Intro to the intro:

I stopped writing.  Because I’m a lame as fuck duck. And real life, but whatever.  It’s important for me to finish writing this.  The details may not be as vivid, but the important parts have stuck and I guess that’s what I should be taking from this journey anyways.

I’ve actually revisited California since my break in writing and that’s recolored my thoughts of Los Angeles, that said I’ll recount the rest of #govinbhaigoestoLA as the one-time naive govin. My subsequent visit to California and life-in-general in between are topics to be discussed some other day.

I really need to keep writing. Also, keep count of how many sentences I start with “I”.

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Sitting stationary, awkwardly upright for 12+ hours a day does awful, terrible things to one’s body.  Being a passenger is nearly as bad as being the driver in this case.  Muscles atrophy, joints ache (joints help, too!), the mind hurts.  Even consistent breaks to stretch and walk around couldn’t undo an entire day of sitting. Cars suck

10/13/13

Part 1: Shamrock to Albuquerque

We left Shamrock, Texas at 6 AM.  It was very cold.  On the front of the Econolodge, someone had painted a shamrock with the stars and stripes, and goddamn it was beautifully ‘Murican.  The rest of the town was pretty sad.

The sky was clear and dark as we left.  It was dark almost the entire time we were in Texas.  But the sky was clear and I could see the stars.  There was little light pollution, little dust, and bright, clear stars painting the entire sky. We had been driving for two days, and we really haven’t gotten that far, you know?

Another thunderstorm passed overhead and we lost sight of the stars, and Texas was dark once again.  We drove for a few more hours, past Amarillo and saw a textbook definition of Texan sprawl (it was disgusting – motels and fast food everywhere). Panhandle sucked.

Finally, in Vega, TX we stopped for gas (worst bathrooms and coffee of the trip)  and I took over driving duty for the first (and only time) during this trip. I had volunteered a couple times, but Anthony powered through.  Kid likes driving or he’s afraid of me driving his car which is just as likely.

I’m glad I got to drive though, because now I can say I actually “drove” across the US.  Don’t mean to brag but my driving was probably the highlight of all the driving we did.

New Mexico was sneaky a super cool state.  The weather, the landscape, the food (!!!!!).  It was really everything I was hoping Arizona would be. Also we went an hour back in time, whoa.

New Mexico was the first state when we really began to feel the desert heat.  I am a creature of warmth and that shit felt SO GOOD.  Keep in mind that this was in October.  I would give you my wallet right now if I could be back in New Mexico.

So we stopped in Santa Rosa at 9 AM, probably the shortest driving/break ratio of the trip.  Even the gas station was chill and the views were beautiful.

Highways and homes cut into the red and blue rocks all around us.  The desolation of the midwest began to feel like our exploration of the southwest.  The weather was divine.

Albuquerque, not only one of the hardest cities to spell, was a sweet place to hitch our wagon and grab an early lunch (that’s “brunch” for you white people) around 11.  I parallel parked like a boss ass city dweller and we walked to Frontier New Mexico Diner (the second best restaurant of the whole trip).  The joint was right across the street from the University of New Mexico’s main campus, and I saw some bros with mustaches, some chicks with short hair, and instantly felt at home.

The place was PACKED. It was a Sunday and there was a mix of college students, presumptive visiting parents, and some truly bizarre locals.  I had a strong inkling that Guy Fieri had probably been through the place but have not done the research to back that up.  I think I ordered the breakfast burrito and saw heaven for the first time.

Boner jams, panty slushies, that’s what that place was. I give it a hard 10/10. We left Albquewhatever at 11:40 and found the Eagles game on the radio, Anthony’s dad Nick also texted us the best text updates you’ve ever seen.  Part 2 of day 3 was the most beautiful leg of the journey.

Part 2: What’s more beautiful, the Southwest, or Nick Foles?

(I really miss football season)

Very easy for anyone in Philadelphia to say now, but this was week 6, the Eagles were 2-3 and Vick pulled a hammy the week before.  This kid Foles brought the Eagles back at the end of that game, but it was against a shitty Giants squad.  Conventional wisdom claimed that “Chip Kelly’s Offense” needed a mobile QB to open up running lanes and truly explode.  

I was a Foles guy before it was cool. *dodges tomatoes thrown at me* But really I was excited for him to start. Vick was not a long term answer and was generally a glass cannon.  Nick Foles was an accurate pocket-passed, if all sorts of white, slow and awkward. And he beat the Bucs in Tampa a year ago, let’s at least pull out this win in relief and see what happens. 

Words could probably do this portion of the trip justice, but I’m not super good at words so I’ll use a lot of pictures and only periodic words.  It helps that these were some of the best pictures of the trip. Anthony took over driving so I just felt out the vibes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1b97wo2Ekww

Around 1:30 PM local time, we saw our first tumbleweeds. We lost radio stations.  At 2:30 we got to Arizona, and there were exactly 0 radio stations available.  It was hot. The Eagles had won. And soon, we went back in time again.

It was really pretty boring at first.  But we finally split off the interstate (looks pretty much identical from state to state) onto a back road that would drive us through Tonto national park into Tempe.  I took 50+ pictures and remembered that Anthony was afraid of heights.  I greatly enjoyed this leg of the journey, Anthony not so much.

The boring before the mountains. We stopped for gas in Holbrook, AZ around 2:30 and started the scenic route.

Anthony, not digging it.

It helps to know that I was pretty stoned.

Motha

Fuckin

Cacti

It was dark by the time we got into Tempe (nearly 6 PM) and Anthony was moderately peeved.  I didn’t get many good pictures of the city but it was mostly highways so you’re not missing much.  My big plan was to meet a POI at Arizona Sate that evening (which I did, at a pretty cool bar called Boulders on Broadway, rock climbing theme, qizzo and everything <3).

More importantly, I had my first In N Out burger and fries (animal style of course).

The burger was a solid 8/10, the fries were very weak, 5.5/10.  In the future: animal style on burger, ketchup on fries.

Some last points about the Tempe/Phoenix area:

• Everything was extremely spread out. The Phoenix metro area is basically two giant highway loops that connect a bunch of strip malls.
• Sundevil Stadium looked almost exactly like the Linc, without all the fancy wind turbines and shit.
• Downtown Tempe was constrained to one big strip, but it seemed nice.
• Bike lanes EVERYWHERE!

We were close. On day 4 we’d make it to California.

Mileage count: Today – 800 miles, Total – 2507 miles