The Last Leg

Sorry this post is a day late, but no one has yet to detail the final day's worth of events on the cousin trip.

We woke up fairly late in Barstow, CA, (about 10:30), quickly packed up, and headed to Denny's for a bite to eat. Our main incentive to go there was the 20 % off coupon that the hotel had given us. Sad to say, the incentive was not good enough. We sent our food back 2 times.

Anyway, at around noon, we began our final 6 hour leg of the trip: up through Bakersfield and then on I-5 to San Francisco. The drive began along a small highway I-58 which lead us through the desert. Overall, it was a long and dry sight. The drive for me became much more pretty though, once we hit I-5 two hours into the trip. The drive along that road really proved to me why this is the Golden State; beautiful acres of golden grain and other plants lined the way up North. Of course, as with any other highway, it got very boring after a couple of hours. But near the end of the way, I had one of the best driving "highs" of my life, (okay, I was actually in the passenger seat. It was a "passenger driving high.)" It was the drive along I-580 toward the Bay Area. The road took us through rolling hills with windmills atop them It was as if we were floating through the sky. Quite possibly one of the most intriguing drives I have ever done in my life.

Soon thereafter around 7:30 PM PST, after a windy and busy trip through Oakland, the Bay Bridge dumped us right into the Mission. Soon thereafter we came to a blue house where Emily now resides. We were so excited.

After unloading the car and various greetings, we shopped for dinner supplies at a corner store near 24'th and Bryant. Truth be told, we bought very healthy food, and it couldn't have tasted better: whole wheat pasta, spaghetti sauce, and lentil soup.

And then sadly, this morning, at 8 AM, I packed my things and set out for LA by myself, leaving the cousins to fend for themselves in the City by the Bay. That concluded the week's festivities. It was so great sharing a trip with you guys. It will remain as one of my life's most happiest memories.

Watch out world, because the cousins have paved a trail West!

Drama in Flagstaff

Hey everyone. Sorry for no posts in the last 2 days. Long story short: we are already in San Francisco! Our trip was cut short by 1 day because of serious drama in Flagstaff.

We left Albuquerque on Day 5 very happy after having slept in a lovely Holiday Inn Express. After a great big b-fast which involved certain free groceries, (aka stealing a couple peanut butters and oranges from the buffet on our way out) we got on the road for Flagstaff. The day of driving was only 4.5 hours long, but along the way there were some of the most exciting stops we have had so far that ended up stretching our driving day into a full one:

1. Sonic for ice cream. I'm not sure what the cousins thought of this stop but personally I was not impressed by it.

2. Navajo trading post along the highway. We got our trinket fill for the vacation when we stopped at a "Navajo village." Moccasins, handmade dolls, fireworks...lots of good stuff. All I bought was a Grand Canyon map...which I never got to use. More on that to come later

3. Petrified Forest. After sadness from leaving NM, yes, we arrived in Arizona! One of the stops along the I-40 ride there was this national park which was beautiful to say nonetheless! For 10 dollars total between the 3 of us, we drove 28 miles around a protected stretch of park. Beautiful! My favorite part were petroglyphs; etchings of early shapes that were in rock formations laying in valleys of the park that we saw through FREE telescopes. To anyone going through northern AZ I highly recommend this place.

Anyway, nightfall soon came and we ended up on Flagstaff. The plan was to shop around for a hotel room as we did in PA the first night. What we didn't expect?- Labor Day Saturday in Flagstaff which involved many people from all around the southwest flocking there for various sporting events, a Midevil fair, and of course, the Canyon. So, among 8 hotels that we checked...NONE of them had vacancy. The ones that did were charging 120-150 bucks a night...clearly a jack-up from standard prices.

We ended up sitting down in a Wi-Fi lobby of the Best Western hotel in Flagstaff and calling other hotels in neighboring towns to see if they had any room. We eventually had some luck at another America's Best Value Inn in Williams, AZ. The man on the phone took our name and told us to get there ASAP because he only had 2 rooms. We took this as verbal confirmation of our reservation of the room.

30 minutes later en route to Williams, we called the Inn to confirm a specific time in which we would arrive. The clerk on the phone proceeded to say that there were no reservations at the hotel (even though we had given him our name) and that he had given our room up to someone else. Furious, we decided in a split second to skip the Grand Canyon altogether and drive to Barstow, CA that night. That is exactly what we did.

A lesson for all of you readers...if you find yourself thinking about visiting the Canyon on a Holiday weekend, make sure you have a reservation! Shame on the owner of America's Best Value Inn in Williams and MUCH THANKS to the nice teenagers in the Best Western in Flagstaff for trying to help us find another hotel.

300 miles of driving later, we arrived in California! We had to undergo a ruthless fruit inspection at the border of the state in which our stolen oranges from that morning's buffet were re-confiscated, (another sad lesson in karma) because we didn't know the origin of our oranges. I have to say though that the inspector was the nicest of his type that I have ever seen.

At 3 am we rolled into Motel 6 in Barstow. The rate: $42.77 for the night. Steal of the century. I have changed my middle name to Jonas DEAL Maurukas. Exhausted and satisfied, we crashed in our surprisingly nice room.

That is all for tonight though. We'll be sure to recount the final day of the trip soon. For now though, I am going to sleep tight in one of my favorite cities in the world! Good night everyone and safe travels.

Amendment to Day 5 and the entire trip

We have also failed to mention that ever since PA during this trip, we have been "mom bouncing" lots around the country; a dance that the Smizers have invented/ put together from other people they have seen. This, rather than frisbee, has been our main source of exercise on this trip. You can probably imagine that we are all prepared to get back into a normal level of movement after this trip: walking around mostly.

North Texas? That's a force.

Jonas and I are trying out a new idea of sharing the evening's blog post, so I'll pick up where he left off at the "safety stop"/museum/tornado shelter (seriously) somewhere deep in the dry flat nothingness that is North Texas along I-40. I think something about the heat and emptiness of the interstate's surroundings brought me to a state of delirium I hadn't felt before today. I'm pretty sure that in a moment of barely resisting the urge to lie down on a bench outside of the rest stop to fade into the abyss, I said to Ali, "I am going to die." But all drama aside, of course, we made it out alive, and plugged along into New Mexico, where we were immediately filled with renewed energy and some exciting new license plates.

Today's drive brought us to the realization that we've unequivocally crossed two distinct borders: that of the South, and that of the West. The "free" 72 ounce steak (or maybe, earlier, the grits at the Waffle House) assured us of the first, and the clay and plateaus and warm, dry wind and rhythmic, multisyllabic names of towns assured us of the second. I like it here, maybe more than any other state we've gone through. It's probably due in part to the fact that the slightest change in elevation or hint of plantlife feels like a tropical oasis after Texas, but I know it's also that this place seems to really have its own flavor, more than anywhere else we've driven through so far (at least along the interstate; Sleeper, MO certainly had character). I feel willing to overlook the abundance of casino billboards because of how really lovely the landscape has been otherwise ever since we crossed the border. The vegetation looks so different than anything else we've driven through--it's definitely dry-weather life out here--but actually looks curiously reminiscent (to me and Ali) of so many bus rides through South American landscapes. Whenever we pull off at a rest stop, I half expect a small round woman in a pollera skirt and long black braids to walk up to the car window with bottles of Coca Cola and baggies of chicharrón for sale. It hasn't happened yet, but I don't think I'd really be that surprised. It just feels so familiar here.

We got to Albuquerque around 8:30 (thanks for the extra hour, time zones!) and attempted at first to follow Bonnie the GPS in her instructions to the "city centre". Well, apparently it was located in some perpetually shifting spot right in the middle of I-40, because after four cute "Take the exit right. Turn around when possible. Turn right, then, take the highway," tricks (I kid you not), we turned her off and followed our own senses of direction. They brought us to the Holiday Inn Express, where we stopped by for a bathroom and a hint on where we could get some good Mexican food. The concierge was really friendly and helped us not only by giving us a good place nearby but by printing out a map from the hotel to the place. We asked if it was pricey, and he said, "I'm a student, and I can afford it." So we went, and were not disappointed! [The next would-be 4 paragraphs about our gastronomical experience will be censored because of recent criticism that this is too much of a food blog. Suffice to say that enchiladas de carne adovada do not disappoint at Sadie's in Albuquerque.]

Well, after such a great restaurant suggestion--not to mention offers of lower and lower prices--we trusted that Holiday Inn Express concierge, so here we are in an absolutely luxurious hotel room (yes, that's right, hotel with an H, not an M!) getting America's Second Best Value. We have a functional fridge (crammed with leftover [New] Mexican food) and complimentary toothpaste, and a mere 5-hour drive to Flagstaff tomorrow. Life can't get much better than this. Tomorrow we're hoping to do some kitschy roadside stops along the interstate--World's Largest Frankfurter? Fuzziest Yak in the Great Southwest?? Coldest Beer in Northeastern Arizona??? Only time (and our twitter account) will tell!

OK-NM

Day 4:

We woke up and basically left Meghan's apartment. Our first stop for the day: Waffle House; a pride-and-joy chain of the mid-west. I must say that the waffles there really are world-class, but everything else I felt was very average. Anyway, considering that some of our viewers are mocking this blog because it seems to only be about the food we're eating, I am going to perpousfully skip these details.

The challenge for the day was set when we pulled onto I-40 West out of Normand and our GPS read that we had 541 miles left to go on that road until we reached Albuquerque. Being as patient as possible, we sat in somewhat silence as we began to listen to the obscure stuff that was loaded onto our Ipods: episodes of This American Life, Car Talk, etc.

On the road in OK, we were in the bathrooms when we used these interesting contraptions: 3-in-1 soap dispensers, washers, and dryers. It was as if your hands were being treated to a spa treatment all in 1 machine. We were very impressed at this invention! Anyway, the journey for the rest of OK was flat and boring. Lots of nice-looking cows though could be seen on either side. Things didn't really start to get interesting until we crossed into the meekest state in the Union: Texas.

Being over-ecstatic, we decided to pull off I-40 right after we crossed the border and drive down some backroads for lunch. What we saw was incredible: long, skinny roads leading into back country where the speed limit was, I kid you not, 70 mph. Old 90's trucks were zooming past us as we simply putzed around and rubber-necked into the backyards of Texan ranchers. After we got tired of the scorching heat, we pulled off on a random road for lunch. (End of lunch description)

As we continued on the road, it seemed that the next major city was going to be Amarillo, TX, a destination for lots of truck drivers that I'd heard of in the past. Another beckoning symbol of the town which we were informed of from Billboards all the way there was known as the "Big Texan." There, you could be given one 72 oz. steak to finish...by yourself. If you did, along with a potato and some vegetables, you could get the meal for free. If you didn't finish, you had to pony up a hefty sum. After eating meat 3 of the 4 nights on this trip, in no way was I going to be able to do this.

Around mid-afternoon, we arrived in Amarillo. It turned out to be a busy transition town as expected, but with a bit of charm. There, we stopped for a frozen dessert at "Braum's." It was an ingenuous idea from my POV: fast-food ice cream. I'm not just talking chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry shakes, but an entire ice cream bar that had multiple locations in multiple states. I got a brownie sundae for 4 dollars...what a bargain!

The rest of the trip out of Texas was, in my opinion, very hair-raising! Many people flipped us the bird as we "plugged up" the fastlane, and that along with climbing temperatures which probably rose into the 100's, we quickly lost morale for the state. I can't really say that the views on the way out were particularly beautiful either.

Our final encounter with Texas was a visitior's center on the western edge of the pan-handle, (the little bump at the top of the state. If I didn't make myself clear, this was the part that we drove through.) This was the fanciest welcome centre that we had ever been to yet: it had tornado-shelter bathrooms, a small museum all about the pan-handle, and a viewing dock which we could look through FREE telescopes and see way off into a Texan landscape. It was beautiful.

tweets

2 updates before we attempt to cross through three enormous states:

- We have a twitter! Our name is the same as this one, @3cousinsinacar so now you can get realtime updates about every snack as it's being eaten.

- We're going to waffle house RIGHT NOW

- Actually, the second was an impromptu update because I've forgotten the second legitimate bulletpoint. On to Albuquerque!

- I just remembered, my computer is attempting to translate everything I write into Hindi. This curious occurrence began in America's Best Value Inn and hasn't stopped since. The ghost of Paul follows us even to Oklahoma.

Loans, Guns, and Jewelry

We are officially in the A Different Part of the Country.

We are in the land of individually-bagged pickles at gas stations,  Confederate flags on front lawns, highways with toll booths that charge you the maximum when you get on the road and then hand you change when you get off the exit ramp, mega-churches with 500 foot-tall crosses, and fascinating centers of commerce where one can obtain a loan, a shotgun, and a valuable personal adornment all at the same time!

We left Kendra's house outside St. Louis this morning with a heavy hearts and bulging guts. She has truly carried on the spirit of our Italian grandmother; from the moment we set foot on her front lawn until the moment she kissed us goodbye, we experienced a constant stream of food, love, and gifts. I even made it out of there with a few new bras and a bathing suit top. Score! She and her husband, Andrew, sent us on our way this morning with fresh strawberries and a bunch of cold water bottles to keep us hydrated and healthy on the long trek to Oklahoma City. They are both so wonderful.

On the Missouri-Oklahama trail, we learned that:

- Boston drivers are NOT the most aggressive and angry ones out there. We were flipped many a bird for not going, like, at least 25 miles per hour over the speed limit while traveling in the left lane.

- There is a town called Lebanon in every state in the union.

- Your legs start to feel more and more like a newborn animal once you spend a certain amount of hours crammed into a Hyundai Accent. Our favorite thing to do when we stop for stretching breaks and / or gas is to stagger--bowlegged, swaggering, swaying in zig zags--while screeching "BABY FAWN! BABY FAWN!"

- The level of otherness that we experience when we enter public places with other humans increases at a rate directly proportional to the distance we travel.

- There is a gas station chain called "Kum N Go."in Oklahoma City.

After for driving for a bit this morning, we got that familiar rumbly in our tumblies [the hungry one, luckily, not the 'guhhhhhhhhhhhh we've been eating meat and bread for four day straight and I haven't pooped in three days' one] and decided to take the next exit we could find off Route 44 and find a suitable spot for lunch. We were hoping to find a place as magical as Topanga Lake.

We pulled onto a dusty road marked with a sign for the town of "Sleeper" with an arrow pointing us in the right direction. Uh, yes, this was exactly what we wanted. Sleeper, MO did not disappoint. The road quickly turned to dusty gravel, and we [at least, Emily and I] were launched into our rural South American traveling past. Small family farms lined the road to our right and left, separated by swaths of forest and clearings with skinny cows hiding in the shade of the trees. It was so beautiful and wonderfully reminiscent of another life and world we remembered, separately but together.  We turned off the TomTom and the air conditioning, opened up the windows, and the thick humidity punched us in the face and chest. It felt so good to be so far away from highway. We wound around an old church, some sort of little store, and eventually made it back onto some sort of paved road and found the center of town.

We stopped at a closed down restaurant and ate our picnic lunch of pb and j, fruit, and the last of the Stromboli from Jonas' cousins house. We sat against the crumbling building, munched and refueled, and had an impromptu dance party with the speakers of the Hyundai pumped way up. I wonder why the locals always look at us so strangely.

Later in the afternoon, Emily and I bought a 32 ounce cup (barrel?) of Coca Cola at a gas station. It was the smallest serving they offered. We scoffed at the excess of the concept, sucked it down, and then refilled it once before getting back in the car.

Tonight we arrived in Norman, Ok--right outside Oklahoma City--to stay with Emily's dear friend Megan from Brandeis. She and her lovely boyfriend Alex took us out to eat and entertained us like true sports, even though they both have to work at 8am tomorrow.

We'll be in Albuquerque tomorrow if all goes according to plan!