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I'm Alive!

September 16th, 2009 8:12pm

I dont have working internet in my apartment yet, but I have gotten a few concerned messages on my cellphones email asking if I've made it to California alright... Yesss I am HERE! Mom and I arrived tuesday morning, and Mom flew out on Saturday(im keeping this short because i"m on someone elses computer at my job)I got a PAID position at Pantheon! (just an FYI). I am an assistant to literary agent Susan Sussman-Laaks. I'm terrified. I'm EXCITED. I am soo excited, and feel like I'm one step closer to really making my parents realize what a good idea it was to let me come out here.thats all!GOODBYE (For now)Picutres soon I swear!

Day 4 to California... the Pictures!

September 7th, 2009 11:21pm

**I cant upload all of my mobile pictures today... facebook on myphone isnt happy with me... especially because we're currently "Roamingon the Mojave network"...

For the Record:
Mom (weeks ago, talking about this trip): "We're gonna drive through the Mojave Desert!"
Me: "What? Isnt that in AFRICA?"
Mom: "No. Mojave Desert... Its in--"
Me: "You mean MOJITO desert?"
...Hi,I'm a true New Yorker. I dont care about the rest of US geography. Whata brat. Tomorrow the Mojave and I will get to know each other VERYwell... only 350 miles to go!!!
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How GORGEOUS is New Mexico!? Imagine this completely surrounding you, and just... Oh my Gosh... BREATHTAKING.

Indian City...TACOS!

Our new dog from Indian City (yeessshhh)

SONIC.BURGER.SAVED.MY.HEART.FROM.BREAKING... No, seriously. This place was amazing, and so needed.

Day 4 to California

September 7th, 2009 10:57pm

I woke up to my phones alarm going off at 8:10am... I set it for 8:10 in case the jerks at the hotel didnt give us our wake up call at 8am. JERKS. BIG JERKS! We jumped out of bed, showered and got ready. We realized it was then 9am, and we had missed breakfast. I was secretly bummed, but we agreed (begrudgingly) on McDonalds breakfast. Since we were running late ANYWAYS (jerks), we took a little more time to get things situated in our luggage, and turned on Good Morning America to get the weather report etc. etc.

Thats when we saw the time in the corner "7am"... Oh.. Right... We were in mountain time... and I apparently DIDNT switch my phone to the new time zone. heh. Well... MY mistake. But the good news is we get breakfast!!!! WE CAN MAKE OUR OWN WAFFLES!!!!! And get back from breakfast in time for our wake up call!!!

...We got on the road before 9am Mountain Time.. 11am NY time. We drove through the rest of New Mexico.. which is still UNDOUBTEDLY the prettiest place I've ever traveled through in my life. Driving we ROUGH today, for sure. It might have been Labor Day, but the trucks were out. Tons of trucks. I got really really stressed (huge hills, 80MPH, and surrounded by ginormous trucks) and had to pull over in a McDonalds service area. Oh, remember that time we were on MOUNTAIN TIME? but my body's clock was on EASTERN TIME? ....McBreakfast at "noon" is the best thing thats ever happened to me. I know I said we ate waffles, and I know BEFORE that I said that we werent thrilled about McBreakfast... but the OPTION of an Egg McMuffin, when you normally are only allowed to have a hamburger... it feels powerful.

So we finished driving through New Mexico, and finallly made it into Arizona. I'll give Arizona this much... they offer QUITE the production as you're pulling in. You're surrounded by crazy mountains and rock formations and pretty rock colors and crazy plants. Unfortunately thats where it ends for me. We were about 100 miles away from the Grand Canyon, so we did see the crazy formations in the distance, but no crazy cliffs or anything. We stopped at this place called Indian City to use the bathrooms and switch seats. Mom's better at driving with the scary winds/semis/etc, but she was getting tired of the same stuff over and over and over... it was my turn. Indian City was pretty cool... Its on Navajo land, so its all Navajo owned and run. We got homemade Ortega Tacos there (it was 1pm Eastern time), and looked around the gift shop. Then we got followed around by a grimey doggy, and Mom was OVER Indian City. I managed to take pictures of it as it tried to follow me into the car. He wasnt mean, but he was yucky, and it was hot out so he was all slow moving and just.. weird.

Our next stop was at the WEIRDEST, GROSSEST gas station in the universe. I thought the Hills Have Eyes place was bad? Yikes. First of all. Everything had an "Out of Order" sign. This includes two types of gas, the phone, the bathroom, EVERYTHING. It didnt really bother me, until Mom asked if there was another bathroom and the lady was like "yeah! use the one in the corner!" (the one with the out of order sign)... oh, okay. Then can I get 89 Gas as well? ...Went into the bathroom. YIKES. YIKESYIKESYIKES. The door hit the toilet, the lights didnt work, and there wasnt a working sink... but there was weird... holes in the wall? I dunno. Honestly, I didnt care at that point in time. When nature calls...

"Oh. Oh! I cant go 85 here.... Ooops?"
--Mom is the bravest driver ever. I silently freak out when we go 70 with the CRAZY WINDS and huge hills, but this chick is fearless haha.

Mom and I saw more water spouts today. But. In the MIDDLE of the water spouts, were all these crazy RED streaks... what were they? We couldnt tell till we got closer, and realized they were teeny tiny tazmanian devil type whirlwinds! Allt his crazy dust was kicking up, right in the middle of the rain storms! It was cool... although I was happy not to drive through them...obviously.

The next stop we went to had a Chapel, showers, Jacuzzis, and a movie theater showing Rodney Dangerfield movies in VHS format. After that stop we decided no more fooling around with crazy truck stops, we HAD to get to Flagstaff, AZ.

Flagstaff, AZ is GOREGOUS. It sits in a valley right at the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. SO cute. But as we were pulling in, I saw the I-40 west starting to note that it was headed towards Los Angeles. That, plus The Talking Heads- "This Must Be the Place" kind of solidified it for me, and I got really, really teary. Naturally, I made a B-line for the Sonic Burger I saw in the distance. (Sonic advertises nationally, but we dont have ANY in the North East... too cold!--they serve your food to your car.  No way would that work in Buffalo). Mom and I got Sonic Burgers and Slushies while I calmed myself down. I get sad about leaving home, but everytime Mom asks me if I want to go home with her, or if I'm unsure about this all I can say is "hellll NO I WANT THIS". After Sonic, we drove around on Route 66 for a couple of miles... its cute... but I mean... Its developed over.  And I promised Dad I wouldnt do sight seeing without him! So we got back on the 40 west, and drove through the Kaibab National Forest. We were in Kingsman, AZ by 8pm.

"Mom. can we... can we NOT bring all of our bags into the hotel this time?" ...is a reoccuring question I ask when we pull in. I always try to remember what is so funny when we pull in... probably nothing. All I know is mom and I had a laughing fit when we go to "THE FIRST VALUE MOTEL", while I tried, through laughing-tears, to demand that we request a room by the motel office, so they can hear us when we get hacked into little pieces. Cause, oh yeah, we're in a town where I thoughttt the big billboard with the scary, rotting man on it was an advertisement for a new Zombie movie.... NOPE! ANOTHER METH AD. Cool. Mom and I got diner at the local super market. Mom thought it was called Dash's... we were excited to have a taste of home! (Local Dash's super market..mmm)... Oh wait. Its Bashas. Mom cant understand the accents here. Its fine, I forgot to mention the incident in Oklahoma where mom asked the blatantly non-English speaking maid if she "may have some extra Lotion for the room?" *blank stare* "Lotion? Looootiiiooonnn"... she said this as she rubbed her leg. Aye yi, Mom hahahaha.

FYI: Today was more brutal that yesterday. Yesterday was 12 hours and about 300 miles. Today we did 150 and I feel like I got turned inside out. Pictures are next. So Watch!

Pics of my Great American Adventure... from my phone.

September 6th, 2009 11:47pm

Our Progress Day 1... Buffalo, NY to Terra Haute, IN


Our Progress Day 2... Terra Haute, IN to Tulsa, OK


Our Progress Day 3... Tulsa, OK to "ALB-A-QUAY-QUAY" (i will NOT spell it right), NM


Water Spout in New Mexico


THE HILLS HAVE EYES.


Totally legit Mexican food I loved


Other Days...On my Phone..

CASA BONITAAAAAA!!!!!


Oh. Hey. I hate you, Missouri. "Missouri Loves Company!"

Californiaaaaaaaaaaa... here we COOOOMMMEEE!!!

September 6th, 2009 11:24pm

"Rachel where ARE YOU!? Africa?! What time is it?" -Lauren Siegel... and sadly, thats a totally legit question.

We crossed through three more states today: The rest of Oklahoma, Texas, and now New Mexico. I have to go through my twitter to see what the heck went on today...

Oklahoma... I woke up dehydrated and secretly miserable, but didnt want to admit it. So I chugged a bunch of water at breakfast and found myself speeding off the road towards a "Free Bathrooms" sign about a half hour into driving... and again another half hour later. But I know why they say "FREE" Restrooms.. because the second time I had to pay a $4 toll to get off the exit... and then I was reimbursed $2... and then I had to pay $1.75 to get back on the express way... Oklahoma is weird, man. Pretty, but weird. I knew we were getting close to Texas when I saw my first dead armadillo. All that armor and NO protection (squish). Mom let me take a nap for a little bit, but woke me up yelling about windmills, and how close we were to Texas... we were an hour away, but I needed to wake up anyways. i was the one that said nobody should sleep because the driver needs a companion. We crossed into Texas around noonish? Sure.. why not.

Texas... you know that top flat rectangle on top of the squiggly part of Texas? Thats what we drove through. A decent three hours. THATS when I busted out the Girl Talk. For those of you unaware, Girl Talk is a Mash Up artist (not a DJ) named Gregg Gillis from Pittsburgh, PA. He takes samples of all types of songs (ranging from The Beatles, Lil Wayne, Elton John, Biggie Smalls, etc etc) and layers them on top of each other. So, for example, he might use the guitar riff from Tom Petty's "American Girl" and let it play under a popular rap song... which.. in text sounds terrible, but when you listen to it.. well, I'll just say Texas went by very quickly, and mom and I had a great time dancing around in the car.

New Mexico... If theres one state that makes me want to yell "OHHH BEAUTTTIFULLL FOR SPACIOUSSS SKIESSS" its New Mexico. What a BEAUTIFUL state. Seriously, I cant even explain how goregous this place is, you dont even need to get out and look around, its all THERE in front of you! Big red clay plateus and sage green grass with crazy rock formations. I looks like MARS. No lie. New Mexico was looking pretty nice until I got the brilliant idea to stop and fill the tank up (we were only down a quarter tank) in case the exits were really spread apart--they were, but still..-- So. We stopped at Cuervo. Cuervo was listed on the map. Cuervo was listed on the big green sign (ie: Cuervo: 4, Saint Rose: 25, Albequeque--no, I still wont spell it right--: Billion miles away) Cuervo was clearly a town with enough people in it to be listed/known/etc right? WRONG. Apparently four service street lined cars and a gas station from 1945 constitutes map-status in New Mexico. All those jokes about the hills have eyes and whatever? Not funny in this situation. Once again, mom tried to be friendly... "Nice day we're having today"... Ma, its New Mexico, dont talk to anybody. The gas station was litered with abandoned cars of people they already ate, and the lady in the gas station was notifying the sherrif to pull us over and take us to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house as we were pulling in. I am NOT being dramatic. It was hot. It was hilly. And those people had eyes. We peaced.

So. Did you know.. New Mexico gets RAIN? like. Really violent water spout RAIN? Me neither. Fun fact to learn, especially when you're driving through it. Silly me. The thing is, water spouts look SO COOL from far away. Like rays of thick light coming from the clouds.. till you get close and see they are LITERALLY like floating water falls! Cool, but scary when randomly you're all "Oh, hey golfball sized raindrops, no I dont mind you blinding me while I go 80MPH near all these semi trucks. No big. Really."

Beyond that, New Mexico is GORGEOUS. And Mom and I got some AMAZING mexican food at a place called Mariscos Altamar, and I'm ready to pass out. So thats all.

Oh. I'm putting my mobil uploads up on this post so you can see what I'm talking about. Yup!

MCDONALDS: same
ARBYS: same
RELIGIOUS PROPAGHANDA: Texas boasted the biggest cross in the western hemisphere, but I saw a bigger one in Missouri. Take THAT, Texas!
NEW YORK DRIVERS: 4 plus 1 truck