Welcome to RockingOutAmerica.com, the website chronicling the adventures of Auren Kaplan and Jonathon Kendall as they embark on a 2-month road-trip across the United States, visiting American sites, having incredible new experiences, and making new connections with people who will hopefully become life-long friends.
The proposed itinerary is this: Leave Ann Arbor, MI for Chicago. Chicago to Iowa City. Iowa City to Lincoln, Nebraska. Lincoln to South Dakota. South Dakota to Denver and Boulder, Colorado. Colorado to Yellowstone. Yellowstone to Los Angeles. San Diego. Santa Barbara. Yosemite. Sequoia. Up to San Francisco. Across and down to Las Vegas, Nevada. Then the American Southwest – Arizona, New Mexico, Texas. Across to the Bayou. Louisiana, Mississippi. Enter the deep South. Florida. Georgia. Alabama. The Carolinas. And finally, Kentucky. Before, of course, returning home.
The trip itinerary is beyond ambitious. It is quite possibly a traveling manifestation of our combined insanity. Or, it could just be the most exciting, mind-opening, and life-changing experience we’ve ever had. Perhaps it’s a combination of the two. Regardless, we’re intensely excited and are glad for you to join us as you see what we see, hear what we hear, and experience America as we experience it ourselves. We invite you to browse this blog. Read it. View pictures. Watch our videos. And most importantly, get a sense of our thoughts and feelings as we cross this incredible and massive expanse of land we call the United States of America. It will be, and has been, quite a ride. Welcome, pack your bag, and join the party. Here’s to Rocking Out America.
“You come from Kentucky hillbillies,” she said with a sly smile. “See how far we’ve come,” she meant. My grandma and I talked for the first time. We’ve conversed and danced, smiled and held hands—but we’ve never talked. Not like adults. And so as the stories rolled from her tongue, she felt like those sages past, captivating my every thought. She wields my life in her history. She wields my life in her.
And so she went on, Mark Twain-ing tales of dirt floors, coal mines, fire roasted game, train jumping, rugged clothes, torn shoes, red hair, blue eyes, sweated brows, and the plural of love.
She told me I come from the civil war and hand-me-downs. That graduating high school wasn’t quite possible. She told me that the men went to war and the women loved them. “Everyone has a vice.” “Comedians today are crude.” “When you get old you know who you are and what you like.” “It’s nice to hear your voice.” “It’s nice to see you.” “You should visit more often.” “I’m sad to see you go…”
I realize that I prosper because I can. I hope because I am allowed to. I dream because I sleep well. I believe because I am comfortable. I live because they have. I live because she has. And so true are her words, even calling them wise would insult.
1. I’m not a good enough writer to describe the Grand Canyon. Look at the pictures.
2. I’m really tired and this blog is difficult to constantly update so these daily updates will have less and less writing.
3. The only thing that you can’t understand from the videos and pictures is that while camping…the moon was as bright as I’ve ever seen it in my life. It felt like a street light. I juggled a few rocks with ease just to see if I could. There weren’t any electric outlets or light sources for hundreds of miles and I could see like it was daylight. It cast a shadow. Spectacular. Go there. Go there. Go there.
I won’t go into too much detail in Vegas because what happens there is supposed to be a secret.
But we stayed in a great hotel for fifteen dollars a night. Went to the two best night clubs I’ve ever been to for free. Our names were on the list so we skipped the line. Got limo service around for free. And had the two most gorging meals of my life.
Once again we arrived not knowing where we were going to stay. I couldn’t get ahold of my cousin and neither could Auren. Eventually Auren’s cousin in Berkeley came through and we had a wonderful time with them. Hospitality was amazing as usual.
First night we went to Berkeley for a night on the town, drank a few beers, Auren more than a few, got some late night food and called it a night. We got up pretty early the next day and drove to see the some Redwood trees and climb a mountain that was near and dear to Auren’s heart. We climbed rocks and hiked a bunch until we decided to see Haight Ashbury and the Castro District. Both were well worth it, talking with local hippies and visiting some great local eateries.
We had a beautiful dinner with Auren’s Uncle and soaked up their wisdom like a sponge.
I already wrote about Yosemite in an earlier post but it is worth noting a few details.
Yosemite has the largest rocks I’ve ever seen. They jut out of the Earth like natural born skyscrapers–gapping huge canyons into the Earth. Breathtaking.
We hiked two trails and got off of both of them–one ending with thousand foot drop offs straight down, and the other with a three hundred and sixty degree view of the park, of California, of the world. We stood on top for one moment, touching the clouds, and becoming intimately acquainted with the sun.
Santa Barbara…. What a city!Well, more like a town.It’s small, with a distinct chill and young vibe, and life here is very, very good.We arrive around midnight.I’m starving.Ask a local girl where the best late night food is.The response we hear is Freebirds, and we’re off to experience an orgiastic burrito-sharing moment in time.Beans.Rice.Pico de Gallo.Chicken.Salsa Verde.Sour Cream.Corn.Guacamole.And fried onions.I repeat.Fried Onions.Never before have I experienced such a multitudinous burst of flavor from one item of food.Absolutely amazing.Took a bite of Janssen and Destiny’s burritos as well.For a beverage, I ordered something called an Horchata, which is a cinnamon-flavored rice milk beverage…. Out of this world!I ordered it again the next morning when we returned to Freebird’s for breakfast.
The beach was, well, immaculate.Gorgeous sand, with beautiful college-age girls in bikinis and guys tossing footballs all about.In the distance, the faint beat of an electronic dance beat.Irish accents all around us; apparently the Irish youth love Santa Barbara’s beaches in the summer.I don’t blame them.The life here is slow, chill, Rastafarian, pleasurable, warm, and laden with sun.College at Michigan is competitive but fun.College in Santa Barbara seems like a breezy day at the beach.I pondered how it would feel to take my homework to the beach… I enjoyed the thought.At one point, I decided to go for a swim and ran full steam into the ocean, crashing into the waves.Fighting them like a man.The ground underwater was hard and smooth; it wasn’t until we returned from the beach towards home that we realized that it was tar—and indeed, our feet were completely blackened.
Two British rock band members accompanied us on the couches in Chris’s home (we Couchsurfed).I took the hammock for the first night, but ended up in the car as the midnight dew proved less than comfortable.4 Swedes almost stayed but didn’t because one was allergic to dogs.Next morning we packed up and headed north towards San Francisco.If you haven’t figured out where you want to go to school yet… UCSB might just be the way to go.Awesome little town.
Peace and love on this rocking out adventure,
Auren
Edit from Jonathon: We ate at an incredible Creole Cajun place in downtown. It was close to thirty dollars a meal but well worth it. Auren’s catfish was the best I’ve ever had–while I munched on some softshell crab. We ordered the dessert before the meal because they make it fresh so it takes more than a half hour to prepare. The manager liked our road-trip story so much he gave it to us for free. Karma.
We went back to LA and saw Hollywood and UCLA and Beverly Hills and all the touristy fun. There are a ton of pictures from all of that. For the night we went to Sidd and Travis’s favorite bar–fully equipped with mechanical bull. Some girl won by cheating and we all left. Janssen road the bull quite well. We were all proud.
The next morning we left for Six Flags Magic Mountain. I had always wanted to go there due to the Discover Channel saying it was Cedar Point’s only rival. It lived up to that. Auren thinks it might even be better. I disagree but I might be a homer? Who knows. I loved it.
And Cedar Point owns Six Flags so I guess it doesn’t matter anyway.
Here are videos I snuck for first hand views of the rides…
After we drove to Santa Barbara and arrived late at night–sharing the house with couch surfing strangers again. We hadn’t eaten all day because we didn’t want to pay for a $6 hot dog—therefore upon arrival we stopped at a place called Freebirds. Amazing.
We drove down to San Diego 6 to a car in a 4 door sedan…but we made it.
San Diego is LA’s cleaner cousin. It’s not as hot, breezier, fresher air, and beautiful beaches. Upon arrival we didn’t have a place to stay which is typical for us. But since we had rubbed the Buddha that morning, as we do every day, the Universe conspired once again and gave us shelter. Janssen’s brother’s friend happened to be traveling through San Diego for business and let us fight for beds in his hotel room…
Upon arrival we went to an OUTDOOR mall–which I had never seen before–but apparently when the weather is 75 and sunny every single day roofs are optional. It was a comfortable hot. The people are beautiful. The downtown area is popping and we had a great night out for our first adventure. There is a street called the “gaslamp” where there are dozens of bars. We hopped a few and ended up at a dance club. Go figure. Auren had a rough night, being nearly assaulted by a few rogue drunkards but all was well and we went to the beach the next day.
Coronado Beach is on a peninsula, so it is necessary to take a beautiful boat ride over to the end. After a long walk to the beach we decided it was in our best interests to lie on the beach all day intermitently throwing a baseball, reading, and swimming. Perfect. Absolutely stunningly perfect.
Everyone got pretty burnt except for me since I have suntan lotion in my blood. Got to love being Mexican.
I’m fairly certain that I got hit on by a few old widows who we danced with in the park. We saw a giant gathering of old rich retired people listening to a rock cover band in the park (well over a thousand people were there)—and decided we had to go dance. We did, and I was taught all sorts of new (old) dance moves by a few woman rocking out. I enjoyed their company—for a second thought about feigning interest and seeing if I could get a few bucks from the millionaires. My conscience got the best of me.
After we grabbed a bite to eat at a restaurant–saw a sign saying “I’d rather be in Ann Arbor” and met the owner (from Ann Arbor) and chatted him up a bit. Ran back to the city for one more night out and ended up talking about the fundamentals of consciousness and reality over late night fried food at four o’clock in the morning.
I have an ear infection because the clouds in San Francisco are on the ground. I can’t get any moisture in my ear or I immediately get an ear infection. This means that I avoid putting my head under water. Don’t put my head under water—don’t get an ear infection—-or so I thought. The reality is I could never live in San Francisco because the fog is so bad that moisture gets into my ear while I walk around.
We drove straight to LA without stopping except to fix our destroyed tire. It didn’t take too long and the only bad part about it was that we had to use a Walmart to fix it. Auren and I have attempted to not eat and/or use any national chains. The idea is that, sure it’s easy to stop at a McDonalds and pick up four dollar menu sandwiches and move on but I can do that in Michigan. So we never use national chains and try to give back to the local communities where we visit. Point is we failed and used a Walmart to fix our tire. Oh well.
It took us about 15 hours to get to LA from Yellowstone. We stopped in Montana and ate so we can say we have been there. I had an elk burger and Auren had a buffalo burger. They had the world’s largest banana split and I was tempted to try and beat the record for eating it (8:00 minutes) but realized I would be wasting $16.00 because I was so full already. Idaho looked like South Dakota but a little greener. Utah was more desert-y and with giant mountains every so often. We only passed through Nevada for a little bit and saw the lights from Vegas in the distance. The ride was wonderful, arrived around seven in the morning and slept for a while.
We stayed with a few buddies from Ann Arbor who live near Hermosa Beach—it lived up to it’s name. We stayed in Hollywood for the night and partied till the streets were dead of action. Welcome to the City of Angels indeed.
Auren Kaplan and Jonathon Kendall are two recent graduates of the University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor. Auren does not know what he wants to do with his life, though he thinks it will have something to do with love, peace, and good vibes. Jonathon has officially decided to become a writer. They reside in the driver and passenger seats of a 2006 Saab 9-3 2.0T, frequenting Holiday Inn parking lots, podunk towns, friendly persons' couches, and the ocassional camp-site. Hotels are not an option... except for in Vegas.
