This is the third time I’ve done a cross-country drive, and the first time I’ve done it with other people.  (Tim had never been west of pittsburgh before, so there was a lot of intended wow factor)

What I’ve found though, is that the first 2000 miles of the trip from PA to CA are fairly uninteresting, no matter which way you go.  Even in western oklahoma, things look fairly similar to other east coast sights.  The northern route (70) gets you the gateway arch and the great plains, which are both great sights, but the great plains turn pretty monotonous after the first few hours.

The really interesting times begin within the last 1000 miles of the pacific — deserts, mountains, etc.  Luckily we timed things to have the most available daylight today on what was basically the most scenic day of the entire trip.

Last night reminded me of how annoying east coast light pollution has become.  The skies in nowheresville, NM are incredible — reminds you what 99.999% of human existence experienced at night until we f’ed everything up.  While some amount of nightlight is inevitable, the blindingly animated billboards are  the epitome of this disgrace and just make me sick.

We lost track of jrand last night on the way to Amarillo.  While looking desperately for gas (which should never happen on a major interstate, wtf?), we stopped in Groom, NM, and basically froze to death when we got out of the truck.  22 degrees and 38mph winds, windchill was 9.  Not good motorcycling weather.  We pressed on, and coincidentally that’s where John ended up crashing for the night a few hours later, probably not too far from frostbite..  endurance riding rules, though I’m definitely enjoying the warmth of this mobile commandpost.  Laptop RAM mount, best purchase ever.

We’re pressing on to Palm Springs and making it a relatively early (midnight-ish) night.  John took the southern route through Phoenix to add some warmth; we’ll meet up with him in a few hours for our last night on the road.

Posted in: Travel Heaven