Road trip pics back to LA

I said goodbye to my parents and we hit the road.


We couldn't get very far without some food, so we decided to stop at Sonic.


I started off driving and got us from my parents house in Dallas to Amarillo before stopping to fill up the gas tank and switch drivers.


Andrew took the wheel.


I took a nap.


Once we got to Amarillo, we started to see some weird things, such as nine pink Cadillacs that seemingly fell from the sky...


...a flaming truck...


...a truck driver who respects his roots...


...a big ball...


...tee pees...


...and flashing lights along the highway for decoration.


After driving in and out of rainstorms all day - including a torential downpour just outside Albuquerque that left us nearly stranded at a gas station that was out of gas during the storm - Andrew and I made it to the Continental Divide, which was kinda cool.


Here's Andrew's continental divide.


So I resumed driving responsibilities as we drove on. Andrew thought I was some sort of king and decided to make me a crown....and coke. Just kidding. But it did make a cool hat.


As we drove into the night, Andrew did what he had done so very well the entire trip...sleep. zzzzzzzz


We made it to Holbrook, Ariz. for dinner at Denny's. At that point, we had driven 875 miles from my parent's house in Dallas. I woke up Andrew and we went inside to eat. The less-than-gracious hostess seated us and we ordered our food. I was really excited about the nachos because of the picture. I shoulda known better. It was not what I'd call good eatin'.


As I slept, Andrew drove us 90 miles into Flagstaff, but really all I wanted was for him to get me "as far away from that Denny's as possible!" Thanks, Andrew. Once we got to Flagstaff, I went from inn to inn looking for a room, but for some reason they were all full. We eventually found a Howard Johnson Inn to crash at. It was a pretty sketchy place, but then again, our goal was to end up at the USC campus, so being in a sketchy place was just something we would have to get used to. After seven hours of sleep, we hit the road. It was 7am, and we were LA bound!


We did think about stealing a bike before heading out, but common sense - and the unwillingness to become buddies with a large man with a monosyllabic name who wouldn't care to learn ours as he destroyed us - told us to just get in the car and get back on the road.


Before leaving Flagstaff, we put some gas in the Prius (yeah, you actually have to do that once in a while).


We also put some food in our stomachs at Burger King. Hooray for french toast sticks!


In the Burger King parking lot, Andrew and I got to wondering where the front of this car went. Maybe we would find in on the way to Los Angeles.


As we left Flagstaff, we realized we had a long way to go.


I drove 147 miles from Flagstaff to Kingman, Ariz. before deciding to stop and switch. Andrew wanted to stop 15 miles earlier at a rest stop to go to the bathroom, but when we saw a billboard for a Cracker Barrel in Kingman just 15 miles away, he decided to hold it.


In Kingman, Andrew spotted a rehab center and decided to check in for obvious reasons.


But who was I to judge him.


When we got out of rehab, Andrew took the wheel and drove the 206 miles from Kingman to Barstow, Calif. where I had been planning on stopping since I left California in May. There, we would hit the first In-n-Out Burger on our route.


In California, we saw a weird golf cart with green flames painted on it.


The view was pretty good too.


Oh deer!


We found my street in California, but unfortunately we were still not in LA, so we continued west.


We rolled into LA 1433.6 miles and 31 hours later. It's good to be back.