Road Trip Review

The personal webspace of James Dunn

Having been back in the UK for over a week now I finally got round to writing the review of the road trip. On re-reading it I found that it sucked... so here we have a refined version where I hope the pictures can tell more of the story.

Meet the team:

Our starting point was New York City, where we managed to squeeze in a boat tour of Manhattan, the Empire State building, Pier 19, Wall Street and Ground Zero and a quick walk around Central Park.

Next Up Washington DC and a walk up and down the Mall, viewing the Capitol Building, White House, Washington Monument, World War Two Memorial, Vietnam War Memorial and the Lincoln Memorial.

After Washington it was time to put some serious miles behind us so the next couple of days we spent in the car, driving the 1300 miles through Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama, and Mississippi to New Orleans. On the way we stopped in Lynchburg to take a tour round the Jack Daniels Distillery, and actually camped for out night in one of the National Parks.

New Orleans was the first major city of our road trip. We managed to take a brief look around the city, and had an excellent night out in the French Quarter where we saw some live music, and may have overdone it on the oversized Bourbon cocktails.

Next up was Austin, Texas where the heat meant we only got a quick look around town during the day, before heading out at night onto 6th Street for a few drinks... After recovering from a light hangover we again decided to get some miles covered so over the next three days we covered 1800 miles towards Las Vegas. Driving through some incredible scenery, we were able to spend some time in the various national parks, notable Palo Alto Canyon and Bryce Canyon before hitting the Strip.

Las Vegas is quite unlike anything I've ever seen. Where else in the world can you look one way and see the Eiffel Tower, the other and see Manhattan, and the other the Pyramids at Giza? Wonderfully tacky we had a great time there during the two evenings we stayed. Most noticeable after visiting some clubs, doing some light gambling at the Mandalay Bay and then wondering why it was light when we finally got back to our hotel. During the daytime we managed to squeeze in a swim in Lake Mead and a visit to the Hoover Dam, and drove to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon, incredible due to the stunning vistas, and the fact that the West is little visited when compared to the South and North locations.

Having gone broke in Vegas, at least in Rob's case, we headed for LA, thankfully arriving at around 3:30am, avoiding the notorious traffic and managing to negotiate the maze of 18 lane highways with relative ease. Spent the day in Hollywood even finding my name in one of the stars along Hollywood Boulevard!

Next up was a short drive north along Route One to Santa Barbara which was to be our home for the next three days. Stayed in a hostel and so far as nightlife was concerned, had the most incredible few days out in the town...

At this stage everyone we had spoken to had told us what a good time they had had in San Diego, and despite being 250 mile in the wrong direction we decided to go for it regardless. Staying in a hostel on Mission Beach, we were able to enjoy some of the best waves for surfing that I have ever seen, and also had a good couple of evenings hanging out with the resident Irish population!

Time was now running short so it was north along Route One to Santa Cruz where we were able to stay with a friend we had met in Santa Barbara for one night, enjoying some of the bars for the last night of the actual trip.

The next day we headed off for the final time in the car for Milpitas, located on the outskirts of San Francisco. Here we said goodbye to the car as we were to be staying with Charles's Uncle. Over the weekend we went into the city and saw the Coit Tower, the steepest road in the world on Lombard Street, and also Union Square.

Charles's Uncle is fortunate enough to be a pilot flying for the civil air patrol so on Monday we were lucky enough to be taken for a flight over the Bay area, giving us a brilliant bird's eye view of the city. On our final full day in America we hiked up one of the nearby Mountains which seemed to be a suitable high note to finish my travels in the States.

So after 31 days, 13 states, 10 major cities and 5436 miles we made it! The last month has been the perfect end to an amazing year, the memories of the people and the places will stay with me for years to come.

Please consider making a donation to the Red Cross for the victims of Hurricane Katrina at www.redcross.org.

Photo credits for this blog entry and the photo gallery also go to Rob Daly and Charles Easton.

Click here to view the full road trip photo gallery.

Posted on September 16, 2005 11:48 | Add Comment →