Beginning.
Saturday August 16, 2008. Approximately 2am. Zak and I load up the car, his few bags of stuff and my one big red nike bag. We call Sean and head over to his casa. He has a beer, did i mention its 2am and his alone?, but anyways we talk and say our goodbyes. We get into the car and set our destination with Tom Tom, soon to be called Tam Tam (the GPS). We head down on 76W going out of PA. We head over the Walt Whitman Bridge and make our way. Zak drives for the first 6 hours and then decides he needs to sleep. I take over aroud 7am and we're just about in Ohio. As we enter Ohio I see two people, a couple. The lady's head suddenly dissapears and I think to myself, "No this couldn't be that moment!!!" I speed up and YES, YES it is that moment. I wake Zak's ass up and his grabs the camera and we take pictures of this lady doing that nasty nasty deed to the man while he drives, HAHA, ROADHEAD!!! He sees Zak taking pictures and he tells his woman. They try to drive away from us but I keep up.
Okay after that was over we took the exit towards lake erie and Cleveland. We entered Cleveland at about 9am. We walked around the lake, by the stadium where the browns get the crap kicked out of them, and then we waited for the Rock & Rock Hall of Fame to open. We got inside by 10ish. We ate over the lake and then headed out. We were back on the road by 12 or 1 i think.
We head down I-80 towards Chicago, Ill. We arrived in Chicago around 7 or 8pm. We found our hotel, right off Michigan Road. We walked around the city, found a huge concert that was going on right in the middle of the city. We hung around, walked around, went to a bar had a beer or two. Then we ended up back at the Hotel.
In the morning we woke up, got our stuff together, had breakfast at Eppy's Deli (awesome place), and then headed back to our new friend the road. We got out of Chicago around 9am. Back on the road and heading towards Nebraska. We went through Indiana, then to Iowa (des monies). We didn't stop other than for gas, but the scenic view was more than we expected. The hills and argriculture were diffenity some of the coolest/most inspiring sites I'd ever seen in my life.
I found out about a site called couchsurfing.com before we left for the trip. I found some people in Lincoln and they allowed us to stay at their house. The house was a massive yellow crib. But the people inside was were the fun was. We stayed with a few students who atteneded University of Nebraska. They were very nice, maria and Chuck. We had a few beers, talked about life and we slept. We woke up in the morning, as quiet as mice. We headed out around 8am leaving a note giving our thanks for the couches and pillows.
We were back on the road by 8:30 I believe. We drove through Nebraska for quite some time, probably 5 hours at least. We entered Colorado with miles and miles of open land and a two land highway going 75mph! We got into Denver, I forget the time, but it had to be around 4 or 5pm. We hung arond the city went a few really cool places and then had to make a decision. Initially, we were going to stop in Salt Lake City for the day, but the trip was another 7 hours. We had a friend in Boulder who said we could hang there for the night. We decided around a half of talking about it to stay with him. So we went to Boulder and hang out at the University of Colorado for the night, it was a good time. We woke up at 9am and got back onto the road. We headed up on Route 25 from there and got into Wyoming. We drove and stopped in Cheyenne. It was also a pretty drive, a lot of open area and mountains. Oh, by the way, the mountains in Colorado were incredible. I loved every second of it.
We drove right through Wyoming and headed into Utah. We drove through Utah, right next to Great Salt Lake, we were right outside of Salt Lake City. We didn't feel like stopping. We did stop, however, at the Salt Flats. It was an amazing site. We even ate some salt. We drove into Nevada and gained another hour, this is a 3 hour difference from NJ now. It was getting late and time, probably 8pm now. This was a long drive, but we wanted to make up time! We ate some where in Nevada at a small little Diner. It was an experience. We then got back onto the road and headed for our destination, Winnemucca! We got into Winnemucca at around 10pm. We stopped on the way and pulled over to look at the stars. It was the most I'd ever seen in my life. We got out and just sat on the top of the car.
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Anyways, We got into Winnemucca and put our bags away. Our hotel had a bar/casino, so we couldn't turn that down!!! I decided to spend about $10 bucks and Zak wanted to be a high roller and went with 15 i think. We played and drank, watched the Olympics. With a quarter left Zak wins $20! we are laughing and drinking at this point and I just use his money to win some as well. As the night goes on, half hour, he wins AGAIN! so he's 39.50 up from his original $0.25! I asked the money exchange man for the directions to the nearest strip club. He told me, "we ain't got none, but we do have a whore house" I was not expecting this AT ALL! i ran over to zak and let him know the situation. He stands up and grabs all his change. We ask him for directions again and he told us to tell them "Little Johnny" sent us. We are laughing but very scared at this point. We drive about a half of a mile turn left and sure enough there it is. It smelled of sex and cigarettes in the parking lot. We got out of the car and headed towards a door. We talked into a smoked filled room and a man with a woman talking. She is in fishnets and has fat flubbing all over her small outfit. I tell him we were looking for Marerick street. He explains to me that if I got through the other door I'll find just what I'm looking for. We both walk out and look at one another. We couldn't do it. We got back into the car, laughing, but slightly horrified of how these people live their lives. We went back to the hotel and slept.
We woke up and had our free breakfast. And got back onto the road. Now we were heading toward California! We drove for about 5 hours through the Desert. And entered into the Califoria moutains. It was AWESOME to say the least. We arrived in San Francisco and parked by the Warf. We went down by the water, San Francsico Bay. We walked around the city, went to the top and looked out over the city of this crazy streets. How they create San Francsico hurts my head when I think about it. We ate some food down by the Warf and enjoyed the day. Next to Chicago, this is probably the coolest city on our trip.
We then headed for Salinas were a few of Zak's college buddies live. We met up with them and headed for the beach. We got some beers and enjoyed a fire right next to the Pacific Ocean. I was in love at that every moment. Zak's friends were all really nice and relaxed about life. I enjoyed meeting them all, Zach, Kipp, and the others.
In the morning we headed down towards LA. We didn't take the 1 (Pacific Coast Highway) because it would take another 2 days, so we went down the 101. We drove for about an hour or two and stopped at Morrow Bay. it was a fish down built around a Valcano. It was awesome!!! we ate some soap in a bread bowl. I had Chili, he had Claim. It was a fun day. We got back onto the road and headed towards LA.
We entered into Northridge, or Chatsworth one of the two. Zak got directons to his soon to be new resting place. We pulled up to this house, I wish I had a picture, it was the biggest piece of shit I'd ever seen. No one was there, but there were suppose to be a few other people living there. We drove around until his roommate got back into the area to let us in. We stopped at In& Out, an aweosme burger shop where I got a double cheese burger, a soda, & fries for $4.75. When Zaks roommate arrived we headed back to the piece of crap house. He let us in, and to be honest, the outside looked better than the inside. It looked like someone went junk yard and through all the crap they found into the house. Zak was pissed, the say the least, he thwn decided to throw his key at his car. It is around 8pm now and the sun is down. We loose the key, of course. We look for it until 9 or 10 when Zak finds in 20 feet away from the car. We got into the car and he was pissed. We asked our friend's the Brueys sister if we could stay at her place for the time being. She said it was cool, so we headed to Studio City.
We stayed there from Thursday to Sunday. Monday Zak started Class. We went to one place, couldn't stay there, ened up at another place. Stay there for a night. Then ended up at a house where Zaks new future roommate were living. He found them on Craiglists and it worked out well. They were all cool people. We stayed there for a night, but then went and stayed in a hotel for the time remaining since we were on couches and wanted beds.
It was Wedneday night by then, and I was heading out that night. Zak dropped me off at LAX and we said our goodbyes.
He went back to his Cali Life and I went back to good old NJ.
It was an awesome trip, I saw and found some incredible things on the way. I hope to do it again and go the southern root.
Cheers
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