After studying abroad in Italy... I really didn't want to go back to school and take a summer class. An ex-boyfriend (we were dating at the time, though) decided he was highly interested in a cross-country trip, and I just had to tag along. It was the adventure of a lifetime, and I really think that people living in the United States are missing out if they don't take at least one major roadtrip in their lives with a good friend or family member. Gas prices make it much harder to do this now, but if you can, I highly encourage you to make time in your life to go from one coast to the other and watch the land change from pine trees in the Southeast to plains full of wheat and sunflowers, then a glorious painted scene of red rock, cacti, and sunsets followed by palm trees and sandy beaches on the west coast. It was a real treat, and I'm going to have a hard time keeping this short, so bear with me!

Our trip began at the dentist's office in Atlanta, Georgia. I had to be fitted - for the third time - for a mouthguard as I'm a tooth-grinding Olympic champion. It was a bit of a delay in our departure, but we figured with good time we could hit Arkansas and stop there for the night. Along the way, we wanted to stop in various visitor's centers to see what every state had to offer. Memphis decided to not only offer us bathrooms, but a place to have our ride die and need emergency repairs. Ugh! My ex's parents put us up for the night in a nice hotel to make up for the problem, but it wasn't exactly the best way to kick off our trip. The next morning we gathered our things, packed it back into the fixed car, and made our way down old Route 66 into Amarillo, TX for the night. It was here that I learned just how large of a city Atlanta really is - a waiter at the local Sonic noticed the Georgia license plate and inquired where we were from. When I said I was from Atlanta, his eyes lit up and he yelled out, "Wow! I've never met someone from the big city before!" He started acting like I was a hotshot celebrity straight out of the ATL. He was very kind and definitely made for a better ending to the day compared to Memphis!

From Amarillo, we drove and drove through the middle of nowhere. Literally. The scenery was gorgeous, but there just aren't many stops! Our goal to make up time and reach Flagstaff, Arizona was thwarted once again, this time by a freak rainstorm in the middle of the desert. It was huge. Tumbleweeds flying everywhere, lightning blazing across the open terrain at an astonishing rate, and torrential rainfall. It was only 7:00pm PST (Arizona doesn't abide by daylight savings time!) and yet the sky literally looked like it was well past midnight. We had to call it or night or risk death. Seriously. Of course the next morning, you would never know that it had rained. It was so hot and the air so dry that not a drop of water remained on the ground. Only a few loose tumbleweeds sitting on the side of the road hinted at the storm that happened the previous evening. Weird. Our final day of traveling out to San Diego, California led us through the rest of Arizona, over the Colorado River (no, not by the Grand Canyon), and through the southern half of Death Valley on into Los Angeles. After hitting very few spots with traffic, Los Angeles was an absolute nightmare. I happened to be driving and had to stop and let my ex take the wheel. I understand the flow of Atlanta traffic, but Los Angeles is another story - motorcycles can go inbetween cars and I was driving a van for the first time. Ick. We arrived just in time for dinner on July 16th, and our fun two weeks began!


California

Let me just mention that my aunt's job requires a nice four day "wake up whenever you want" and a three day "wake up when most people go to bed" routine. Friday, Saturday, and Sunday - the typical sleep-in days for most - are when my aunt must wake up at 6:00am and sometimes 2:00am to do her job of buying and selling antiques. Garage sales and packing occur on Friday and Saturday, while Sunday is when she has to arrive by 5:00am typically to set up her antiques booth. Imagine my ex's excitment come July 18th when we had to get up and leave by 2:30am! It was a very fun day, however, and my ex seemed to enjoy it (aside from the early wake-up call). My aunt was able to sell quite a few things, and because of this and our helpful efforts, she decided to treat us to a trip to Encenitas, Mexico the following week! I was quite excited and hoped it would be a good chance for my ex to finally add "travel outside America" to his resumé.

Other things that we did while in California included the San Deigo Wild Animal Park, Horton Plaza (a 5 story mall with everything from Bath and Body Works to Louis Vuitton), and La Jolla. The Wild Animal Park was much smaller than what I remembered from when I was in 6th grade, but much larger than Zoo Atlanta so I suppose I can't really complain. La Jolla, Horton Plaza, and Balboa Park all occured in one day, which was a lot for my poor feet. I ended up with three big blisters on top of my right foot! In La Jolla, I wanted to show my ex the infamous Seal Rock, a place where a ton of seals decide to sun themselves daily outside San Diego. Back in 6th grade, there were a few seals on the rock and a couple that were brave enough to come up to the human beaches, but now seals had taken over the many beaches practically and even a little baby was curious enough to come up to two scuba divers on one beach! Balboa Park was new to us both and while very pretty, sadly nothing was really open because we arrived so late. It was still wonderful to walk the various wooded paths. As a side trip, my aunt and I brought us to Oceanside, a decent-sized California town with a famous large pier on the beach and a delicious little restaurant on another boat dock. I think that California is one of my favorite states. There is something to do no matter where you go, and there is always something going on. Like my aunt's friend, Steve, who lives in Laguna Beach, suggested to us to attend the Pagent of the Masters, a show in Laguna Beach in which actors pose in the positions of famous artwork... but you can't tell it isn't a real painting or statue. It was utterly amazing, and I couldn't believe that we lucked out and someone sold my aunt four tickets for very cheap! It typically sells out more than a year in advance, so I was pleased that I got to see it. As as art major, it was a real treat!

A trip this good couldn't have something bad in it, but oh, it does! Well, not bad persay, but it was still an inconvenience to my ex. My aunt and I wanted to have a fun evening, so we went to Pala to visit the Casinos there. Most of them are 21+, but there is one that is only 18+. I was only 20 at the time, so that's where we headed to play the slots for awhile. I already look young, so the second I walked in the door the man was ready to put a wristlet on me denoting my age. my ex, however, presented his license to the man and pointed to his birthdate to prove he was now 21. The man asked, "Are you from Georgia?" and my ex obviously answers "Yes." The man then laughs, says "Really!" and puts a bracelet on my ex as well! Apparently they had problems with young kids making fake IDs from other states and the guy assumed my ex was trying to pass one off on him! So while I found it funny, my ex was a little annoyed...


Mexico

As a treat for a job well done at the antique show, Kim, Pat, my ex, and I all went to Ensenitas, Mexico for three days to have nice vacation. Well, for my ex and I it was more like a vacation within a vacation... After arriving at the hotel, my aunt decided that the room we had wouldn't work out for us and wanted us moved to a slightly larger space. We ended up with a balcony view of the ocean (what she originally requested) instead of the pool view we had before. From our room we could watch the ocean run straight into the fresh water estuary as well as see a few seals sunning themselves on a sandbar across the water. There was a private beach and a public beach at the hotel for us to swim at, but the water in the Pacific is so cold! Still, I tried my best... Most of my time was spent being lazy (a rare thing for me while on vacation). My aunt and I had a couple of drinks at the poolbar and mostly read books the entirety of the trip. It was pleasant to relax after having a whirlwind of events happening constantly in Italy, moving into my apartment, then spending four days driving out to California. I especially enjoy real Mexican food, which is nothing like the Americanized versions at Taco Bell. Sure, many Mexican cities near the border serve your average taco and burrito (such as is the case in Tijuana), but many also offer a variety of whole fish, different meat cuts, and fresh vegetables that you wouldn't normally see on a "Mexican" menu in America. I particularly enjoyed the fish, baked to perfection!

On our way back to California, we stopped in Encenitas to have a bite to eat as well as browse the many stores. I ended up finding a CD by Tiziano Ferro, my little Italian singer! Unfortunately, CDs in Mexico also cost an arm and a leg, just as they did in Italy. My ex did find a cute little surfer statue to add to his growing "tiki theme" collection he wanted to put into his room. After dining, we headed to the border, which is a long wait. The Border Patrol must investigate every single car to make sure no one is entering illegally, smuggling in illegal aliens, or bringing back drugs. My ex and I even had to affirm we were American as though my stark white skin and obviously non-Latino features weren't proof enough. The guy actually seemed to look at me as though I was lying, but perhaps he just had bad eyes? He let us through no problem but it was just awkward to watch him stare at me that way. I guess being in the car with an older gentleman and two blonde hair, blue-eyed people meant that I was the Mexican stowaway out to destroy Middle America. Oi vey.


Utah & Heading Back East

I definitely didn't think that Utah would be as interesting as it was. In fact, I was mostly expecting it to be flat and full of absolutely nothing, but it certainly proved me wrong! My ex was determined to see the Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson, which is in the Great Salt Lake, so we took a long detour up to Salt Lake City, Utah. We wound up at the site where the golden peg was driven into the first contential railway line and got our instructions to reach the Spiral Jetty. Of course, this piece of environmental art can only be reached by driving through rough terrain, most of which wasn't even really a road. The instructions included things such as "Go over cattle barrier two" and "Turn right at the rusty Ford truck." Still, we found it, and apparently a couple others had as well. When we arrived, it definitely didn't look like it does in the pictures from my art book. Blue sky? Dark blue water? No, this was more like a barren wasteland with what appeared to be oil barrels floating in the water as well as salt caking everything it could reach. The jetty was above water for the first time in what we were told was close to a decade, and it showed - a thick layer of salt had piled onto the large rocks Smithson used to make his art. The water around the Spiral Jetty was so full of salt that it was completely still, yet just a few yards away, a family was "swimming" in an area of the lake with visible waves. The area reminded me of what people envision when they think of the ends of the earth, with the pink and gray sky leading down to crystaline, white "sea." It was still very impressive to get to see and walk down the massive jetty, and being able to say I saw it in person later on in Art History II was a big plus!

As my own personal detour, I decided we should see some national parks. The Arches National Park happened to be right there in Utah where we wound up that night, so the next day, we headed in. The famous red arch used on the Utah license plate is located in that park, as well as numerous other red rock formations, many of which seem to completely defy the laws of gravity! Large boulders peeked precariously over the edge of a tall, slender rock formation, and I couldn't comprehend how it was able to balance for so long on top of the spiral. After taking a few of the short hiking trails and taking photos of the vast expanse of the park, my ex and I realized we had to get back to Georgia. Utah proved to be quite intriguing. It reminded me of a mini-California, which various landscapes as one traveled over the area. The red rocks to the south, the mountains to the center, and the large, salt lake to the north. I hope to someday return to see the Sun Tunnels, another piece of environmental art that is in a desert area close to the Great Salt Lake.

The rest of the trip was relatively uneventful... We did stop in at a dinosaur museum in Grand Junction, Colorado and saw my ex's family in Muskogee, Oklahoma where I also had the first and last steak I've ever enjoyed. My ex had never been to Chattanooga, Tennessee before, so we also stopped off there to see the aquarium (the Georgia Aquarium was still being built at the time) and had fun observing all the water dwellers before having to come back home. I really enjoyed the sights and sounds of the road, though I guess we weren't being very environmentally friendly. Hey, that van got great gas mileage (for a van, that is) and we brought back all kinds of fun trinkets from our travels, so in the end it was definitely well worth it. Still, I can't believe we whined when we saw that gas was $1.65 in California... little did we know back then, little did we know. ;)