a cross country adventure!

Yes it has been over a month since our last post but it’s not from lack to talk about.  We have been busy with car shopping, apartment hunting, food eating, plane flying, wedding crashing, hot sunny day living.

Our second day here we decided to explore a canyon road which seemed to be a good alternative for the 101 when traffic was congested. We drove to the first one we could find on the map which happened to be called Decker Canyon.  It began as a 4 lane road and quick dwindled to a wide 2 laner with lackadaisical curves and good mountain views.  Everyone seemed to be coming from the opposite direction til the stray car was an unexpected sight. We climbed and climbed while the road got ever more narrow.  The sky grew eerily dark which ironically foreshadowed the blindness that was to come.

We enjoyed the quietly expensive homes nestled in the hills and valleys of the furry, desert mountains. They sooned faded out of view as the cliffs against the road became increasingly steep. It was at this point that the gas light came on… not to worry we were only 10 or so miles from the beach and potential fuel. That’s when we saw the sign that showed “winding road next 9 miles”. Around the next turn was a bus that couldn’t quite make then turn and got stuck on the edge of the cliff. Police were present to help us wedge between the cliff, bus, and mountain wall right next to us. It was after the next curve that our bigger worries began to show. Fog… the white blindness.

The road became like a video game with hairpin turns around extremely graded roadway with certain game over status on either side of us… if only we had upgraded the tires. Beau began to get nervous as our average speed decreased below 10 mph due to the combination of not being able to see the guardrail-less abyss to one side, the jagged rock face on the other, and the inside of casper’s belly in front of us.

This continued on with random breaks in the fog to take the occasional picture til we came to a rare crossroad.  After debating for a second we decided to take what looked like a more reasonable roadway down to the ocean, fortunately it was the right decision.

We made it the edge and broke through casper’s belly like an alien to the view of Malibu and Point Dume, several hundred feet above the Pacific Ocean (Beau’s first time seeing it).  We quickly coasted our way toward level ground in neutral and pulled into the first gas station we saw.  Night was just starting to set in so we decided to stop and get some food before making our way back up another canyon road. Malibu Canyon road to be exact which was much friendlier to us than Deck was. It still had some great views at night, Beau noticed a striped mountain which intrigued him. We got home safely and exhausted but enjoyed the first adventure in the Cali mountains.

Not surprisingly, driving across the country costs a lot of money!  We took I-40 from D.C. to Los Angeles, which is probably the most direct (toll road free) route you can take. 

Knowing that we slept in hotels every night and that we traveled for 6 days… any guesses on what our grand total was?

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Waking up in Vegas was easy at 6am since we drove fast enough for jet lag to actually affect us.  When we walked downstairs Gramma and Joe had already been dressed and ready for 3 hours, being retired is awesome.  Gramma wanted to treat us to breakfast so we went to one of her favorites, Mimi’s Cafe.  It was surprisingly gloomy outside as we drove to the restaurant. 

The breakfast was ridiculously good but was dwarfed in memory by something that happens seldomly in Vegas, RAIN. And a helluva lot of it.  It poured down rain and thunder rumbled like Hurricane Irene stowed away in our trunk only to jump out and attack us again in Vegas.  The funny thing about rain in Vegas…. they don’t get it, so the roads have no drainage and the people have no driving skills. The streets literally ran like rivers about 6 to 10 inches deep while people whimsically hydroplaned their way to the early bird slot machines. We tried to wait it out in the restaurant but after an hour we decided to trek it back to home, Gramma let Beau drive.

Soon after we returned to the house, above sea level, we said our goodbyes and made our way to the border of the final state.  It was a quick drive to the border with a last chance gambling spot just before it but we resisted. 

The rain seemed to follow us down I-15. We ended up stopping at a smallllll gas station in the middle of the desert that had nothing better to do than to gouge people with gas prices at $4.99…. welcome to Cali (we did not fill up).  A man on a motorcycle that looked like he just drove thru a timewarp from the 50s asked us for a weather report.  Beau said rain all the way up 15 to Vegas and the guy decided to wait it out in the little gas station, we wondered what he would do in the little run down shack for the hours he’d have to wait for the weather to pass. 

We continued on only to be stopped at a “California Inspection” station.  We had to let Pedro and Jose make a run for the border on their own… we couldn’t make it in prison.  When they asked us if we had any fruit or animals we realized this wasn’t the Mexico border. 

The drive through the LA “metro” area was unusually long.  It seemed to all blend together especially since the smog floating above the city softened the sections of metropolis together.  It took about an hour to make it across the whole city and into Thousand Oaks.  Our immediately thoughts were that it felt like Ashburn, VA or Maryland.  The only differences that set it apart from our East Coast homes were the architecture and the mix of rolling hills and desert mountains surrounding the area, oh and the A-list celebrities on every single corner.  We found our temporary apartment and were pleasantly surprised by how nice it was.  We were distraught for a couple hours because there was no Washer/Dryer. It was only upon further exploration of the patio that we discovered a secret bonus closet outside that contained the units, SUCCESS!  We continued to unpack and settle in as quickly as possible since Beau had to sign into work the next morning at 7am PST.  We quickly realized that our trip had really just begun since we have to rebuy a lot of belongings, buy a car for Beau, and find a permanent home for us both. We can’t wait..

(The lost post)

At 6am Monday morning, we awoke abruptly to a surprise: a hail storm in Flagstaff.  The noise of the storm was so loud that we leapt out of bed and raced to the window to see.   Nickel and quarter-sized pellets of ice fell for several minutes covering the ground in white.  After a few minutes, hail gave way to rain and the show was over.  The storm was as good as a morning wake-up call and we decided we were ready to start our day.

After a short breakfast, we walked to the car and saw the damage, a hundred little dimples polka-dotting the surface of the car.  Luckily, the windows were all intact so it wouldn’t delay our journey.  Beau’s first reaction was, “That sucks!”, followed by, “I hope Camille doesn’t freak out”.  Beau didn’t have to worry though because Camille just shrugged her shoulders and said, “It’s just a car.  I’m glad it wasn’t worse!” (A legitimate statement since the hotel shared a parking lot with Del Taco, and the lot was plastered with signs denying responsibility for vehicle theft or damage.)  After a quick call home for support, we decided to keep heading West.  Cars can be repaired, we still had miles of driving ahead, and this is the only car we have between the two of us.  West we went!

We crossed another state line and drove over the Colorado River when Beau noticed something new: I-93 no longer passes over the Hoover Dam.  Identified as a possible terrorist target, I-93 traffic has been permanently re-routed around the dam.  While impressive, we had both seen the dam before and opted not to stop… would you if you were only 30 miles outside of Las Vegas?

At last, we arrived! Beau’s Gramma Mary and Grandpa Joe live here so we stayed with them.  It was a wonderful visit.  In typical grandparent fashion, they offered us more food than we had room to eat… sandwiches, donuts, chips, puffed corn, chocolate and nut bars… and then they took us out to pho for dinner!  Beau ordered a traditional pho noodle soup while Camille ordered the vermicelli with fried tofu.  Both dishes were so good that they found room to eat it all up.

Following dinner, Gramma drove us to the Strip so we could see the new display at the Bellagio.  What a surprise it was when we found the whole space stripped bare! 

Work crews were removing the remnants of the last display, and electrical crews were beginning to set up wiring for the next display.  Gramma took a picture of the guys working, and we saw at least two of them blush in her direction.  (I guess they aren’t used to the papparazzi.)  The crews work 24/7 for a solid week to take down the old display and put the new one up.  While the displays are different every year, we’re told they sometimes bring back elements from previous years like this guy:

We worked our way around the Bellagio to find the Wedding Chapel, but we were out of luck when we arrived.  30 minutes earlier, and we might have been sharing a very different blog post with you!  (Just kidding, mom.)  Last stop of course was to watch the fountain show in front of the Bellagio.  It’s always so well executed that it had Camille wondering if they have a small, model-scale Bellagio where they choreograph the water and music before its debut.

Tuckered out, we went home for sleep.  These time zone changes are definitely catching up to us.  Sunday night, Beau hit the hay at 8pm (or 11pm EST), and Las Vegas night we were crawling into bed around 9.  Stay tuned!  Our next post covers our final drive into LA, followed by a post on the total cost of this whole trip!  (cue dramatic music…)

Just arrived in California.  Update coming soon… we promise!