Dallas Is On

We made it. After all the trouble in the world, we made it. So far, Dallas is a great city. I can't wait to see Cara and Jeff. Naturally, I have to wait. That is what tomorrow is for.

Today's biggest ordeal was the mystery of my lost Phone. In truth, it was lodged in a crack under the passenger seat, stuck on silent, (or "sounds off activated" as Verizon insists) the whole time. Convinced that it had been lost at a rest stop two-hundred miles back, I deactivated the phone. Then, as I was filing an insurance claim to get a new phone, (that would arrive as soon as Tuesday) my always amazing mom found the phone. Of course it was in a place that I had thoroughly checked.

Other events of note:
Avoiding the President George Bush Turnpike for entirely political reasons. (also it was a toll road)

Reading Al Franken's Lies (And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them) while on the road.

Starting Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation by Lynne Truss not long after that.

Letting the GPS take us to the middle of nowhere because it's a shorter distance if we don't use the interstate.

That leading us to Pecos, TX on high school football night.

That leading us to seeing a 16 year-old screw up while filling her SUV up and spilling a gallon of gas everywhere. I thought she was going to set everything on fire.

Seeing this guy's picture in our first hotel room back in Arizona.

Odessa

We're settled in for the night in Midland/Odessa, TX. Totally saw the football stadium from Heroes season 1.

On Tires and the Danger They Pose

"Andrew, tire." my mom said calmly. A moment later I drove directly over a tire laying in the road. We had been driving that long highway for hours, and the threat the tire posed would become clearer in the next hour.

It took a while for the back right bumper to fall off and scrape the off ramp's gravel. We duct taped it up as best as we could. A kind man at the Pilot station fixed our lights and pointed us to a garage that might be able to fix our leaking coolant and catch what he missed.

So that's where we sat, in a New Mexican garage, Dallas still a far off dream.

Tonight we'll sleep in Midland, TX. Tomorrow Dallas will be mine.

Willcox

This morning's fiasco kept us from reaching El Paso like I wanted. Willcox, AZ will have to do. Gonna get to Dallas LATE tomorrow night.

Dallas TX

This has been a long time coming; probably since Tom moved out a few months ago. I'm moving to Dallas, TX. A couple really great friends, the best I have, are helping me stay there. My mom, wonderful lady that she is, is flying to into LA tomorrow to help me make the 20+ hour drive to the lone star state. We're leaving Thursday and we'll be in Dallas on Friday night. I'll post some things on Twitter from the road if you follow.

I've been given some big opportunities in Dallas that I have to take advantage of. Please, don't think that I'm giving up on the dream by leaving Hollywood behind. Truth is, I stopped dreaming of Hollywood a long time ago. Maybe what I'm looking for is in Dallas. We'll see.

Lets Do The Math: From IN to CA

How long?
Left at 9:30 AM Eastern Time on Wednesday, June 9th.
Arrived at 5:00 PM Pacific Time on Sunday
Moving Time: 38.45 hours
Total Time: 106.5 hours
Total Distance Traveled: 2446.73 miles
Gas Consumption: 29 mpg or 84 gallons
Gas Price: $2.60 average or $124.80

How fast?
Moving Average 63.8 mph
Total Average 22.97 mph
Max Speed 86.7 mph

Shall we break it down?
11 hours from North Vernon, IN to Tulsa, Ok
9 hours to Albuquerque, NM
4.5 hours to Flagstaff, AZ
3 hours to the Grand Caynon and back to Flagstaff
4.5 hours to Las Vegas, NV
5 hours to Los Angeles, CA

Notes: The reason our stopped time is so long is because we spent a long time at the Grand Canyon and a day in Vegas as well as getting plenty of sleep when possible. Mom did set the max speed as registered on the GPS. Gas consumption wasn't all that high because of the high mpg of the Sunfire. It gets closer to 35 mpg when it isn't overloaded with my stuff. Thanks to Garmin for providing most of the moving speed, distance traveled, and moving time. The rest could be extrapolated from those stats and memory.

Road Trip Blowout

Here's an archive of all the awesome pictures from my Indiana to California road trip. I'll try and caption some for explanations.

More posts coming soon including an apartment walkthrough and road trip statistics for those of you who care.

Quick Update: Part 12

I made it. Los Angeles, CA now has Ewzzy to deal with.

Quick Update: Part 11

We're on the road again. I have a faulty water pump to get fixed this week but it could be worse. Only two hours from our destination now.

Can of Coke

See that can of Diet Coke? That was found in the undercarriage of my car. I checked the can is labeled "best before Nov 15, 2004. I got the car in '05. This is just ridiculous.

Quick Update: Part 10

Coolant leak just outside of Vegas. Now in Barstow CA trying to get it fixed. Don't think I've ever been more frustrated in my entire life.

Vegas Concluded

Vegas is a crazy place. It walks back and forth between famiily freindly and shamefully skanky. I think I wouldn't have been so bothered if I wasn't there with my dear sweet mother. Nothing is more uncomfortable than a man offering you hookers when your mom is next to you. Same thing happpened to me in Tijuana. Do I look like I want hookers?
Blue Man Group was so amazing. They have a simple way of setting up the rules of a scene and then pushing those rules as far as possible before breaking them. It's hard to describe but it's consistent throughout the show. My favorite thing about the show was the way you can be given everything you need to understand what's going on, but you can still be suprised. If I wanted to I could describe the whole show to you section by section, but I don't want it to lose it's impact. Suffice it to say, it was a highly memorable experience.
We also watched the Bellagio water dance like 4 times. It is so cool. Now for the final road trip: to LA!

What happens in Vegas goes to LA

We're in Vegas baby! The first hotel we tried was surrounded by homeless tents so we got a different one. This one is just full of Wisconsin tourists.
Another change of plans: we're only spending one night in Vegas so we'll be in LA even sooner. I can't wait!
But first! Off we go to see Blue Man Group and lose horribly at video poker!That's not the hotel BTW. That's the Venetian. It's a bit more amazing.

The Hoover Dam

Don't worry Cara. It's supposed to have some give. I loved seeing the nature of the Grand Canyon but seeing nature conquered at the Hoover Dam may be even cooler to me. It just makes me go, "Damn, humans are great." We've made it to Nevada now. It should be a half an hour to Las Vegas if I set the GPS properly.

The Grand Canyon

Yeop, it's grand. My mom is freaking out about my standing that close to the ledge. I swear there was only a ten foot drop to the next ledge. Nothing to worry about. Next stop at the Grand Canyon: The Abyss!

Ennui

We're on our way to the Grand Canyon now. I haven't slept well on this trip and it's starting to show. I can tell I'm getting grumpy. My space feels like it's getting smaller and even the beautiful landscape is vaguely annoying. I'm missing life off the road pretty badly. If you're reading this and have my number: call me sometime. Don't wait till I'm at a hotel I have time for you now. I'm staying the night in Flagstaff then going to Las Vegas. We're seeing Blue Man Group and staying the night. After that it's on to Los Angeles for the move in.

Quick Update: Part 9

It was bad when the streetlight shone through my window at night but did the hotel room have to be on the east side? Sun woke me up at 5 AM.

The Taft Presidential Suite

My first hotel room had bugs so I got moved to the Taft Presidential Suite. Life is good. Now off to see Land of the Lost. There's no 'topes game tonight or you know where I would be. See you tomorrow for the Grand Canyon.

Quick Update: Part 8

Made it to Albuquerque. Maybe we'll catch an Isotopes game since it's still so early here. Ooh then I can get a shirt to match Tom's!

Quick Update: Part 7

Hello New Mexico! It's better than old Mexico.