Showing posts with label great american road trip. Show all posts
Showing posts with label great american road trip. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

You shouldn't be able to drive for 9 hours and be in the same state the whole time.

After spending 9 hours in a car on Thursday (plus some time standing on I-5 due to a tire blow out) and 8 hours in a car on Sunday, I was ready for a good workout yesterday.

I did arm weights and went to spin class. Spin felt less like torture that it had been lately; I think because I actually got outdoors on my bike this weekend. I think I can only handle just spinning for so long before I snap and it seems like the worst thing ever. Even though I love my spin instructor.

For weightlifting lately, I've been trying to do mainly free weights instead of weight machines. I think that I'm getting stronger faster, but maybe that's all in my imagination. I've kind of slacked on keeping track of how much I've been lifting, so I need to start that again.

On a different subject:

When you picture California, do you immediately think of this?

Or this?

The fact that I live in Lake Taco and my boyfriend lives in Santa Barbara means that I spend a lot of time driving through the state. While it's perfectly true that California has palm trees, sandy beaches and plenty of "celebrities", California offers so much more.

One of the (many) nice things about spring is the fact that I could do the whole drive in the daylight hours. So here it is, a picture tour of the (non-beachy) parts of California:

Heading out of the Lake Tahoe Basin.

Highway 50 is windy, narrow and gorgeous

The American River running along

Now we're into the really gorgeous part of California. The Central Valley.

Psych! The Central Valley is long and pretty boring. I also got to drive through a windstorm next to a CAFO. That was a lovely 15 minutes of driving through wind-blown cow shit.

This is about an hour before I had a blow out doing 75 mph. Scary! Luckily, a nice man named Pedro who barely spoke English stopped an helped me. He pointed to my tire and said, "No es bueno." Even with my limited Spanish skills, I knew what that meant. But he quickly changed my tire and I was on my way again. Yay for Strawberry's full-size spare!

Now that's something that's recognizably Californian - In-n-Out. Sorry about the blurry picture. I was trying to be a little bit safe with my picture taking/driving and didn't really worry about focusing too much.

I'm getting so close! Only two more hours. This is just outside of San Luis Obispo. Some people might think I'm crazy, but I think that SLO is one of the prettiest parts of Cali. My PNW soul just loves the green.


First glimpse of the ocean & palm trees at Pismo Beach.

I'm rocketing down the final stretch of 101. I'm almost there!

What? Back into the hills again. I wanted to drive along the ocean with my windows down, blasting Beach Boys.

Oh well, pretty soon I will be in Santa Barbara sitting on the beach, enjoying the warm sunshine...Oh wait...it's foggy and gross.

I guess June Gloom is here early.

Friday, April 16, 2010

What's happening in my life right now

1. I went on a moving-back road trip with DJ Kelly-Kel. Highlight: baby elephant seals. 2nd place highlight: beer.
2. Right this second I am sitting in a coffee shop, and they are playing Taylor Swift. Blergh.
3. I am back in Santa Barbara right now, finishing up with school, hanging out with Dan and his ridiculous mustache, and starting my (temporary) job. Note: Dan is not this adorable in real life, because of aforementioned ridiculous mustache.
4. Soon I will be heading to Bothell to housesit for my aunt and her dog and cat.
5. After that (if all goes according to plan) I will move into West Seattle and find a permanent job that pays enough to keep me in beer, bikes and fancy shoes, as well as pay off my staggeringly high student loan debt, but leaves me enough time to ride aforementioned bikes.
6. I also want a worm bin, and I've developed an expensive kombucha habit, so I'm going to learn how to make it.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Spring Break! Woo!

Kelly and I are going on a Great American Road Trip. Expect a Great American Novel.
Here is the packing list so far:
- 5 paris of socks
- 1 softball mitt
- 3 beer kooozies
- tent
- sleeping bag
- many, many Tofurkey Beer Brats
- my camera
- sharpies (for graffiti)
- matches

What else do I need?