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.
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.
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.
So everything is getting quite confusing on this site but everyone will just have to play along. The story goes that we write essays or random thoughts about our journeys and we can type them up and upload them as a post very quickly. BUT– if we want to write a post about what happened in a particular location we need the videos to coincide with what we are saying and to give you a first hand feel for what happened. But in order to do that we have to sit at a coffee shop for five or more hours because youtube videos take forever to upload. You can see our dilemma. We have no desire to sit at a coffee shop for hours upon hours when we are on a road trip and every place we go to is part of the vacation. Alas–the essays come from present moment, but the daily events (posts with videos) are a good two weeks behind where we actually are.
For example…in Yellowstone (where we were two weeks ago)—we saw a ton of bison and elk and saw Old Faithful shoot up into the sky at least a hundred feet. It was spectacular. The vast immensity of Yellow Stone is incomprehensible to me, seeing as though I have never lived outside of walking distance from at least three gas stations and the like.
We met a few friends while there and stayed up yelling and dancing around the fire until three o’clock in the morning. Apparently the rangers got three complaints about us and told us we had to leave the park–but we were leaving in the morning anyways so all was good.
Our campsite though, was right by a lake that the rangers said was full of bears fishing. Definitely scared.
I became fairly nostalgic about “home” when we roasted marshmallows. They reminded me of my Aunt Lydia because without her we would have completely forgotten marshmallows–but I don’t think it was really about the marshmallows–it’s about where I feel most comfortable, where I feel most at home. Since I haven’t lived anywhere stable for the last five years and my parents and sister moved across the country it’s been a challenge to really define “home.” I’m sure I’ll figure it out someday.
Denver felt like home with all the lights and people even though I was one thousand miles away from home. We woke up at the Holiday Inn and the car wouldn’t start. We paid seventy dollars for a local Mexican to tell us we were out of gas. Auren took a shower in the Hotel. More Karma building. We ate at a real cool Market called “The Market” recommended to us by some hipster girls who gave us free tickets to a comedy show. It was comedic. Went to the parking lot and jammed out to some techno. Went to the main street for nightlife dressed up for the first time on the trip. WE danced the night away meeting the beautiful people of Denver. Great little lounge turned into a House Dance Club. Didn’t have any place to stay so after the bars closed we made it a goal to meet someone and convince them to let us stay at their place within the half hour of meeting us. It worked. Woke in a strange living room and took the bus back to the city. Auren lost his wallet. Got four hundred dollars out in cash and met a Farah Focett look-a-like and her friendly blonde teller. Found Auren’s wallet. Nothing can go wrong on this trip. —We bought a Buddha just in case.
Auren’s Tarot Reading (until we shut the camera off):
Auren Walks Around Boulder Like a Boss:
Jonathon Meets New People Outside Local Pizza Place:
We drove to Crazy Horse. We were both moved to say the least. More details later.
South Dakota proved to be diverse geographically, beautiful to every stretch of the imagination. Decided that the SAAB was a girl, then decided it was a boy. Who knows?
We climbed to the top of Devil’s Tower as high as we could go without equipment. Super illegal–whatever. Feet smelled bad afterwards. Drove to Gillete, Wyoming– population 1,000– and ate at Granny’s Kitchen. Good Food. Had a beer at Mingles Bar. Everyone thought Auren and I were gay city boys, Mexican and Jewish. We left after twenty minutes. Wyoming is NOT Ann Arbor. Drove straight through the night and told each other how to better improve our social interactions. Good Talk. Slept at Holiday Inn Again.
There is nothing in Nebraska west of Lincoln. Post Office– School–Church–Gas Station–Bar–that’s about it. Sally (our GPS) took us on some desolate roads with gorgeous views. These people can’t have social skills I thought. Wrong. People are super nice. Smiles all around. Almost ran out of gas because there wasn’t a station for three hundred miles. All is good. Petrified Sand Dunes made the road hilly and fun to drive.
I woke up and started driving to South Dakota. NOW I know there is a lot of stuff to see in Nebraska. STopped off at 1880 town and the Petrified Gardens because on the highway told me to. Both worth it…
The badlands were spectacular with views absolutely unimaginable. We climbed like school boys. Mount Rushmore was patriotic enough to bring out the Road Trip American Flag. A Vet told me I was disrespectful for wearing it. I told him to have a nice day. God Bless America. And Mount Rushmore is better at night. Crazy hail storm and lightning everywhere caused us to rock out the Holiday Inn for the night. We owe them some Karma.
4 hours of sleep. Grabbed breakfast at one of the only stand alone twenty four hour trucker diners in America. Good hash-browns–best breakfast burrito Auren has ever had. More intense conversation and good vibes from our hosts and off we went. Lincoln is fairly liberal all things considered. Tried to meet a senator to confirm…
Campus is beautiful and the people were real friendly. Love Library. Quad. O Street. Football Stadium.
Bought some funky outfits–Tom Shoes available for purchase. They give one pair away to charity for every pair sold. Super Rock Out.
We ate at a thai food place and the water knew all about electronic music. Huge tip obviously. Another couch surfing host invited us over to swim so we sat around the hot tub telling stories and getting to know each other. John and his cousin were super friendly and we appreciate their help. Changed. Out to the bar. Danced to some great house music but girls have no rhythm so we left to go hang out with John at the pool hall. Didn’t sleep and left for South Dakota at 2:30 am. Lost my phone. Typical.
Jonathon and I are on the road to Yellowstone as we speak. Well, not quite. We’re actually using free wi-fi service from yet another Holiday Inn… sitting in the car from the parking lot. I love the Holiday Inn very much (see below) and will be patroning it without question exclusively for the rest of my life. We’ll be in the park for the next three days… avoiding bears and bison, witnessing geyser bursts, hiking massive trails, smoking hookah and cooking hot-dogs around the campfire, and of course spreading the good vibe wherever we go and with whomever we meet. Back in 3 days with details. Love to all.
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.
