There are so many movies about epic, life-changing road trips. I've always heard that that's the thing you do in college, like a rite of passage. Be adventurous, try new things, drive across country.
I am not a road trip type of girl.
I'm not adventurous and I hate driving, so naturally I was making every effort to avoid driving from New Jersey to LA this summer.
But alas, Lucia had the final say, and she loves crap like that (adventures/driving/bonding).
And it was one of the greatest trips I've ever taken, and I need to tell you about it so that I can look back on this years from now and remember.
So we started out on August 10, bright and early. I had had about five hours of sleep as I was out late with a bunch of friends the night before, saying goodbye and such. So we got into the car and I slept for about three hours while Lucia drove, and when I woke up, we were still in Philadelphia. Philadelphia is about 20 minutes from my house. Traffic and getting lost and detours and such left Lucia frazzled in downtown Philly.
So I fixed the GPS to get us out and we were off.
I don't remember much from day one aside from the fact that it was awful. Really long, really boring, and really familiar, as we had driven those roads toward Michigan tons of times. The highlight was trying to play the movie game with Lucia, who is a horrible cheater. She would make up movie titles and then giggle to herself if I accepted them. The longer we were driving, the loopier we got. At one point Lucia threatened to pull over and find a skunk for me to play with if I didn't stop playing Taylor Swift in the car. So we were in the car for about 16 hours I think before we reached our first stop at a super ghetto hotel in Effingham, IL.
The next day we drove 10ish hours to Oklahoma City, where we stayed in one of the most comfortable hotel rooms I have ever experienced. I think it was the Sheraton. Anywho Lucia and I met Tom and Tom's boyfriend, Anthony, at a cute hipster restaurant for dinner. It was presh. It was so nice to see Tom and to meet Anthony. Loved it.
The next day is when it started to get interesting. We left OKC to drive to Arizona for our 900 mile day. I remember stopping at this rest stop in Texas that overlook hills and farmland and pretty green everywhere. It was a beautiful rest stop. I also saw what I thought was a crunchy leaf that turned out to be a giant moth. Literally the size of a small bird. Terror.
Whilst in Texas, Lucia and I also went to this ghetto little restaurant in a rest stop and had 99 cent tacos. They were pretty good. Also, I should note that at this point Lucia had been talking incessantly about the grand canyon over the past three days, which was our destination for that day. As Texas turned into New Mexico which turned into desert, Lucia started telling me about how the government houses secret projects on aliens in the desert. She pointed out where those places might be as we drove. So that was nice. She was also very concerned about her candy crush account, as all of her friends were apparently dying without her to feed them. I don't know. I don't understand Candy Crush (however everyone in my office plays it).
The scenery was incredible. I've never seen anything like it. We stopped at one point at a scenic overlook where I almost stepped on a rattlesnake poking out from under a rock (I nearly threw up afterward). There were also some native american ladies selling jewelry that they had made up there, so we bought some. Also, the heat was unreal. Thick, heavy heat. So strange. I got sunburn after spending only ten minutes outside. It was awesome. I cannot stress how beautiful the scenery was for that day of driving. Unreal.
That's Part One. I'm going to go get some lunch before continuing to part two. Stay tuned.
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