From Coast to Coast

Hello from bright and sunny Hollywood! I made it over and had a lot of fun along the way. I have to apologize for my complete negligence in not posting more quickly upon my arrival. My arrival in LA was similar to my arrival in Amelia last summer in the internet sense. AT&T has cancelled my internet service 4 times, but I think I am online now.

Onwards to fun! So I started the trek from Tampa to LA on May 1st. I was fortunate enough to bring my cat Cleo and have a good friend accompany me and we all had a lot of fun. The first leg of our trip started out a bit late, we left Land O' Lakes at 1pm because of a charity walk we were both participating in that morning. Since we were not sure when we would tire we didn't make any concrete plans as to where to stop night one. We contemplated Tallahassee, but pulled up and went right on pass with energy to spare. We started to tire out as we neared Mobile, Alabama, but we decided to push on for 2 more hours to hit Gulfport, Mississippi. Unfortunately when we pulled off in Gulfport every hotel was booked solid, thanks to the epic BP oil spill. So sadly, the closest town we could find with a room was in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 2 hours further down the road. So, we put in a serious day 1 and didn't make many stops, so no pictures or video for you to enjoy.

The next leg of the trip was from Baton Rouge to San Antonio. We got a good start in the morning and made some fun stops in Houston. Stop #1, to see a large sculpture of an armadillo.

A new feature to my blogs, video!!! This one has a real live cowboy complete with 2 revolvers in hip holsters! I apologize ahead of time for being a bumpy walking camera girl.

After the Armadillo we made one more quick stop in Houston to the Beer Can House. Listen carefully, the beer cans make a pretty wind chime like noise... when I'm not talking.

After Houston we made the push to San Antonio and got there with just enough light to see the Alamo and the largest mosaic of the Virgin Mary. Let me fill you in on how we pick places we stop at. The iPhone has this great app that finds weird roadside stops along the way, that's how we pick all of these.

After our fun in San Antonio we went back to the hotel to get ready for the longest drive of our trip. The next morning we partook of the continental breakfast which included Texas shaped waffles!! How cool is that? Just so you know little Cleo was with us every step of the way, she got to see the Alamo and all the other sites (except for the Biosphere 2, which is coming up, there the gift shop lady kept an eye on her). I don't film her cause I try to not draw attention to the cat in the bag.

The next day we woke up with a plan... a plan besides make it through the drive and end up in Tucson by evening. We wanted to stop and see Stonehendge 2, which was located 60 miles outside of San Antonio on our way. We drove through a really adorable town on our way there and then we rounded a corner and were greeted with this site. And to think that some people go all the way to England to see this. :-)

Here I am, proof!

They also had some random Easter Island Heads. I am giving this one a kiss.

After San Antonio we focused on the finish line... which was about 11 hours away. For lunch we stopped in Fort Stockton... mainly because of the huge road runner sculpture. Here I am preparing to race the road runner.

Here we are ALMOST in Tucson. We stopped at "The Thing" because it came highly recommended by Kelly. A shot by the mountains.

And "The Thing." I can't tell you what it is, you are going to have to visit yourself one day.

Sunset in the desert on I-10.

We made it to Tucson, got some dinner and went to bed. The next morning we started out on our journey to Biosphere 2 (Biosphere 1 is the Earth, a good trivia question). It was a little out of our way, but since today was our last day on the road we decided to make a good stop. The biosphere is most important because it reminds me of the fantastic Pauly Shore movie, Biodome.

Here I am in the big part of the biosphere. The biosphere was the place of a great experiment in the 90's where they sealed scientists in to see if they could sustain life without any outside interference... no outside oxygen, no outside water, etc. They lost some weight but successfully spent 2 years in the biosphere. For future (on the moon) plans, they would need to find more ways to get the inhabitants calories.

This is the "ocean" which is quite covered in algae for one big reason... the glass that creates the roof blocks UV rays, so they have not quite figured out how to prevent the growth of algae without the UV rays.

The Biosphere 2 from outside.

Our last stop on our trip (before landing in LA) was at the Joshua Tree National Park. Sadly we were not on the side that had joshua trees, but it was still a good stop and a pretty place to stretch our legs.

That night we arrived in LA and Kelly surprised me by still being there (I was under the assumption they would have left in the morning and we would just meet them). All in all a fantastic trip. We only got stopped once by immigration and after answering a very tough question ("Are you both US citizens?"... "Yes") we were sent back on our way.

Next blog is all about the fun filled first few days in LA.