Moving day! We got up early in the morning (8am is early for us) and continued the packing/tossing frenzy that started the day before. We ended up having to throw away things that we really wanted to keep because we just couldn't find anymore room in the car or trailer. We took off around 1pm, about 2-3 hours behind schedule. Since we had to leave a CD changer by the foot of the front passenger, Russ did all the driving. We took it really slow (50-60mph); even the 18-wheelers were passing us by. We got to Binghamton around 9pm, had a nice dinner with my brother and went to sleep early.

Getting ready to take off

Russ hooking up the trailer

We put together this "system" in the car that we'll be living in for the next 10 days: drinks on cup holders, CD player squeezed between seats for stability, stack of CDs ready at hand on the storage compartment between seats, quarters in the slots between seats ready for toll boothes and a can of "Wet Ones" in the glove compartment for quick disinfection.

We drove through Western New York and passed Houghton, NY where I attended high school. It was 17 miles from the highway and I was tempted to have a short stopover. I decided against it since we have almost 500 miles to cover today. Russ took over before we crossed over to PA. There were construction EVERYWHERE! That's the downside of Summer time. Nothing interesting to be seen on the roads. We drove through Cleveland, OH during rush hour and I snapped a few pictures. Unfortunately we didn't get very close to the downtown high rises. My only knowledge of Cleveland is that the Drew Carrey show is based in the city. I couldn't see anything unique about it from any other mid-sized city I've seen. We drove by a stadium called "Mud Hen..." something. I don't watch sports but I didn't think that a muddy chicken was much of an intimidating mascot.

Cleveland, OH

Cleveland, OH just past the stadium

We arrived at our hotel in Holland, OH (near Toledo) just after 8pm. The hotel room had a fully functional kitchen and was quite cheap considering how nice it was. We had some of the food we brought with us and rested for the evening.

Drove out of Cleveland in thick fog. I wonder if being on the waterfront does this to the area. I hoped we didn't have to drive through any rain storm. The drive was long and quite boring. Going through Illinois was hellish. There were constructions on all the major roads plus major traffic even during off-peak hours. It was pretty stressful manuvering the car with a trailer on its butt in this condition.

Thick fog going out of Ohio

*Zzzzzzzz*

When we arrived at the Ramada Westfield Inn in Coralville IA, we were surprised to find what a scummy hotel it was. The entire place smelled moldy and humid. When I booked the hotel I thought I'd be paying $10-15 more to stay at a place with a good reputation, how wrong I was! The hotel was constructed in a funny way. The pool and recreational area (ping-pong, games) were in the center of the hotel, and the rooms were facing in toward the recreational area. We were given a first floor room right next to the games and ping-pong tables with no window. At 11pm a handful of people were playing ping-pong and chatting loudly while Russ and I tried to sleep. I called the front desk twice about the noise and they claimed that they would take care of it. Finally at near midnight Russ went out and asked those rude folks to keep it down. They left after about 10min. I doubt the hotel staff did anything at all an hour before that if all it took for them to leave was Russ telling them to keep it down. The idiot at the front desk even claimed that he'd call the police if they didn't keep it down (overkill?) In addition to this stress, the hotel toilet didn't flush properly and had a clogged sink. I didn't dare to sit on the toilet. This was the worst hotel with the worst service I have ever stayed in. I swore never to stay at a Ramada Inn again.

We got up extra early (eventhough we didn't get to sleep till midnight) so we could get out of this hell-hole asap. We've seen just about all the Iowa we wanted to see and couldn't wait to cross the state line. As a matter of fact we cheered when that finally happened. What can I say about Iowa? Let's see...I'd rather gnaw my right arm off than having to ever live in that shithole. The people I've encountered were either rude or in lalaland - I smiled and nodded to a few people and they just stared at me blankly. We saw several billboard ads off the highway for clothes retailers with "XL to 6XL" sizes - what the fuck do they eat here?! Everyone we've seen who's remotely mid-aged or over was blobby and slow and obviously had been putting way too much butter on that corn cob. Don't get me wrong, I have absolutely nothing against individuals who are over-weight, but when the entire state is fat and soft, there's something very wrong with it!

The drive was boooooring! The landscape is flat, flat, FLAT! Ooh, oh, I see a bump over there! No that's not it, it's just a cow. Speaking of cows, we kept the windows up through the entire day. Cow farming must be a huge industry in Iowa (that explains the obesity); as a result the entire state stinks from border to border. We went by this farm right next to the highway with hundreds (no kidding) of cows gated in a muddy area just waiting to be made into fatty burgers. If I needed anything else to convince me to stay off beef, this certainly would do the trick.

Some other observations: we encountered many mini-vans on the road with writings on the back windshields that looked like rallying cries for highschool sports teams. Never saw this in the Northeast; maybe they're more passionate about highschool sports over here. Also, alot of the rivers and creeks that we drove past had names like "North Skunk River" and "South Racoon River". So instead of naming things after politicians and poets, they name theirs after little stinky animals...

*Zzzzzzzz*

800 miles more of this...

A small moo-moo farm

Shortly after we crossed the Iowa/Nebraska border, the speed limit changed to 75mph! Unfortunately we couldn't go that fast with the trailer on our tail. The landscape was still very flat but starting to look more desert-like with dry land and short bushes taking the place of trees. We arrived at the Motel 6 in Cozad, NE and I was preparing for the worst (can you blame me after that experience the night before?). It turned out to be a really nice motel, nicer than most places I've stayed at that cost twice the price! Just think, I purposedly chose Ramada Inn over Motel 6 in Iowa because I thought the latter wouldn't be as accommodating. *sigh* Cozad was a very small town and apparently were having a high school graduation that Saturday. The window of our room faced West toward an open field with a little bit of the highway on the left side. We got to see a bit of sunset which was very nice, then ordered a pizza and watched a movie before going to sleep. Tomorrow is supposed to be the start of the "fun part" of the trip. We're going to camp out in Colorado and later in Utah and Arizona.

Going into the mountains after Denver

Is that snow?!

During that little adventure we went up to 10,000ft elevation and saw SNOW! You certainly don't see that every May! After we past the mountains and ski areas, we started our descend to flatter grounds and the landscape started to change yet again. One thing very interesting about going on a long drive is seeing the changes in the trees and rocks along the road as the trip progresses. We certainly got to see alot of that on this trip. As we pulled away from the mountains, we started to see less and less hills and trees but more bare rocks; some with a reddish color that are normally found in desert-like conditions. We eventually arrived at our campground in Glenwood Springs in the evening and had ample time to setup camp and enjoy a simple tuna casserole dinner (courtesy of Tuna Helper and Russell).

This looks alot more impressive in person

We're at the same elevation as snow!

Descending from the mountains on winding roads

Our first campsite (tuna casserole on burner)

After dinner, we took a short walk along the river next to the campground. There was a little walkway for people to walk and bike on, and an active railroad nearby. It was near sunset, the air was fresh and the weather was nice. It was quite theraputic to be doing something relaxing for a change after days of driving; especially after that ordeal in the afternoon. We set on the rocks by the river, took some pictures and went back to the campsite just as it was getting dark. We started the habit of going to bed around 10pm and getting up before 7am so we get the most out of daylight. It turned out not to be very difficult to adjust to because of the change in time zone as we progress westward. Since it got completely dark around 9pm, it gave us just around one hour to wash up and get ready for bed.

Russell making our morning coffee

Lots of green stuff in the start of the drive

Getting browner and flatter

After we crossed over to Utah, we got on Rt-128 seeing that it's the shortest way on the map to Moab. We didn't know until a few miles into it that it was designated as a scenic way. It turned out to be both a blessing and a curse. A blessing because it allowed us to see many more spectacular scenary; a curse because it also meant that the road was much narrower and more winding and quite scary to navigate with that trailer on our butt. While Russ was kept busy keeping the car on the road, I tried to snap some pictures of what we saw. At some points we drove along the Colorado River; being on the passenger side, I got a pretty frightening view down the edge of the road. It looked as though one jerk of the steering wheel and we'd be off the cliff swimming with the fish (which was probably true!). Rt-128 was 43 miles long and took us about an hour and a half to get through.

A relaxing and beautiful portion of Rt-128

Along the Colorado River

We arrived at Riverside Oasis RV Park and Campground in mid-afternoon. It turned out to be only 2 miles South of the Arches National Park where we plan to camp the next day (damn Mapquest told me otherwise). The campground was a major upgrade from the campground we stayed the previous night. There was a full washroom with modern and clean facilities and the grounds were very well maintained. We got a spot near the washrooms (just the way I like it) and setup camp. It was very windy and we had a hard time using the burner. For the remaining day we drove South to see what's there. We drove through Moab which is the closest town to all the National Parks in the area and thus where all the touristy stuff are. We filled up on gas, has ice cream cones and set course for the Needles Viewpoint. On the way we stopped at "Holes N' the Rock" - basically a home made out of caves. There were the typical tourist attractions - gift shops and tours of the home/caves which were real turn-offs. We took more interest in the Ostriches that were gated on the premises.

Before the cross-country trip, I stocked up on the best Kodak films anticipating that I'd need them. I still have the Nikon F-401S with the 35mm-75mm and 75mm-210mm lenses that my father gave me when I was in high school. I never quite understood why he bought such expensive things for me when I've never shown any interest in photography. I can just imagine how many photography enthusiasts would be pissed at the idea that something this expensive is wasted on me. Anyway, I thought that this trip would be the perfect chance to use the camera since we'd be seeing lots of interesting terrains. I don't know if it's the photographer (me, mostly), the cheapass photo studio that developed the films or the Canon N650U scanner I bought just for this occasion, but all the photos came out quite bad. The colors were all wrong and appeared under-exposed. Sadly enough, Russell's 2-year old digital camera produced better pictures than my $2,000+ camera. I've had to modify the photos digitally to give it a more realistic representation of what I saw. So much for the expensive camera and films. You can tell the difference between my photos and Russell's by the pink/red/purple tint in mine.

It took a while to get to the Needles Viewpoint, but it was well worth it! We got a paranomic view of the rocky terrain from a high elevation. It's hard to describe the beauty and magnificence of it with words or even photos. It was very windy which made it a little scary trying to get a good/high spot to take photos. After a while I got all wind-out.

Looks like a shot out of a Star Trek episode

Needles Viewpoint to the right

Needles Viewpoint to the left

This was taken with the 210mm lense, these hills would be hard to see with naked eyes