Summer 2007 Road Trip: One girl. One car. Over 8,000 miles.

On Tuesday, I met one of my ex-boyfriends who actually drives the tour trams at Universal Studios in Hollywood, CA.  (Or to be accurate, Universal City).  Anyway, he got me in for free and we managed to walk into the back lots where they shoot movies, shows and have a bunch of famous sets.

Unfortunately, Desperate Housewives were in the middle of shooting when we got to Wisteria Lane, so we couldn’t get onto the actual street! I was so bummed. I got a photo of one of the houses that is at the entrance to the street, and a shot of the back of a couple of houses, but that’s about it. I did get a couple of photos of the Ghost Whisperer set, however. I don’t watch the show but I know some people who do.

Onto the pictures!

How I got to Hollywood:

General Universal Studio photos:

A view of the Valley (look at all the smog!!):

We had to go down three really long escalators. This photo shows how high up we were:

Good thing I am not really scared of heights.

Wisteria Lane entrance - house on the very end:

Yeah, this picture sucks. We had jumped onto a tram (out of sheer exhaustion). This is a shot of the back of two houses on Wisteria Lane. I think one of them is Bree’s house (the blue one).

Ghost Whisperer set:

Look familiar?

And, the King Kong/Godzilla thing that scared the living daylights out of me on the tram tour:

Some other sets that you may recognize from various movies and shows:

New York Street:

Yeah, the pics kind of suck, as usual.  Good thing I’m not a photographer by trade!

More photos coming shortly.

Hey you all, I will update soon with new photos.   I did go to Hollywood/LA/Beverly Hills and got a few pics from of some movie and show sets.  I went to Universal Studios, Rodeo Drive and a few other LA hotspots, including the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf where lots of celebs go.  I didn’t see anyone though.  When I was on Rodeo Drive the other day, they were shooting a commercial, and I saw a couple of models who I didn’t recognize.

Damn, I miss my apartment back in Nashua. I mostly just miss the apartment itself - my high speed Comcast internet connection, my platinum cable package with every channel plus DVR, my many games and movies and general comforts, and my spacious, comfy bed.

Oh well. I’m here, finally, in Southern California. And let me tell you, I was beginning to think I’d never get here! The last time I updated this blog, I was in Seattle, WA at the Doubletree Hotel near the airport. I won’t even get into how expensive the hotel was. It was nice, but I could have paid the same amount and stayed downtown near all the tourist traps.

Oh well. Ya live and learn.

Here I am, in Orange County, California. My two sisters live in this area, and I was so excited to see both of them today, plus my nieces and nephew! I love them to pieces. Kids are seriously the most precious things in the world, especially when you are their Aunt and not their mother.

Anyway, I confess that I was mostly too lazy to shoot pictures in Washington or Oregon. I was fed up with mountains, and that is all to be found in WA and OR. When I finally got out of the damn mountains somewhere in Northern California yesterday, I was ecstatic. Although I had to still go over the Grapevine, which I happened to reach after dark last night, about 600 miles later. THAT was fun. But I rolled into the OC last night about 10:30 pm and immediately checked into my hotel.

Now, I am here in So Cal until July 21st, whereupon I will get back on the road to head home. This time, however, I will be taking the old Route 66, which goes through AZ, NM, TX, OK, etc. I have plans to stop in 3 different towns along the way, to visit family and friends. My stops will be in Tulsa, OK, Branson, MO, and somewhere in NJ. When I’m in NJ, I will be visiting NYC.

More on that later. I am going into Los Angeles/Hollywood at some point during my visit here and will post photos when I do so.

Photos of the Outlet Shops in Woodburn, OR that I stopped at:

I only went into the Guess store, Ralph Lauren, and Mikasa.  I bought some cool glass sets in Mikasa that I had had my eye on at the Bed, Bath & Beyond store for quite some time.

Well, I did it! I literally drove Interstate 90 (which turns into 94 for a few states, but goes back to 90) from coast to coast. I am currently sitting in my hotel room in Seattle, WA.

It’s been one heck of a journey. I encountered storms (in Montana and Wisconsin), sickness (for the past few days, I’ve had a low-grade fever that I can’t quite figure out), twisty mountain roads (Montana, Idaho and Washington), potential car trouble (Montana, but turned out to be nothing major), trouble finding hotel rooms for the night (North Dakota) and lots and lots of miles.

My journey isn’t over yet, but I feel I reached a major milestone by hitting the west coast. I’m now only about 2 days from my final destination (for the next 2 weeks, at least), which is Southern California.

I’m a little irritated that I didn’t reserve a hotel in downtown Seattle, since I’m paying the same here near the airport that I would have paid there, but I just wasn’t sure that I’d make it to Seattle. So I had to take whatever hotel I could find. When I pulled into Butte, Montana Saturday evening, I had a light flashing on my dashboard that turned out to be due to the gas cap being loose. That steep mountain road and 82mph speed apparently contributed to it.

Photos by State

I got some decent photos this time. Not good, but decent. I’ve arranged them below by state, with some descriptions.

---

North Dakota:

The above two photos are east North Dakota, near the Minnesota border.

These photos are from a scenic rest area called “Painted Desert, ND”. It’s an area pretty close to the Montana border. Absolutely breathtaking, although the photos don’t really do the place justice.

---

Montana (East):

A typical road in Montana, on I-94.

More Montana.

Storm! There were lightening bolts hitting the ground within those clouds, but unfortunately I couldn’t get pictures of them. I was too busy holding onto the steering wheel since the wind was gusting like crazy and I could barely keep my car in one lane.

---

Montana (West):

I’m sure you’ll all agree that western Montana is much prettier than eastern Montana.

AND… right before I got into Idaho, there was this cool used bookstore. I saw signs on the interstate for the store that boasted over 100,000 used books. I pulled off into Alberton, MT, and went to the store, which was amazing. I absolutely love used bookstores, and this one didn’t disappoint:

---

Idaho:

Then I finally got into Idaho, which was pretty much the same. I did stop in a small little town to get gas, called Wallace, Idaho. I found it small-town charming:

There were huge mountains in the background.

---

Anyway, that’s all the photos for now. I will shoot a couple of photos of Washington State today, and Oregon, then post them tonight.

Whew! It’s been a couple of crazy days. I swear, if you ever need to clear your mind and really become at peace with yourself, take a loooong road trip alone. It truly helps.

As of this moment, it is Friday, July 6th at about 10pm Mountain time. I just got into Mountain time right before hitting the town I’m in (which is Dickinson, ND). Now, in case you’ve never been to North Dakota, let me tell you, it’s mostly a LOT of nothing but fields and hills. Even the two major cities - Fargo and Bismark, are tiny. But this state has charm.

I’m going to do this update by day so that nobody gets confused. Although I myself might get confused, considering the fact I didn’t even know what time zone I was in until a very nice (and cute) gentleman informed me while waiting in line at the front desk of the hotel I’m currently in.

Tuesday

The last time I updated, I was in Chesterton, IN - at the Hilton Garden hotel (the one in the photo). That was Tuesday night. I don’t mind revealing the hotel since I left it already!

Wednesday and Thursday

Wednesday (the 4th of July), I drove to Minneapolis and checked into the Radisson hotel in Plymouth, MN. However, before hitting MN, I had to drive through Wisconsin. I stopped in Madison to eat lunch at IHop and visited the East Madison mall. (I bought some books on tape for the drive which seriously help with boredom!) I finally got to see Wisconsin and Minnesota - for the first time! I stayed Wednesday and Thursday nights in Minneapolis because I needed the rest - badly. I went to the Mall of America Thursday.

The Mall of America was breathtaking. Tons and tons and tons of stores. I was there for four hours and nearly keeled over in exhaustion by the time I drove back to my hotel. I was feeling pretty lousy that night and stayed in, watching TV and reading. I couldn’t even muster the energy to get on my laptop to do work! (Which is why there were no posts yesterday evening on TheSkinnyWebsite or this website).

Friday

This morning, I woke up extremely early with a fever. I also had a slight sore throat and still felt lousy. Let me tell you, I was NOT happy. Getting the flu on vacation!? Is that not unheard of or what?!

However, I have this stuff that is supposed to fight infections and sickness, called colloidal silver. (Silver Biotics). I took a teaspoon or two before leaving the hotel this morning. It seemed to have worked - right now, I feel OK. No fever, just a slight cough.

So, this morning before leaving MN, I went to Midas in Minnetonka to get my car’s fluids changed and tired balanced, although it really didn’t need it. (I just wanted to be sure that I can get over the Continental Divide with no problems). Damn Google maps gave me some bunk directions and I ended up going in circles. However, I finally found the place and got my car done quickly. I had a nice conversation with the guys there. After all, it isn’t often that they see a car with New Hampshire plates in Minnesota! The mechanic was cute, too.

So I quickly hopped on 94W and drove. And drove. And drove. When I got to Bismark, ND, I decided to stop for the night. It was about 7:30pm and I was a little tired. At that time, I was still in the Central Time Zone.

Well, I was in for a rude surprise. Apparently, there is some sort of convention going on this weekend. And there was NOT ONE ROOM AVAILABLE in the entire city of Bismark, ND. I called hotels.com to help me, and they said Bismark was completely booked. Geez, who knew so many people went to North Dakota?! Then I had the hotels.com rep set me up in a hotel that he said was 75 miles west of Bismark, in a town called Jamestown. I said, fine, I’m heading that way anyway.

Well… an hour later, I had not reached Jamestown. I was in the boondocks somewhere - fields in every direction, no towns to be seen anywhere. (See photos below). The speed limit up here is 75mph, which means I go about 85 mph. In an hour, I should have reached Jamestown. I also didn’t see signs for Jamestown at all, so I was suspicious. I called the actual hotel he had set me up in (which was Days Inn in Jamestown), and guess what? They are 90 miles EAST of Bismark!! Not West! Grrr!! So here I was, in the middle of nowhere, with no place to stay for the night. Not to mention a low gas gauge.

I started to panick. I finally found a gas station in Rickland (or some other boondock town in ND) and asked the girls in the convenience store where there were actual hotels. They said in 20 or so miles, I would reach Dickinson, and that there were a lot of hotels there.

So… I reached Dickinson, ND in record time. I called the Holiday Inn - they were full. I went to the Country Inn (or something similar) - they were also full. I had the woman behind the desk call a couple of hotels for me. She said that the Days Inn had something like 2 rooms left. I ran to my car, jumped in, and raced to the hotel. Thankfully they were right across the main highway. And guess what? I grabbed one of the last 3 rooms in the hotel! Probably one of the last rooms in the town. The next town - and hotel - is probably like 30 miles West of here.

Normally I wouldn’t reveal the actual hotel that I am in for safety reasons, but honestly, there are so many people here that I don’t care. This place is completely packed. There are 2 restaurants and a bar and a ballroom - all packed to capacity. Tomorrow is 7/7/07, and about 38,000 people are getting married in the USA alone.

Now

So, here I am in Dickinson, North Dakota, at the Days Inn. This is one of the oddest hotels I’ve ever been in - my window overlooks the indoor pool. So I can’t even look outside! Not that it matters - when I got here, it was like 8:45PM Mountain Time and 98 degrees and the sun was still out. These upper plains states are really strange. (But somehow I like it).

Photos

As per usual, the pics are lame.

The Mall of America:

The Chicago Skyline:

Wisconsin Scenery:

I will post the North Dakota pics first thing tomorrow tomorrow night!