Pictures from my Road Trip to California

Bright and early on the morning of July 28th, Craig, Parag and I set off for a long drive to LA (from Champaign). We had to be in LA by Friday to make it for Al's wedding and pre-wedding stuff. The plan was to spend the next 13 days driving through Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, California, Utah, Wyoming, Nebraska, and Iowa (in that order) before finally returning home.

Day 1 was going to be our longest day of driving, 1040mi (1664km) from Champaign to Boulder, CO. On this day we would spend most of our time driving through boring cornfields and flat terrain until finally reaching the Rocky Mountains upon hitting Denver and Boulder. On our way we went through St Louis, Kansas City, and Wichita before finally breaking into Colorado. Of course no road trip would be complete without at least 1 speeding ticket ... this one, I earned while going through a construction zone at 21mph over the limit in Wakeeney, KS.

Also along for the ride on this trip was our mascot Fudge Pie (or ChiDucky). Fudge Pie is our skinny, furry, car window chicken. Wherever we go, he goes. So instead of trying to put up the over 100 pictures that we're taking per day, I'm only going to put up my favorite picture of the day plus any pictures with Fudge Pie. Here's Fudge Pie in Kansas.

Day 2 started in Boulder and ended in Denver but toured Rocky Mountain National Park. Boulder has the greatest atmosphere for athletes of any place I've ever seen. The city accommodates athletes of all kinds and the hills lend themselves to great scenery and terrain for training. On our drive up to Rocky Mountain NP, we must have seen over 50 cyclists and runners on this one road that climbed from 5500 to over 10,000ft. The scenery was spectacular! Finally, Trailridge Road, the highest paved road in America, reached it's peak of over 12,000ft, and Fudge Pie was there to experience it.

Day 3 went from Colorado, through the Rockies again (along I-70 this time), into Utah through Moab and then finally to Page, AZ. As you come down the west end of the mountains, everything changes to desert. The rock turns red, there's a lot of sand, and the plant life changes to desert shrubs. Personally, I like the arid looking terrain much more than the mountains covered in grass, snow, and evergreen trees. That's probably because that's what I grew up with and the desert is new and interesting to me. Here are Fudge Pie's adventures from this day.

Day 4 was when we started to hit some of the really big attractions. First we were off to Horseshoe Bend in Page, AZ and then to the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon is simply immense, it's just indescribable. On the other hand though, our next stop, Zion National Park was even more impressive because we were able to drive to the bottom of the canyon there, while at Grand Canyon you have to hike a 14mi trail that has an elevation change of over 6000ft. Our final destination this day was Las Vegas, NV. Not at all the kinda thing that I like, but just one of those places that you have to see if you're passing through. All the lights and noise and people look nice at night but not at all the kind of natural, subtle beauty of a quiet desert or mountain top that I truly enjoy.

Day 5 was a late breakfast on Las Vegas Boulevard (the Strip) and then off to Hollywood where we would be staying with Mom and Dad in a real hotel. We left Vegas by noon and were on the LA freeway system by 3:30pm ... which means we never got to the hotel until 5:30pm. It's absolutely true that LA is hell on earth, I don't understand why anyone would want to live there (unless everyone decided to leave except for a couple hundred thousand, then I'd be there in a second).

Even though I lived in Southern CA for a summer, I never visited Hollywood (again, not my thing), so this time I made sure to get pictures of some key attractions and look around the city a little more ... ofcourse, I wasn't leaving LA County without a trip to the beach and a little boogie boarding. Day 6 was all about the beach!

Day 7 was the day of Al and Jessica's wedding. Originally this was the entire purpose of our trip. Instead of flying down to LA for a few days, we turned it into a road trip of America's natural wonders. Al and Jessica are a wonderful couple and more in love than any other I've seen. It's great to see. The wedding was also great ... the ceremony was a good length, food and wine werealso good, and last but not least the cakes were good.

After visiting with Bobby after the wedding on Sunday night, Craig, Parag and I left Hollywood on Day 8 and headed first for Death Valley and then Yosemite National Park. Death Valley was beautiful if you like heat and the desert, which I definitely do. The temperature was just below 50 C when we were there, which is too bad because we were hoping it'd be closer to the record of 57 C. We finally reached the Yosemite Bug hostel at around 9:30pm that night.

Day 9 was our only day available for a long hike. After a little convincing, Craig agreed to go up to Half Dome with us. The round trip for this hike is 26km but includes an elevation gain of almost 5000ft on the way up. In the end it took us exactly 10hrs for the round trip including the final climb up the actual Half Dome (see pictures with cables). In spite of being extremely tired by the end of the day, it was a wonderful hike with some of the most spectacular views of Yosemite.

On our last day in Yosemite, being a little tired, we went for a short hike in the Tuolomne Groves to see the Giant Sequoia forest. These Giant Sequoias are trees weighing up to 6100 tons and having diameters over 25ft and are supposedly the largest living things on the planet. We ate lunch in the park and then left for Reno, NV. From now till the weekend, the trip was pretty much making our way home to Champaign (to my Tummy) on the way stopping in a few cities we'd never seen before. Can you find Fudge Pie in this picture?

Reno turned out to be a "White Trash" Vegas. We only left the hotel to get dinner and otherwise stayed in and watched "Conair". In the morning, we left for Salt Lake City and the Bonneville Salt Flats. After lunch, we crossed the border from Nevada into Utah and immediately were surrounded by salt. All alongside the interstate were people's names and tire tread marks in the salt. The salt flats were huge and took over an hour to pass through on I-80. Once in Salt Lake City, we toured the Mormon Temple at the heart of the city.

Day 12 was a long day of driving, our second longest of the trip actually. We had 1450km (about 900mi) to cover to get from SLC, through Wyoming, and then through most of Nebraska into Lincoln, NE. We started at 7am and made it to Laramie, WY for lunch by 12:30pm and were in Nebraska by 2:30pm. Too bad Nebraska's such a long state because we didn't arrive at our hotel until after 9pm (including a time change though). Only 1 more day of driving!

Day 13 was relatively easy. We only had 800km to cover. I still wanted to leave Lincoln early so I could get home to Tummy as soon as possible, but the other guys vetoed that decision and we didn't end up hitting the road until about 8:30am. They did compromise and not stop for meals along the way. The scenery was flat and the drive was pretty easy. We pulled into the driveway just before 5pm. Fudge Pie was exhausted. All in all a great vacation and a fun road trip.