So here's all the crap I wrote down in my journal during my trip...
July 7, 2002
9:09am – Leaving Willows!
--The car is very full, and I can’t lean my seat back at all. This is a good way to force yourself to have good posture, I think.
--Our motivation and reason for not bitching during this trip = if we were making this trek 150yrs ago, we’d be in wagons… and it would take 3+ months… and it would be really dangerous… and sooooo uncomfortable! Woodent bench seats!?! Fuhgeddaboutit! Anyway, so when I start to bitch, I’ll try to remember our miserable pioneering ancestors.
11:16am – We’re making really good time – Mom says we’re averaging 78 miles per hour.
--Enrique Iglesias’ song “Hero” is on, and he says, “Will you save my soul tonight?” That seems like a lot of pressure to put on someone.
2:44pm – We’re in Bakersfield now. I was driving for the past 2 ½ or 3 hours… drivers suck. I try to be as patient as possible, but it seemed like I had someone tailgating me the entire time I was driving. And, I am the worst lane-picker in the world. I think the sight of me driving causes everyone to slow down… maybe it’s cuz I’m so beautiful :P
--It’s crazy to me how every time we get on the road, we put our lives in the hands of everyone else on the road. We trust them without ever really acknowledging it. I think maybe if others recognized and respected this unspoken agreement, perhaps there would be less road rage?
4:05pm – Not making good time anymore… still haven’t even made it to San Bernadino.
--There are Joshua trees all over, and I think they’re really ugly.
4:33pm – A Palmdale pawnbroker’s called “The Happy Hocker”
4:52pm – Littlerock, CA is called “The Fruit Basket of the Antelope Valley,” but all it is is desert and a few roadside stands. If that’s the fruit basket, I certainly wouldn’t want to see the “Shit Town of the Antelope Valley.”
7:14pm – On the 52W – Almost there!!!
July 8, 2002
9:04am – Leaving Norm and Annie’s… Norm is wonderful. 2 months is going to seem like an eternity… I already miss him like crazy and wish he were right here with me.
10:55am – We ate breakfast at the Golden Acorn Casino, which is totally in the middle of NOWHERE… I don’t even know where the people who work here live, unless it’s in caves or something… but anyway, according to the all knowing acorn on the signs, this is the luckiest place on earth.
11:50am – El Centro, CA – Stopped and bought 3 packs of cloves because we don’t know if they sell them in other states. This place is HOT and GHETTO! There’s a Baskin Robbins with a sign that says 21 flavors! Could they not afford the other 10?
12:35pm – Arizona! Got a pic by the sign…
2:12pm – So tired… SO HOT! I want a popsicle, and I want to take another shower.
3:42pm – Yeah, so it was sooooo freaking hot (I thought I was gonna die), and the air conditioning was freaking out. So I saw a sign for Dairy Queen and I figured it was a gift from heaven… for 14 miles, all I thought about was swimming in sweet, wonderful, COLD ice cream. So we get off the freeway and go in the Dairy Queen… and the lady tells us they don’t have any ice cream!!! Most worthless Dairy Queen EVER!!!
12:45am – Now we’re in a Super 8 Motel just past the Texas border. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful… I drove for awhile, but then mom wanted to drive so I could read her another chapter of Harry Potter.
--I miss Norm.
July 9, 2002
9:42am – Leaving our motel in Anthony, TX… gonna have Croissanwiches at Burger King!!!
9:57am – Just kidding – the stupid BK didn’t have any croissants… too sad.
10:01am – Outside of El Paso, TX, there’s a very large billboard advertising for Vasectomy Reversal…
2:45pm – I slept for an hour or so – completely uncomfortable, but I’m trying to continually remind myself of the wagon trains… and I’m thinking about how excited I am to see my cousins. But that excitement is canceled out by how much I miss Norm. I have no clue where we are… somewhere in BFE of Texas… Hate to disappoint Marc, but so far Texas has not impressed me in the least.
3:43pm – We stopped for gas outside of Midland, TX – drove 300+ miles without stopping. The gas station was called Patriot Oil or something like that, and there were 2 dogs and a cat chillin inside. There were also tons of articles and comics taped to the walls… lots of the articles had things like, “Don’t you believe it!” written on them. It was funny.
5:27pm – I drove for awhile, then we pulled over near this prison so mom could put in the windshield wipers fuse (long story… basically, our wipers suck)… I went pee on an anthill. Hehehe Then mom started driving again because the passenger seat hurts her back. It hurts me too, but if she really wants to drive so much, it’s fine with me.
11:45pm – We’re stopped for the night at another Super 8 Motel, about 50 miles west of Shreveport, LA. I’ve been driving for the last 3 or so hours. We were listening to the radio in Dallas, and there was some sort of dating * my mom just found a Gameboy in the drawer! Big Score!!! * show, and this stupid, stupid girl was describing herself, and she called herself… WHITE-COMPLECTED. White-complected! How awesome is that?!?! She made up her own word!!!
--My hair looks really good right now…
--I’ve been thinking about Sarah a lot. I think I’m going to be the big person and write to her… it’s been long enough so I think I can refrain from being too bitchy.
--I miss my computer!!! It’s my link to Norm, and I feel so much farther away from him when I can’t read his blog. I miss that boy too much… it’s almost scary how much I think about him. * sigh * 2 days without him down, so many more to go…
July 10, 2002
10:00am – Stopped at BK again to get a Croissanwich… yummmm… there was a large cow head on the wall inside of BK… weird.
10:34am – Louisiana!
--I want to learn to speak Cajun – it would be a totally useless skill, but I’m sure it’d make me super popular at parties.
--We just passed the nicest rest area ever.
--I already like Louisiana way better than Texas. There are swamps covered in really pretty water lilies, and it’s just green and beautiful for as far as the eye can see.
12:13pm – We stopped to get gas, and these two guys wouldn’t stop staring at me… I think they’d never seen a real live Asian person before.
1:33pm – Pioneering ancestors… wagon trains… wooden benches…
3:12pm – Why am I ALWAYS driving when it starts pouring? We’re stuck in a flooded parking lot somewhere outside of Baton Rouge because I could not see a thing on the freeway because it was raining so hard… Goodness, this is retarded. Oh yeah, the rest stops that look so nice from the freeway are wholly deceiving – very run down, and VERY stinky.
3:24pm – Still in the parking lot, trying to wait out this rain, but it’s not looking very promising. I really, really have to pee, but there’s no way I’m getting out of the car in this. Not only would I get soaked, but it would be hard to tell if you peed on yourself. The car is hotboxed because we can’t roll down the windows to let the smoke out… yummmm – second-hand smoke…
3:39pm – We finally got out of the flood and across the street to a gas station. I changed into pants in the nastiest bathroom ever – it took precision and care to escape with my nose intact and my jeans clean, but I was able to pull it off, thank goodness. I would rather be naked than to wear clothes that even have just a faint smell of that bathroom lingering around.
--I LOVE the way people talk here! I want to just sit and listen to them converse all day… it would take all day for me just to figure out what they’re saying, but whatever.
3:58pm – Almost to New Orleans! Louisiana doesn’t seem too concerned with maintaining their roads… it’s really bumpy here…
4:40pm – In traffic in downtown New Orleans. My mom and I are getting catcalled left and right – too funny! One guy leaned out his window and asked if he could “come with us – figuratively and physically” – dirty old man…
4:49pm – A commercial on the radio was advertising a raffle for a free breast augmentation. “Bring your breasts to Kenny’s Key West!”
5:57pm – We didn’t stop in New Orleans because I’m retarded and apparently I can’t read a map. But I got to see all the old architecture from the freeway, which was completely satisfying. We stopped after New Orleans and ate – I had jambalaya and crawfish pie, just to take advantage of this funky southern food. We just got into Mississippi, and their littering signs say “$250 fine for throwing trash out of the window.” Perhaps not everyone in Mississippi knows what “littering” means?
6:14pm – haha – I’m retarded. I just fully realized the purpose of time zones… :P
7:15pm – Woo hoo! We’re in Alabama!
7:53pm – Woo hoo! We’re in Florida!
12:48am – At a Days Inn in Tallahassee – give me a Super 8 any day… this place is beyond ghetto. We’ll be at Grandma and Grandpa’s tomorrow afternoon – finally! There’s something I’ve been wanted to write the last few nights, but whenever I sit down to write it, I forget what it was. Poop. Yeah, that’s it: poop.
July 11, 2002
12:11pm – Only about an hour away from Merritt Island! I slept for awhile in the car this morning, then read my mom some more Harry Potter. I don’t know why it makes me so happy that she really likes it…
--Today is my last day of smoking… shitty… but sooooo good.
--There are all these signs for a place called “We Bare All” – some of them say they have a restaurant and adult toys… in the same place? I can see myself losing my appetite pretty quickly if certain people were baring it all…
--I want to go shopping… I need a new bathing suit. Maybe my grandma will take me – she’s a shopaholic.
--I know I’m a dork, but I really hope my six-year-old cousin likes Blue’s Clues… then I’ll finally have someone of a proper age to watch it with and I won’t seem so retarded when I yell to Steve on the TV that there’s a clue behind him…
--I’m going through some serious blogger withdrawals.
12:51pm – Mom and I just peed behind some trees off the freeway… hehehe We took a wrong turn first and ended up outside a state correctional facility… that’s the second time I’ve peed near a prison on this trip.
