About a month ago, my best friend and I drove across America. We started in Los Angeles, CA -> Grand Canyon Village, AZ -> Albuquerque, NM -> pit stop in Amarillo, TX -> Eureka Springs, AK -> Memphis, TN -> pit stop in Nashville, TN -> Roanoke, VA -> NYC!!!!
Basically we took route 15 East, to route 40 East to 78 East. It took us 6 days. Leaving LA was difficult, it was pouring rain so we had a bit of a late start. Packing a car in cold torrential downpours sucks, especially when it is very important to make sure you have everything you need. We stopped at Ralphs after we left and filled the car with too many snacks, most of which ended up in the garbage. Then my battery died (in my brand new car) on the 10e in traffic. I managed to get my car over to the side of the road before it shut off, cried a bit, prayed and turned on the engine again, and vola- it worked. I couldn't help but wonder if a rocky start may be a sign to just stay, but I said forget it the time is now (even if everything is off). After about 8 hours of driving, we made it to Arizona. And we get pulled over for going over the speed limit on 64north, a desolate dark highway. The officer pulled us over to let us know that we could potentially hit an elk in my car and get killed.
I video-logged the entire trip, but I am not going to lie, most of them are for our eyes only! So we ended up getting a ticket for wasting towns resources (random), and he tried to hook us up with his two sons, showed us pictures and everything. They actually were pretty cute. Small town boys fighting for our country.
Then we were on our way. During that 20 minute mishap, we learned that it was 30 degrees in Arizona and we were wearing shorts and flipflops. The cop ended up following us, and when we drove past the hotel (to look for food- maybe a McDonalds - anything) he pulled us over again. "Now, its time you follow the nice helpful officer to get you where you need to go". I told him I knew where I was going, we were just hungry. Once again, we got the "Girls you do realize that you are not in Los Angeles, nothing is open this late- I have a piece of KFC back here you are more than welcome to it"
Ahhh yes, he offered us his KFC chicken, what a nice guy- but no thanks. He dropped off a bunch of granola bars for us at our hotel. We ended up checking in at 3am, the hotel was bumping- their were kids everywhere drinking and being merry. We were miserable, cold, and hungry. Not only that, we were lost again. The hotel was huge and you had to park in your wing. We couldn't find our wing and we were walking around grumpy with so much luggage (yes luggage to sleep for 6 hours). We begged the crabby native american to change our room to the wing that our stuff was in because we were tired, it was like pulling teeth but eventually she did it. I was certain she hated us. Oh well, we slept well. I woke up at 9 and went down and had breakfast with all random people. I met a couple from Boston, and a couple from Italy. They were visiting the grand canyon and touring America, and loved the fact that my best friend and I were driving cross country! I think I realized then that it really is exciting! So I was off to wake up Monique and head to the Grand Canyon. We packed up and were on our way, when I realized I had no idea where we were going. I had bought a navigation, we just weren't really using it, so I put in Grand Canyon and we were off. We ended up in a trailer park in Flagstaff, AZ. 2 hours out of our way, and I was angry. So I drove back to our hotel, 2 hours, and kept driving, and low and behold a little past it, there was the entrance to the park. I wanted to throw the navigation off the Grand Canyon, but I didn't. It was put away in my trunk to be returned for the 300$ I spent on it, and we never used that stupid thing again.
The Grand Canyon was amazing. The park was full of people from all over the world. It was 40 degrees out but it was perfectly crisp. Definitely worth the extra 4 lost hours, plus 6 hours out of the way we went.
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