Road Trip 2005
New Orleans, LA to Seattle, WA

Day 1 - Saturday, August 27th
Start Location: New Orleans, LA
End Location: Baton Rouge, LA
Cast: Me, Chrystelle, Brittany Copp, Evan Sparks, Rocky Thompson, Ella Fitzhedgehog (Hedgehog)

Woke up at 6 to be an Orientation Coordinator for Tulane Orientation.  Was up earlier than most with Ryan Griffin and Jace Myers (both TUCP) to set-up our TUCP tent in front of McAlister Auditorium.  At 11am, got the call that Tulane was canceling school for four days due to Katrina.  Left at 6pm with Chrystelle, Brittany Copp, Evan Sparks and Miss Ella Fitzhedgehog, Brittany's hedgehog.  Drove to Baton Rouge and spent the night at Rocky's apartment in Baton Rouge.


Days 2 through 9: Sunday, August 28th - Sunday, August 4th
Location: Jason's House, Houston, TX
Cast: Me, Chrystelle, Brittany Copp, Evan Sparks, Rocky Thompson, Ella Fitzhedgehog (hedgehog), Daniel Howell, Jacquie Nelson, Brandon Carrey, Fish #1 (fish)

Woke up at 4am in Baton Rouge and drove to Houston Texas, where we stayed at The Goldberg's house (Jason is my roommate when school is in session.)  At the house were 7 refugees: Chrystelle, Myself, Brittany Copp, Daniel Howell, Jacquie Nelson, Brandon Carrey and Jason Goldberg.  Daniel flew into Houston the first afternoon we were there, his flight having been changed from New Orleans.  Brandon and Jack were driving o NOLA from California, and stopped in Houston with Jason to wait out the storm.  In addition, we had Jason's little sister Alexa and both his parents.  Chrystelle's mom was also in Houston, staying at the Omni hotel.  We stayed at Jason's house for one week, and then Chrystelle and I moved to the Omni with her parents.  At by the end of the first week, everyone had gone their separate ways from Jason's house. 


Days 9 through 16: Sunday, September 4th - Sunday, September 11th
Location: Omni Hotel, Houston, TX
Cast: Me, Chrystelle, Anne-Marie, Daniel, Malika (dog)

For the second week in Houston, Chrystelle and I were at the Omni Hotel, with her mom Anne Marie and dad Daniel.  Daniel had flown in from Holland the first day we were there.  Toured the city (mostly malls, shopping for clothes.)


Day 17: Monday, September 12th
Start Location: Houston, TX
Start Time: 11am
End Location: Ft. Stockton, TX
End Time: 8:30pm
Daily Mileage: 525
Total Mileage: 525

So much for an early start.  This morning was punctuated (literally) by the thudding of hammers on the floor above us (the hotel is renovating all its rooms) at 8am.  We had planned to wake up around that time anyways, but we didn't get on the road until 11am.  We made it to San Antonio and arrived at Trinity University just past 1:30, perfectly timed for Megan (Jason's gf) to get out of class and take her 1 hour break with us before she had to go to work in the Theatre department.  She took us to lunch in the student union, where we both had a delicious freshly made sandwich.  At 2:30 we left Trinity and drove by the Alamo (Chrystelle had already seen it, and I had little desire to stop and go tour it, especially with so few miles under our belt and a long way to go before we sleep.)  So we hurried back onto I-10 and called Robert Barrett who lives on the west side of San Antonio.  He is the brother of my grandma, Margaret Yates.  He was thrilled that we were in San Antonio and so we met him at a Denny's where we had a soda and a piece of pie.  We didn't leave until 4:30.  Slightly behind the imaginary schedule I had concocted in my head, we raced on towards Ft. Stockton, our preliminary destination.

Houston was very city-like, a wetter climate with trees, evergreens, the like.  As we moved to San Antonio, it became more desert scenery: shorter, shrubby trees, and out past san Antonio, there was no doubt that we were in the desert - flat land all around, short bushes and desert plants.  Green colors still prevailed over browns though, and the ground is heavily covered in underbrush.  As we move West, we also encounter more hills and rises in the area.

The day before we had supplied ourselves with rations: a 12 pack of coke, diet coke, 24 pack of water, and a 24 pack of granola bars.  Chrystelle's mom supplied us with a small cooler which we filled with ice in the morning and kept in easy reach.  Top purchase: A DC to AC Inverter for $30.00 at Target.  One end plugs into the cigarette lighter, the other has a 3-prong 115VAC outlet.  This is powering my laptop computer right now as we race down the highway, Chrystelle driving.

We got into Fort Stockton at 8:30, about half an hour after the sun set, and everything was already pitch black.  We stayed at a Comfort Inn, which was free because we're from Louisiana.  Ate dinner at a Pizza Hut, having a stuffed crust, pepperoni and mushroom pizza which wasn't so great.  Then we went to bed.

Top Sights:
The Alamo
A truck carrying tires that were easily 10 feet in diameter and 4 feet wide.
An accident on the road, a rolled, burnt semi and a totaled pick-up truck.

Weather:
Scattered rain between Houston until 30 miles outside of San Antonio, sunny skies with fluffy clouds from San Antonio on.



Day 18: Tuesday, September 13th
Start Location: Fort Stockton, Texas
Start Time: 11:30am Eastern
End Location: Alpine, AZ
End Time: 8pm Pacific
Starting Mileage: 525
Daily Mileage; 528
Total Mileage: 1053


Woke up at around 10, and took our time getting out of the hotel.  We re-packed our bags to have the clothes we would need for the next few days in one smaller bag, which meant we will not have to lug everything up to our hotel room at night.  We gassed up and were on the road by 11:30.

The humidity had died down to be replaced by the dry desert heat.  The scenery also changed, slowly turning more brown as the larger brush disappeared and was replaced by more sage-brush, cactus and dirt. We stopped at a scenic view about half way to El Paso and took a short hike up this hill to the overlook.  All morning we had been driving up and down mesas in a rather hilly section, and at the overlook all the hills were off to our north, and the freeway continued in a valley.  Just a half mile after the overlook, we entered Moutain Time, a pleasant surprise as I hadn't thought about crossing time-zones when I did the itinerary.

Although New Mexico is very scenic, our entrance literally stank. There were lots of ranches with multitudes of cows. We saw more cows in New Mexico than in our voyage through Texas.

We crossed the continental divide. Immediately the vegetation turned more lush, the desert rock and dirt turned to grass and larger vegetation and cacti reappeared.

Instead of staying at Silver City, we decided to move on towards Alpine, AZ. It seems New Mexican miles are longer. A 44 mile distance takes 2 hours supposedly!!! Oh well, we'll see the Native American dwellings on the way down. We (when she says "we", she means Scott) found this nice little hike out on catwalks. I (Chrystelle) of course don't like heights I can't control (like planes, bridges). It was a pleasure to see that the end was a swinging bridge. Woohoo!!! It was gorgeous though. All the rock formations and the colors (I am foremost a geologist's daughter), what a beauty.

We got out of the Catwalks just past dusk, and drove 50 miles across the NM/AZ border and over a few passes to Alpine, AZ (~6,000 ft high) where we found a diner still open (filled with hunters and pictures of their prey).  When we jumped out of the car (starving), the high mountain cold hit us hard.  We had been used to burning in the desert texas sun, now the mountain night bit us.  Dead tired, we asked where we could find a hotel, and was directed to the "Sportsmans Lodge".  The room was nice, but bleak, but it did have a heater which we used in the night.  A large change from the previous night where we were using an air conditioner.

We laid down in the room, turned on the TV, and realized that in the local time zone (Arizona), it was 9.  Another big change from the 11 our bodies were used to.  So in one day we crossed over to Pacific time.

Top Sites:
Church sign reading "Where will you spend eternity?  Smoking or Non-Smoking?"
Leopold Vista lookout (a view of Gila National forest mountain ranges)
The catwalk (canyon by Glenwood)


Day 19, 20: Wednesday & Thursday, September 14th & 15th
Start Location: Alpine, AZ
End Location: Flagstaff, AZ
Starting Mileage: 1053
Ending Mileage:  1695

Wednesday --
Woke up at 7am, and went back to sleep for another hour.  Checked out of the sportsman lodge, and started driving at 9:30 through rural Arizona.  We drove down out of the mountains (filled with elk) and out of the dense pine forests back into the desert below.  The scenery looked similar to west texas, before we drove even further west and hit the famous red desert scenery.

Drove through the Petrified Forest National Park, which was intensely beautiful, and continued on to Flagstaff.  We were unable to get a hotel on the grand canyon for the night, so we opted for FlagStaff.  At 5pm, we started driving to the Grand Canyon to try and make sunset (6:30).  We missed it by about 2 minutes.  Got back to Flagstaff around 8, and Chrystelle went to sleep.  I walked down the block to Dennys, and didn't get back to the room until 10, due to the extremely busy Dennys.

Thursday --
Woke up at 8, and had breakfast for the first time at our hotel (before we'd either slept through breakfast, or the hotel didn't have it.  We opted to spend an extra night in Flagstaff so we would have time to explore the Grand Canyon today.  At 10 we started driving towards the Grand Canyon, and at 11:30 started hiking towards Plateau Point.  A grueling 6 hours and 4,000 vertical feet each way, and 12.5 miles (20 kilometers) later, we returned to the south rim, 30 minutes before sunset and severely beaten by the canyon.  We limped back to the truck, grabbed a quick dinner at McDonalds and slept.  (The story of our hike wouldn't be done justice by words on the page, you'll have to ask us in person.)

Top Sites:
Grand Canyon
Seeing a mama deer and her baby walk across the trail in front of us in Indian Gardens
Painted Desert / Petrified Forest National Park


Day 21: Friday, September 16th
Start Location: Flagstaff, AZ
Start Time: 10:15 PST
End Location:  Richfield, UT
End Time: 10:00 MST
Starting Mileage: 1695
Daily Mileage: 527
Ending Mileage: 2222

Woke up at 8 again, a little sore from yesterday's exhausting hike.  Had a quick breakfast and packed up our luggage, loaded the truck, and were on the road around 10, heading North for a change.  Wove our way NW through the scenic painted desert and mesas in the Navajo Indian Reservation towards the Four Corners, but turned further North at Kayenta, to head through Monument Valley.  We ate lunch at a Taco Bell in Kayenta, and went inside, to find ourselves surrounded by Navajo Indians.  Crossed into Utah, and the first thing we did was head back to Arizona, for the entrance to Monument Valley is in Utah, but the actual park is in Arizona.  Spent over an hour driving through the valley, looking at the sites, and laughing at all the little sedans which couldn't make it over the bumps in the road, and then quickly covering them in our dust.

Continuing on the road through Utah, we hit Interstate, and stayed on it for the first time in many days.  As we hit the interstate, it was dark, but the hotel we were aiming for was full up inexplicably, so not being tired, we opted to keep driving for another hour and a half to Richfield.  The night was beautiful, a full moon to light the way, and the road followed a canyon which was illuminated by the moon, a nice change compared to the bland tans, reds and greens we've been used it.  I'm sure we wouldn't have appreciated it as much had we driven in the day, as we would have thought: 'oh hum, its not the grand canyon.'


Top Sites:
Monument Valley
A church sign reading "You're in God's Country Now."
Swerving to avoid a spotted owl flying low on the freeway at night.

Day 22: Saturday, September 17th
Start Location: Richfield, UT
Start Time: MST
End Location:  Nampa, ID
End Time: 6:00 MST
Starting Mileage: 2222
Daily Mileage: 525
Ending Mileage: 2784

Woke up.

Day 23: Sunday, September 18th
Start Location: Nampa, ID
Start Time: ? MST
End Location:  Portland, OR
End Time: 7:00 PST
Starting Mileage: 2784
Daily Mileage: 416
Ending Mileage: 3220

Woke up.

Day 24: Monday, September 19th
Start Location: Portland, OR
Start Time: 11AM PST
End Location:  Seattle, WA
End Time: 11:00 PST
Starting Mileage: 3220
Daily Mileage: 189
Ending Mileage: 3409

Woke up, with the knowledge that today would be the last day on the road. And we hit the road running. Saddend by the fact that freeways in OR and WA are 10 MPH slower than the rest of the country, we moved slower than we wanted, but still made great time. Stopping and having lunch at some small dot on the map town in southern washington, we ate at a place called Burger Palace. Not so yummy, but that's OK. We made it to Olympia by 2, and spent the day hanging out The Carpenters Farm. A couple horses, a few wild kids, and some beheaded salmon (very yummy) later, we found ourselves on the road from Olympia to Seattle. Finally pulling up to our destination at 11pm was surreal. For the past month, we had been all over the western half of the US. I had spent only five days in New Orleans before my life became an unpredictable swirl, never knowing where we'd spend the next night. And driving into Seattle without having taken a 9 hour flight was shocking.


Created: 12.23.03
Last Updated: 3.10.08 		8517 A 2003 Creation