Well a couple weekends ago My dad and I drove my sister to California. The entire trip time was 41:59 hours with a 40:14 driving time over 2000 miles.
And this is how it went.
My sister had got married a week before we drove her to California and she came back to Indiana to arrange some things. She needed to figure out how there things were going to get shipped out there and how she was going to get a car. When she needed a car this is where my dad and I came in. My dad did not trust her driving out there on her own since she has not been driving a long time, she is little, and there are a lot of creeps on the road; I agreed that 2000 miles is way too many for my little sister.
When we left the house my dad started the trip and I was glad since I was still tired since I stayed up till 04:00AM and only slept for a few hours. I convinced my dad to take I-80 and that we would probly only have to pay toll one time… and I was right. So we headed for Chicago which we would later land in by airplane on the way home. It was the same old drive to Chicago… a couple hours too long and boring. We stopped there for lunch we all looked like we had been driving for too long and still had 40:00 hours to go.
I was suprised that my dad wanted to stop at Taco Bell since he always talks about how much he hates Mexican food. I wonder when he decided to just try it instead of knocking it all of the time. We would eat Mexican food a few time on the trip by his request; this was probly one of the biggest shocks in my life.
We continued our trip trough Iowa. When we were driving through I wanted to stop by my friend Nate’s place pretty bad we I could not remember exactly how to get there. I did recognize a Walmart and shopping center that was close to his house though. I went and visited him with his dad last spring. I am hoping he comes to Indiana sometime so we can watch some YTMND and maybe play some video games like the college days. While we were driving through we saw the Mississippi and some windmills. Other than that Iowa is flatter and has less life than Indiana. Then we drove through Nebraska which was just as boring.
The rest of the trip is really just a blur since we never stopped driving unless we were hungry or the car was hungry for gasoline. I remember after Iowa though I woke up and saw some mountains. Once I saw them I could not even fall asleep. The only mountains I ever saw were in Laos; America redeemed itself by showing some new landscape to me. I always though of America as this great flatland; I always knew it had mountains and cool stuff but I never witnessed it first hand. Even though it was about late at night/early morning I was enchanted by the huge mountains. I stopped the car a few times to take photos of the giant hills. This was the best time to take photos since during the day the highway was crowded. at night the only vehicle you really see are semi trucks avoiding the traffic of the day. I was disappointed at myself for not bringing my tripod; I could have taken so many cool photos while I was out there. I’m sure I’ll have more time to take photos out there when I get to travel after my loans are paid off.
I drove through the first group of mountains till we hit flat ground again. My dad took control but I woke up again to see more mountains. These were not green like the first set though these were brownish red with snow on them. We were deeper in Wyoming. The mountains i saw there wrapped itself around a small town that was lit up before the sunrise.
Although Wyoming had stuff to look at since it was not flat it was a pretty boring ride. Everything was just brown. When we hit the boarder of Wyoming and Utah it was like magic. When we wrapped around our last brown mountain in Wyoming we saw the green mountains of Utah. The road curved along the side of the mountains going up and down. The inclines were so steep that the semi trucks had a hard time climbing up the hills… my sisters little car didn’t like them much either. When my dad was tired of driving we stopped on the side of the road and he wouldn’t stop bugging me to take his photo in front of some of the mountains. I think that he was just as excited as I was to be somewhere new and to look at new things. I know that the trip brought me out of a little slump I have been in for a while by knowing there is a lot more than what is at home.
A lot of Utah was so foggy because of how it was just surrounded by mountains. I was kind of disappointed because I wanted to see Salt Lake City. Once we were about to exit the Salt Flats we hit a snow storm that lasted for about half an hour. I did the driving though because I don’t trust my dad and my sister doesn’t drive well in the snow either. A few minutes into the snow storm it started to get pretty deep. It was nothing compared to what we have here in the Midwest.
Once we got out of the snow storm and at the end of the Salt Flats we had dinner at some Mexican restaurant. The place had a lot of photos of people who try and break land speed records on bikes, cars, and minivans. The restroom ranked number one in gross truck stops. It did have the typical gross showers, novelties, and scary stories on CD about masked murdering truckers who abduct females while on the road.
When we got to the boarder of Utah and Nevada The scenary changed again. It seems to me that states are separated by the way they look, out in the West. Nevada was covered in beatiful towering mointains covered in snow with clouds falling off thier peeks. I wanted to climb every single one of them. Nevada tries to seduce people in with these beatiful mountains then it kills you with its harsh wasteland.
Once we got to the end of Nevada I went into a total different mode. I knew I was about to drive for 1000 miles straight. I knew that if I kept driving we would make it there with no problems. I stopped for gas in Reno; my sister called her husband with excitment. I was happy because I was delivering a happy bride/sister to a egerly waiting husband. Someone made a giant “g” in the mountain in Reno.
The next part of the trip was the most exciting. I had to drive through 100 miles of 3 lane mountain range but the lanes were not painted on. Some people were driving in excess of 70mph I kept the car 65mph and stuck behind a car that seemed to know what was going on. It was a fun ride and I’m glad my mom wasn’t on that road with us because she would probly never stop yelling.
Once we got out of the mountain we could see the bright lights of all the little towns. That is one of the things I loved about the mountains. Everytime you aproach a different town you can see the whole town from way up there. The rest of the trip was pretty boring just a lot of exits and turns to get where she lives.
Once we got to her place we picked up her husband and took them home. We stayed at a hotel. I’m glad too because my sisters shower didn’t have hot water and all I wanted to do was take a shower.
The next day my sister took us around town and we went to an aquarium in Monterey Bay while her husband was doing his Marines stuff. It was a cute little town with a lot of hills, people who bicycle and run, and ocean. When we drove there someone had drew a face in the sand dune with grass and it said, “I love ____”. When we left someone was picking it apart; I wonder if it was the girl. Also when we left there was a homeless guy playing the guitar pretty well but he sang like a drunken pirate. I wanted to listen to him more but I also wanted to spend time with my family more than the drunken guitar playing pirate.
Later that night after we ate and drank some beer (probly the only time I took a decent photo the whole trip) my sister and her husband took us to where they got married. It was also a cute little spot. I got to take some night shots of their town. I was kinda upset since this was one of the funnest days I had with my sister and that I knew I would not see her in a long time.
When we left it was 04:30AM this was the 3rd time I ever saw my dad cry my whole life; the 1st time was when I made his really mad when I was a kid and the 2nd time was the morning my sister picked us up from the hotel to spend our last day together. For some reason I never cried that she left. I do miss her but I know that she is having a great time being married and living in a really nice town; I also know that I will see her many more times and she’ll have stories to tell. The trip also makes me want to move out to the coast in a warmer state. I’m glad she didn’t fly out there and I’m glad that my dad and I got to spend some good time with her because spending time with family is something that my family does not to well and we did it for an entire day. And that is probly what makes me feel the most upset about her being gone. At least I know although we don’t spend much time together we are always willing to do anything for family.
