The Last Post

We'd like to once again thank everyone who hosted us, met up with us, and/or followed our blog. You all are great and the trip wouldn't have gone as well without you! 

Check out our last posts including our favorite things, our index, and our blog statistics. And the blog will stay up so that you can read about our trip or use the blog as a resource for your travels.

(These Are A Few Of) Our Favorite Things

One way to recap the trip is to note what our favorite things were, at least from the perspective of having just finished. It was quite difficult narrowing down our favorite things into each category but going through this list really drove home how much we experienced in the past two months. It'll really be great to look back on this list and see if and how time changes some of these answers. 

Note: Orion's favorites are in green, Rafael's favorites are in orange, and Elizabeth's favorites are in blue. If there's a link then clicking that will send you to the related post.

Most Beautiful National Park (Traditional Beauty Category): Crater Lake National Park in Oregon; Banff/Lake Louise for the giant mountains and beautiful lakes that look like Switzerland; Banff in Canada

Most Beautiful National Park (Other Category): Joshua Tree for the unique flora and fauna; Badlands for the "only place on earth" feeling I got; Zion for the beautiful scenery and largest sandstone walls in the world

Favorite Hike: Angel's Landing in Zion; Lake Agnes Teahouse hike; Angel's Landing in Zion

Favorite View: view from Angel's Landing in Zion; pretty much all the views along the Oregon coast; Lake Louise in Banff

Favorite Experience: sandboarding the dunes in Florence, Oregon; impromptu sledding down multiple mountains at Crater Lake; sea kayaking off the coast of Anacortes, WA

Favorite Beach: Ruby Beach for the climbing and the huge rock formations; Cannon Beach and the nice town; Oswald State Park in Oregon for the cliffs framing the beach, surfers, and the right amount of people

Favorite Wildlife Sighting: the grey wolf in Yellowstone NP; seeing a seal and a few bald eagles while sea kayaking the San Juan Islands; the bear and her cub running along a ridge in Glacier National Park

Favorite City (to visit): Whistler; Vancouver; San Francisco

Favorite City (to possibly live in the future): San Diego; San Francisco area or San Diego; Seattle

Most Disappointing City: Phoenix because I had pretty high expectations; Missoula, MT since after seeing Bozeman, MT I had high expectations for the other big city in MT; Calgary, Alberta because it looked like a bad suburb in the U.S.

Favorite "Section" of Driving: the drive from Devil's Tower to Yellowstone National Park; the drive from Banff to Whistler; the drive from Jackson, WY to Bozeman, MT

Favorite Campground: Lake Jennings near San Diego because of the view; Revelstoke's campground for the waterfall, river, and amenities; Lake Macdonald in Glacier for the view of the lake

Favorite Brewery: Full Sail because I liked the view and it was the first beer tasting; Deschutes in Portland, OR for the sampler, good location in the Pearl District, and since soccer was on TV; Full Sail Brewing in Hood River, OR for the combination of good beers and the view of the Hood River

Favorite Coffeehouse: the coffeehouse in Bozeman, MT for the comfy couches and the amazing caramel mocha; the coffeehouse in Granville Island (Vancouver) because it had an artsy, nice vibe and good espresso; Kiva Koffeehouse in Escalante, UT for the view of the canyons and free refills on iced coffee!

We hope this list gives a better insight into what we currently see as the best aspects of our roughly two month trek across the U.S. and Canada. After coming up with this list, we want to note that we feel this trip was truly epic and it goes down as our favorite road trip ever.

Thanks again for reading!

ORE Trip Index

In the spirit of that venerable publication Harper's, we've decided to do an ORE trip index of our own. For the uninitiated, Harper's does an index with interesting statistics and numbers at the beginning of each issue. Here's our version:

Days traveled: 52 (from May 27 to July 17)

Miles traveled: 11,226.8

Total amount spent on gas: $1,198.97

Average price per gallon: $4.28

Number of oil changes: 3

Number of breakdowns: 0, thank goodness

Number of (emotional) breakdowns: 0, thank goodness

Total visits to McDonald's or Subway: oops, did I write 0 for emotional breakdowns?

Clif bars eaten during the trip: 71

Amount of days with over 100 degree weather: 5

Amount of days with below 50 degree weather: 9

Nights all of us slept in a tent together so we wouldn't freeze to death: 1

Times all three of us were forced to sleep in the car: 3 (1 afternoon in Newport, 1 night at Devil's Tower to avoid the severe storm with hail, 1 night in San Clemente near L.A. since we couldn't find a campground over the July 4th weekend)

Longest streak of days without showers: 3 or 4, though we promise we were really looking each day for a shower

Amount of deodorant used (Rafael): 2.25 sticks

Amount of deodorant used (Orion): .25 sticks

Amount I'm kidding about the deodorant: 0%

Amount of times Orion was sitting at a group table when the bouncer singled him out and asked for ID: 1, in Bozeman, MT

Times we were carded for a rated R movie: 6. Once each for buying the ticket in Albuquerque, once more for each of us when inside the theatre

Amount of absurd haircuts: 2 (1 mohawk for Orion, 1 mullet for Rafael)

Seconds Elizabeth stayed on the mechanical bull in Palo Alto: 15, though it did look quite difficult and neither of the boys tried the bull

Seconds Jeremy stayed on the mechanical bull in Palo Alto: way too long to not make us suspicious that he led a previous life working at a rodeo

Times Orion tried to eat a gallon of ice cream in a sitting: 1

Times Orion successfully ate a gallon of ice cream in a sitting: 0

Times we had to stop for Orion to go to the bathroom after the ice cream fiasco: 2

Number of entire boxes of cookies eaten by Rafael in a sitting: 2 (goodbye Milano, goodbye delicious French Lu cookies)

Number of different state license plates seen: 48 (missing CT and RI)

Blog Statistics

Thanks to Google Analytics, we've been tracking our website data. We can't see who visited our site, but the analytics report still yielded some interesting figures. Here are some of the best stats for the trip period from May 27 to July 16, 2008 (51 days):

Pageviews*: 4, 529

Biggest Day for Pageviews: May 30, 2008 with 196 pageviews

Absolute Unique Visitors: 819

Biggest Day for Absolute Unique Visitors: July 10, 2008 with 97 AUV

Average Time on Site: 2 minutes, 19 seconds

Traffic Sources: 30.9% Direct Traffic, 54.9% Referring Sites, 14.2% Search Engine

Top Traffic Sources: 1) Directly entering our web address, 2) Blogger.com, 3) Facebook.com, 4) Yahoo, 5) Google

Top Countries: 1) USA, 2) Canada, 3) Brazil, 4) Spain, 5) Portugal, 6) United Kingdom, 7)France, 8) Argentina, 9) Mexico, 10) Malaysia

Visitors from Different Countries: 60 different countries represented

Visitor Loyalty: 42% of our readers visited only 1 time. On the other end of the spectrum, 30% of our visitors visited over 50 times

Technical Profile: 42% from Internet Explorer, 35% from Safari, 21.5% from Firefox, .5% from Opera

It's particularly fascinating to see that 60 different countries were represented among our visitors. I figure most of those visitors simply stumbled upon this blog. Even then, I hope they found it to be a good resource for visiting and exploring the United States.

As our trip concludes, we'd like to thank all of our readers for following along. It's been a great ride, thanks for reading!

Rafael

*Orion and I changed our blog settings mid-trip, which skews the pageview data downwards. What we did was change our main blog setting from the most recent 5 posts to the most recent 5 days. By doing this, we hoped to make the blog easier to read. In doing so, we also skewed our pageview data because it was easier to "catch up" on our travels with the new blog settings. This meant less clicking to previous pages, which lowered our pageview data significantly (the drop from the analytics report is impressive). We didn't notice a drop in absolute unique visitors, which meant our loyal readers were still keeping up with us, but we did want to make a note of what we felt was a misleadingly low pageview number.

Los Angeles: Farewell

We just tearfully dropped Elizabeth off for her flight at LAX, and we are on our way to San Diego. Two more days and we will be flying out of LAX destined for Hawaii. It's been a great trip, and thanks to everyone who has checked out the blog. Keep an eye out today for a few wrap up posts later today.

Orion

Malibu: Coffee, Beach, Etc.

After delicious cookies and ice cream, we headed over to the Malibu Creek State Park. That's where we set up our tent before heading over to another coffee shop to pass the hottest part of the day in air conditioning with wifi. Turns out Elizabeth needs to pack for her flight tomorrow and we need to all spend a bit of time figuring out who owes whom for what. On that note, we'll have a few interesting posts tomorrow and maybe the day after, even though the trip officially ends tomorrow once Elizabeth gets on her plane home. 

Once it gets a bit cooler today (4, 5pm?) we'll head back to Zuma or another Malibu beach. Then the likely plan is to head back to the campsite and play poker, if we don't end up playing poker on the beach!

Rafael

Los Angeles: Diddy Riese

After falling asleep to Jack Johnson and a live Mariachi band at the campground last night, we made our way to Hollywood. We saw Grauman's Chinese Theater, the Sunset Strip, Beverly Drive, and Rodeo Drive. After a quick lunch at Chipotle, we found the place shown in this picture, Diddy Riese.

For $1.50 you can get a scoop of your choice of ice cream between two fresh cookies. With so many types cookies and ice creams, there are tons of combinations.

Our guide book strikes again with another good suggestion.

Orion

San Bernardino: Coffee Nutzz

That's the two of us at Coffee Nutzz. We've decided to stop off here instead of fighting the notorious L.A. traffic. Thanks to free wireless, and delicious drinks, our spirits are still high as we press on towards our trip's conclusion. I can't believe the trip is almost over!

We also found a campground, so we'll likely head out of here in an hour or two to go set up the tent. Then it's a night of poker before touring the sights in L.A. tomorrow.

Cheers from California!

Rafael

From Las Vegas to Los Angeles

A recap of our night:

After touring a few more hotels (Wynn, Bellagio, New York New York, The Venetian, Caesar's Palace) we came back to the room and started playing poker. Elizabeth and I gave serious consideration to entering the tournament at 11pm, but the idea of getting killed by better players put us off. Instead, we battled each other.

We slept in this morning until 9:30 and then showered, goofed off, and headed to an early lunch at Chipotle/McDonald's.

So here we are on the road back to Los Angeles. The drive will be pretty boring and take four hours, so we'll likely post once we arrive in L.A.

Rafael

Las Vegas: The Wynn

This picture is from the casino floor of the newest, and perhaps the classiest, hotel on the Strip, the Wynn. Just passing through this time,

Orion

Las Vegas: Le Village Buffet

Oof. That's today's motto.

But to give you the Vegas recap first: we walked through Paris, Planet Hollywood, MGM, Mandalay Bay, Luxor, and Excalibur. It was hot! (95+)

We made it to Le Village at 12:15 and waited half an hour in line. We paid our $17.99 and were seated. Well worth it, as we all had plates of beef, chicken, duck, fish, vegetables, etc. etc. And then... we made it to dessert!

Crepes, pastries, ice cream, the works! Needless to say, dinner tonight will be light and we're glad we ate at Le Village. I recommend it to all our readers but make sure you budget an hour so that you can take it all in at a reasonable pace.

Now we're heading to the hotel, taking showers, and napping before doing anything else.

Rafael

Nevada: Almost at Las Vegas

We woke up early and got on the road to Las Vegas. I did a quick search for hotel rooms and found a room for $35 at The Sahara, so tonight we sleep in luxury!

We'll be touring the hotels then getting the lunch buffet at Le Village in Paris. From there, it's swimming, relaxing, and gambling!

Rafael

Zion National Park: Day of Hiking

For Elizabeth and I today was a full day of making use of our feet. After driving in the awe inspiring East Entrance to Zion National Park, we set up camp and jumped on a bus.

In the spring of 2000, Zion decided that it would be a lot more efficient to restrict private vehicles from driving in the canyon and to replace them with propane buses instead. These buses are a cinch to use, they cut out the congestion, and they are more environmentally friendly.

First stop on our tour was the Riverside Walk at the top of the canyon. After about a mile of scenic walkway, one must wade through the wall-to-wall waters of the Virgin River to continue. The canyon continues to narrow to the size of a slot canyon for about 16 miles in a section fittingly known as the Narrows. Unfortunately, there was no time for this waist high adventure in this trip, but we did get to go far enough up to get a taste.

From there we checked out an area called Big Bend, and moved on to start an amazing hike up to the Angel's Landing.

This 2.5 mile trail gains a whopping 1800 ft up to a panoramic view of Zion's breathtaking canyon. Adding to its epicness, half of a mile of this trail crosses a narrow ridge with a 1200 ft shear drop on one side, and an equally sharp 800ft drop on the other. Not for those scared of heights, the ridge has a number of places that are only a few feet wide with little to nothing keeping one from a long drop and a short stop. Now that I have gotten all of our parents' attention, I will add that we made it safely, had a great time, and took plenty of pictures. Unfortunately, none of those pictures were taken with my phone, so you will have to wait until we find free wifi to get one up on here.

Speaking of pictures, this one is from the Lower Emerald Pool hike, which was about 1.5 miles round trip and our fourth and final hike of the day. Just before this, we also hiked to see the Weeping Rock, a place where water seeps from pourus sandstone as it reaches a less permiable layer of rock.

After a full day of hiking, we went to Zion Pizza for dinner with Raf, and retreated back to the camp site. In my opinion, there was no better way to cap off our tour of National Parks than with Zion.

Orion

Bryce Canyon National Park: Sunrise

Sorry this is a little delayed. This morning Elizabeth and I woke up to see the sun rise over the canyon. From our perch at Sunrise Point (where else?), the colors of the hoodoos were much deeper than they were yesterday afternoon. Well worth the sleep deprivation in my book,

Orion

Springdale: Catching Up

After driving a bit through the park, we made it to the visitor's center. The ranger told us that the hike through the narrows was prone to flash-flooding even though today's flash flood warning was moderate. Given his insistent tone not to try the one hike I really wanted to do, at the last minute I decided to "take a day off" and go into town rather than explore the rest of the park. So here I am in one of my favorite environments: a nice cafe, drinking iced coffee, enjoying free wireless internet, and munching on a delicious sandwich. It feels good to get a lot done - hopefully Orion and Elizabeth are having a blast as well! My guess? They're getting a good workout and enjoying the park!

Rafael

Zion NP: Welcome (View Before The Tunnel)

We're in the park! We woke up this morning (I didn't go see the sunrise, sleep is beautiful too) and got on the road. We came in through Zion's east entrance and right now we're delayed at one of the tunnels. Turns out that every RV requires an escort, due to the small tunnel size, so that means a wait of a few minutes so the RV's can drive down the middle of the road. (And now that we're out of the tunnel, the views are 10 times better).

From here it's off to the South campground and the visitor's center before "starting" our day.

Rafael

Bryce Canyon National Park: Natural Bridge

After the hike, we drove to Insperation Point, and Raf went back to the lodge with a headache. Elizabeth and I drove to see Natural Bridge (above) and Agua Canyon. I did a quick hike to Two Bridges, and we all met back up at the General Store for showers. The showers felt amazing since they were the first we have found in the last few days. Now it is time to relax and soak up the free wifi at the general store.

Orion

Bryce Canyon National Park: Navajo Loop

This is the narrow canyon on the Navajo Loop trail. On the way up, we had to do several switch backs as the elevation increased rapidly. We managed to do this hike in under 1.5 hours, which is well under the 2-3 hours recommended for this hike.

Orion

Bryce Canyon National Park: Along the Trail

Minutes into the hike and we're already seeing beautiful hoodoos and ridges! The hike we're doing is 3 miles long and will take us past more of the hoodoos/ridges you see in the picture, down into that area, and through a narrow canyon that has trees growing in it.

Rafael

Bryce Canyon: Sunrise Point

We made it to Bryce pretty early in the morning and we first secured a tent site. That was probably a good call since our guidebooks warn that in the summer these campgrounds fill up by noon.

Afterwards, we stopped at the visitor's center and watched a great 20 minute intro video. Elizabeth and I also bought these vintage national park series postcards, a cool and cheap find.

Now we are combining the Queen's Garden and Navajo Loop trail. I anticipate posting more great photos.

Rafael

Escalante: It's Pouring (Nature's Fury)

Count it! That's the third time on this trip we've experienced hail. This time only one of us got caught in it: Mr. King. He bravely ventured back to the campsite to put our extra tarp over the top of the tent while Elizabeth and I were using the two computers. In the process he got soaked but he won two things: more of our admiration and (perhaps more importantly) I will be buying him another drink here at the coffeehouse for his valiant efforts.

The storm appears to be passing as I finish up this post - hopefully (though it's unlikely) our camp site will dry up a bit before we get back. Otherwise it will not be fun to walk through all that mud and drive up to our site. Oh and the site "flash flooded", which means the entire floor of our tent might still be wet when we get back to the site... oh well!

Rafael

Escalante: Kiva Koffeehouse

So after passing the raging herd of cows on Hwy. 12, we passed by a park called Calf Creek. They happened to have a campground and, being slightly worried about finding a site on a Friday in the middle of summer, we stopped in to have a look. After a bit of browsing around, we found what appears to be the last site, and so we quickly registered the site and set up the tent.

Now we're passing the time in nearby Escalante, the last big town before Bryce Canyon. Since the heat peaks between 1pm and 5pm, we are holing up in a very nice coffeehouse called Kiva Koffeehouse. Free wireless, amazing views with big windows, and delicious (strong!) iced coffees. I know I've said it before on this trip but... this is the life!

Rafael

Utah: Highway 12

As we were driving towards Bryce, we came around a corner to find a random herd of cattle blocking the entire highway, followed by a mysterious man on a horse. Random.

Orion

Capitol Reef National Park: Passing Through

This picture doesn't really do the park justice, but it portrays our experience well. We took a 14 mile drive through the towering cliffs and odd formations. Pretty cool,

Orion

Canyonlands National Park: Sun Watch

Last night Elizabeth and I hiked out to the Grand View Point Overlook to watch sunset and this morning we woke up to we sunrise at the Mesa Arch. Sorry there is no picture yet, but keep on the lookout.

Orion

Canyonlands: Mesa Arch

Once in Canyonlands NP, we stopped at the visitor's center to get some guidance. From there we secured one of the 12 campsites and then moseyed on down to Mesa Arch.

Mesa Arch is probably the most famous attraction at Canyonlands. The interesting thing about it is that the other side of the arch is a 500 foot drop down into the canyons.

While there, we noticed a French family taking turns climbing the arch to get a unique picture. Pretty risky, given the severe drop down one side, so we took a pass on climbing up it and opted for the more traditional "in front of famous thing" pose.

Rafael

P.S. 100 degree weather is killer. You should see how much water we've all put away today.

Arches National Park: Balance Rock

Another picture from Arches. The support for this 3600 ton rock is slowly eroding away.

Orion

Editor's Note: We also had a fun time using perspective to create "unique" photographs. In our personal collections (perhaps to be shared later on the blog?) we have pictures of Elizabeth and Rafael holding the rock up, as well as a picture of Rafael eating the rock.

Arches: Windows

One of the things we've seen so far is the North and South Windows. We all liked it and only the North Window had a lot of tourists.

The picture you see is at the South Window.

Rafael

Arches National Park: Three Gossips

We have made it to Arches National Park, and here is a picture of the Three Gossips. Much more to come,

Orion

Editor's Note: We thought this was especially interesting because the Three Gossips represent the three of us, minus the whole we don't gossip thing. But still, it's cool.

10,000 miles

Today we made it to the 10,000 mile marker for our trip! The only letdown? That the car's odometer switched to 0.0 instead of hitting 10,000.0

Oh well! Another couple hundred miles and this amazing road trip will be reaching its end...

Rafael

Southern Colorado: On To Arches NP

Yep, our next stop is Arches National Park in Utah. After "free" showers at our campsite, we got on the road at about 7:30 am. This drive should be roughly 2.5 hours, so we'll check in from Arches.

Rafael

Mesa Verde: Balcony House 2

Here is another picture from our Balcony House Tour.

Orion

Editor's Note: We had to crawl through this tunnel to get from one side of Balcony House to the other. In the middle of the tunnel was a larger space where you could almost stand up.

Mesa Verde: Petroglyphs

Instead of spending a hour in the gift shop while waiting for our tour, I decided to go on a pretty short loop hike to see some petroglyphs. Unfortunately, it wasn't really that short. It also happened to be hot, steep, and not a loop. I soon found myself running to make it back in time for the tour, in flip flops.

Luckily, we all made it on time, I got a good work out, and we get a picture of petroglyphs to post.

Orion

Mesa Verde NP: Climbing Into Balcony House

Here's a picture of the +30 foot ladder we climbed to get up into Balcony House. I'm blogging from the tour, so we'll have another post or two up on Balcony House in a bit.

Rafael

Mesa Verde NP: Spruce Tree House

After watching a good intro video on the park and its history, we ventured over to the nearby dwelling. Very nice!

One neat feature was the ability to climb a ladder down into a preserved kiva, the Puebloans ceremonial space.

Soon we'll be taking a tour of Balcony House, which is a more famous cliffside dwelling.

Rafael

Mesa Verde National Park, CO

We have arrived to Mesa Verde in southern Colorado. We are lucky and have temperatures in the seventies. This picture was taken from the park's highest point Park Point that looks over a large valley. -Elizabeth

Albuquerque: Thanks, Sharma!

We'd like to give a shout out to Sharma for hosting us these past two nights - we had fun and had a good chance to relax before the final leg of our trip. Thanks, Sharma!

On another note, we're off to a series of unplanned destinations. Today's destination? Mesa Verde National Park in southern Colorado. Excellent! Hopefully we can find signal to post updates from the road...

Stay tuned,

Rafael

Albuquerque: A Good Night

Sharma made it home from work and we all hung out for a bit (while Sharma decompressed from a long day of bringing home the bacon) before heading out to dinner. We searched our sweet little road trip guide book and nothing really caught our attention, so we turned our eye to the internet. No luck as nothing near Sharma seemed good, so we went by an old standby: Chili's. 

After a good dinner there we headed home and relaxed for a bit longer before heading out to the $2 Cinemark. Turns out that Tuesdays are actually $1 days, so we saved 50% on our movie: Harold and Kumar Go to Guantanamo Bay. It was a bit... crude... but it had some hilarious movies.

Now it's off to bed before getting our oil changed in the morning and driving up to... our next location, which we'll unveil tomorrow!

Rafael

Albuquerque: Just Hanging Out...

Orion and Elizabeth just got back from the "Nuke" museum, walking around Old Town, and seeing a bit of Albuquerque. Apparently I did not miss out on much while I was here doing work. Oh well, at least we can check off Albuquerque on our list of places visited!

The plan for now is to relax, eat some food, and watch Arrested Development until Sharma gets home. That's actually pretty exciting, believe it or not, since we all like the show and haven't had too many chances to watch it on this trip. When Sharma gets back we'll be heading out to dinner and maybe a night out on the town.

Rafael

Albuquerque: Stuck at Home (For Now)

Boy, I'd rather be at the National Atomic Museum right now. Since we'll be away from a computer for the next week or two, and since all of this financial aid/paper work "stuff" is due in the next two weeks or so, I figured it prudent to stay in and work on all my last school requirements. So that's what I've been doing this entire morning. The good news? I've got Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls on in the background.

Hopefully I can get most everything for school out of the way and then meet up with Elizabeth and Orion after Old Town.

Rafael

Albuquerque: National Atomic Museum

This morning, I made my way to the National Atomic Museum to learn a bit more about the history of nuclear science and its applications. As you might imagine, Raf and Elizabeth found other things to do with their time. In a little while, Elizabeth and I are going to meet up and check out Old Town,

Orion

Albuquerque: We Made It

Continuing with our funny photo series, here's one of Sharma and I after we had been joyously reunited. It was actually pretty funny when he first saw me (I had gone ahead after we parked) and I led him to our car. Here's the exchange, word for word:

Sharma: Whoa! Haha! You guys brought THE van!

Me (slightly confused): Uh yep... we did...

Sharma (as Elizabeth steps out of the van): Whoa! Rose is here?!

Turns out Sharma wasn't aware that Elizabeth was with us on the trip and also coming to stay at his place. Seems like someone hasn't been reading the blog (actually he just admitted that he didn't know we even had a blog, yikes). No matter, because Sharma has got plenty of space at his pad and we're all having fun catching up. There'll be a bit more relaxing and then we're hitting the hay before checking out Albuquerque.

Rafael

P.S. By popular request, we're mentioning how we know the people we stay with... oops, kind of late now that we're almost done. But I met Sharma through Emerging Leaders and then Orion and I ended up rooming with him junior and senior year at Georgia Tech. Sharma had already met Elizabeth through us probably around sophomore year.

Albuquerque: Night View

We came in on I-40 and before getting to the city you first drive up a hill. When you get to the top, the entire city is neatly unveiled below. The picture does not do the view justice!

Almost at Sharma's,

Rafael

Arizona: Going to New Mexico

Yep, that's the next relatively impromptu phase of our journey: heading to Albuquerque to visit our good buddy Sharma. He's there this summer for a fancy space internship and we figured since we were in "the neighborhood" that a visit his way would be fun.

The drive from Phoenix has been pretty boring. The picture you see is generally what we've seen all day, though near Flagstaff things got a lot greener.

So we'll be in Albuquerque tonight and will be leaving Wednesday morning. A nice break from the past 6 nights of camping.

Rafael

Arizona: Phoenix

Elizabeth and I slept in until about 5:15 this morning, but Raf got a head start on us at 2am. Then again, we didn't have the benefit of a scorpion alarm clock. Well, what could have been a scorpion. Some suspicious creature was apparently attempting to find its way into the car where Raf slept.

With our early start we saw the sunrise and I got to climb, all before leaving earlier than expected. After driving through the rest of Joshua Tree, we made our way to Phoenix, AZ.

The picture below was taken at, you guessed it, a Chick-fil-a! Most of the locations out here seem to be in malls, but it was nice to once again taste Mr. Cathy's creations.

Keep tuned in to find out where the fates will take us next,

Orion

Joshua Tree NP: Rattlesnake

Oh freaking goodness, this is worth a separate post. So there I am walking around aimlessly when I start walking on that neat rock formation in the right of the picture. All of a sudden the bush you see in the picture starts rattling.

Somehow I stayed quite calm (as Elizabeth will attest) and backed away slowly while calling out to Elizabeth: "yeah I see a snake..."

The weird thing about it is I was maybe two feet max away from that bush before the snake rattled. That's pretty close. The other oddity is that after backing away to our picnic table, the snake started coming towards us. We wisely moved to the van where we continued watching the ~3.5 foot rattlesnake move to the other side of the campground.

The plan for now is to be cautious. This is crazy!

Rafael

Joshua Tree NP: Key's View

So we got to the park as the temperature was cooling and we went to set up our tent in a site with shade. One thing that was impressive is how windy it is here!

From there we headed over to Key's view, which is the picture you see above. It was tremendous! We saw a sea, the highest point in California, and other cool things in the distance.

We came back to the tent and Orion went off to take pictures and do some bouldering. In the meantime, Elizabeth and I hung out at the tent.

While at our site, I was doing a bit of aimless wondering around when I noticed something "interesting". I'll write something about that in a separate post.

Rafael

Yucca: Joshua National (put on hold)

I'm glad we decided, upon arriving at the Joshua Tree Visitor's Center, to instead go hang out in this nearby air-conditioned coffee shop (Water Canyon Coffee) and thus avoid the 108 degree heat. We'll probably be here until 5 or 6pm when it at least gets bearable. Why would anyone choose to live out here? Absurd.

And as you can tell from the picture we're having a ton of fun, as always...

Rafael

California: Wind power

Driving through the desert in California we suddenly came upon a massive wind farm. They had hundreds of turbines in all shapes and sizes. Pretty cool to see alternative energy at work.

Elizabeth

California: Towards Joshua Tree

We woke up at 7:15 and started on our journey to Joshua Tree NP. On the way, we stopped at a bookstore for a bit to pick up reading materials. I particularly bought a book on poker theory because I'm sick of losing: so here's to winning poker tonight. :)

We stopped for an early lunch and saw (gasp!) the first Chick-Fil-A since TN. Unfortunately it's Sunday and they're closed; fortunately we'll pass by one in Phoenix tomorrow for lunch.

Oh yeah, we added some destinations to our trip. Stay tuned, since the next 10 days will be one big surprise.

Rafael

Lake Jennings: Lucky Us!

After touring around downtown San Diego a bit we headed towards a campground over an hour away. Only ten minutes into our drive we saw Lake Jennings campground and decided to try our luck. At first they told us the campground was full but after finding out we were from  Georgia they offered us a site! It feels good to have secured a place to sleep and to have showered, Off to dinner!-Elizabeth

La Jolla: Pretty Beach

After our pit stop in Torrey Pines, it was time for the beach. We decided on La Jolla and so far it's been great. We found a close parking spot and the waves are huge here. We'll be relaxing here before journeying into San Diego later.

Rafael

ORE rating: 7, for the good waves, cool people, nice weather.

Torrey Pines: Cliffs

Here is a quick pic from Torrey Pines. We actually didn't golf or go to the beach here, but it was on the way.

Orion

Del Mar: Waiting Out The Fog

A nice sleep later, we got back in the van and drove straight to Del Mar, a cozy (and rich) town between San Clemente and San Diego. We passed the beautiful horse track and a couple nice homes in the town to go to a coffee shop, where we're waiting for all the fog to pass by so that we can go to the beaches. We'll be here probably for another half hour to an hour and then put something up from one of the lovely beaches along the coast.

Rafael

Laguna Beach: Fireworks

Laguna Beach is very beautiful and so were many of the people cruising the town. We found a place on the beach/park and waited for the fireworks to start. One oddity: a guy behind us kept offering free things to Orion, including water and chocolate. Hmmm, very odd.

So the show itself was pretty good and the ending was great. Afterwards we drove down the coast and now we're sleeping in San Clemente, known for surfing. We'll see what tomorrow brings.

Rafael

Balboa Island: 4th of July, etc.

After leaving Zuma we headed to a very early dinner and took a nap. From there we drove down along Newport Beach in awe at how lively the area was. Hundreds of people were riding bikes around town, walking the streets, and crowding the restaurants, and most of them seemed to be around our age. For about an hour we drove around looking for a parking spot to no avail, but we got to see Newport's peninsula and Balboa Island, the setting for the tv series of our trip, Arrested Development. Now we have moved on down the coast to Laguna Beach, and we are waiting for a fireworks show to begin. Happy 4th,

Orion

Malibu: Zuma Beach

We took an "insider tip" and headed down the coast to Malibu's Zuma beach - the place is packed! The good news: everyone appears to be having a good time and the weather is a perfect 75 degrees. We're lucky! Oh and to everyone reading today: have a good Independence Day!

The plan is to stick around here for a bit longer and then drive into L.A. Our sleeping arrangements are up in the air, so we'll see what happens.

Rafael

P.S. ORE beach rating: 7, for the views and great weather.

California Highway 1: 100,000

We just hit a critical turning point, 100,000 miles on the odometer! Mad props are due to the creators of the Chrysler Town & Country; the van is still running like a champ. Thanks again to the rents for letting us borrow it!

Orion

Carpinteria: Campground

We're at one of the prettiest campsites I've ever seen and enjoying a slow-cooked meal from Orion - delicious! Editor's Note: it was actually one of those Teriyaki pasta sides. But still good!

One thing I've noticed: there havent been that many people our age at these campgrounds. Hmmm... get it together, friends!

Rafael

Santa Barbara: Beach

The next stop on our beach tour is on the south side of the Santa Barbara coast. We decided against surfing up the coast to have a more relaxing (and warmer) time here. For its proximity to the town, nice sand, partially crowded atmosphere, and accommodations, we give it a 6.5.

Orion

ORE Beach Rating: 6.5

Santa Barbara: Coffee, Running, Etc.

That's a picture of us in the Northstar Coffee Co., where we pit-stopped to take care of a couple items. Elizabeth went for a run while Orion did some work and I changed some of my flights around. Turns out I am getting shoulder surgery, so I had to work the phones with Delta and Airtran - good news is that those flights are taken care of and I'm good to go after this trip.

Earlier we managed to find the last spot in the Carpinteria State Beach Campground. Lucky for us that someone had cancelled earlier in the morning, so it's a good thing we went by there around 10am instead of any later in the day! Now it's off to find some food, explore Santa Barbara a bit more, and then go to the beach to relax and hopefully surf.

Rafael

Solvang: Windmill

We took a small detour to the town of Solvang this morning. Once a Danish colony, the Danish architecture still remains, but these days the town is less authentic than Epcot Center. On to Santa Barbara,

Orion

Editor's Note: that pose is the result of something Elizabeth told us. She said that in her experience most Danish preferred photographs of themselves being candid, so we decided to meet the Danes halfway: a planned candid shot!

California: On To Santa Barbara

We got up at 7am, again, and headed out on the road. We passed by Pismo Beach, which looked nice, and we plan on passing by Solvang. We'll end up doing a post on Solvang, look for that.

So we're just going to Santa Barbara for today. We'll be checking out the beaches, town, etc. and have our typical posts up throughout.

Rafael

SLO: Woodstock Pizza

After our half price samplers (only $3 bucks!) we made it over to Woodstock Pizza for some grub. What did I get? Apple cinnamon pizza. Dee-lish! The others got the spicy slice special.

Oh and I had to engage in over 5 minutes of conversation with the bar tender to convince her I was over 21. Ah, being young!

Rafael

San Luis Obispo

We set up our campsite in Morro Bay before driving a bit down the coast to San Luis Obispo. Cal Polytechnic University is located here and it is close to the coast. We enjoyed a leisurely walk around and stopped into the Downtown Brewing Company for a happy hour sampler of
their beers.

Elizabeth