First Stop La-La Land

From S.F. to L.A. there is a very long straight and quite boring highway. The most exciting view on Highway 5 is the occasional hottie driving next to you for mere two minutes while she drives next to you. Despite the bland drive ahead of us, Chris and I are quite excited to finally be on the road. We chew on our beef jerky and sunflower seeds for countless hours as we head south to la-la land.


Along the way we stop for gas at one of those trucker type gas stations where you can almost get anything you'd possibly need on a road trip such as ours. Seriously, if I needed anything from a gecko flavored airfreshener to a console light bulb for a '97 Ford Explorer, these gas stations have it!! It's funny the kinda people you see coming thru a place such as this. From the salesman who's hittin' 13 cities in 3 days to the family vacationers who think everyone in there is trying to kidnap their kids to the lifetime truckers who stop in and somehow know the names of those working there. It is quite interesting to observe those who frequent the truck stop gas stations.



We switch seats for the second leg of the drive which will eventually leave us in the depths of Los Angeles which is probably my least favorite city in California. The smog has a life of its own, (although it's great for the sunset shots!!) there is absolutely waaay too many people which causes traffic of epic proportions. There was a time Chris and I were driving from Long Beach to Burbank, which should take a mere 30-40 minutes or so, and at 1am it took us almost 2 hours to get there. Ridonkulous. The people in L.A. are very image oriented which I am not so we don't get along very well. And the worst thing of all....L.A. is the home of the Dodgers, the decrepid Dodgers which I should not even capitalize for they do not deserve it. F-ing dodgers.



So we navigate our way thru the spaghetti bowl of a highway system in L.A. and finally get to our first destination which is a former EMT partner of Chris'. She is kind enough to let us stay for the night and take us to breakfast in the morning at a lil diner which was the highlight of L.A. if you ask me. Y'know when ya wake up and are forced to move along at a speed you're really not prepared for at that moment but you have to due to the circumstances? That was what this morning was like. These two are up and showered before I've even hit my REM sleep! Jeepers. So I drag my ass out to breakfast at a brisk 7:30am but find that this 'lil diner of sorts has such a wonderful aroma about it I can think of nothing but filling my belly with eggs and cheese. And that is what I did! Damn that was a good meal.
After breakfast we moved on our way to San Diego but instead of cruising at ludicrous speed we decide to take the PCH the rest of the way down. Which was the best idea we had so far.

From The Beginning

The day had finally come, we were about to embark on what most certainly would be an adventure to remember. Chris and I had spent the last week gathering all the supplies and accessories we'd need for a 3,000 mile unchartered trek to New York. Tents, coolers, munchies, and all the camera equipment you could imagine. We only had the road ahead of us and we both knew the road stood no chance against us.



It was tough saying goodbye to so many people, especially my mom. I knew she was happy that I was doing what I wanted to do but I know she would rather it not be so far away.


We had agreed to make certain stops during along our quest for the east side but no particular route was planned and thats exactly how we wanted it. It was as if the plan was to have no plan.