The Reluctant Road Tripper: Day 14

Nevada→California

This is it! We are on the final leg of this amazing trip and you know where the final stop is going to be...home sweet home, California! Coming out from Laughlin, there’s a narrow road that you would pass through and if you are feeling a little bit insane and ruin your car, you can go a little bit faster to feel the rollercoaster-like, uneven road. The engineer who built this road was definitely on some good shhh or he was a toddler...or a toddler on some good shhh.

See how freakin' uneven the road is? Man, I hate rollercoasters.

And here we are cutting across the Mojave desert.

Did you know that there are actually volcanoes located in the Mojave desert? They have been dormant for thousands of years but you can clearly see the vast land filled with dark lava rocks. I really had no idea that volcanoes existed in deserts. What the heck was I doing back in elementary? Playing Nintendo, that's what! Listen to your teachers, kids!

If I am not mistaken, this is the Pisgah crater.  The lava rocks make quite a contrast against the sand of the desert.

Thinking that we were in the middle of nowhere, I was really surprised to see some trailers and small houses scattered around (like, yeah, in the middle of the damn desert). And I can’t help but wonder…where the heck do they get their supplies? There are no establishments within 60 miles or so and what if they forgot to buy toilet paper on their last trip to the grocery store? Do people visit them during the holidays or family gatherings? What if the Texas Chainsaw massacre guy paid them a visit, where will they run to? What if they get the munchies and they ran out of Doritos? I'm sure you were thinking the same thing too, right? No? It's only me? Mmmk.

We were so close to home but we decided to do a quick pit stop at the Barstow Station where they had the usual fast food haunts such as McDonald's and Panda Express...they even had a little kiosk that served Filipino cuisine, what a sweet surprise!

And tadaaaa...

I AM FINALLY HOME! I'm so happy to see this big baby but I'm not sure if he's happy to see me, he looks mighty comfortable on my bed, non?

I’d like to make a special shout out to Skyler’s dog sitter who took special care of Sky for two weeks. Thanks a lot for keeping my baby alive and healthy! I hope Skyler didn’t give you any more headaches than you usually have and I hope he only kicked you out of the bed once! Hehe!

My overall experience with the road trip was simply awesome and I understand now why a lot of people in the U.S. like to do it too. The interstate roads are well-maintained, there are plenty of clean rest areas spread across every state and they even have huge grass areas for your pets to relieve themselves and get a little bit of exercise. I recommend bringing a GPS system with you for easier navigation and make sure to check up on the weather so you'll know if there are any storms, tornadoes, hurricanes that you need to watch out for.

This pretty much concludes the Road Tripper series and all I can say is that I enjoyed every single feet-cramping, pee-holding, junk food-bingeing moment of the journey, and I couldn't have enjoyed it with anyone else but the company of my family. I hope this journey has inspired some my fellow readers to plan their own little adventures once in a while despite having a bustling, busy life and see the world with all its wonders. No adventure is too great or too small, it's all up to you to make the journey worth remembering.

And to all you wide-eyed wanderers out there...

May your travels be filled with wonderful surprises and sumptuous food, and may you be blessed with a newfound perspective in life!

Toodles!

The Reluctant Road Tripper: Day 13

Laughlin, Nevada

Wuhoo! This is our last day before we go back to reality and to my home, sweet home California! I’ve finally recharged my sanity energy since I didn't have to get up at 4 a.m., so today it's time for some relaxation and it’s time for some slot machines! I’m really not a gambler, so I just go to the 1 cent machines and feed it a dollar or two. My family and I are such non-gamblers that when my parents handed me a $20 bill to play with, I was in shock. Are they sure about this? I could just make a run for it and go to the buffet instead. More bang for my buck, you know?

The blazin’ heat isn’t backing down today so I’m compelled to stay indoors. How lucky are we that the weekend we drop by in Nevada is exactly the time that the West Coast is experiencing one of the worst heat waves ever? How bad is it, you ask? Easy. Look for a hairdryer, set it on high heat and place the dryer as close as you can to your face. Now imagine that heat on your face to be about 3 times hotter and blowing all over your face and body too. I guarantee you, it was something that I have never experienced considering that I have tough, tropically-trained skin. (Philippine Islands, reprezent!)

But hey, this is the only down-time we’ve really had since the beginning of the road trip so I’m totally enjoying being stuck inside the hotel and enjoying dolce far niente. At night, I decided to come out from my little air-conditioned fortress and take a stroll by the river.

That was a bad idea, not only was it still bakin’ outside, I’ve forgotten my brother’s remark about the raccoons and skunks running the show outdoors. Of course I only remembered that when a skunk was already a couple of feet away from me, with its hiney ready to spray on unsuspecting guests. I was able to take only two photos while frantically trying to escape from Pepe Le Pew’s lethal weapon.

You know what made this encounter so weird? The skunk was chillin’ with a cat and even though it was dark, I could have sworn that there were little kittens by the bushes. You can see the reflection of the cat’s eyes in the picture but you could barely make out the skunk. Sorry, I know my picture isn’t exciting enough but this blogger ain’t that dedicated to come closer just to get sprayed on by Mr. Le Pew. Ha!

Oh and before sun down, I saw a freakin’ raccoon walk right up from this dock right here, just struttin’ his or her stuff in broad daylight! Sorry I wasn’t able to take a picture at all with the raccoon in action because I was too busy standing as stiff as a board when it made eye contact with me and climbed up to the walkway where I was standing at. Laugh at me all you want, but those little cute fuzzy masked creatures can be a little aggressive when they want to!

Anyhoo, as much as I know you would want to hear the rest of my fun-filled day discovering little creatures terrorizing hotel guests, I am going to have to cut my story short and start packin’ all of my stuff again…for one last time! Yahoo!

Toodles! :)

The Reluctant Road Tripper: Day 12

New Mexico→Arizona→Nevada

Making our way further to the west, we crossed through New Mexico from Texas. 

You know why we're here right? To find Walter White a.k.a. Heisenberg. Have you seen him?

Image via fanaru.com

Sorry for the white spots that are all over the road photos… those are actually remnants of splattered bugs that have met their doom by our windshield. That's as Heisenberg as I can get, folks.

Odd, there was a church that was totally camouflaged on a hill. Spotting that church is like looking for Waldo or...you guessed it right, Heisenberg. ( I swear this is the last Heisenberg reference on this post.)

A bunch of dudes (and a girl) on Harley's, going to I-don't-know-where but dang, in this heat? Really?

Giant teepee that sold Indian arts and crafts inside.

Aaaannd we’re back to Arizona. The best thing I love about Arizona is that they have the most interesting rock formations (check out more pics of rock formations on Day 1) and the biggest canyons that I’ve ever seen. Uh, duh, that’s why they have the Grand Canyon!

Speaking of rock formations, look what I found…anyone feel the love?

Some abandoned house. I saw a lot of them randomly scattered in the middle of nowhere. Kinda creepy.

Wait, what is this? Do I smell another random disowning moment from my Dad detour like Niagara Falls?

 I’ve never seen a crater in real life before, aside from the one on your face. I'm just keedeeng. Tee-hee!

Heading to the visitor's center. Be reminded that you do need to purchase a ticket to get in so don't forget to bring some moolah before you enter.

Good News: We made it. Bad News: It is scorching hottttttttt outside and when I went in to get some food, they only had Subway. Ugh, I need me some greasy, fried stuff right about now.

The crater was so wide and deep, I couldn't possibly capture its true size with my compact camera's narrow lens.

I thought we were going to view the crater from an air-conditioned, enclosed area---but no, we had to go out and roast ourselves like lechon view it on this useless viewing area that had gaps on the roof. I think they are thinking of making us into a Panini by the looks of this.

The crater is nice to look at and no doubt, breathtaking, but how long can you really stare at a crater? Especially in this crazy dry heat? So I just posed for a picture, smiled like I meant it *insert The Killers*, and ran back inside before I would disintegrate into thin air.

Relieved to be back inside, we saw the largest discovered fragment of the meteor that was out on display. The guide said that it was made up of 90 percent iron or something like that (don’t take my word for it though, so don't write that in your science homework). We were allowed to touch it and I couldn’t help but imagine how scary it would have been to have a huge meteor almost entirely made up of iron, crash in the middle of a metropolis.

The Holsinger Meteorite

Off we went to the gift shop to check out their stuff. They sold random souvenirs like these cute little cacti.

They have an Astronaut Wall Of Fame by the outdoor seating area.

Despite the overwhelming heat outside, it's hard not to appreciate the color contrast of the desert and the blue skies.

My skin is toast.

Passing through Flagstaff, Arizona.

Pretty much I dozed off until we finally got to our final stop of the day… Laughlin, Nevada!

Wiping the blur out of my eyes, I saw this on the console…What the cock-a-doodle? 122 degrees outside!

More dead bugs on the windshield. Welcome to Laughlin.

And whoa, water in the desert? It’s the Colorado River!

So what’s in Laughlin? Just imagine you’re in Vegas but everyone in the casino is either a retiree or your grandma and granpa out on vacay. Seriously, I felt like a toddler. Although outside is a different story, you will find the younger ones--- no not 40’s young, I mean ME young *ahem*--- hanging out by the river or riding jet skis, water taxis and wave runners.

I, on the other hand, was hiding inside the hotel, limiting my trip from the room to the buffet or to the slot machines. Laughlin is definitely cheaper compared to staying in Vegas. The room rates and buffet are half the price of whatever they charge at the Vegas strip. The dinner buffet only runs about $17.99 but you know what they say about getting what you pay for. Ha!

I did manage to get a decent white pizza with extra bacon at this place called Brewery inside the Colorado Belle. It's cute how they designed the hotel & casino like those old steam boats.

My white pizza.

The pizza was decent, I wish I could say the same for the nachos. It was super soggy with some unknown liquid. Blech.

You best believe I ran like a Kenyan Olympian when I saw this thing on the ground as I was heading back to our hotel.

Okay world, it is 9:30 p.m. and I am calling it a night. I took a really bad beating from exploring the crater in Arizona and walking under the excruciating heat of the Nevada desert isn't any better so I need to sleep this off.

Toodles!

The Reluctant Road Tripper: Day 11

Arkansas→Oklahoma→Texas

We left the hotel at about 5 A.M., so the travel through Arkansas was a little bit of a blur to me as I was trying to catch some zzzz’s on the road. Remember that bridge from my previous post , Day 10? Here's a view of the Mississippi River from the said bridge. It looked really nice, even at this hour where the sun was  still about to rise.

As we traversed from one farm to another, I noticed that Arkansas used an irrigation system in their plantations, the kind that's common in the Philippines. See, I can be educational with my posts...talkin' about irrigation systems and agriculture. Well, you'll be talkin' crazy too if you were stuck in an SUV for the past 11 days. Mhmm.

 I was able to take a glimpse of their nuclear power plant! The white smoke is hard to miss. 

Up next, Oklahoma!

Of course, like the curious chimp human being that I am, I totally flipped when I saw this river that had an odd color---RED! It doesn’t look THAT red in the picture but seriously, you’d freak out if you saw it for the first time too!

But here’s the reason why the river was red: Oklahoma is known for its red soil!
Red soil + water=  red(ish) water. No shh, Sherlock.

On a more random note, check out Garth Brooks’ big @ss autograph =)

I was really relieved that the weather looked pretty calm, hoping it’s a good sign that we won’t run into any tornadoes. I did see some evident damage that the recent tornadoes have left behind, though. From the freeway, it looked like someone just went on a crazy rampage and threw garbage around the fields and there were also some trees that have been uprooted.

I’m glad to see the cows are doing alright, though.

And now we've entered the Lone Star State, Texas!

Nice, erhm, view.

This was the temperature when we got to Texas! No, you don't need your glasses, four-eyes! It is 110 degrees Fahrenheit!

We were settling in for the night in Amarillo so after unloading our stuff at the hotel, we headed straight to Cracker Barrel. Since the start of our trip from the west, I noticed there were a lot of Cracker Barrel branches everywhere but they just haven’t reached California yet.

Cracker Barrel is both a store and a restaurant combined so the first thing you see when you come in is an adorable store filled with knick knacks, bottled sodas, candies and other knick knacks.

Look, different flavors of pop soda!

Apple butter and other jarred stuff.

They even have a section for bacon-lovers! That's meeee! :)

The ceiling looked like what you would see in a tool shed but there were random stuff hanging on it instead…do you see that bicycle up there?

On to the food!

While trying to figure out what to order, we were served with some biscuits and corn bread with a side of apple butter. 

Care for a game? :)

Leave only one---you're genius, leave two and you're pretty smart, leave three and you're just plain dumb, leave four or mor'n  you're just plain "Eg-No-Ra-Moose"

Hmmm. What to pick out of the menu..

Why not the Chicken Fried Chicken on white gravy with the side of mashed potatoes, hashbrown casserole and rice pilaf? The taste was alright, nothing special but hey, you'll never know until you try.

Let’s not skip dessert because it had the words chocolate and Coke in it.

Holy Shawarma, that thing was moist and oh-so-dee-lish.

I'm too sleepy to go on typing but it looks like I'll be rendezvousing with this sexy chocolate cake in my dreams. Yummeh in my tummeh.

Toodles!