Making It Halfway: A USA Road Trip
intro
My six week long journey began with an unexpected accident two days before departure. I was involved in a golf cart accident and broke my collarbone. For the entirety of this trip, I was in a shoulder brace and my dominant arm was very limited. I managed to push through the pain and was able to leave 3 days after the predetermined departure day.
I was accompanied by my high school friend Carolyn Cortes, her girlfriend Anna Sheridan, and Anna’s friend Luke Shore. Anna and Luke drove separately and only joined us for three weeks of the road trip. Carolyn has never applied for her permit, so I was required to drive my 2007 Chevy Malibu from Pennsylvania to our final destination, Los Angeles, for the entirety of the trip.
If you ever met Carolyn and I, you know that we are the cheapest people EVER. We set a budget and we stick to it. We managed to only spend around $700 each on our six week adventure. Our sleeping accommodations consisted of campsites or free family housing. In order to spend the least amount of money on food, we purchased in bulk at discounted grocery stores and limited our food consumption. Granola bars, jolly ranchers, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, lots of coffee!! and barbecue chips were a must. Gas was another major priority we tried to spend the least amount of money on. In order to budget our gas costs, we used certain apps to predetermine where exactly the cheapest price was located. My car's gas-gauge did not work, so we would fill our tank and guesstimate how far we were able to travel in one full tank of gas. Surprisingly, we never ran out of gas!
day 1 july 3rd
On July 3rd, we departed from Scranton, Pennsylvania and drove twelve hours to our first destination, the Cherokee National Forest. Both our breakfast and lunch consisted of pink Starbursts, coffee from a local shop we bought in Roanoke, VA, and a couple peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. When we got to the site, we immediately began to set up the tents and gather supplies for a fire because we wanted to do some exploring before it got dark.
We started to collect mushrooms and flowers while hunting for a nearby waterfall, but then it started to DOWNPOUR and we had to sprint back to the site. The rest of the night consisted of us sitting in our tents with no cell service while it thunder-stormed. Happy first night!!
day 2 july 4th
We packed camp up early in order to prepare for our 11 hour drive across the state of Tennessee and to our destination, the Ozark National Forest. We stopped in Memphis to check out Beale Street and ate at a local seafood restaurant. I had fried catfish for the first time.
We finally crossed the Mississippi River and entered the state of Arkansas. Our campsite was located in a dense mountainous forest near a local dam and an active train railway (there were constantly trains blowing off their whistles, and they even woke us up at 5 a.m.!!!)
day 3 july 5th
When we woke up the next morning, we discovered that my side of the tent was sitting on a colony of fire ants!!! Luckily I wasn't bitten by any, despite the numerous holes on the floor of the tent that were patched with duck tape. LOL. We had oatmeal and coffee for breakfast and then went for a hike in the Ozark caves.
When we got back, we decided to take out the sleeping bags from the tents and take a little nap outside on the grass. All of a sudden, a fricken tornado decided to swipe up our tents, blankets, and all of our other camping supplies and throw them 20 feet away. We literally had to sprint to the car. WTF, I love the South!!!
day 4 july 6th
Today we set off to the second largest canyon in the United States, Palo Duro Canyon in TEXAS!! This drive literally dragged on because the states of Oklahoma and Texas were completely deescalate. Literally nothing. The landscape was flat, boring, and covered in windmills :( We stopped in Oklahoma City and bought some cowboy attire, so we picked up some hats and embroidered Western shirts!! We checked out this cool soda shop and chugged some weird soda. My obsession with ranch dressing tempted me into buying a ranch flavored soda (it wasn't that bad).
We finally made it to the TEXAS!! and managed to have another occurrence with a tornado, A REAL ONE THIS TIME. The weather ahead of us was sunny and warm, and in my rear view mirror there was literally a tornado touching down. RIP us.
We finally managed to navigate ourselves to the deescalate lands of north Texas. Our GPS suggested a faster route to the campsite and it literally took us down a dirt road that my car should NOT have went down. There was a sign in the beginning of the road that warned us that only trucks and ATV's can navigate down it, but we did it anyways.
We cooked some dinner, set up our tents, and ventured around our campsite for a bit. Without our knowledge, we were being spied on by a Texas State Trooper/National Park Ranger using binoculars. As we traveled back to our site, the ranger approached us and was about to fine us for littering our cigarettes butts ($1000 fine + possible jail time), but we put them into our packs right after we finished. After giving us a hard time for a couple minutes, we showed them the packs full of butts and he let us go. Thank G!!!
That night, we decided to dress up in our cowboy attire and listen to the coyotes and bison roam the canyon. Kinda spooky. We watched the shooting stars and discovered an ant colony that housed themselves within the root system of a nearby tree.
day 5 july 7th
Our next destination was Colorado (hopefully!!) We decided to spoil ourselves and rent an Airbnb for a couple days in Colorado Springs, but they decided to cancel our reservation that morning :) We had no idea where we were going, but luckily Anna had a friend (Corey & his boyfriend Wilson) who recently moved to Colorado Springs and was willing to give up his spare bedroom for us.
We detoured to an abandoned Cadillac installation called 'Cadillac Ranch' and a pair of giant legs called 'Ozymandias Legs,' both located in Amarillo, TX. We saw our first volcano in Arkansas and ate McDonalds for lunch at a small town.
We stopped at Garden of the God's Park and almost ran out of gas as we were driving through it, so I put her in neutral and barely made it to the nearest gas station lol. The park was BEAUTIFUL and the rock formations seemed unreal. We had dinner in Manitou Springs, a cute little neighborhood filled with local shops, cafes, and vintage stores. We bought homemade soaps at a local shop, and I tried a bison burger for the first time! We drove to Corey and Wilson's house and they set us up in their spare bedroom. We enjoyed our first legal blunt and played Super Smash Bros all night.
day 6 july 8th
That morning, we were woken up by their psychotic roommate who LITERALLY kicked us out and threatened to call the cops on us because "we were homeless." HAHAHA. The roommate was shoving us out of the door and Luke almost forgot one of his bags that had my keys in it!! Whoop!
We headed to Denver where we shopped a little, grabbed some lunch, and had some rolled ice cream. We hopped on the highway and continued North to a campsite near Estes Park, a small town is the entrance to Rocky Mountain National Park!! Our site for the next 3 days was in the middle of nowhere. Literally everything was covered in a canopy of trees and there was a lingering smell of pine and campfire in the air. The best.
Every 3 years, Anna's family (literally 50 people) comes together and rents out a huge cabin in Estes Park so we took a drive to the cabin and met some of the family. As we approached, the weather suddenly changed from warm and sunny to THUNDERSTORMS & HAIL. As we sprinted out of the car, I turned my head to witness one of the most gorgeous views ever, a rainbow stretched over the valley as the storm passed through. So surreal.
We enjoyed a huge feast with the family (the first good food we've had in a week) and they let us shower because we haven't had running water in 4 days lol. Afterwards, we listened to Anna's older relatives play guitar and tell us some family stories. We drove back to the site and there was a citation written out to us for HANGING OUR HAMMOCK on the trees :) Our tent also collapsed from the storm, so we decided to chug some vodka and sit around the fire lol. We ended up getting out of the the $50 fine after we visited the office the following morning.
day 7 July 9th
Even though our food was covered and locked in the trunks, a black bear visited our campsite that night. Literally we could hear it breathing a couple yards from the tent. Carolyn set off the car lights/alarm at around 3:00am, and it finally ran off. RIP
We cooked some oatmeal over the fire and enjoyed some potato chips for breakfast. We spontaneously decided to drive 45 minutes South to Boulder, a town known for its local shops, art galleries, and The Flatirons.
We visited an old record store and enjoyed some coffee at a small cafe. We picked up homemade glass blown bongs from a local artist and went shopping for clothes. We hiked a mile into the Flatirons and watched a man struggle to climb a +100' tree lol. We drove back to camp, and immediately went to the cabin to get more food and drink some local Colorado beer.
day 8 july 10th
Anna drove us to the entrance of the Rocky Mountain National Park, and we gazed at the 12,100' incline we were about to drive up. There were no guardrails on the road, and the drop was literally straight down. anxiety!!!
As we ascended, we immediately began to notice the lack of oxygen in the air (to the point where Luke and Anna couldn’t hike anymore lol). The temperature dropped from 90 to 50 degrees Fahrenheit within forty minutes and snow began to cover the deescalate terrain. We hiked a few trails, saw some wildlife (moose, beavers, eagles), and Carolyn and I participated in the #GetYourAssIntoNature trend lol.
When we were driving back down the mountain, a woman LITERALLY drove us off the road because we were smoking cigs. She thought we were flicking our ashes outside for some reason. lol RIP.
That night, Anna visited her family while Luke, Carolyn, & I went shopping in the town of Estes. We picked up some souvenirs and had a quick dinner.
day 9 july 11th
Our next journey was to a small campground called Half Moon near a lake in Wyoming, just south of the Grand Tetons. THERE WAS LITERALLY NOTHING IN WYOMING. For most of our 7 hour drive, we stared at a treeless flat terrain. Literal dirt. However, I would agree that Wyoming was a different kind of beautiful, everything was so delicate and untouched.
As we approached the campsite, I almost slammed into a family of pronghorn antelopes (literally 10 were just sitting in the middle of the road), and I once again bottomed out as we drove down the steep dirt road :) We haven’t showered in a couple days, so we decided to go swimming in the lake. It was freezing.
day 10 july 12th
The campgrounds at the Grand Tetons were at a first come first serve basis, so we made it a priority to arrive early. We left around 7am and copped a site. The drive in the morning was literally insane. It was so beautiful.
Both Luke and Anna visited the Grand Tetons a couple years ago, so they had a couple suggestions on what to do. We drove to a small touristy town called Jackson Hole where we shopped and ate dinner. The town was so cute and littered with vintage clothing. We also went down an Alpine Slide that went down the side of the mountain, highly recommend!!!
day 11 july 13th
Today was the last day Anna and Luke will be with Carolyn and I on our travels, they were continuing their journey back to Pennsylvania. We decided to go white water rafting, so we woke up at 4am that morning and watched the sunrise over the Grand Tetons. We drove into Jackson Hole and caught a bus to the Snake River where we went white water rafting. Yeah. I fricken went white water rafting with a broken collarbone with my arm in a SLING. Almost drowned, oops.
Afterwards, we headed back to camp, changed out of our drenched cloths, and packed a lunch for our drive to Yellowstone!! The Grand Teton National Park is located directly next to Yellowstone National Park, so we decided to take a day trip. We hiked a couple trails, picked some flowers, and saw a couple geysers. This place was insane.
On our way back to camp, a group of bison stopped traffic and crossed the road. These animals were literally the size of cars. Kinda scary. Afterwards, we noticed some in a field, so we decided to pull off and snap some pics. Making eye contact with bison triggers some sort of defense mechanism if you’re standing close enough to them, so of course Carolyn and I accidentally made eye contact and they literally got pissed lol. We SPRINTED back to the car.
day 12 july 14th
We only got 4 hours of sleep that night and had to leave by 5am in order to prepare for our 14 hour drive across the entire state of Idaho and Oregon. We said our goodbyes to Luke and Anna and headed to Eugene, Oregon to stay with Carolyn’s brother Scotty and his girlfriend Tori!!
We had little to no food left and had a limited amount of daylight for driving so we had to think smart. We set up a couple rules. We chugged water 20 minutes before we needed to stop for gas in order to force ourselves to use the bathroom. We allowed ourselves to eat chips for only 3 minutes every hour and smoked a ton of cigarettes in order to suppress our appetite and stay awake. NO COFFEE. Coffee made us pee and I typically grew tiresome after a couple of cups.
The drive was so scary. Idaho was completely deescalate and the entire east side of Oregon was a desert. We encountered a sever wildfire and had to be rerouted to a +100 mile stretch of road that was literally inhabited. As we The fires came dangerously close to the road and (to the point where we instantly felt the heat.) No gas stations. No houses. No trees.
We finally arrived in Eugene.
day 13 july 15th
Tori and Scotty have only been living in Eugene for a couple months, so they were also very unfamiliar with the city. Tori worked at a small diner where she quickly became friends with the locals and Scotty interned for the state where he collected water and soil samples across the states of California and Oregon. Scotty’s job required him to hike and camp for a week at a time, and then would have the following week off. Therefore, Scotty was not there to welcome us.
Eugene is by far the most interesting city I’ve ever seen. The city was filled with colorful murals, small coffee shops, and real-life hippies! It was such a cool and different environment. The state of Oregon promoted their weed legalization very heavily (completely different from what we saw in Colorado). There were distribution stores on every corner and hundreds of billboards that promoted different types of deals ($99 ounces was the usual advertisement.) However, the stores were very strict on the age requirement and neither Carolyn nor I were of the legal age (+21), so Tori had to do most of our shopping for us lol.
Tori had work all day, so we decided to take a day trip to Florence and Cape Perpetua, an area that is located near the Pacific Ocean. FINALLY, we have reached the Pacific. In just 2 1/2 weeks, I drove over 7,000 miles across the United States (with a broken collarbone) and have officially stepped foot on the Pacific Ocean sand. Such a big accomplishment.
We hiked a bit, discovered some caves, and collected some rocks. Afterwards, we drove back into Florence and picked up some vintage shirts at a GoodWill. When we got back to Eugene, Tori surprised us with dinner, a kitten she bought for her and Scotty, and SHROOMS:)
day 14 july 16th
Carolyn and I have never tripped before, so we had no idea what to expect. Literally props to Tori!!! She planned the entire day for us, and it was by far the best experience of both of our lives. She drove us to a popular swimming hole in the middle of Oregon’s dense woods (literally in the middle of no where). We packed a lunch and immediately put the shrooms on our chips:) literally disgusting.
When we arrived at the swimming hole, there were so many CRAZY people. Naked women were just lounging around with their kids, booze poppin, weed smokin, kids fricken doin cartwheels and backflips off cliffs. Everyone was sliding down the rock slide and jumping off trees. It was literally a different breed of people lol.
At this point, we weren’t really feeling it yet, so we decided to eat more shrooms lol. Then it fricken HIT US. HARD. We were laying in a stream when all of a sudden the world literally shifted. All of our senses became so much more sharp. We started playing with the green slime on the rocks and rolling around in the dirt lmao. We were massaging everything over our skin and began putting mud in our hair. The moss on the trees were insanely cool to touch. We started picking up small crustaceans on the bottom of the river. We were literally one with nature lmao. I felt like a fucking caveman. The two of us were literally bawling our eyes out because of how beautiful everything looked.
Then, the most craziest shit happened. A literal Oregon TRIBE (around 10 naked people who were decked out with crazy jewelry) appeared out of nowhere and began playing music with drums and tambourines. Everyone was screaming at this point and singing along. Such an unreal experience.
The conversations we had that day were whacked. We started talking about some deep shit and then we decided to literally change our entire itinerary for our road trip. That’s right. We had each day specifically planned out months in advance, and as soon as we fricken trip on shrooms EVERYTHING goes out the window LOL.
Our original plan was to leave Oregon the following day and drive to San Francisco, but instead we decided to stay an extra week in the Pacific Northwest and sorta make Eugene our home-base. This gave us enough time to surprise Scotty when he got home, do some hiking in Oregon, and camp in Washington state. That night, Carolyn called work and said she’s never coming back to Pennsylvania lol.
day 15 july 17th
We surprised Scotty and took him out for dinner that night. This is when shit got out of hand. All 4 of us decided to trip at the apartment. We were all pretty drunk at this point and decided to smash some shrooms on some potato chips. An hour went by. Tori and Scotty were geeking. Carolyn and I weren’t really feeling anything, so we whipped out our new pieces and smoked straight KEEF from our grinders. We were balling at this point!! Carolyn got fed up with how much hair she had, so tori and I shaved the under half of her head while tripping balls. We’re not sure what else happened that night lol.
day 16 july 18th
Scotty took us around that day. We went to Oregon’s second largest waterfall called Salt Creek Falls and a natural hot spring on the Blue River in Willamette National Forest. That night, we picked up Tori’s friend who took us to a river to watch the sunset. A cop ended up following us to the river and pulled us over because Carolyn was flicking her cigarette out of the window. I was dumb high and almost had a fricken heart attack omg. The cop let us go and then we smoked near the water.
day 17 july 19th
Tori had work off so we all took a day trip to Portland. We visited the waterfront, walked around the city, and did some shopping. We bought doughnuts at the famous pastry shop Voodoo Doughnuts and then stumbled upon Portland’s Aerial Tram where it took us to a lookout of the city.
day 18 — 20 july 20th - 22nd
The next couple of days, we chilled out at the apartment and walked around Eugene!!
day 20 july 22nd
Carolyn and I decided to take a drive up to Washington and spend a couple days in Olympic National Forest, an experience we’ve both been waiting to do. The state of Washington was something entirely out of a fairytale, something we will never forget.
Our first stop was at a small campground located on Wynoochee Lake. Shortly after setting up camp, we went swimming in the lake and went on a small hike. That night, we laid out and watched the shooting stars go by. I have never seen the sky so fricken clear in my entire life.
day 21 july 23rd
Seattle was a 3 hour drive from the lake, so we decided to take a day trip to visit the city and a nearby 270’ waterfall. We visited the Pike Place Market, one of the oldest operating farmers’ markets in the US, and picked up some new jewelry and fresh fruits!! We had a burrito bowl and homemade ice cream on the waterway. We didn’t have enough time to explore Seattle because we didn’t want to be driving back in the dark, so we headed to Snoqualmie falls!
The hike to the falls was horrible. The weather was hot, the trail was literally a 90 degree decline, and we didn’t bring any water or food (idk why we didn’t, we’re just idiots). The view was sweet though.
day 22 july 24th
We headed up the coast and camped at Hoh Campground for a night. There were no words to describe this place. Truly magical. The colors were so vibrant and the size of the trees were unimaginable. We hiked a popular trail called ‘Hall of Mosses’ near our camp and then took a drive up the coast to Port Elizabeth where we hiked to a waterfall.
During the evening, we headed back down the coast and visited an area called Forks where the movie Twilight was filmed. It was so spooky. We walked up and down the beach a couple times and looked at all of the drift wood that was washed up. Super cool. When we got back to the car, I noticed that I lost my wallet :) Panic attack times 10. I haven’t had my wallet all day, so we literally tore apart my car and called the park rangers at the campground and the hiking trails. Someone found my wallet on the road near our campsite and gave it to one of the rangers. THANK G omff.
day 23 july 25th
Today was our last day in Washington before we drove back to Eugene, so we got on the road early. When we were driving up the coast a couple days ago, we noticed a series of beaches that looked cool so we stopped. It was like stepping into a new fucking world. Just look at these pics.
We spent the afternoon just walking up and down the beaches and then headed back towards Eugene. Halfway through the drive, we noticed my car was acting up. My engine’s temperature was steadily rising so we had to shut off the air conditioning and make a stop for it to cool down. We didn’t think it was a big deal, but we took it to a mechanic back in Eugene for an oil change. He told us everything was fine.
day 24 july 26th
Our original plan was to camp at Yosemite for the next couples days, but the wildfires were so out of control that the park was shut down for 2 weeks. Instead, we headed to San Francisco to stay with Carolyn’s Uncle John and his husband Willie. We said our farewells to Scotty and Tori and got on the road. We didn’t even cross the border into California yet when my car started freaking out AGAIN. My car began to overheat, so we assumed that the coolant was low. We stopped at a shop and picked up some coolant and turns out we were right. Literally there was not a drop left in the tank lol.
The 600 mile drive to San Francisco was soooo boring. We can see the smoke in the distance from the fires and emergency personal closed a couple roads and shut down towns. It was literally insane.
The highway driving into San Francisco was the scariest road I’ve ever driven on. A FOURTEEN LANE BRIDGE. FOURTEEN. Like WTFF. We finally arrived at uncle John’s apartment in the Mission District, a unique neighborhood with a lot of murals and hipster shops. His apartment was so cute!! All of the rooms were so colorful and the furniture was so vintage. It literally felt like we stepped back into the 60s.
We met his roommate who has been living in the house for nearly 40 years. He told us the history of the house and how much the neighborhood changed within the past couple years. That night, Uncle John took us to Chinatown, and we had dinner at a family style Chinese restaurant. Afterwards, we wandered around the city and walked along the water.
day 25 july 27th
Uncle John had our entire day planned out and his husband Willie also joined us for a couple of hours. We walked around city hall where we watched a few weddings take place. We looked at some art and then he took us to the Golden Gate Bridge where we got some pics and then taxied to a park on the water called Lands End.
We hiked along the water, saw a couple museums, then saw BISON at the Golden Gate Park. It was the craziest thing, literally bison were roaming around in a city’s park LOL. We took a tram to the Castro neighborhood (the gay district) and just walked around. Afterwards, we went back to his apartment where Willie cooked up an authentic Filipino meal. So good! That night, Carolyn and I took a walk through the neighborhood and went to a local park where we smoked and just laid in the grass.
day 26 july 28th
We went for breakfast at a local diner and then Uncle John took us to this huge flea market on Treasure Island (an island just off the city). The amount of stuff this place had was unreal. It had everything and the amount of people there was crazy. Carolyn bought a vintage handheld mirror and a vintage candlestick holder. I picked up a couple cool pairs of socks from a local vendor, and then we had lunch at one of the food trucks on the island.
Uncle John took us back to the apartment where we started to pack for our trip to San Diego! For our last night, Uncle John showed us more of the Mission District and then he took us to a local burrito place where we literally had the best guac ever.
day 27 july 29th
Everything goes downhill from here boys!!
We said our goodbyes to Uncle John, Willie, and their roommate and set off for the worse drive to San Diego. My older cousins live in San Diego, so we planned on staying a couple days with them. Just an hour drive outside of the city, the temperature changed from 50 to LITERALLY 90. We were suddenly in the middle of the desert with no sign of life. There were ‘Water Cool-Off Stations” on the highway where people were parked to cool off their cars or simply just to drink water. The terrain changed from a desert to dry mountains. The wildfire devastation was unreal. My temperature gauge was going crazy so we had to drive though this fucking hot weather without air conditioning AGAIN. I always drove on the right side of the road just in case my car decided to breakdown and I had to pull off. Everything was downhill at this point, so I literally put my car into neural and left that baby fly. We got some gas at this little town north of Las Angeles, and we decided to check my coolant. No bueno. There was literally nothing left LOL. We knew this wasn't good.
We had a mechanic at a local shop look at my car and he suggested not to drive to San Diego :) Keep in mind that we’re stranded in the middle of nowhere 3 hours away from San Diego and literally an hour outside of LA. I called my friend’s dad who is a mechanic back at home and he literally said that we’re not making it back to Pennsylvania in that car. SO THAT’S GREAT! He said I’m probably on the verge of blowing a head gasket, which literally means my car’s engine can overheat and shut off whenever I’m driving. The entire bottle of coolant that we put in the car in Oregon mixed with my motor oil so now my engine was FUCKED. We were freaking the fuck out lol, my poor car <33
We literally decided to say fuck it and take the chance. We filled her up with coolant and some special liquid the mechanic suggested and then waited 3 hours for the sun to set and the temperature to go down. I started her up and my temperature gauge didn’t change at all from before lol.
This was by far the scariest fucking 3 hours of my life. We had to drive on a seven lane highway from LOS ANGELES to SAN DIEGO in the dark knowing that my car could shut off whenever. The minimum speed limit was 60mph, but Cali drivers are insane and I had to be pushing at least 80 on that fucking shit.
After having a couple anxiety attacks, we finally made it to my cousin’s house in San Diego. I hate our lives. I never met my cousins before, so showing up to their house after breaking down in a desert was funny introduction lol.
day 28 july 30th
My cousins Anna and Lex lived in a neighborhood called La Jolla. They just retired and were LOADED. The house was insane. They set us up in our own bedroom and bathroom and they literally let us eat whatever and do whatever we wanted. Their dog Wally was literally the best and he always hung out with us. Cute little guy.
We rented bikes from LIME, an app that allows you to unlock bikes or scooters that are located within your area. We hopped on some and took a ride around La Jolla. The neighborhood was incredible. Palm trees, colorful houses, and a view of the ocean!! We packed a blanket and our bathing suites and headed down to the beach. We decided to just relax and suntan all day.
That night, Anna and Lex drove us to a local Mexican restaurant, sooo good!! They drove us around the neighborhood and showed us some of the houses famous people owned. We drove up a mountain and watched the sunset over San Diego at a lookout post. When we got home, we drank wine and watched Jeopardy the entire night.
day 29 july 31st
We decided to take my car out for a drive lol. Carolyn and I had lunch at In-N-Out Burger and then we went to Old Town San Diego where we checked out some Victorian style houses and shopped. We walked around the neighborhoods and found some cool cacti! We had dinner at the house with Anna and Lex and then Carolyn and I walked down to the beach to watch the sunrise. We go trashed off vodka lemonades.
day 30 august 1st
We took Wally for a walk that morning and then spent the afternoon at the San Diego Zoo. My car was filthy and we literally haven’t cleaned it since we began the trip, so we stopped at a car wash and literally disinfected everything. Afterwards, we headed over to the La Jolla Cove to see the sea lions and seals. We literally got so close to them, it was unreal. My friends Andrew and Cassie were in San Diego at the time, so we met up with them that night. We smoked on the rocks near the beach and then walked around La Jolla.
day 31 august 2nd
Today was the day. We were going to TRY to drive from San Diego to Vegas.
We woke up at 4am and packed frozen water bottle and wet paper towels for when it got too hot on our drive. The temperature was supposed to reach 100 degrees at 9am, so we wanted to try to avoid as much sunlight as possible to reduce the chance of my car overheating. We filled up my tank, ate some breakfast, and then began the 6 hour drive to Vegas. The mechanic we talked to said that if the reading on my temperature gauge reached the highest point, we should pull off the road and shut my car off lol. So of course that ended up happening.
We were an hour outside Vegas near Death Valley where my temperature gauge spiked to the top. We pulled off to an abandoned town where there was also another group who were encountering car issues. They gave us some water and snacks when we pulled up lol. We lifted the car’s hood and put an umbrella over it to help avoid the sunlight. THANKFULLY I became a member of AAA before starting the trip, so we called them and they came with a tow truck. We had no idea what was going on or how we were getting back to Pennsylvania LOL. My family’s friends lived in Vegas so we were headed to their place until we figured out what was going to happen. We ate lunch in the back of a tow truck as it hauled my car to Vegas.
Bobby and Nikole set us up in one of their spare bedroom and let us do whatever we wanted. It was fucking awesome. They had two pitbulls and a pool. Their house was huge and they didn’t care what we did. Bobby showed us around and then we had a couple beers and a blunt. Recreational marijuana was legal in Nevada and Bobby and Nikole were all for it. YEEE. They literally had a marijuana plant growing in their backyard and Bobby even told us that he has an ounce shipped to him every two weeks. LOL. We had an Airbnb booked for that night so we left the car at Bobby’s and then took an Uber to the Airbnb.
We went out to dinner at Martorano’s, a famous italian restaurant in Paris Las Vegas, and then got trashed on The Strip.
day 32 august 3rd
We headed back to Bobby’s and tried to figure out our next moves. We had the house to ourselves for the entire day so we literally just smoked and drank at the pool. We looked into renting a car for 3 days in order to drive it back to Pennsylvania, but we discovered that I needed a credit card with my name on it to rent a car. My dad got PISSED at me cause he told me to take my credit card and my mom's car before the trip just in case something happened (idk why I didn’t, I’m a fucking idiot). We decided to book a flight back, but I was dumb high and accidentally booked a flight for September 7th instead of August 7th HAHAHA!!!! Thankfully I noticed that night, so it wasn’t a biggy. Bobby and Nikole were superfit and muscar so the only food in their house was super healthy and organic. Nikole made us dinner that night and we just smoked and watched Netflix.
day 33 august 4th
Bobby and Nikole left early in the morning and didn’t come back from work until that night. We just tanned and got drunk all day. Lol. We didn’t want to bring any weed or paraphernalia on a plane so we had to smoke ALL OF OUR WEED in 2 days (which was a lot). We decided the only thing we wanted to ship back were our new bongs we bought in Colorado. We left everything else for Bobby. Apparently shipping any weed or paraphernalia to Pennsylvania was highly illegal, so we SCRUBBED everything down and let it all sit in alcohol for literally 3 days. Pennsylvania has a weird law compared to other states that makes shipping anything across its borders really hard. We covered everything in bubble wrap and went downtown to try to find a post office. We went into a couple thrift stores, visited the Pawn Stars pawn shop, and then stumbled upon a tattoo parlor. We’ve been talking about getting a tattoo at some point on the trip so we finally did it. I got a small one on my knee and Carolyn got one on her arm.
That night we unpacked the car and managed to put all our camping supplies, clothes, and anything else that was left in the car into 4 suitcases lol. We had to ditch our tent, a ton of food, some pots and pans, and a succulent we bought in Oregon :(
day 34 august 5th
We finished packing and went to Downtown Las Vegas that night. I managed to sneak into a casino and I ended up winning $40 on my first try (it was illegal for me to gamble because it was under 21). Heck yeah!! We walked along Fremont Street, a super cool area with street performers, concerts, food, and a zip-line that stretched across the entire street. When we got back to the house, we went swimming and chugged Coronas.
day 35 august 6th
Today was officially the last day of our road trip. Sad :( We smoked the rest of our weed and drank the rest of our booze. We just hung around and tanned all day. Bobby’s neighbor was an expert Chevy mechanic so we asked him to take a look at my car. He basically said that I would need an entirely new engine and it wasn't worth repairing. My car was FUCKED.
day 36 august 7th
Bobby took us to the airport at 6am that morning. He rolled a blunt for us and then we packed the car. We left Vegas at 9:30 that morning. When we got back to Pennsylvania, we found out that my bong smashed in the mail and someone ended up fixing my car!!! She’s up and driving around in Vegas now LOL. That was the best summer of my life.