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I've done four cross-country road trips in my life. This post journeys through the first trip that I did, in the summer of 2013. I had just finished up my freshman year of college, returned home to enjoy the summer, and was ready to jump back into university in Washington, D.C. I wanted to get my Prius out to the east coast so that I could use it during the school year, so I thought, why not drive it out?
One of my good friends that I made freshman year was actually from the Bay Area as well, so I gave Tara a call and proposed that she and I journey across the U.S. together. Tara immediately said yes, and we set off to plan our adventure. Here is the route we came up with:
Las Vegas, Nevada
We drove from San Francisco to Vegas on our first day. Yes - we were 18 years old. And no - that was not going to stop us from having a good time (or so we thought). We had originally planned on staying at a cheap hostel on the strip. However, as I was scrolling through my Instagram that morning, a picture of an old friend in Vegas popped up. I immediately reached out to her, and it turned out that her grandparents had bought a house down there and she was visiting them for the weekend. What luck! No more dingy hostel on the strip for us.
We drove straight from San Francisco to Las Vegas (and may or may not have gone 90 MPH for most of the middle section). Driving into Las Vegas is eeire - imagine driving through a barren desert for the past 5 hours and then suddenly seeing a city of flashing lights. It felt as though we were entering twilight zone. Our first stop was a casino. I have never felt so trapped in my life. There was literally zero indication of how to get out of this underground casino and we spent a good thirty minutes walking around in circles. I guess that's how they keep people inside?
We did the classic Vegas loop and then met up with my friend, Tina. She wanted to go out to a club, and the silly 18 year olds we were thought that we could actually get in. We may or may not have had fake i.d.'s, and if we did they were most definitely laughed at and taken away in a second. Note to any underage readers - do not ever try a fake in Vegas. I know that is common sense to most people...but apparently it wasn't for us! We called it a night and headed to bed.
Boulder, Colorado
Tara and I woke up at 5am that morning ready to get the hell out of Vegas. We were headed to Boulder, Colorado! We had a 12 hour drive ahead of us, and fully believed the Prius could make it up the mountain. I remember one moment when we were driving through Utah, we suddenly peaked over a hill and below us lay canyons as far as the eye could see. They weren't just any canyons. They were striped deep red, tan, golden yellow, and a hint of powder blue, everywhere we looked! I think we were breathless for the first minute and then uncontrollably laughing for the next, just in reaction to the sheer beauty.
Halfway through the day my Prius became the little engine that couldn't. We had been slowly climbing in elevation in the hot sun for a while, and the Prius was just not having it. I found myself pushing full power on the gas pedal and only getting to 30 MPH on the highway. We pulled over and gave the engine a break for half an hour.
The Prius was full speed ahead for the rest of the drive...until an hour outside of Boulder. It was night time, and we were driving through the mountains. We were on a part of the highway that is carved into the side of the mountain with a very small pullout. Slowly, the Prius's ability to accelerate was declining. We found ourselves having to pull off on the dangerous shoulder with semi's whizzing by. After a 10 minute rest, we veered back onto the highway and pulled off for a longer break at Georgetown, CO. After some dinner at a sweet local pub, we zoomed over to Boulder.
One of my good friends, Danielle, has an aunt who lives out in Boulder who I grew to love and wanted to visit. We were able to stay two night at her house, and the next day we woke up to steaming hot pancakes and a fruit salad. She asked us what we wanted to do in Boulder, and both of us replied, "Hiking!" We needed some good old nature therapy after Vegas. She took us on the Walker Ranch Loop hike - an 8 mile hike through meadows, forest, rock formations, and the South Boulder Creek. It was exactly what our legs needed after the previous 12 hour day in the car. We spent the evening walking around downtown Boulder, which is a sweet town that I could see myself living in if it had an ocean nearby.
Houston, TX
Tara and I were not one's for common sense back then. When planning the trip and looking at the map we thought, "Oh yeah, let's just push it from Boulder to Houston. We can totally make it". Well, we made it, but it wasn't fun. We spent 17 hours driving that day and arrived at my aunt and uncle's home at around midnight. This had to be the most boring day we drove. If you've never driven across Texas for hours on end, I promise you aren't missing much.
You may be reading this and thinking, why Houston?? We were thinking the same thing ;-) Just joking! I love visiting my family out there, even if the city itself my not be my favorite place. There's nothing like good old southern hospitality and family time when on the road.
New Orleans, LA
We set off a couple of days later to New Orleans, the city we had both been dying to visit. We booked ourselves dorm beds at Indiana Hostel. The hostel was a young backpackers crowd and it was exactly what we were looking for. It was a bit dirty, but had character, just like New Orleans. They had a communal dinner that they sold for $5 a plate every night. Our first night was classic New Orleans gumbo. We ate dinner and made some friends. Then we set out for the night to Bourbon Street. We had tickets to see Icona Pop at the House of Blues and arrived early for a comedy show and the opener. The concert was a blast, and after we set off for the bars.
What did a night in New Orleans on Bourbon Street consist of? Bars, jazz, a strip club, and mechanical bull-riding of course. The next day we woke up a little fuzzy, splashed cold water on our faces, and walked around the French Quarter.
Washington, D.C.
We set off the next morning to Washington, D.C. to move into our first shared apartment with three other friends. Sophomore year was looming, and while you can take Tara and I out of California, the picture below shot in D.C. proves you can't take California out of us.
