Road Trip – Day 3 (Dallas)

Dallas skyline

Dallas was awesome as always. We arrived late Saturday night hoping to surprise my sister and her husband by using FaceTime on Thip’s new iPhone 4 but instead, sat in their driveway for 20 minutes waiting for a signal and texting them questions about their wifi network. Epic fail. Worse off, we were so late to the sushi restaurant they planned on taking us to that they were no longer serving. We decided to settle for mediocre sushi in a different part of town, until we stumbled across an even better sushi restaurant thanks to the UrbanSpoon app! Teppo sushi had delicious, fresh sushi and…a bidet! Definitely was my first time using one and I’m not sure if I like it, especially with warm water.

Teppo Sushi

Fresh sashimi!

Bidet in bathroom!

Moving on…Sunday was really our first chance to unwind for half a day. We started off with one of the best brunches ever at the Place at Perry’s known for its naturally raised Niman Ranch steaks. With our bellies happy and full, we ventured to Mockingbird Station to window shop and catch an Indie film at Angelika Film Center. We decided on “The Girl Who Played With Fire” – a suspenseful Swedish film about sex trafficking-related murders. Little did we know, we watched the prequel two days later in Chicago. Absolutely amazing movies.

The Place at Perry's

Prime Filet Benedict

Angelika Film Center

After we topped off on Pluckers wings and apps, we found ourselves packing up and heading off before we knew it. We left much later than anticipated and this time, did not reach our ambitious destination of St. Louis. 6 hours of driving in pitch black roads where semis are coming toward me with nothing but a yellow, double line separating us. Highways turned into local streets and then back to highways repeatedly. I was even sandwiched between two cop cars and then later followed by another. The accents of gas station attendants seemed to be getting thicker as we headed further north oddly. My lack of sleep was hitting me fast and the most horrible things came to mind of “crazies” that live in rural areas. I finally let my paranoia and tiredness get the best of me and settled for a hotel in Joplin, Missouri for some much needed rest.

Road trip – Day 1 and 2 (San Diego to Las Cruces to Dallas)

Point Loma, San Diego

“I’m so sorry, but I really gotta go again. Nothing came out the first time.” After hearing that from my co-driver, I knew it would be a while until we actually hit the road. Two bathroom trips at Starbucks later, we then had to stop for Immodium. Might as well throw in an air freshener too. For the gas…oline that is. Boy did that spare gas in the trunk get bothersome fast! I’m sure we got somewhat high from that.

6:30 pm we finally start the long drive on Interstate Highway 8-East to El Centro. Although it was late, I was determined to get through the mountains before sunset and hopefully skip all the hotel benchmarks I had planned for backup and just get to our hotel reservation in Las Cruces, NM. At the rate we were going, we were looking at an ETA of 4:20 am PDT. Good thing I was heavily buzzed on caffeine. The mountain driving was over before we knew it and well before sunset thankfully as there were no lights, no signal on our phones, and no gas stations. Surprisingly, many people were on the road though so it didn’t feel so lonesome.

The Thip & Syp duo!

Abandoned gas station

One of many semis

The stretch to New Mexico is really just barren nothingness as I imagine much of this trip to be until we reach the bigger cities. We peed in empty gas station lots. Got stopped at two border patrol checkpoints with dogs that sniffed our car and asked if we were citizens. Drove into a crazy swarm of bugs that stretched for miles; it felt like we were driving through a quiet hail storm. At our first gas stop, we immediately noticed how hot it was even at night! It felt as if a hair dryer was blowing all over my body. As we drove along 10-East, we began noticing bursts of light in the far distance and in between the bushes. We weren’t sure if we were just seeing things. Fireworks? Little men shooting in bushes? Sure enough, we were surrounded by lightning on all sides. No rain, just mother nature doing its thing. Two hours later, rain. Awesome. By 2 am, I could feel my eyes straining and my arm twitching, yet I was still dancing in my seat while my co-driver was fast asleep. During the last two hours, I pushed to 100 mph until we finally got to Las Cruces at 5:00 am MDT, 20 minutes ahead of schedule. All we wanted was a bed at that point but of course Murphy’s Law didn’t pass up this opportunity. Our receptionist, an old-fashioned, chatty fellow thought we were no-shows and had to figure out how to “re-instate” the reservation as it had been a while since he last had to. I refrained from ripping his head off. After receiving the key and heading to the car, we get chased after to sign a different paper because I was given the wrong one to sign. After all mistakes were corrected, we arrive at our room and crash for what seemed like an hour.

Day 2, we switched off driving and experienced even more desert and nothingness. Fast forward 9 hours and here we are in Dallas!

Pedal to the metal!

7 Cities in 7 Days!!

Today I begin my week long road trip across the country! Just soaked up the last of the ocean with my co-driver and filled our bellies with carne asada fries. After several flight delays and 6 hours behind schedule, we will attempt to reach our first destination in Las Cruces, NM. Till then…stay classy San Diego!