road trips

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Have you ever taken a memorable road trip? Share your recollections...

-- Anonymous, August 27, 2000

Answers

Spring break my freshman year in college. I didn't want to go home so I, a woman from Japan, a woman from Maine and a guy from Boston rented a car and went from Eugene, OR down to Santa Cruz, back up through Yellowstone, Reno, Lake Tahoe and Crater Lake. This is definitely one of those kinda things you have to do in college.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000

If you're going to take a road trip, there are many better choices than LA. Unless you enjoy gridlock.

Here's my LA trip story: I bought concert tickets on the web, from Ticketmaster. I wanted good seats, so I logged on promptly at 10am on a Sunday, when they were going on sale. I clicked through the various pages, and when I got to the last page it said "time limit exceed, please try again". Grrr. So I again clicked through as fast as I could, and when I was done, instead of tickets to the show at the Shoreline Amphitheatre - maybe a half hour away - I had tickets to the show in Irvine, which is a good half hour south of LA. OK, whatever, let's go on a road trip.

The trip down was great, we stayed at the Montecito Inn in Santa Barbara, which is a beautiful hotel. Our weeknight stay there cost $89 - it goes up to something like $189 on the weekend. The next morning we went to Hollywood - no problem. A half hour in Hollywood is all anyone will ever need. Then, we went to hit I-405 to head south. At 2:30 in the afternoon, it was a parking lot (we later heard the problem was that a load of palm trees had fallen off a truck. how very LA). So we drove west on Sunset, turning that jungle music down, just until we were out of town. But I digress. We took Rt 1 south, which meant about 40 miles of more traffic, only this time, with stoplights. Wheeeee. Got back on the freeway below Santa Monica somewhere, crawled for another hour and a half, and arrived at our hotel fresh as a spring daisy (not). There was a dead, ant-covered bird by the swimming pool. Things were going downhill.

Saw the show, it was great. Got up 405 a bit quicker - it was a Saturday afternoon, then we thought we'd ride up Rt. 1 to Morro Bay, so we could 'see the sights'. It was fairly beautiful scenery, but the town itself was charmless, a mix of rednecky and cheesy touristy. And there were a LOT of tourists, so many that the only room we could get for the night was a MOTEL 6 SMOKING ROOM. It was rank. We went out and bought about 20 of those vanilla candles - we lit them all up, the room looked like a Sting video. It helped a little.

The next day, we hightailed it north, back to wonderful San Francisco. I guess the moral is, approach LA at night - like 2AM - if you must go. But, don't go. And if you do, skip the Rt. 1 crap. Cheers.

-- Anonymous, August 28, 2000


The day after I graduated from High School in 1970 myself, my brother, and a friend drove from Austin, Texas to New York City. We camped along the way and stayed a week at the Manhatten YMCA.

It was quite a trip! The reason we did it is because we had never been out of Texas, and for years my brother and I had shared the suspicion that Texas was in fact the whole world, and that accounts of places outside of Texas were a cruel hoax played on us by the adult world.

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2000


1996 when I moved from DC out here to SF. My SO flew out with the cat (he couldn't drive then and actually just got his license!) and I drove out in a 15 foot truck with my car in tow behind me. My friend Dan came along. Fun things I remember

-we went through Kentucky because we just had to and I thought it was hilarious that we stayed next to a Kentucky Fried Chicken. -there is a great place in Illinois (I think) called Dr. Ted's House of Musical Instuments. He is a real doctor and has a shack out in this field with all these crazy organs and instruments in it. It is excellent. -we visited Abilene Kansas and the Greyhound Museum (greyhound dogs, there is a retired racing greyhound who lives there named Kirby). -Becoming all giddy driving at 3 AM and having to stop at the Kansas McDonald's that advertised the one thousand gallon fishtank. It was really disappointing. -Getting to Colorado where I could find something to eat that was vegetarian that was not a grilled cheese sandwich. -Waking up in the mountains in CO after getting in in the dark and being amazed at the air and the fat donkey across the street. Stopping a million times on the way out of CO and me deciding that I would move back there if California sucked. -Salt Lake City...the nicest and cheapest motel room we got. Also, memories of Dan, in his underwear and with a showercap on his head, jumping up and down on the bed because Bananas in Pajamas was on. And Saltair. I am completely and utterly fascinated by Saltair and all those other old things that keep/kept burning down. -The Foothills Motel in Auburn CA. The BEST. They have a bowling alley/lounge. The showerhead was dated 1953. I LOVE that place.

I should take more trips. I had one to Las Vegas but had a car accident on the way back and had to get people back to the bay area from Barstow, CA. It was a nightmare involving a taxi, a bus, 3 miles of walking, and a closed car rental agency. I don't like to think about that one.

-kieca

-- Anonymous, August 30, 2000


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-- Anonymous, February 18, 2001


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