Roadtrippin' through the Southwest

Go Blue & Gold!
Originally uploaded by misocrazy

I just completed a roadtrip of about 2300 miles, from San Francisco through Los Angeles, Winslow, Phoenix, Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Roswell, Carlsbad, Fredericksburg, Austin, and Dallas.

My friend, Stephanie, a veteran roadtripper, joined me on the trip for a little vacation and to help me navigate our way through the southwest. In an hour, we'll shuttle over to Dallas Fort Worth airport, flying to our respective homes --she goes back to L.A., and I embark on my new life in New York! Somehow it still doesn't feel real to me!

Some highlights from the trip:

• Seeing the thermometer in my car rise to 116°F in Phoenix
• Crispy chicken strips served with a cup of tasty GRAVY at a great little burger chain called Whataburger
• Trying cheese curds at the A&W, nearby some silly dinosaur sculptures
• Posing with the "giant" hare and checking out fossilized dinosaur dung

• Checkin' out the classic cars and funny TeePee rooms at the Wigwam Motel
• Singing along to Madonna, Go-Go's, Hall & Oates, Spice Girls, Shonen Knife, etc. on my iPod in the car
• Having a mediocre piña colada at Burt's Tiki Lounge (Albuquerque, NM) while an experimental noise punk band auditioned for the bar.
• Discovering the Strawberry Limeade drink at Sonic, our favorite drive-in (with real crushed strawberries and lime juice! --would also be excellent if spiked with rum or vodka)

• Meeting the owner of Silvas Saloon, who told us we arrived on the 75th birthday of the bar
• Driving through torrential downpours of rain and seeing highway warnings that say "Don't drown"
• Getting pulled over by the Texas Highway patrol for no real reason, when one of the cops picked up breadcrumbs and tree debris from my seat, asking if it was marijuana. I laughed.
• Browsing antiques and buying a pair of real cowboy boots at Allen's, on South Congress in Austin.

• Getting served by a bartender who looked like Jason Statham (at the Speakeasy in Austin)
• Waiting for a swarm of bats to fly out from under a bridge... which never happened
• Meeting my Austin cousins, who took us to chow on tasty BBQ at the "County Line," where there was a talking cow head on the wall
• Driving through the JFK assassination spot, in a light blue convertible

Steph and I had a great time, but we were pretty pooped by the time we got to Dallas. So what do we do? We head to my Dallas cousin's friend's rager house party, where there was a water slide and iceblock/shot-luge, sponsored by Smirnoff. Yee haw!

I think we're ready to go home now. Zzz...