Road Trip 2008

Day 1: Was hoping to leave LA on Saturday, Oct 18, but decided to stay 1 more day and see if I got a paycheck in the mail. I left on Sunday, Oct 19. I woke up at 4am hoping to finish packing the car and get out of there before sunrise. Packing my car took way longer than I had hoped. I hit the road around 10 am ... not too bad. Austin, TX is pretty far, and I knew if I only wanted to spend 1 night in a hotel on the way there I had to make it to New Mexico on the first day. Late afternoon I started getting a bad headache, but kept on going.

Sunset in rear view

Finally, around 8pmish I crossed the state line into New Mexico (this made it 9pmish). I stopped at the first town I saw, Lordsburg, NM, and found a decent hotel ... ok "the" decent hotel I should say. It was brand new, so everything was really nice. The other hotels scared me a little with their half lit signs and semi lit parking lots. All in all, not a bad day, except for the headache. I drove for 11 hours, only stopping briefly at gas stations and rest areas.
Miles: 667

Day 2: After eating breakfast, I repacked my car and continued my journey. It was around 10 am. Driving through New Mexico was very cool. There were tons of places I would have like to have followed the signs I saw to. Then I crossed the border to Texas.

Welcome to Texas

Not long after, I passed through El Paso, which seems to be an interesting city and the biggest city I had driven through in a while. I continued on I-10 into ... west Texas. After a while, I had to go through a check point where all the traffic was diverted. The guy asked me if I was a US Citizen, I said "yes", and then he nodded and that was it. I was back on I-10, where the speed limit is 80. West Texas is the hardest part of this drive. There's not a lot going on out there. There's some cool scenery now and then. The mountains slowly change to mesas which is cool and some of them have the giant wind farm windmills on them. But essentially, there is nothing out there. You definitely want to do this drive during the day, because there are very few towns with hotels, and you definitely have to keep an eye on your gas guage and get gas when you happen to see a gas station. When the sun finally went down, I was still about 2 or 3 hours from Austin. I was planning to cut through Fredricksburg from I-10 to Austin, and I couldn't wait to leave I-10. Hwy 290, was definitely slower than any interstate, but it was a nice change from the steady monotony of the interstate. I had hoped to hit 290 while the sun was still up, because the hill country is so beautiful. Instead, I got to use my brights on the winding highway, a feature on my car I hadn't used in years, since it's unnecessary in well lit LA. Driving through Fredricksburg was neat because you drive straight through the heart of town (which doesn't take very long) and all the stores had their windows lit with German Christmas decorations already. I finally arrived in Austin around 11pmish. I found my friend Jonas' house and was so happy to be out of the car and in my favorite town after 12 hours of driving!
Miles: 774

Day 3: Hello Austin! I didn't accomplish much because I was a little worn out from driving. Having driven 11 hours day 1 and 12 hours day 2, I was content to let Jonas drive me to Tacodeli for lunch ... where they have the BEST tacos!

Yes, I'm biased because I used to work there when I lived in Austin ...
but they really do have fabulous tacos!

It was Tuesday, which meant Jonas was playing with his band, Busted Fly, at the one2one bar. They play mostly blues every Tuesday night there. I went out for sushi with my friend Jayson and then we walked to one2one. It was a lot of fun! I got some blues dancing in with Jayson to some good live music. Something I've missed a lot since I moved to LA.

Day 4: Stayed in Austin again. Mostly lounged around all day. Watched winter roll in as the 80 degree weather turned into 50/60 degree weather and also enjoyed some light rain. =) Jonas was playing at the one2one bar again, but this time with a different band, The 80HProject. I had an awesome time. At one point, during their second set, I saw a guy walk in that looked so familiar. I knew he was an actor, but I could not place him. Finally, the bongo player of the band clued me in after the band was done playing. It was Jeff Fahey, who plays the helicopter pilot on Lost! It was really cool to meet him after the show.

Day 5: Time for me to hit the road again. I stayed up till 4am and woke up at 9am to get going. Traveled up I-35 to Dallas to hit I-20 East. I caught up to the rain in Vicksburg, Mississippi and that's where I stayed the night.

RAINBOW!

Day 6: Friday, Oct 24. I forgot to set my alarm and happened to wake up when someone walked by my window with a loud cart. Almost missed the free breakfast! Got on the road and couldn't wait to get to Atlanta. This leg was the easiest so far, except I had caught up to the rain and by the time I arrived in Atlanta, the skyline was obscured by low clouds and fog and rain. My friend Allen, whom I was staying with, also had another friend visiting for the week, Bill. Allen, his roommate Dave, Bill, and I all went to the Varsity for dinner. Somehow, when I had lived in Atlanta, I had never made it to the Varsity, so it was fun to finally go and check it out.

Day 7: My friend Laura came by to pick me up and we did some shopping. I wanted to get some last minute items for my Halloween costume. I needed to put together a costume for Spiralween that Allen, Dave, Bill, and I were going to that evening. I had been brainstorming a cheap and easy costume to wear and came up with being a geek. I had my long sleeve star trek shirt and just needed a few accessories to geek it up a bit. I found some pipe cleaners and glow in the dark alien stickers and was good to go. Allen printed out a picture of Captain Kirk and Captain Picard for me and I hung them around my neck. I hadn't been to a big halloween party like this in a long time, so I was looking forward to it. The band, who apparently always dress up as mummies, was excellent. Lots of dancing and drinking and fun!

Day 8: Day of recovery. Spent the day lounging and watching some football.

Day 9: Monday, Oct 27. As much as I wanted to visit all my friends with babies, all the traveling had caught up to me and I was just sick of living out of my suitcase and car. I managed to visit my friend Leslie and her son Alexander and we went to the Dekalb Farmers' Market together.

After shopping and browsing and playing with Alexander, I hopped in the car and headed home to Columbia, SC. It's only about 4 hours from Atlanta, so I was home by supper time. =)

Total Miles: 2,733
Total Gas spent: $246.55
When I first got gas it was priced at $3.29 ... the last time I got gas which was in Columbia the price was $$2.35. The further east I got, the cheaper it was. And the prices still seem to be going down ... I actually saw it priced at $1.99 today!

I had a blast on my road trip, but am eagerly awaiting moving into my new apartment. It will be nice when I'm not living out of a suitcase any longer. =)