Camping in Fentress, TX

Camping with my Uncle and Aunt was AMAZING. They recently purchased a new travel trailer, so in the humidity and heat of a texas summer, we had a bathroom, kitchen, bed (almost), and AIR CONDITIONING.

They were traveling with a group with ExxonMobil.  There were about 40 people in the group, who travel together multiple times a year. We got to the site just in time for dinner, even though we already ate a little Sonic before we left Austin.  So we drank some beers, and got introduced to everyone. That night we made some new friends, and made some s'mores.

The next day we got up, and went over to Mark's (a new friend, and reminds me a lot of Mike O'Malley) motor home for breakfast. Eggs, bacon and toast, with fresh berry smoothies.  I want to take this time now to express my love for Texans.  They are the most friendly, giving, sharing, welcoming, gentle people we have encountered.  They took us in as though we had been a part of the group for ever, and shared everything with us, and never asked for anything in return.  When we asked if we could help, or what we could contribute, we were met with a polite "nothing," we were their guests, and we were treated perfectly.  It was 2 of the best days of the ast 10 years of my life.

Mid-day we went floating down the San Marcos river in inner tubes, twice. We went with our new friends, and the river was warm, jade blue, and quick! It was so much fun, and so refreshing to get in that water on such a hot sunny, humid day.

We came back after floating to my Uncle smoking some hot wings, prepared by Linda's son-in-law Michael.  Erin ate 3.  Let me repeat that. Erin ate 3, hot, chicken wings.  There are 2 things interesting about that. 1. she hates spicy food. 2. she hates chicken. but apparently when you combine them, she loves it.  I ate 7.

Dinner that night was grilled ribeye steaks, corn on the cob, salad, and wine.  We even won a door prize, a cutting board!

That night was bittersweet, because it was our last night with my family, and the last night with our great new friends.  Lets talk about the night.  I say we almost had a bed, because the air mattress in the pull out couch in Uncle Jim's travel trailer deflated the first night, leaving us sleeping on the two bars that support the mattress.  So we slept sideways.  The second night we borrowed a different air mattress, blew them both up, stacked them on top of one another, and low and behold, they both deflated.  But it was a small inconvenience in an otherwise perfect 2 days.

Tomorrow we drive to NOLA.

Drive to Fentress by way of Austin

We got up at 8:30, and re-packed the car. We ended up taking the bikes in because when we closed the motel door, there was a sticker that said, "for your protection, use the deadbolt when in the room."  While packing we met another couple, with a super cute doggie, that was also on a drive from SF to Florida. The lady was moving there to be closer to her family.

We started out on the road differently this time.  Erin drove first.  It was a steady, long, travel day, but there was a light at the end of the tunnel, per say.  We got to get off I10.  We took 290 through the texas hill country.  It was literally rolling hills, like the caricature of the lock ness monster. Since we decided to get a host gift for everyone we stay with, we needed a gift for my Uncle Jim and Linda.  On 290, we came into Fredricksburg, TX. About half a mile into town we came across, Choo Choo Patio Store.  I dare say, this is the coolest store west of the Mississippi.  Erin agrees.  I could spend 2 days and many a thousand dollars at said store.  We ended up staying and spending much less. BUt we got my Uncle and Aunt a great wine holder, and we got 3 iron texas stars.

We then got back on the road and headed to Austin for a brief stop, unfortunately we got little lost, but it was fine.  We made it to Fentress by 7:30. If we thought Van Horn was in the middle of nowhere, Frentress makes it look like LA.

Van Horn, Texas

Got into Van Horn at 11p after about 10 hours on the road. We checked into the Motel 6. The woman who was SOO EXCITED to see us gave us a 10% discount on the room. Score!

First encounter with the Law

We were right outside of Sierra Blanca, TX when we saw a shit ton of flashing lights. I mean....there were so many and it turns out it was a border patrol inspection station.

The man asked if we were US citizens and where we were going. He seemed a little confused when we said NY. Asked us why we had so much stuff. He interrupted Matt’s explanation with...”Got any illegal narcotics back there?” Matt obviously said no. The officer replied with “No weed?” We said “no sir” and he let us on our way. Interesting encounter. 

Drive on 10 through Arizona and New Mexico

Our first stop was Sonic in Tuscan since we had some Sonic gift cards. Enjoyed a great meal. Then I took the drivers seat and we drove through the rest of Arizona into New Mexico. It was amazing how many cacti there were in Arizona...then when we got to New Mexico, the cacti disappeared and were replaced by Joshua trees (which look like they’re out of a Dr. Suess book!)

Interesting realization: On 10 (maybe other highways too) exits are given numbers based on their mileage from the state border rather than just going in order. I mean they still do go in order...it just skips numbers if there aren’t any exits during the mile. 

Stopped in Deming, NM to gas up then hit the road again.

Our next stop was dinner at Chope’s. Bill Bivins (playwright of the show Matt just set designed at the Playhouse who grew up in New Mexico where we were driving through) recommended it to us.

We got off 10 after Las Cruces (we found out it means “The Crosses”) and  drove on some little highways. We saw a little boy (9 or 10) riding on a horse alongside the road...ridiculous.

Finally, about 10 miles off the highway we found Chope’s. This restaurant was awesome, it was literally inside of a house that had been renovated into a restaurant. And the place was packed so obviously it was popular. I had a burrito and Matt has a combo plate (enchilada, taco, tamale and relleno). The food was delicious and authentic as promised by Bill. 

The family next to us (with a super cute bald baby) struck up a conversation with Matt about his wildflower shirt (which, yes, he was wearing again despite the fact that I suggested he change shirts after 2 days...) The family was going to be doing a relay tri this summer. Cool!

Then we hit the road again. Passed into Texas and drove through El Paso which looked rather disgusting to both Matt & I. We drove along the Mexican border for a while.

2 cool things we passed over today:

The Continental Divide 

Rio Grande - we actually passed over it 3 times (over, back then over again on our way to Chope’s)

Changed time zones from Arizona to New Mexico (because Arizona doesn’t follow daylight savings) 

Then we changed one more time zone somewhere in between El Paso and Van Horn. So we lost 2 hours today, but it was all good because we’re headed to the middle of nowhere to stay tonight so we didn’t mind getting to the hotel. We’re staying at a Motel 6 so we know they’ll keep the light on for us...haha.

relationship status: great. Matt says I’m boring in the car...but I was just tired. He’s boring sometimes too...especially when I’m driving and he’s taking naps because I always seem to drive mid afternoon which is prime nap time. 

As the sun went down, we continued our drive on 10 straight towards a big bright orange full moon.

Interesting fact: The back of cat-eyes are red. Who knew?

Day 3: Phoenix to Van Horn Texas by way of La Mesa, New Mexico

Woke up early, packed up the car, ate our continental breakfast (aka packaged “Big Texas” cinnamon rolls and orange juice, then headed out.

Our first stop was Scottsdale to do a little bit of shopping. We looked around in Old Town. Found some cool “Horse Hair” Pottery...which is awesome Navajo pottery that has horse hair in it and looks super cool. We found an original piece that was beautiful but it was 120 bucks. Neither of us could justify buying it. After looking around in Scottsdale, we hit the 10 again.

Night in Phoenix

hecked in at America’s Best Value Inn in downtown Phoenix. We were supposed to meet up with one of Matt’s friends from college but he flaked on us so we were forced to Yelp our way to dinner. Found 2 cool restaurants a block away, settled on “Local Breeze.” It was a super cool patio restaurant and bar. It had misters (I got too cold sit under them) so we moved to a different table.

We started off with some shrimp tacos. Matt had a Arizona beer called “Kiltlifter.” I had an “Old Monkeyshine.” Both local and both good. We shared an ahi tuna salad in lime basil dressing (that was delicious) and a cheese burger. 

After dinner, we were in the mood for ice cream so we went to the Arizona Center Cold stone and got some kick-ass ice cream and sat outside to eat it. (How nice is it to sit outside at 9 at night and not be freezing!)

Then we called it a night.

Stop 1 in Arizona - Quartzsite

We fell into our first tourist trap. Signs starting in California advertised “Really GOOD Jerky” in Quartzsite. So we HAD to stop. We’ve decided that despite the fact that both of us hate most tourists...we are going to be as touristy as ever on this trip. Ok, maybe not decided, it’s just inevitable. 

So we stopped and got some cowboy jerky from Daniel’s Really Good Jerky. The man at the store with an extremely weird accent struck up a conversation about Iron Man Hawaii because Matt’s wearing his Wildflower shirt. Went to some other random stores. A flea market - esque one that sold cool little figurines and random tools and parts. There was a jewelry / bead store that was pretty awesome too. Another weird eclectic store that sold everything from vitamins to magnetic jewelry to old gum ball dispensers. Didn’t buy anything, but trust me, we will before we leave Arizona. We’re getting something from every state that we can put in our house or apartment next year.

Don’t worry...we did get a picture in front of the BK covered wagon that said Quartzsite Arizona on it!

Relationship status: “Better than ever” (Matt’s exact words)

Day 2: LA to Phoenix - Wednesday May 26, 2010

Woke up to a wonderful home cooked breakfast by Nate. Showered, packed up the car, filled up, deposited the last check at Citibank then headed to the 10. 

First interesting thing that happened on our drive was the uber creepy wind farm we drove through for about 10 miles. There were wind mills of every size and shape. Some of them were broken...though we aren’t really sure how wind mills break.

Then we hit Palm Springs...neither of us have been there before yet we both thought it was supposed to be a luxurious city with golf courses and resorts with pools. Maybe we missed it or maybe these things were far from the freeway, but we didn’t see any of that. Just weird windmills and desert.

Then we drove through the desert for what seemed like forever. Got pretty hot (95).

Saw two friends last names: Koch & Blythe. We’ll be on the lookout for more. 

Crossed over the Colorado River (SOO COOL) then crossed into Arizona. 1 mile into Arizona we started seeing cacti. Weird because there weren’t any in CA or at least that we saw. Evidently they don’t start growing arms until they’re 70 years old. We’ve seen some with 8 arms with look so cool. 

Day 1: SF to LA by way of Gilroy - Tuesday May 25, 2010

Woke up at 8:45 after staying in a lovely Shangri La di Damilano. Went to the storage unit to drop off some miscellany. Stopped at a BoA to deposit a check then we waved goodbye to SF until August. Hit 101 towards Gilroy where we stopped at the Pearl Izumi outlet to return shoes. Ate at fresh choice for a fresh start to our journey. Next was Chase to deposit another check then we gassed up. Took 152 to 5 and from there we did the boring LA drive which we’ve done many times before. 

Tried to look up “car game” Iphone apps to which we had no luck. There were a billion “road trip” bingos that all looked pretty lame. Matt downloaded a game called Dilemmas that one kinda sucked too.

Relationship status as of now: no big fights. We still like each other. Good news! Matt even let me drive (for selfish reasons...he wanted to nap...but I’ll take what I can get).

We’re playing the license plate game (duh). We’ve decided that trucks don’t count...since it’s cheating? I don’t really know why we can’t count them but Matt’s the boss on this one.

Got into LA around 5:30p. Picked up some double downs from KFC for our hosts. Went to the guys house (or as Matt likes to call it Chateau Nari Larksta). The boys went for a 4 mile run. We ordered some pizza and wings that we washed down with some two buck chuck.

Went to Nate’s comedy show in Santa Monica. It was a good show. There were some hilarious acts and these awesome guys who juggled ridiculously.

Checked out Greg’s apartment in downtown LA. Then called it a night.

Phoenix tomorrow.