days 14-17

I drove about 10 hours until I got to a random town called Charlottesville in Virginia and spent the night there. The next day I drove into Washington D.C. which was crazy! I have never been in traffic that bad before, imagine a 6 lane interstate completely stopped for miles! but after too much driving in traffic and even more driving around trying to find parking I eventually got a chance to see some stuff. Luckily almost everything there is to see in Washington is relatively close so I just walked from one thing to the next, first i walked to the Washington monument which was way bigger than I remember, then about two hundred yards from that is the WWII memorial, next I saw the Lincoln memorial. That would have been cooler if there weren't like a thousand people inside of it. I did get to meet this really cool homeless guy named James though, he enjoyed awkwardly long handshakes and did not enjoy pb&j sandwiches. After that I saw the Korean war memorial then the Vietnam memorial. All of this was really cool and I new the White house was somewhere near that so I started walking.... about an hour and a half later I found it! and there were angry protesters outside and everything! I didn't really know what they were protesting but they were supposedly on a hunger strike but I saw one guy handing out food to everyone! After that I went to the Smithsonian and checked out some of the things there and then the capital. I got back to my car just in time to hit all of the traffic which was worse than it was that morning but all in all I'm glad i decided to go to washington. I eventually made it to a town called York in Pennsylvania and stayed there for the night.

The next day I found out that Gettysburg was only like thirty mile from there so I went and checked that out. It was pretty cool I really liked that whole town, but I didn't really like Pennsylvania other than that, there were way too many "Adult Superstores" all over the place. That day I drove almost all the way to Canada, and almost ended up in Canada.... twice.... I had to illegally park, but I found the Niagara falls! it was AMAZING! but I couldn't really get a good view of the big part of the falls, even when I hopped a fence and went out on an overlook thing that you are supposed to pay for. I left kind of disappointed that I didn't get a good view of it.

The next morning I was determined to see the falls from a better place. It was already a good morning because I found a legal place to park and wandered around till I ended up talking to one of the rangers for a while and ended up on a boat headed straight for the falls, poncho and all! It was one of the coolest experiences of my life it was like being in a hurricane and all around you is just gigantic masses of water falling... obviously... the rest of the day was pretty much just driving but I stayed at a KOA campsite where unfortunately a storm carried my tent away.

Yesterday I went to the Rock and Roll hall of fame which was really cool. I'm glad I went but it was a little smaller than I expected it to be. Then for the rest of the day I just drove, I went through Chicago and made it to a place called Janesville in Wisconsin which is where I am right now. Today I am going to drive toward Mt. Rushmore! wish me luck!

Days 10-13

I drove from Memphis to Nashville in the morning after Graceland, I got into Nashville and drove around a little bit and found the touristy part of town with all of the gift shops and stuff like that so I walked around a little bit but after like an hour I decided that Nashville wasn't really that appealing to me, it's pretty much the country music capital of the world, and since I don't like country music I didn't like it that much. So I was looking at my map trying to decide where to go next and I saw that there was a small town in southern Kentucky called Corbin! It was about 3 hours from Nashville but I didn't have anything better to do so I started driving. As I was getting into Corbin....hehe....I started seeing two billboards that were very interesting to me. One was of this really creepy cartoon baby that was funny, and the other was an advertisement for the birthplace of Kentucky Fried Chicken!!!! I had to go and see it, when I got there I was so excited that I practically ran through the front door and realized that it was a KFC/Museum all in one! I started taking a bunch of pictures of everything and looked around an everyone there was giving me like this dirty look for some reason because all of them were there to eat and I was just taking pictures. I went from there into downtown Corbin and realized that there was a fair type thing going on so I went to check it out and it was super lame so I left and went to Alabama.

The next day I pretty much hung out at starbucks all day because I was waiting for Zach to get off or whatever, but eventually he did and we hung out a little bit. I found out the legal smoking age here is 19 which is lame. Eventually we got bored and went and saw the Hangover. That was a funny movie! I got to sleep in a bed! it was spectacular!

The day after that we pretty much just scooted around town looking for stuff to do and we ended up longboarding, we were gonna go to a shooting range but you have to be 21 to rent a gun which is dumb. Later that night we went and saw District 9 which is also a good movie! After the movie we went to wal mart to get snacks and ended up buying almost 100 dollars worth of food, it was pretty ridiculous but totally awesome at the same time.

Yesterday was sunday and Zach had to go back to the base so we hung out for a while, then went to base and went bowling. I bowled a 71! then we went and hung out in the recreation center there and watched a movie. He went to formation after that and I went to starbucks then slept in a parking lot.

Right now I am in starbucks again, I had to log onto my online classes and I'm very happy to say that it will be easy for me to b.s. the first week while I'm gone and don't have textbooks. I think I am going to start driving toward Washington D.C. today, I don't think I want to stick around here another day considering there is a hurricane on it's way here.

days 7, 8 and 9

On day seven I woke up in Colorado Springs, got an oil change then headed for the "Garden of the Gods." it was pretty cool there was like big rocks and stuff, there were a TON of people there though, then I headed for Amarillo Texas. I got stuck in traffic on the interstate for a good two hours only moving about one mile total in the whole time. I eventually got to Texas and still had about an hour of driving before I got there and I saw this gigantic storm that I was driving straight into. It was like the sky was divided into two halves, one was this black storm with pouring rain and thunder everywhere, and the other half which was behind me was happy blue skies with sun shining it was bizarre. As I drove further and further into Texas I got more and more into the middle of the storm. I could literally see where the lightning was striking and it was really close to me! But I did make it to Amarillo and after a little confusion I found a parking lot to stay at.

Yesterday I woke up and immediately hit the road and drove east all the way through Oklahoma city and about halfway through Arkansas, after ten hours of driving I decided to cut my day a little short and find somewhere to stay so I found a campground, I got a shower and I got to do some laundry :-) I even got to cook food! The only bad thing was that it was really humid and I really don't like that. But all in all not a bad day

Today I packed up and set off for Memphis Tennessee, I made it there in only like two hours and found Graceland. Graceland is the home of Elvis Presley which is now a museum/memorial type thing. It was pretty cool to see all of Elvis's stuff but it was a little expensive. There were countless creepy old men with big sideburns that tried to talk like Elvis. It seemed a little harder for the ones that didn't speak english... Right now I am at a starbucks in a town called Jackson which is about an hour from Memphis. I found a parking lot I think I am going to stay at tonight. :-)

days 5 and 6

Yesterday I woke up and my uncle Wally and aunt Kay took me around the "Enchanted Circle" It is an 80ish mile circle located east of Taom New Mexico, it is really beautiful and I'm glad I got the chance to explore that. We had lunch at a small town called Red River on the northern section of the loop, it is usually a ski/snowboard resort town but there was no snow up there this time of year. I liked the little town, especially since we scored some free cake! after that we continued around until we were on the westernmost part of the circle and we turned off onto a different highway, I had no idea where my uncle was taking me until we were driving on a bridge over a gigantic gorge in the middle of the desert! After that we had dinner and I got to sleep in a bed again.

This morning I decided that I wanted to go north into Colorado just for the heck of it so after getting some tips on what to see there from my uncle and aunt, I headed north. It is really beautiful here and tomorrow I'm looking forward to seeing the "Garden of the Gods" I found a Wal Mart to stay in about an hour from where I am now but I decided not to go for it because they had signs saying not to stay there overnight, so now I am in Colorado springs which is a larger city in the middle of Colorado on the eastern side of the rockies. I'm gonna stay in a parking lot here tonight.

Days 3 and 4

Yesterday morning I woke up and drove about an hour and a half to get to the Grand Canyon, I saw a sign that said that there was a $25 vehicle fee for parking in the park which made me kinda bummed. I did manage to find a campsite outside of the park for only $10. Yay! I didn't have to sleep in my car! I drove into the small village outside of the park and saw that they had a "free shuttle" which I found out cost the same amount as the vehicle fee so I just decided to drive in. After learning this I was kind of frustrated, and there was pretty heavy traffic in the park and nowhere to park so I was thinking "why did I drive two hours out of the way and pay $25 for a big hole in the ground?!?!?!" but as I walked up to the canyon I was blown away at how amazing it was, I stood there in complete awe for a good half an hour before I decided to start walking along the southern ridge. I parked on the east side of the ridge then walked to the western part of the ridge, I think I took more pictures for other people than with my own camera. I got to the west side around 3 and found a trailhead, I didn't have anything better to do so I went for it and ended up at the bottom of the canyon 2 hours later. When I got to the bottom and realized that everyone else there was staying the night I realized that it's supposed to be a 12 hour hike to the bottom then back, about halfway back up I was kinda worried that it would get dark before I got to the top, and I would miss the sunset! so I hurried back up to the top. The round trip was supposed to take 12 hours...PSH! I did it in 4. and I made it in time to watch the AMAZING sunset.

Today I woke up at 8ish and was off by 9, I made it to Albuquerque in 8 hours and then 2 more up to a small town called Taos where I got a great meal thanks to my uncle Wally and I get to sleep in a bed tonight!

Days 1 and 2

So yesterday I set out on my roadtrip, I left my house yesterday around 1:30 with my car totally packed with everything I will need including more food than I could eat in a year! I drove from Redding straight to Bakersfield which took about 8 hours. I found the wal-mart there to stay the night which was...fun... This morning I woke up at 6:30 and started out toward Flagstaff Arizona, it took me almost 10 hours of straight driving but I'm here now it was pouring rain a second ago now its not. I don't think I want to do anymore 10 hour driving days. Staying entertained is very difficult, I melted a bunch of gummy bears onto my dash.... I think tonight I am going to hang out at Starbucks for a while then go to wal-mart and try to get some sleep.