Surfin’ USA

4000 miles / 6500 km in 32 pictures

I finally found the time to go through all the pics I’ve taken during our road trip over christmas and New Year’s, and while they don’t cover everything, they should give a pretty decent overview of what we did and what places we’ve been to.

After visiting relatives of Dain down south on Oceanside, we drove up to LA on the first day and hung out with a friend of Dain. The next morning we started our long drive up north and got to San Francisco just after sunset, where we spent a couple of hours.

Since we didn’t have any contacts in San Francisco, we then decided to continue driving into the night. Sometime around midnight we pulled over somewhere in the mountains of northern California and slept in the car for some hours. The next morning we hit Oregon, where we briefly stopped by at some other friend’s place. In the afternoon we passed a factory outlet mall, where we spent some hours and quite some money. Due to this we made it to Seattle rather late that night and crashed at Jeff’s place, an old roommate of Dain. For the next 1 1/2 days we explored Seattle, meeting up with more of Dain’s old friends on the way.

In the evening of our second Seattle day, we picked up another friend from the airport and drove east to Spokane, WA, where we were latecomers to a private party of some friends. The next morning we were hit by a moderate snow storm, which slowed our progress eastwards down. Hence we only got to Dain’s house late that night. Since his family had no idea he was coming we wrapped him in wrapping paper and had him walk up to the front door and ring the bell. Let me tell you, his family was in for a surprise when he tore the paper apart, to put it mildly.

The next days we stayed at the house and had tons of fun, e.g., exploring the outdoors with the four-wheeler and playing paintball with the little brothers. And since Dain and I had gone shopping in the outlet mall in Oregon, we wrapped our purchases up and thereby even had some presents waiting for us under the Christmas tree.

After visiting another old friend of Dain in Bozeman, MT, we started driving back south. And while the days at Dain’s house had seen good weather and only little snow one morning, just on the day we left we had another snow storm coming through. Still we eventually made it to Salt Lake City, where we were able to stay with an uncle of Dain for two nights.

In Salt Lake City I went to check out downtown with its Mormon churches (Salt Lake is the “Mormon capital”) while Dain went snowboarding with his uncle and aunt. In the evening we met up again and had dinner with an old employer and friend of Dain. He is currently the meteorologist for one of the local skiing resorts and therefore has his little house up on the mountain side, from where you have a gorgeous view of the canyon with its ski slopes.

In the morning of the 30th we proceeded further south, heading for Las Vegas, where we arrived later that day and met up with yet another friend of Dain. We took it easy that night and just went out for a few beers, so we’d be fully recovered for New Year’s. The next day we slept in and then met up with some guys I know from Irvine, with whom we were sharing a hostel room that night. We also visited the local factory outlet malls and were again able to find some good bargain buys.

In the evening we grabbed a backpack full of beers and got on our way towards the Strip, the main road in Vegas, where all the major hotels and casinos are located. At midnight we stood in the middle of a huge party crowd on the street, watching some nice fireworks. Afterwards we wandered around a little and slowly headed to the hotel. On the way we stopped at different places; all in all I lost $5 in gambling while Dain won $20. The whole city was pretty crazy that night, so it was an interesting and fun experience — next year, however, I’d rather have a slightly more quiet and relaxing New Year’s.

The next morning we had to get up early, since Dain’s plane back to Sweden left at noon. I was able to drop him off at the airport without major problems and subsequently started the last 280 miles back to Orange County. Unfortunately it seemed like half of California was driving back from Vegas that day, so the traffic on the highway was quite insane, and it took me 6.5 hours. But eventually I made it home, where I’m now recovering from the trip.

All in all it was a great trip, covering roughly 4000 miles or 6500 km (below you find a picture of our rental car at the end of the trip). We saw lots of interesting things, and I met many very nice people. I’d like to thank Dain for “showing me around”. Thanks also to everyone who gave us a place to crash, especially his family in Montana. All of you helped in making the trip a blast!