Day 15 - Oh Canada

It was another day of driving, but we made it from Spokane to Swift Current today, so only one more day before we’re (well, Dad) home.  I entertained myself by watching movies today because it’s just not as exciting driving places you’ve been many times before.  After two days of driving my poor CR-V definitely needs to be thawed out though, it’s  a mess of ice and slush.  Tonight we’re staying at a Thriftlodge ($93…oh Canada…), the Canadian counterpart of the American “Travel Lodge”.  It’s nice but not amazing.  For supper we stopped at at Smittys in Lethbridge, and I think it’s worth noting that it’s the first time we ate an one specific restaurant chain for a second time on the trip.  I guess there’s been lots of room for diversity along the way.

Day 14 - Driving

Today we drove through rain, freezing rain, slush and snow.  For the weather we drove through the roads remained surprisingly good, but try telling that to all the other drivers on the road with us, they were crawling along most of the time.  We ended up in Spokane for the night at a Days Inn that we got for $57.34. For supper, we went to a Petro Restaurant, famous for their buffet.

Days 10-13

Day 10 – January 15

Amazing Travel Lodge in San Diego

Today was Sunday so we went to church with Jyles and some of his YWAMers.  It was a cool Vineyard church, pretty small but with some great fellowship.  Following church we said goodbye to Jyles and took off for San Diego.  We chose to travel along the coast and it was a beautiful drive along the ocean. At one point we stopped to watch the waves crashing to shore  and the surfers who were trying to ride them in.  We had booked a hotel online ahead of time, and we were a little uncertain of it’s quality but we were pleasantly surprised at the marble hallways and huge room.  It was a Travelodge for just under $50.00 so online booking is clearly the way to go!  Once we were checked in, we headed down to the pier and saw a lot of large ships and a couple of museums about ships. We decided to come back the next day after the zoo to see the museums in the light of day.  San Diego is a very clean city and it had a slower paced feel to it and so I like it a lot!  For supper we decided on Pizza Hut because it was close, but upon arriving we saw there was a Chinese buffet across the parking lot, so we audibled and went there instead.  It was an experience alright, and we left very full, but I’d finally gotten the ice-cream I’d been wanting for a week. 

San Diego Zoo

Day 11 – January 16

We started the day off with a good breakfast and then were off the zoo.  It is located in the center of the downtown, but you’d never know it once you arrived.  There were so many beautiful plants everywhere and it really felt like we were in a jungle.  We started off with a guided bus tour that showed us half the zoo (including the elephant, cougar, lion, bobcat, bears, and more), and then we took the skyfarii (a cable car) to the back half of the zoo and checked out the half that the bus didn’t show us (polarbears, monkeys, tigers, hippo, and lots more!).  4 hours later we still had not seen all of it, so in efforts to have time to go to the ship museum we left.  I’d love to come back some day and spend a day or two at the zoo. 

One of the many planes on the Midway flight deck

We drove back to the pier and started exploring the Midway, a retired aircraft carrier which was immense in size!  The top deck was 4 acres, the hanger holds 60 planes, and it houses a crew of 1000! It was unbelievably large and complex.  It’s crazy to think that it was designed, built and operated so many years ago with old and limited technology.  The quality of the restoration was also incredible and there were lots of animatronics, video screens, artifacts, and even an interactive headset audio tour that told you about each different part as you went.  We could have spent days there too, but eventually our heads were just too full of information. 

Animatronic people on the ship

We dragged ourselves away from San Diego, tired from walking all day and  knowing there was more to do, but just not having the time. 

We stayed in Bakersfield for the night at another Travel Lodge for just under $50 again, it was not nearly as nice as the previous one, but it was still ok.  We had gone to Jack-in-the-box for lunch earlier (they have curly fries!), so we settled on a light supper at Subway and then we relaxed at the hotel.  It had been a very long, tiring, but enjoyable day.

Day 12  - January 17

Sea Lions Galor!

This morning we were on the road to San Francisco by 8:00!  We made our way to Pier 39 and watched the really loud and funny sea lions bathing in the sun.  The pier was very commercial, but still quite quaint.  We stopped by a bakery for lunch and then went to the steepest and the curviest streets.  The curvy one was contrived, so that was disappointing, but all the streets seemed insanely steep.  It was fun driving around there, but also confusing. Eventually we made it out of the residential mess and crossed the famed, Golden Gate Bridge. 

Golden Gate Bridge

We stayed the night in Ukiah, and our first look at the hotel we booked online stirred fear in our hearts, but it ended up being quite nice.  It was a Quality Inn for $61.05.  It seems as the towns get smaller the prices go up.  We went to a 50’s styled diner for supper and had a great server and a great meal listening to golden oldies.  All in all, a very good evening.

Day 13 – January 18

We barely fit through

It was a day of driving today (to be followed by 3 more it seems) and we weaved our way through the lush green forests of Northern California on route to Crescent City and the towering Redwood forests.  It was pretty, but the constant rain put a damper on our activities and we simply drove through the park, rather than hiking in the rain.  We stayed the night in Eugene Oregon at a Executive Inn, another online booking that looked scary until we saw the room.  It seems like all the older hotels are redoing their rooms, so it’s a nice place to stay, you can just tell that the outside can’t be totally redone to look new.  For $53.00 it’s hard to complain. 

We have clearly gotten to be really good tourists because for the second night in a row we found a cool restaurants to eat at.  Today it was Hole in the wall BBQ, a tiny little place that specialized in catered and dine-in BBQ meals.  It was pretty good food, and a really cool atmosphere and décor.  We’ve beem watching the weather reports and keeping an eye on the road conditions; with all this rain it’s only a matter of time before it turns into snow and ice, and we’re hoping that it won’t happen wherever we are.

Day 8 and 9

Day 8 – January 13

600 feet thick, 560 tonne turbines, and security checkpoints at the gate – the Hoover dam!  Yes, we checked it out today, and it was really cool.  It’s an amazing feat of engineering, and all of it was figured out on paper as there were no computers in the 30’s when they built it.  After the dam, we left for L.A., with a short detour through the “Vegas Strip”.  Our quick drive through was more than enough for me, but the architectural diversity is quite impressive.  For supper we stopped at “Big Boy” on old 50’s styled diner.  Sadly the décor was the best part of the meal and we left somewhat disappointed with the rest.  After driving for 2 hours in the crazy interstate traffic we managed to arrive in one piece at the YWAM base in LA.  The base is an impressively quiet and serene place for being so near the craziness of the big city and I quite enjoyed walking around and checking it out.  There’s even a polo club / equestrian arena next door.  It was really good to connect with jyles in the evening and hear about his experiences so far.  Things are going well for him and I encouraged him to blog about his life here in efforts the let those who care about him know what is going on.

Day 9 – January 14

It was a day to sleep in a bit because breakfast on the base is only at 10:30am on Saturdays.  Following a delicious meal, the 3 of us hit the road, on our way to see Hollywood and a then find a beach somewhere.  But first a new experience: an oil change at the nearby Jiffylube.  All went well, and we were out of there in, well, a jiffy really.  Next off to see Hollywood, and we did, but at a pace similar to when we saw Vegas.  A drive through was all we really needed to see some of the famous sites and then get out of there!  I’m not a huge fan of it, but it was still cool do see what you hear so much about.  We also saw some really nice houses/mansions as we drove through the Beverly Hills district. 

Next we found Santa Monica beach, and it was really nice.  There were a lot of people, but once we were past the pier it really quieted down.  We walked the board walk, snapped pictures and enjoyed the sunshine.

For supper we took on the big city streets again and eventually found a Dennys.  It was a delicious meal and our server gave us the best service we’d received during our entire trip up to this point.  It’s amazing how rare it is to have a server who smiles, is cheerful, not pushy, and makes your dining experience pleasant one.  Once back at the base, Jyles went to hang out with his friends and me and Dad relaxed for the evening.  

Day 7 - Grand Canyon

We’ve been gone one week today!  If I didn’t have a calendar in front of me I would not believe it; time is a funny thing when you’re away from regular routine.  Today was a shorter driving day as we drove 1.5 hours to get to the Grand Canyon, and then only 3 to get to Kingman where we are staying the night.  That’s down from our typical 8-11 hours of driving, but it’s a welcome change.  It’s that pattern of driving that caused us to drive our 5000^th kilometer today (wow!), and then another few hundred more!

Proving I was actually there - Grand Canyon AZ

Anyways, the Grand Canyon, how was it?  Well, it was large.  And big.  And went a long ways in many directions.  The rushing Colorado river looked like a little stream from on top of the rim, it’s deceiving though because in some spots there are (apparently) 8 foot rapids!  My favorite part of the canyon was our first stop, the watchtower.  It’s a tall tower built in the 1930’s, but carefully designed to look like the structures that were built by the original Native groups from the area in the historic past.  This tower looked the part and was made entirely of stone and painted with amazing artwork all the way up the 4 stories and on the ceiling too!  From the top you could see a huge part of the canyon.  After that stop the rest were all really a blur.  You see the canyon from this point, and then from that point…all very much the same (or so I thought).  Looking back on it, I really feel like what we saw in Moab was more impressive and enthralling.  Maybe I’m alone I that  though because while both parks have a lot of people coming through them in a year, G.C. is a way bigger deal than Moab’s, Arches park.  There are over 1 million people at Arches each year, while over 1.6 million people road the buses at G.C. in 2010.  Needless to day, I feel like the “off” season is the time to visit them all.

Pretty sweet ride!

Tonight we’re staying at the Super 8 in Kingman for just $46.65.  After checking out the restaurants we settled on Wendy’s because we both were not too hungry.  I was surprised to find that that they had a buffet, and with your burger meal you had options like mac & cheese, corn, beans, or a more tradition option of potato wedges.  It was pretty alright, and now we’re just relaxing in the hotel, reading and awaiting tomorrows adventure: Hoover Dam and L.A to connect with Jyles!

The Road Trip Begins!

Well, it’s that semi-annual time when I go on a vacation of sorts.  This year it worked out that me and my Dad are doing a road trip down to California to visit my brother Jyles in Las Angeles where he is going to school.  Over the next few I will be posting a rough account of our trip.  I hope you enjoy reading about what we all experienced!

Day 1 – Thursday, January 6, 2012

We left.  It really was that simple.  We’d packed up the night before, and my ’99 Honda CR-V that we were taking was not even that over-loaded. Turns out we didn’t need much; one large extra item we had was Jyles’ guitar that we were bringing to him.  It was a busy week of pre-trip prep that included buying 2 new tires and switching all 4 from winter to summer tires in preparation for the beautiful climates we hoped to be driving into.  I also repaired some sort of shaft and a wheel bearing, so before even leaving this trip had cost be $1500… but only in a round about way because I would have had to do those things at some point anyways.  Ok, but back to the trip. 

We left on schedule at 9:00am and headed west for the Boissevain border crossing, which we zipped through like we were duel citizens or something.  I had plans to make a movie of the trip and so we knew we’d need to make deliberate stops to take pictures.  In efforts to start the photo taking pattern, we took a quick stop and photographed a giant turtle made of metal tire rims.  Then we drove…and drove… and drove some more.  We made one more tourist stop in Wall, SD, the famous site of Wall Drug.  It turns out there was a really neat western style block of buildings including cafes, bars, the drug store, post office, restaurants, and many other store fronts, all set back in the wild west days with boardwalk and false fronts. 

Finally we made it to our location, Rapid City!  After a bit of looking around, we settled in at the AmericInn for an impressive $39.99 with a free breakfast.  We actually got a handicapped accessible room, so we had lots of space at a great price.  We hoped to not be let down in the future stops due to such a smoking deal on night one.  Once we were settled, we began our tradition of eating a late supper and went to a 24 hour Perkins.  After that, we relaxed in the hotel reading, looking forward to tomorrow.

Day 2 – January 7

After enjoying a free breakfast at the hotel, we were ready to go by 9:00 AM, only to be met with a flat tire.  Luckily we were prepared and refilled the tire and found a wal-mart tire center only a few blocks away to fix the problem.  In under an hour we were ready to hit the road.  But, because we’d seen some stores on our way in, we decided to try and find some deals shopping. It didn’t take long though, and after walking into a few stores, we realized that there were 3 problems with this plan. 1) They didn’t have very many  great deal, 2) They didn’t have any summer stock out (which is what we wanted), and 3) We didn’t enjoy shopping.  So, then we were off to Mount Rushmore!  On our way there we stopped in at Keystone for some pictures.  Keystone was another cool town set back in the days of the West with false fronts and a variety of shops.  After slowly climbing up the mountain we arrived at the pay station (only $11.00 to see the faces) and Dad was surprised to see how developed it was. There was now 2 multi-level parkades, a gift shop, amphitheater, avenue of flags, interactive interpretive center, and more.  Not like he remembered it from the 70’s.  Anyways, it was really impressive and the architecture focused everything on the huge faces carved in the mountain.  We took some pictures and spent a while in the center which was very informative and interesting.  It was amazing to see how they did it with such limited funds and equipment, truly an amazing feat!

Then it was off to Cody Wyoming, a smallish town with half of their hotels closed for the season. Eventually we decided to stay at a Super 8 for 57.99, but it included a breakfast.  After a salady meal at Granny’s restaurant, we picked up some fruit at Walmart and then retired to our room and again read, and slept. 

Day 3 – January 8

Off to Yellowstone National Park, via the NE entrance through the mountains!  Or so was our plan.  After 1.5 hour of driving on steep, windy, but very dry and clear mountain roads, we came to a dead end.  Apparently this road was closed for the winter.  What could we do but head back to Cody and try the East entrance.  It too was closed though, it was then that we found out, “Yellowstone is closed for the winter”  A plus on the first dead end was that it gave us a good opportunity to listen to our “on the road church service”, a podcast from the Southlands church (Thinking rightly about Israel). Before leaving Cody for a second time, I took a bunch of “Cody” pictures and hope to send a few good ones to my friend of the same name.  No discouraged easily, we began to go the long way to Jackson so we could see the Teton National Park.  The drive out of Themopolis was amazing though because we drove through a beautiful and impressive canyon, it was well worth the detour.  As we continue to drive we started having fears that the Teton National park may be closed too, causing us to backtrack many hours if this was the case.  In a flurry of trying to find out we texted mom, but the cell service in the area was sketch at best, called info at 511, but again  the service caused a problem.  Finally, we met up with some travelers at a rest stop who assured us that the Teton Park was open, we were safe to drive to Jackson.  So we continued on.  The Tetons, an impressive and towering set of mountains, were unfortunately covered by fog as we passed them, and Jackson was a ritzy place that we made our way through on our way to Idaho Falls.  We found a Guest House Inn for $49.99, with a free hot breakfast, and after checking in tried out Chilies for a super supper. It was great, and following eating we planned our trip a bit, read, and the hit the hay.

Day 4 – January 9

Day 4! It really felt like it had been longer than that, I mean, we’d done/seen so much already!  After a great hot breakfast buffet we took off for Craters of the Moon.  We were foiled by fog again and had to settle for a small but interesting museum explaining what the area looked like and why.  On our way out of the area the fog lifted and we saw lots of the strange spewed rock that had apparently been there a long time.  Next we were off to see some waterfalls, but on our way we stopped at the Snake River canyon, made famous by Evel Knievel when he tried to jump across the canyon at a narrow point.  The canyon is unreal, it’s so deep it messes with your mind, and the feat of bridging it is really remarkable.  Our time there was made even more interesting when we got to watch and film two BASE jumpers from Utah jump off the bridge in the canyon below.  I can’t begin to predict what that would feel like; the adrenaline of a free fall followed by gently floating to the ground once your parachute opened. Wow!  Once they jumped we left to find the falls, which were amazing!  It was definitely one of my favorite sights so far!  We explored the falls area for a while and after taking many pictures, started our journey to Utah.  But true to form, we avoided the interstate, (and any main or paved road really) and after talking to the locals, found some gravel, non-winter roads that would take us where we wanted to go.  The sights were amazing and for an hour we trucked along on winding gravel roads, often going for miles without seeing any sign of human development, other than the road we were on.  Eventually we arrived in Wendover Utah,  and checked into the Best Western for $52.00, no breakfast.  This was an interesting little town and the only places to eat were at the many casinos (It’s on the Nevada border, what did you expect)  That in itself was a bit of a (smelly) experience, but we found a quieter place in the corner of the flashing lights and dinging bells.  I believe the best way to describe the restaurant was a cross between gaudy and glam.  The food was good, but I was glad to get out of that place, partly due to the smoke that was hurting my eyes, and partly due to the sad state of the many people that a casino caters do.  It was not an overly pleasant place by any stretch of the imagination.   At the hotel we read and slept, as per the norm.

Day 5 – January 10

Today we drove on the salt flats, the site of the Bonneville speedway.  It was strangely simple and where the pavement ended, the speedway started, nothing more than faint trail in the rock hard white salt surface going for miles in every direction.  We of course drove down the track for while, took some pictures, and then headed back to the main highway.  That was really all there was to do there I guess.  It was another day of driving back roads, and eventually we ended up in the dark in Moab.  We played our regular game of “Finding the best, cheapest, nicest hotel in town” and after driving up and down the street a few times, we settled on a Motel 6 for 39.99, no breakfast.  It was simple alright, and not the cleanest, but it would do.  We finally went to Pizza Hut after talking about it for days and ended up with enough food to have pizza for breakfast the following morning (which was perfectly alright with me).

Day 6 – January 11

Today was a day of sightseeing, looking, seeing, and well, more seeing.  The Moab area (and miles in every direction) is a beautiful unique area that forever has a canyon, mountain or ridge of red, orange, white, grey or green stone to entertain you with.  We drove around in Arches National Park and saw many famous sighs (the balancing stone and the arches specifically) and then did one of my favorite things of the trip so far, went on a trail advertised as “4x4 road” for 8 miles with my little (but awesome) CR-V.  It was more than Dad expected, but I couldn’t help but smile was we bounced, jostled, winded, and nearly scraped our way on this rocky trail.  It was super fun and we definitely held our own with the big F150 truck on the trail in front of us.  Point for the Honda.  After that we checked out the Canyonlands National Park and saw another few hours worth of the same but different stuff.  Amazing, beautiful, awesome…but there’s a lot of it. I think I was wowed-out by the end. There are lots of 4x4 trails marked, and after asking a warden, we were assured that you generally need a high clearance 4x4 to take them, not a (sweet and awesome) CR-V. (I’d said this, but Dad was not sure, point for me). Something worth noting is that the National Park fee is only $10.00 a vehicle, and they are sometimes good for 7 days. 

After all the travel in red rock, we drove to Kayenta, Arizona for the night.  The GPS said there were 2 places to stay here, and it was only off by 1, so after checking out all 3 we picked the more expensive, but clearly nicest one, the Hampton Inn. We ended up getting a deal and so for 67.00 (down from $85) we are in the nicest hotel of our trip with a free hot breakfast.  God is looking out for us that’s for sure (and for more reasons than us getting a sweet deal on a hotel room).  After a small meal at the hotel we relaxed and enjoyed the evening.  Off to another adventure tomorrow!