I'm sure most of you are wondering where the name for the blog came from? Paper Drapes? What is that all about? Well, watch this new episode of cribs and find out!!!!
Monday, February 2, 2009
Monday, January 26, 2009
Day 3/Day 4 of the Road Trip
Day 3 - Flatlands and Low Speed Limits
Plan: Drive from Dallas, Tx to Tucson, Az. Estimated Travel time: 13 hours, 31 minutes.
So after the 24 hour drive to Dallas, we spent the rest of Day/Night 2 in Texas with Khoa's family just relaxing and eating lots of Vietnamese food. They seriously fed us nonstop. Highlight of the night: After eating Pho for breakfast, taking a nap, and having a barbecue with seemingly endless amounts of meat, beer and desert, Khoa's cousin's left around 10pm. Then his uncle asks us, "are you hungry?" We seriously gained 10 pounds in that night.
So as we left in the morning of Day 3. We embarked upon a long, boring and flat drive through Texas. The best part about the drive through Texas was that it was flat. For those who don't know, cruise control is impossible to use when the roads have a lot of hills (as it pushes and pulls your car to maintain the current speed). So, cruise control was ineffective in Tennessee and Arkansas...but in Texas it worked like a charm. That saved some energy on the drive to Arizona. The other highlight of Day 3 driving was passing through Odessa (for all you Friday Night Lights fans).
When we got to New Mexico, we were hoping to see Aliens. No dice. Little did we know, the border patrol thought WE had aliens… illegal aliens that is.
Through the rest of New Mexico, we saw darkness, stars, and dirt. BORING. At least the Western part of Texas runs below New Mexico, so we weren't in the state for too long. And when we reached Arizona, the speed limit decreased tremendously. We averaged between 75 and 85 miles per hour in the other states... Not in Arizona. Here are David's thoughts on the speed limit:
After taking our sweet ass time getting to Tucson, we ate at Cracker Barrel (pretty decent food) and stayed at a friend's house.
Day 4 - Back to Cali
Plan: Drive from Tucson Az, to Huntington Beach and Los Angeles, Ca. Estimated Travel time: 7 hours, 20 minutes (plus 55 minutes to LA).
Before we begin, random observation from Khoa, "From Tennessee to California, we had to take the 40 freeway, to the 30 freeway, to the 20 freeway to the 10 freeway." That was kind of random. Anyway, this was the most exciting day, because we were starting to get really close to home. We still had to drive mad slow, because of the Arizona speed limits, but we didn't see many cops on the road. We had another reindeer car sighting…
Besides actually getting home, the best part of the day was reaching Blythe, which is on the border of Az and Ca.
Once we got around the mountains and got close to the bigger cities, of course we hit traffic. It was somewhat ironic how much we HATE traffic, but were so glad to be in traffic in California! It felt like home again... After David dropped off Khoa. He drove back to LA. This was really the only part of the trip that severely surpassed the estimated travel time. Google Maps said 55 minutes, LA traffic said an hour and 45 minutes. Getting home was great for two reasons; (1) we ate and (2) slept. Another side note, David had a random thought in Arkansas, which we decided to save for the end. It pretty much sums up the trip.
THE END (of Cross-Country trip). Japan updates coming soon...really soon…
Plan: Drive from Dallas, Tx to Tucson, Az. Estimated Travel time: 13 hours, 31 minutes.
So after the 24 hour drive to Dallas, we spent the rest of Day/Night 2 in Texas with Khoa's family just relaxing and eating lots of Vietnamese food. They seriously fed us nonstop. Highlight of the night: After eating Pho for breakfast, taking a nap, and having a barbecue with seemingly endless amounts of meat, beer and desert, Khoa's cousin's left around 10pm. Then his uncle asks us, "are you hungry?" We seriously gained 10 pounds in that night.
So as we left in the morning of Day 3. We embarked upon a long, boring and flat drive through Texas. The best part about the drive through Texas was that it was flat. For those who don't know, cruise control is impossible to use when the roads have a lot of hills (as it pushes and pulls your car to maintain the current speed). So, cruise control was ineffective in Tennessee and Arkansas...but in Texas it worked like a charm. That saved some energy on the drive to Arizona. The other highlight of Day 3 driving was passing through Odessa (for all you Friday Night Lights fans).
When we got to New Mexico, we were hoping to see Aliens. No dice. Little did we know, the border patrol thought WE had aliens… illegal aliens that is.
Through the rest of New Mexico, we saw darkness, stars, and dirt. BORING. At least the Western part of Texas runs below New Mexico, so we weren't in the state for too long. And when we reached Arizona, the speed limit decreased tremendously. We averaged between 75 and 85 miles per hour in the other states... Not in Arizona. Here are David's thoughts on the speed limit:
After taking our sweet ass time getting to Tucson, we ate at Cracker Barrel (pretty decent food) and stayed at a friend's house.
Day 4 - Back to Cali
Plan: Drive from Tucson Az, to Huntington Beach and Los Angeles, Ca. Estimated Travel time: 7 hours, 20 minutes (plus 55 minutes to LA).
Before we begin, random observation from Khoa, "From Tennessee to California, we had to take the 40 freeway, to the 30 freeway, to the 20 freeway to the 10 freeway." That was kind of random. Anyway, this was the most exciting day, because we were starting to get really close to home. We still had to drive mad slow, because of the Arizona speed limits, but we didn't see many cops on the road. We had another reindeer car sighting…
Besides actually getting home, the best part of the day was reaching Blythe, which is on the border of Az and Ca.
Once we got around the mountains and got close to the bigger cities, of course we hit traffic. It was somewhat ironic how much we HATE traffic, but were so glad to be in traffic in California! It felt like home again... After David dropped off Khoa. He drove back to LA. This was really the only part of the trip that severely surpassed the estimated travel time. Google Maps said 55 minutes, LA traffic said an hour and 45 minutes. Getting home was great for two reasons; (1) we ate and (2) slept. Another side note, David had a random thought in Arkansas, which we decided to save for the end. It pretty much sums up the trip.
THE END (of Cross-Country trip). Japan updates coming soon...really soon…
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Road Trip: Day 1/2
Driving Cross Country
Right after finals finished, both of us began packing up our house, as we were leaving Philly and spending the spring semester in Tokyo. We thought we could do it in two days... Turns out, we severely underestimated how difficult it is to pack up a two bedroom apartment and drive across country to California. After packing up most of our stuff (and giving the rest away on craigslist and to goodwill), we got ready for the drive. The itinerary was as follows: Philly to Dallas (22 hrs estimated time of arrival), Dallas to Tucson (13 hrs eta), Tucson to Orange County (9 hrs eta), Orange County to LA (1.5 hrs eta). We got pretty close to our ETAs, but ran a bit over. Here's a travel rundown... but to put it shortly, traveling across country sucks. horribly.
Day 1/Day 2 - Philly to Dallas, Tx (actual travel time - 24hrs, 1466 miles)
Driving 24 hours straight is BRUTAL. On our travel path, we had some interesting experiences and a lot of states (most of which, we'd never like to see again). After leaving Philly around 12:30 pm, we went through Delaware, Maryland and D.C. pretty smoothly. Then we reached Virginia. This state has to have the most cops per capita in America. We had to drive the speed limit through the whole state because there were cops EVERYWHERE. And did we have anything exciting to keep us entertained, NOPE. We had to look at the GAYEST cars in America. (see video below).
Seriously... who turns their car into a reindeer? Unbelievable. Nonetheless, we made it through Virginia, aka the speed limit state, and got to Tennesse. Despite having three large cities (Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis), there wasn't much to keep us entertained in Tennessee besides the fact that we drove through a huge storm. In fact, we thought there could be nothing worse... until we got to Arkansas. Here is a brief synopsis of what we saw in the entire state of Arkansas. Bridge and sign saying "Welcome to Arkansas".... Trees.... Trees.... More Trees.... One freeway exit for Little Rock....Trees... Trees... More Trees.... sign saying "Now leaving Arkansas." We didn't even see a Walmart, and Walmart was founded in Arkansas. Three words for Arkansas: Worst. State. Ever. (in terms of keeping me entertained). David also went delirious during the drive through Arkansas.
Sometime the next day, we left God-forsaken Arkansas and reached Texas. David had an interesting insight/reflection to share upon crossing the state line.
From the state line to Dallas was pretty uneventful. Dallas is long, flat, bare, and filled with cows. Side note/random observation: we counted at least 50 places to eat for every one gym. No wonder everything (read everyONE) is BIGGER in Texas.
Day 3 (Coming soon...)
Right after finals finished, both of us began packing up our house, as we were leaving Philly and spending the spring semester in Tokyo. We thought we could do it in two days... Turns out, we severely underestimated how difficult it is to pack up a two bedroom apartment and drive across country to California. After packing up most of our stuff (and giving the rest away on craigslist and to goodwill), we got ready for the drive. The itinerary was as follows: Philly to Dallas (22 hrs estimated time of arrival), Dallas to Tucson (13 hrs eta), Tucson to Orange County (9 hrs eta), Orange County to LA (1.5 hrs eta). We got pretty close to our ETAs, but ran a bit over. Here's a travel rundown... but to put it shortly, traveling across country sucks. horribly.
Day 1/Day 2 - Philly to Dallas, Tx (actual travel time - 24hrs, 1466 miles)
Driving 24 hours straight is BRUTAL. On our travel path, we had some interesting experiences and a lot of states (most of which, we'd never like to see again). After leaving Philly around 12:30 pm, we went through Delaware, Maryland and D.C. pretty smoothly. Then we reached Virginia. This state has to have the most cops per capita in America. We had to drive the speed limit through the whole state because there were cops EVERYWHERE. And did we have anything exciting to keep us entertained, NOPE. We had to look at the GAYEST cars in America. (see video below).
Seriously... who turns their car into a reindeer? Unbelievable. Nonetheless, we made it through Virginia, aka the speed limit state, and got to Tennesse. Despite having three large cities (Knoxville, Nashville, and Memphis), there wasn't much to keep us entertained in Tennessee besides the fact that we drove through a huge storm. In fact, we thought there could be nothing worse... until we got to Arkansas. Here is a brief synopsis of what we saw in the entire state of Arkansas. Bridge and sign saying "Welcome to Arkansas".... Trees.... Trees.... More Trees.... One freeway exit for Little Rock....Trees... Trees... More Trees.... sign saying "Now leaving Arkansas." We didn't even see a Walmart, and Walmart was founded in Arkansas. Three words for Arkansas: Worst. State. Ever. (in terms of keeping me entertained). David also went delirious during the drive through Arkansas.
Sometime the next day, we left God-forsaken Arkansas and reached Texas. David had an interesting insight/reflection to share upon crossing the state line.
From the state line to Dallas was pretty uneventful. Dallas is long, flat, bare, and filled with cows. Side note/random observation: we counted at least 50 places to eat for every one gym. No wonder everything (read everyONE) is BIGGER in Texas.
Day 3 (Coming soon...)
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