Day 5: Lubbock, TX to Williams, AZ
miles traveled: 820
So, thanks for Josh for letting us stay at his house. We ended up leaving his house around 10:00 central time and headed for the post office. We picked up some postcard stamps and mailed off a couple of letters. After heading out of town, we had a plane fly over our car. After watching the plane for a few more moments, we found out it was a crop duster, which was rather cool to watch. At 11:56, we hit 2000 miles on the trip tik. We got into Amarillo around 1 and got an oil change at Meineke where we made friends with the guys working there. After leaving Amarillo, we stopped off at the buried cars and spray painted "Epic Road Trip 2010" and then signed our initials. We left the cars and headed west towards New Mexico where the time changed at 3:15. We stopped and got some gas at 4:00 and met a beautiful golden retriever named Sophie. We were stopped at the pump when the car next to us opened the door and Sophie jumped out and ran over to Jenn. Sophie's owner apologized at the fact that the dog was wanting attention, but we all assured her that we loved dogs. Sarah actually devised an equation to explain the situation:
When dog deprived college kids and attention deprived dogs get together, a lot of happiness and tail-wagging occurs. The equation is as follows: (Sdd)(4) + (Dad)(1) = H where Sdd -> Student dog deprived and Dad -> Dog attention deprived and H -> Happiness
Anyways, we hit Albuquerque around 5:45 and then decided to stop at Cracker Barrel around 8:00. We all decided that we needed some greens in our life except for Turtle who got a cheeseburger. We were all a little nuts after being in the car for so long, so we were acting a little crazy at the table. I felt bad for our waitress, but she ended up being really nice and got a pretty nice tip. We left Cracker Barrel and got some gas before heading out towards Williams, AZ. We arrived in Arizona at 10:10 mountain time, but our phones were saying that it was 9:10. This confused all of us until Sarah figured out that Arizona doesn't recognize day light savings time. This was probably one of the latest nights because we didn't get into the KOA until 12:45. All in all, it was a good day, but it was incredibly long and we are all tired.
- Megan
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Updated Itinerary
So, we all sat down and figured out a couple of things that we wanted to tweak about our trip. Here is the updated itinerary:
Day 1: Clemmons --> Opelika, AL
Day 2: Opelika --> Baton Rouge
Day 3: Baton Rouge --> Houston
Day 4: Houston --> Lubbock
Day 5: Lubbock --> Williams, AZ
Day 6: Williams --> Mesquite, NV
Day 7: Mesquite --> LA
Day 8: LA
Day 9: LA --> San Francisco
Day 10: San Francisco --> Napa
Day 11: Napa --> Coos Bay, OR
Day 12: Coos Bay --> Seattle
Day 13: Seattle --> Butte, MT
Day 14: Butte --> Yellowstone
Day 15: Yellowstone --> Aspen
Day 16: Aspen
Day 17: Aspen --> Hill City, SD
Day 18: Hill City --> St. Cloud, MN
Day 19: St Cloud --> Milwaukee
Day 20: Milwaukee --> Erie
Day 21: Erie --> Boston
Day 22: Boston --> NY
Day 23: NY
Day 24: NY --> NC!!!
Day 1: Clemmons --> Opelika, AL
Day 2: Opelika --> Baton Rouge
Day 3: Baton Rouge --> Houston
Day 4: Houston --> Lubbock
Day 5: Lubbock --> Williams, AZ
Day 6: Williams --> Mesquite, NV
Day 7: Mesquite --> LA
Day 8: LA
Day 9: LA --> San Francisco
Day 10: San Francisco --> Napa
Day 11: Napa --> Coos Bay, OR
Day 12: Coos Bay --> Seattle
Day 13: Seattle --> Butte, MT
Day 14: Butte --> Yellowstone
Day 15: Yellowstone --> Aspen
Day 16: Aspen
Day 17: Aspen --> Hill City, SD
Day 18: Hill City --> St. Cloud, MN
Day 19: St Cloud --> Milwaukee
Day 20: Milwaukee --> Erie
Day 21: Erie --> Boston
Day 22: Boston --> NY
Day 23: NY
Day 24: NY --> NC!!!
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
Chase the sun till it runs out of sky...
Day 4: Houson to Amarillo (well, Lubbock)
We got a late start today. Everyone woke up to their respective alarms but went back to sleep because no one else was awake. We all got going around 10:00, which is an hour later than we had planned. We actually left Mark's house at 10:32, and at a random stop light on Clear Lake City Blvd, there was a flyby of two fighter jets. The Top Gun quotes followed almost immediately. We got onto 45 N and headed up towards Houston on our way to Dallas. We stopped off around 1 to get some postcards and other souvenirs. I was driving for this stretch of the trip. We got into Dallas around 3:45 and met up with some of Jenn's friends in Plano at this Italian ice cream place. She hung out with them for a bit and then headed on our way to Lubbock. We changed the plans up a bit and headed to Lubbock instead of going to Amarillo (Jenn had another friend we could stay with... Go Josh!). After leaving Plano, we got stuck in a traffic backup from an accident. We got through that, and in Denton, we got onto 380 which was by far the most beautiful road we have traveled on thus far. We were on this road for about 5 hours. Around 8:15, the sun started setting (I know, technically the sun starts to set at 12:01, but just roll with me here). It was BEAUTIFUL. We took a bunch of pictures and just sat in wonder at the beauty that was around us. It almost made me forgive Texas for being so boring... almost. The sun finally set behind the horizon around 8:45, but the light stayed until closer to 9:30 or so. We all decided that we should take a break and get out of the car and stare at the stars. Ironically, there was only one star out for the longest time (luckily this was before we went star gazing)... For those of you that don't know, Texas is the lone star state. Get it? You should... Anyways, we got back into the car and went through Post, TX around 10:40 and arrived at Josh's house in Lubbock around 11:30 or so. We are all exhausted and about to crash.
P.S. The craziness factor was in overdrive today... I guess with the lack of sleep + the fact that we are all crazy anyways + we are all in the same car for hours at a time = super craziness...
Sarah speaks fluent stupid, Jenn speaks fluent sarcasm, Turtle speaks fluent turtle, and Megan speaks all three...
- Megan
We got a late start today. Everyone woke up to their respective alarms but went back to sleep because no one else was awake. We all got going around 10:00, which is an hour later than we had planned. We actually left Mark's house at 10:32, and at a random stop light on Clear Lake City Blvd, there was a flyby of two fighter jets. The Top Gun quotes followed almost immediately. We got onto 45 N and headed up towards Houston on our way to Dallas. We stopped off around 1 to get some postcards and other souvenirs. I was driving for this stretch of the trip. We got into Dallas around 3:45 and met up with some of Jenn's friends in Plano at this Italian ice cream place. She hung out with them for a bit and then headed on our way to Lubbock. We changed the plans up a bit and headed to Lubbock instead of going to Amarillo (Jenn had another friend we could stay with... Go Josh!). After leaving Plano, we got stuck in a traffic backup from an accident. We got through that, and in Denton, we got onto 380 which was by far the most beautiful road we have traveled on thus far. We were on this road for about 5 hours. Around 8:15, the sun started setting (I know, technically the sun starts to set at 12:01, but just roll with me here). It was BEAUTIFUL. We took a bunch of pictures and just sat in wonder at the beauty that was around us. It almost made me forgive Texas for being so boring... almost. The sun finally set behind the horizon around 8:45, but the light stayed until closer to 9:30 or so. We all decided that we should take a break and get out of the car and stare at the stars. Ironically, there was only one star out for the longest time (luckily this was before we went star gazing)... For those of you that don't know, Texas is the lone star state. Get it? You should... Anyways, we got back into the car and went through Post, TX around 10:40 and arrived at Josh's house in Lubbock around 11:30 or so. We are all exhausted and about to crash.
P.S. The craziness factor was in overdrive today... I guess with the lack of sleep + the fact that we are all crazy anyways + we are all in the same car for hours at a time = super craziness...
Sarah speaks fluent stupid, Jenn speaks fluent sarcasm, Turtle speaks fluent turtle, and Megan speaks all three...
- Megan
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Houston, Tx
May 18 Houston Tx,
Well it was another busy day of being on the road exciting... not really western Louisiana from Baton Rouge to Lake Charles was flat and boring. We got to see a flipped over semi though and I-10 heading east was diverted completely away from that section of highway. Well before going into the excitements of today, there was some stuff I missed out on from yesterday and some stuff that happened later after I posted last night. Other random news from the car would be that Sarah is suffering from mystery allergies and has been plagued with them since we started on sunday, the idea is that it monomonia.
Well lets see first while we were in New Orleans we had a man a hari-krishna give us bumper stickers, hats, and books for only 20 dollars a good deal right? I mean we got a lot of stuff to take with us for a little price. I also came into contact with one of my friend's Judy's sister, Amanda. Who is on a road trip in the opposite direction, though we did not meet up we were in contact and wished each other luck on our trips. Then headed on our way to LSU where we had oven baked pizza and attempted to dye my hair with no success. There was a lot of visiting of friends that I can't remember them all off the top of my head because it was 7-8 new people in one night, all we're very nice and welcoming. Stayed with John and Michael on the LSU campus.
For today as described earlier most of the driving in Louisiana was rather boring. Yet prior to leaving today one of the people that we stayed with John cooked us pancakes which was awesome of him to send us on our way. Then we got to Texas where it was even more exciting....there were lots of industrial parks. I also saw a football field that was for a college team and was relatively equal in size to that stadium for App. State. Then we arrived at my birth city Houston, megan had some issues with the gps telling her to keep going left. (basically, GPS is satan and people just need to look up where they are going first... or ask people for directions). Then we tried to find an art place in downtown Houston or more towards the ghetto area, excuse me if that offends anyone. Rick Lowe (Sp) a few years back bought some of the houses in the area that had been run down to try and attempt to restore them. Around 10 and then allowed artists to come in and paint the house and set it up the way they wanted to show it off to restore the area to some of its more community setting. Though we drove around for a little while we were unable to find it. So instead we drove downtown to the cathedral that my father said "doesn't exist". We found two actually one older one and a brand new one built in 2008. The building is beautiful. Jenn and I took a great many of pictures of the Cathedral, aka got a lot of pictures with Jesus after which we decided to go meet up with Jenn's old friend Mark, who allowed us to use his pool and was kind enough to lodge us for the night. So since getting here it was catching up with old friends, going out to dinner, and driving by nasa and getting some pictures. That is it for the day and the night is still left, you will here about the night tomorrow from Amarillo Tx. Well keeping you all posted and knowing that we are safe. (and well)
~shinners
Well it was another busy day of being on the road exciting... not really western Louisiana from Baton Rouge to Lake Charles was flat and boring. We got to see a flipped over semi though and I-10 heading east was diverted completely away from that section of highway. Well before going into the excitements of today, there was some stuff I missed out on from yesterday and some stuff that happened later after I posted last night. Other random news from the car would be that Sarah is suffering from mystery allergies and has been plagued with them since we started on sunday, the idea is that it monomonia.
Well lets see first while we were in New Orleans we had a man a hari-krishna give us bumper stickers, hats, and books for only 20 dollars a good deal right? I mean we got a lot of stuff to take with us for a little price. I also came into contact with one of my friend's Judy's sister, Amanda. Who is on a road trip in the opposite direction, though we did not meet up we were in contact and wished each other luck on our trips. Then headed on our way to LSU where we had oven baked pizza and attempted to dye my hair with no success. There was a lot of visiting of friends that I can't remember them all off the top of my head because it was 7-8 new people in one night, all we're very nice and welcoming. Stayed with John and Michael on the LSU campus.
For today as described earlier most of the driving in Louisiana was rather boring. Yet prior to leaving today one of the people that we stayed with John cooked us pancakes which was awesome of him to send us on our way. Then we got to Texas where it was even more exciting....there were lots of industrial parks. I also saw a football field that was for a college team and was relatively equal in size to that stadium for App. State. Then we arrived at my birth city Houston, megan had some issues with the gps telling her to keep going left. (basically, GPS is satan and people just need to look up where they are going first... or ask people for directions). Then we tried to find an art place in downtown Houston or more towards the ghetto area, excuse me if that offends anyone. Rick Lowe (Sp) a few years back bought some of the houses in the area that had been run down to try and attempt to restore them. Around 10 and then allowed artists to come in and paint the house and set it up the way they wanted to show it off to restore the area to some of its more community setting. Though we drove around for a little while we were unable to find it. So instead we drove downtown to the cathedral that my father said "doesn't exist". We found two actually one older one and a brand new one built in 2008. The building is beautiful. Jenn and I took a great many of pictures of the Cathedral, aka got a lot of pictures with Jesus after which we decided to go meet up with Jenn's old friend Mark, who allowed us to use his pool and was kind enough to lodge us for the night. So since getting here it was catching up with old friends, going out to dinner, and driving by nasa and getting some pictures. That is it for the day and the night is still left, you will here about the night tomorrow from Amarillo Tx. Well keeping you all posted and knowing that we are safe. (and well)
~shinners
Monday, May 17, 2010
More fun....More Stuff
Hello from Baton Rouge Louisiana on May 17,
Well so day two of our grand adventure and to say the least today we had so much more to do. Left Auburn around 9:30 in the morning, central time. OH YEAH WE ARE IN A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE NOW!! Which confused Sarah and I this morning. Both the Jenn and Megan slept in a little today. Chris (jenn's and megan's big brother)and his wife, Courtney, were awesome and cooked us a fantastic dinner last night and a great breakfast this morning to send us off on our way. Other than that there wasn't much else in the morning, we hit the road towards New Orleans. The car ride was calm not too much happening with Megan driving the first half till Mobile, Al. Then I took over and drove straight until New Orleans. I didn't remember how long the bridges were in Louisiana; it was kind of crazy. Yet we got to New Orleans 3:40 (central time again), went and traveled around with Jenn's friends John and Jade. They showed us around parts of New Orleans got some pictures cool pictures and visited some interesting stores. Tried out some interesting drinks that are apparently Tm'd (apparently the hand grenade can't be claimed anywhere else). After which we traveled up and down bourbon street and french quarter finding some stuff for the each of us. Sarah found some shirts and a mask. Megan found Margarita-ville store or mecca... I found some postcards that I can keep and some pencil's for Mrs. Penny. Though the stop was brief....3 hours we saw what we needed and went back on the road and ended up here on LSU campus...Well for now that's it not too much from anyone else since its already 11 here because we are going to bed quickly since up at 8 and on our way to houston, going to see some interesting artwork. Hope you all are doing well we are doing awesome keep following us and keep us in your prayers.
~shinners
Well so day two of our grand adventure and to say the least today we had so much more to do. Left Auburn around 9:30 in the morning, central time. OH YEAH WE ARE IN A DIFFERENT TIME ZONE NOW!! Which confused Sarah and I this morning. Both the Jenn and Megan slept in a little today. Chris (jenn's and megan's big brother)and his wife, Courtney, were awesome and cooked us a fantastic dinner last night and a great breakfast this morning to send us off on our way. Other than that there wasn't much else in the morning, we hit the road towards New Orleans. The car ride was calm not too much happening with Megan driving the first half till Mobile, Al. Then I took over and drove straight until New Orleans. I didn't remember how long the bridges were in Louisiana; it was kind of crazy. Yet we got to New Orleans 3:40 (central time again), went and traveled around with Jenn's friends John and Jade. They showed us around parts of New Orleans got some pictures cool pictures and visited some interesting stores. Tried out some interesting drinks that are apparently Tm'd (apparently the hand grenade can't be claimed anywhere else). After which we traveled up and down bourbon street and french quarter finding some stuff for the each of us. Sarah found some shirts and a mask. Megan found Margarita-ville store or mecca... I found some postcards that I can keep and some pencil's for Mrs. Penny. Though the stop was brief....3 hours we saw what we needed and went back on the road and ended up here on LSU campus...Well for now that's it not too much from anyone else since its already 11 here because we are going to bed quickly since up at 8 and on our way to houston, going to see some interesting artwork. Hope you all are doing well we are doing awesome keep following us and keep us in your prayers.
~shinners
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Auburn, AL
Well hello from Auburn, Alabama.
Well we left today from Clemmons North Carolina and begun our long and winding trip with a stop in Auburn, Alabama. Though today was short and brief since we left around 3 o'clock today, there are still some fun memories from the car ride. Such as that Sarah could not avoid being attacked by everything in the car that could fly. She was attacked by cd cases twice, Megan's bojangles cup, and any other object that could be picked up in the wind. Or the fact that within 10 minutes of leaving the eklunds I somehow both lost my cellphone and got stuck in my car seat.....well the seatbelt locked up what else can I say. Other than that we are on our way, in New Orleans tomorrow. Keeping you posted
~shinners
Also noted there is some difficulty uploading pictures to the blog.....if you need to see them try and check out facebook.
Well we left today from Clemmons North Carolina and begun our long and winding trip with a stop in Auburn, Alabama. Though today was short and brief since we left around 3 o'clock today, there are still some fun memories from the car ride. Such as that Sarah could not avoid being attacked by everything in the car that could fly. She was attacked by cd cases twice, Megan's bojangles cup, and any other object that could be picked up in the wind. Or the fact that within 10 minutes of leaving the eklunds I somehow both lost my cellphone and got stuck in my car seat.....well the seatbelt locked up what else can I say. Other than that we are on our way, in New Orleans tomorrow. Keeping you posted
~shinners
Also noted there is some difficulty uploading pictures to the blog.....if you need to see them try and check out facebook.
Friday, May 14, 2010
Prayer for the safety of travelers...aka us
O Almighty and merciful God, who has commissioned your angels to guide and protect us, may they be our companions from our setting out until our return. Clothe us with their invisible protection; keep from us all danger of collision, of fire, of explosion, of falling; and finally,having preserved us from all evil, and especially from sin, guide us to our heavenly home. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Thought I would throw this up since we are all Christian
Thought I would throw this up since we are all Christian
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