curveball. My dad and I are only going to be here for one day until we leave with the rental truck, so my mom is going to fly back with my grandparents and take the rental car back. Since my dad didn’t want to pay the extra money to add another driver to the rental contract, my mom was the only one who could drive the rental car. The twist comes because the rental company did not have anymore full-sized cars at the cheaper rates, so the rental company bumped us up to a luxury car. My mom is now the proud renter of a brand new Chrysler 300 and she is driving at night on highways she is unfamiliar with. Fourth of July came early this year because there were fireworks as we navigated through central Georgia.

Tomorrow we’ll load up the truck and get everything prepared for departure. We have a 16 foot truck and a trailer that we will tow my Mom-mom and Pop-pop’s Crown Victoria on. Should be fun.

Oh, I almost forgot. My palm-pilot was stolen on the airplane today. I'm sad, but not because of the Palm-pilot. The Palm was a six year old model and I got it for free from a friend of my dad. I didn't use it very much. But, what really kills me is that I had a very sentimental token in the leather case of the palm-pilot. Greg Marcelo gave me some money from Puru when he went on a missions trip there a few years ago. That bill from Puru was very meaningful to me and now its gone. Well, I guess there's more to life than Palm-pilots and money. Life goes on.

Life

My life is crazy right now. I'm almost done with finals at school and I've got tons of work to do for my new job. More posts to come, I promise.

Also, as of Saturday, I'll be taking a road trip from Georgia to California in an effort to move my mom-mom and pop-pop to San Jose. My dad and I will be driving a rental truck across the country. I'm going to use this blog to post a trip journal. Should be fun.