THURSDAY:

Well I have now arrived to California and never had a chance to write about yesterdays adventures so I will combine today s and yesterday. So yesterday (Thursday) we set out towards Vegas at 5:52 a.m. .. Along the way to Vegas there were a ton of trains. I have never seen more trains in my life then I did along the way to Vegas. I must say that I wasn’t too fond of New Mexico and that Arizona is far better…I also spotted a town called Meteor Crater which I thought was just goofy and Indian Reservations in Arizona are a huuuge thing. And as I stated in my last blog how my papa wanted to take a detour—well we did just that. I thought as we started out toward Vegas he was forgetting this detour idea but I was WRONG! Soo we are driving along in Arizona, fill up for some more gas and I start driving. I’m driving along and my papa says we are going to take “Old Route 66”. Well old route 66 is the way people would get from Chicago to California back in the day. So I start out on Route 66 kind of annoyed because I’m just trying to get to Vegas and now I have to go 50 mph rather than the 85 I was able to on the high way. I continue to drive around this curves up the mountain (to this small town called “Oatman”) with no guard rails for a good 25 miles my grandma calls and I hear my papa tell her “Well after I show Ashley this town we have to go back to where we started and get back on 40”. I about drove us off of the mountain right then and there. I am now going 15 mph up a mountain with no guard rails, trying to compose my anxiety attack, going somewhere I don’t even care to go and find out we have to turn around right after we get there. I wanted to flip out right then and there. As you should know I normally would, but couldn’t do that to my poor papa. So we finally arrive to this town a good hour one old route 66. And to my surprise I loved it! Donkeys were literally roaming the streets and Native Americans ran this small town. There were little shops, a small restaurant and an itty bitty post office. (pics are posted). So I loved this little place and could hardly believe that people actually lived there. I couldn’t grasp it, I just kept saying “people really live here?” It was nothing like I have ever seen before.. Maybe something you would see in a movie. Well anyway we had lunch there I took mass pictures with donkeys and ended up having a great time.. Then we head back out of the town on old route 66 papa is driving now flying around the curves in the mountain I shut my eyes the entire time because I could have sworn we were going to fall off the side of the mountain. So we are driving for another hour and get to cross over the Hoover Dam. As we approach the Dam there is a security check point where they check cars that are going to cross the dam luckily, we weren’t one of those cars. If so I might have just died right then and there. We then get to Vegas a little after 4. Shower and get ready to hit the town. Well I try to tell papa we can’t drive to the strip he doesn’t listen and insists on driving well to prove me right there was no where to park, traffic was awful AND MY AIR CONDITIONING STOPPED WORKING. My day is wonderful at this point. Also, I’m bitch hungry at this point as well.. So we park the car and start walking we had a lovely buffet dinner at the Flamingo play some slots in the Flamingo explore at Caesars Palace walk around. At this point it’s like 10 and I’m so ready for bed. We ended up going to downtown Vegas “Old Vegas” which I loved because it reminded me of what Vegas would actually be. We played some more slots I came out even here at $20 and lost $20 at Flamingo and was so ready for bed at this point and its only like 11:15 so we head back just to have to get up and drive all over again.

FRIDAY: Not nearly as eventful as Thursday but I'M HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Friday we slept in a little later (6:45) and were on the road by 8:20. I really learned to love the west as I traveled the west all week. I like the desert west rather than Colorado west where it’s all green I loved the sandy mountains. But that’s besides that point. Well not really we traveled the desert for hours today. The ride was so lame. I was trying to figure out a gym to join so didn’t really enjoy it as much as the last couple days. I think I was just sick of traveling. Some funny things did happen though. Im busy on my phone and papa says “look at that beautiful sight ahead of us” I look and what do I see HOME DEPOT. For those of you who don’t know papa, he loves home depot. It’s by far his favorite store of all time. . As we crossed over from Nevada to California we had to go through a agriculture check point where they ask if you have any fruits or vegetables. The only vegetables we had were potatoes.. well potato chips that is.. and the fruit we had was nectarines the man told us we had to “eat it or leave it”. so of course we each had a nectarine as we crossed into California. We drove through San Bernardino which is the largest county in the US and was settled by Mormons in the 1850s also there were snow covered mountains throughout California and the temp was so much cooler then the hot weather in the desert. We of course got stuck in the LA traffic and didn’t arrive to my aunts until about 2:45. I got my life together and all unpacked then we went to the beach for about an hour but it is so chilly in Malibu today only like 65. Kind of a bummer..

I also talked to Nancy (lady in charge of my internship)today and I don’t have to be in to start my internship on Wednesday until 10 wooo. (she’s on vacay until Tuesday if you were wondering why I’m starting on a Wednesday).. I also joined 24 hour fitness.. maybe I can meet some friends there..

Welp that’s all for now. I will update you more when the internship starts :)

Day 2: 850 Miles completed

Second day has been completed it was 850 miles and took us about 13 hours. I would say it was far more exciting then yesterdays journey.. we got up at 5:45 got ready, ate breakfast, fixed that “vuvuzela” horn noise and left by 6:42. (im all about precise times). So if you can remember I complained about the obnoxious noise the bike was making. Well apparently I wasn’t the only one annoyed but so was papa. He decided to go to wal-mart last night ( one of his favorite stores) to buy some rags and duct tape. He is always thinking he can or trying to fix things. So this morning before we got on the road so lets say about 6:30 am. We were on the roof of my car taping these rags around the straps that held my bike down to reduce the sound of the “vuvuzela” imitator. And well I hate to say it but it fully fixed the noise—he’s brilliant…. But okay so we got on the road at 6:42 and our adventure started…I’m pretty sure in yesterdays blog I said we were traveling through Arizona today, I was wrong, it was New Mexico and tomorrows adventure is Arizona.. So today’s top cities were: Tulsa, Oklahoma City, Yukon Oklahoma, Amarillo Texas and ending in Albuquerque New Mexico. .. I learned some interesting things along the way. First thing I noticed and saw was that Tulsa looooves fireworks! Every few miles there was a new stand that was selling fireworks. Really it isn’t just Tulsa but the entire state of Oklahoma… And I have never heard of Yukon Oklahoma and I’m sure most of you haven’t either… well as we were driving through and passed the water tower it stated that it was the “birthplace of Garth Brooks” I just thought that was kind of cool because of my slight obsession with country music. Also, there are a ton of windmills throughout Oklahoma to generate electricity.. So we get through all of Oklahoma and enter Texas, drive a few miles in Texas, stop to get gas and finally it is my turn to drive! I have been waiting ever so patiently to drive.. It’s kind of hard to have a chance to drive when papa thinks he is the king/boss of driving.. well I got my chance.. I drove all of Texas and into New Mexico (so a little over 200 some miles) and papa had enough. As I drove he would say I’m driving too fast well when the speed limit is 75 it’s hard to not go 85 and plus you’re in the middle of nowhere so why not drive fast… and something I learned about Texas as I drove is that every single exit has a Dairy Queen. I’m not so sure as to why other then Texans must love them some DQ but I’m really regretting not counting how many DQs there were… but okay I finished my 200 miles of driving and decided to pass out until 30 miles outside of Albuquerque. And apparently as I slept we went through a huge rain storm and I did not budge. So once we get off the exit to find our hotel it is looking quite sketchy. I become very skeptical to where we will be staying. I’m clearly judging everything I see. We pass the University of New Mexico.. So I’m just thinking oh this is a college town okay, Clifton is quite a beauty so its fine.. well as we continue to drive not only do businesses have rod iron bars on the doors and windows BUT HOUSES DO TOO. So I’m like where has papa booked our hotel. Well we pull into the hotel and all my judgments flew out the window because our hotel is awesome. We are staying at a courtyard Marriott and its wonderful and the beds so are quite comfy I must add. Well now it’s only 7 here (we gained another hour) so I must shower and go to dinner. Another early morning tomorrow and we are off to Vegas. And apparently it’s my papa’s 20th anniversary since he rode his bike across America so we are taking a slight detour to get to Vegas on his bike route. He said I have to see this one town because donkeys roam the streets and why do I want to see that?? But yes a detour tomorrow and Vegas tomorrow afternoon! Hopefully I can report back after my night out in Vegas with papa who isn’t much of a boozer… who am I kidding me either :)

The First 800

SO my journey has started across the country and I will be in the real world sooner then I really want to. I haven’t been all that excited about my California trip because, as we all know, I have been struggling with anatomy and had my bad grade lingering over my head. Well I received and email from my professor after doing a retake exam that yes, indeed, I have passed the class and graduation will be happening in September! Now this has had me so excited for California!! But I few things made me not so excited.. leaving Cincinnati.. I never thought I would be so attached to cincinnati but I guess I was. Saturday was a sad night because I had to say bye to some of my loves and best friends.. but I know we will all be reunited soon J

The First 800 miles have been completed!!

Well 800 miles doesn’t seem as long as it sounds. That could be due to the fact I slept the majority of the way, to our first stop in this journey: Springfield Missouri. This isn’t the first trip I have gone alone on with my grandpa so I know all of the querky things he does such as (talk to himself a lot ).. we went on a trip back in 5^th grade just my papa and I and he did a lot of this—I’m afraid that hasn’t changed… but my papa and I pulled out of his driveway at 6:23 am and arrived in Springfield around 6:30 pm… along the way we gained an hour in Illinois so we didn’t exactly make it in 12 but technically in 13. We drove through some not so interesting parts of the Midwest… Columbus, Indianapolis, St. Louis and now Springfield… tomorrow will definitely be more exciting because we are stopping in Arizona. About two hours away from springfield we decided to take a break and found a national park in Sullivan, Missouri and we took a hike. The hike was a love 1 1/3 mile loop through the woods of Meramac State Park. I guess it was nice.. there were caves along the trail that were blowing out cool air about 60 degrees, which was pretty awesome! But it was soo hot and humid and by the end of it I was covered in spider webs and had to sit in the car for another two hours before showering. The only other hilarious thing I spotted along the way was a gas station called “Kum N Go”. We finally arrived in Springfield around 6:30, checked in, showered and went to my papa’s favorite dinner spot Outback. Well besides the arch, the walk in the state park and that gas station ,things were uneventful. I’m hoping tomorrow will be filled with more exciting things.. we will be traveling through Oklahoma, Texas and finishing in Albuquerque (another 800 mile journey)…

And My bike is strapped to the car roof and is making an obnoxious sound like the vuvuzelas during a 90 minute soccer game. You think those are bad but how about for 12 hours..