More Updates

So we made it across country and now we're headed back east. After a bit of car trouble in Arizona, and a misleading "check engine" light in New Mexico, we're on the road again. Here's what's been up:

First, as Kim said, we made it to LA; here's proof.


After our car failure in the desert, we finally made it to the Grand Canyon. Even after seeing many canyons, it was...grand.


On our adventure through Arizona, petrified wood was a strangely common theme. Here's GERONIMO - the largest piece of petrified wood in the world. Thrilling...


After Geronimo was the petrified forest. While it was full of old artifacts from millions of years ago, I felt the name "forest" to be inappropriate.


After many petrified thrills in Arizona, we set off towards Albuquerque, NM and stayed with Wesleyan buddy Chris Goy.


While our time in Albuquerque was lamentably short, it gave us all a beautiful first taste of true Southwestern culture (green chiles helped).


After Albuquerque, we headed off towards White Sands National Monument. On the way, we found spirituality in the clouds.
We finally got to white sands...at night. The park was spectacular, even moreso after nightfall. The sand is really white!


Tomorrow we'll start off in Roswell, NM to see if we can snag us an alien. Afterwards, we'll take a stop at Carlsbad Caverns and head towards Texas! Woo!

Finally, a lost jewel from Bryce, which demonstrates the power of teamwork in moving large boulders.


That's all for now

J

slightly stale guest post #2b: don ron

Goodbye, young visitors! Your stay in our City of Angels was too short. It's fitting that after four years huddled among books, you are now out among the bones of things.

"[A]nd the judge took one of the packanimals and emptied out the panniers and went off to explore the works. In the afternoon he sat in the compound breaking ore samples with a hammer, the feldspar rich in red oxide of copper and native nuggets in whose organic lobations he purported to read news of the earth's origins, holding an extemporary lecture in geology to a small gathering who nodded and spat. A few would quote him scripture to confound his ordering up of eons out of the ancient chaos and other apostate supposings. The judge smiled. Books lie, he said. God dont lie. No, said the judge. He does not. And these are his words. He held up a chunk of rock. He speaks in stones and trees, the bones of things. The squatters in their rags nodded among themselves and were soon reckoning him correct, this man of learning, in all his speculations, and this the judge encouraged until they were right proselytes of the new order whereupon he laughed at them for fools."

-- Cormac McCarthy, Blood Meridian.

Safe travels home.

- Ron

Heartbreaker you got the best of me but I just keep on coming back incessantly, ohhhh ahhh

I just want to listen to mariah carey's "heartbreaker" but everyone in the car has had enough apparently. Jeremy really digs it too but he won't admit it- Alpha male. Its so good. The song of our generation. We're listening to the Doors. More like "snores"

-R
Sent Via Wireless Device

--
Ravid Chowdhury
Wesleyan University Senior Class President
860.810.8677
Box 91641
45 Wyllys Avenue
Middletown, CT
06459 - 1641

car haiku 2

The car would not work
We could see the milky way
The tow truck was late

He who farts in car
I wish a curse upon him
We have enough gas

-R

Welcome to Arizona

At approximately 9pm last night, our old pal 4Runner sputtered to a stop and left us about 40 minutes away from anything in the Arizona desert. Two hours and many dollars worth of towing later, we found ourselves at a Super 8 in Flagstaff with a very immobilized car in the lot. Now, after having the car towed again, we're in a mall waiting to pick up the car. Yay, Arizona...


Oh well, at least the Grand Canyon is next!

Guest Post #2: Ron and Chan

After a pretty fantastic few days of infiltrating the Chowdhury/Nguyen household, we thought it proper to ask for some perspective from our hosts. Thus, our second guest post from Ron and Chan:

""Ladies and gentlemen, we are about to begin our descent into Los Angeles. The sound you just heard is the landing gear locking into place. Los Angeles weather is clear; temperature is 72. We expect to make our 4 hour and 18 minute flight on schedule. We have enjoyed having you on board, and look forward to seeing you again in the near future." -- First lines from The Graduate.

Ron and I waited anxiously for our four house guests to arrive Thursday night. We prepared kimchi quesadillas and vegetarian chili in case they hadn't already eaten dinner. They arrived around 10 pm and seemed happy and relieved to stretch their legs in Eagle Rock, the place that would be their base for the next few days. After dinner, Ron and I figured we would gently introduce them to LA's money grubbing and valueless culture by watching Double Indemnity.

Their first full day was a work day for us grown ups, so the four of them headed to Venice Beach to touch the Pacific Ocean and party with the struggling screenwriters and actors, independently wealthy, and part-time yoga instructors that popluate the westside. In the evening, we reconvened over Wise or Otherwise and The New Yorker Caption Game.

"You must follow a wild duck for a long time in the manner of a chicken to attract a rooster." -- An old Vietnamese-American saying.


On Saturday we hit the ground running with a tour of downtown-- Union Station, Disney Hall, the Bradbury Building-- capped off with lunch at the reliably mediocre Clifton's Cafeteria (hello animinatronic raccoon!). Then at night we ate garlic sauce, with a side of chicken, at Zankou on Sunset before heading to the marquee event of the weekend: The Graduate at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery.

Benjamin: I'm just...
Mr. Braddock: Worried?
Benjamin: Well...
Mr. Braddock: About what?
Benjamin: I guess about my future.
Mr. Braddock: What about it?
Benjamin: I don't know... I want it to be...
Mr. Braddock: To be what?
Benjamin: [looks at his father] ... Different.

Sunday was mostly packing and brainstorming on next steps. Ideas included Joshua Tree, Route 66, Grand Canyon. They left in the morning and the house was quiet and empty. Ron and I didn't know what to do with ourselves. These thirty-somethings can't remember the last time they stayed up past 2 am for three nights in a row. Thanks for the visit. We had great fun. Bon voyage, amigos!"

More pictures!

After Canyonlands, we decided it was time for, you guessed it, more canyons. We headed to Bryce Canyon and after looking over the edge for a while decided it was time to hike into one of these puppies.

Hiking path into the canyon.

Oooh, Aaaah...

Ravid and Jezza look poignantly off into the distance.

Bryce Canyon

We hopped back in the car and took off for Zion National Park. We picked the hiking trail with the prettiest name and headed to Emerald Pools.

I know, right?!

Wildlife!

Jezza, Ravid, and Isaac stand on a rock.

The sun was starting to set, and the campgrounds were all full, so we decided to try to find a motel. But once we got out of Springdale, we realized there wouldn't be another town for quite some time. Rather than turning around, we decided to keep driving... to Las Vegas.

Ravid's Blackberry wins trip MVP

After a night drive through the desert, we arrived in fabulous Las Vegas. We checked out the casinos, took advantage of an all-you-can-eat seafood buffet, and enjoyed the general weirdness of the city that only takes disco naps.

Vegas, baby.

Once in Las Vegas, we realized that we were only hours from California, so we bumped some Tupac and hit the dusty road. Though we hate to see our gas mileage go down, Death Valley finally forced us to use our air conditioning as we drove through scenic, but brutally hot desert.

Desert!

Sunset over the desert

After some maneuvering of L.A. traffic, we made to to Ron and Chan's house in Eagle Rock and watched the film noir classic "Double Indemnity." We've since been having a great time in L.A. We'll tell you all about it later!

We hit the coast!

-Kim

Photo Update - Part II

Hey everybody! A week or so of craziness has left us with about 4000 total miles traveled and lots to update on. We last left you in South Dakota, where lots of silly things and nice people kept us busy. Since then, we've moved all the way to Los Angeles, CA - our furthest west point - where we're enjoying the warm hospitality of Ravid's brother Ron and sister-in-law Chan. As always, we figured a few photos would speak well of our experiences. Still, as we're making up for a week's worth of updates, this will only be the first part of bringing you up to speed. So here we go:

Wyoming
Wow...driving from South Dakota to Colorado was quite a trip. Conclusion: there's really nothing in the Southeastern corner of Wyoming

Colorado
Unlike Wyoming, Colorado was chock-full of adventure. First was Boulder. As Ravid wrote, we stayed with Isaac's friend Evan and had a great time hiking up one of the Flatirons (mountains on the edge of the city) and experiencing the delightful crunchiness of a college town in Colorado.



After a couple days, we headed through the Rockies on one of the most beautiful drives ever. Apparently the highway is the most expensive in the US, costing around $30 million a mile.


Midway through the drive, Isaac coincidentally remembered that one of his neighbors just happened to be in Aspen...so he called his parents...who called her house...who finally reached her. Thus, we randomly ended up with a bunch of forestry interns in something of a mix between a frathouse and a summer camp. They even had a legitimate government-owned piece of taxidermy.


Finally, we set out, moving from mountains to deserts and canyons.


Utah
While this state didn't exactly represent the pinnacle of metropolitan excitement, it definitely held the most incredible natural phenomena that we saw. Our first stop was Arches National Park, which, well beautiful, didn't seem to hold enough actual arches to satisfy a very puzzled Isaac.

Still, incredible scenery.


And, after a bit of searching, even an actual arch or two in the distance.


After a day of nature, we had our first night of camping on the banks of the Colorado River (literally the last campsite available).


Having seen some canyons and spend the night in a...canyon, we figured the only natural destination would be Canyonlands National Park, which, surprisingly enough, had some nice canyons.

Afterwards, just for a change of pace, we set off towards Bryce Canyon. More updates on Bryce, Zion, Vegas, and LA to come. As before, a few unclassifiable randoms:

4000+ year old cave art in the middle of nowhere. Proof that aliens existed and visited.


Creepy, creepy abandoned motel.


Ravid, trying to fly.

Kim and Isaac, mastering free-climbing.


The product of sitting in the car with a pen and paper...


Desperado.

That's all for now. Check back soon for the rest of this update.

-J