Days 35 and 36: College Station, Texas

The Dineens

After a morning of looking around at some of Austin’s famous vintage clothing shops and excellent record stores, we took off for the relatively quick drive to College Station, home of Texas A & M as well as John and Katie Dineen, Corey’s uncle and cousin (they live in Bryan, right next to College Station).  We arrived in time for a delicious home cooked dinner, slaved over by Katie and her friend and one of our other hosts, Megan Duffy.  In addition to the fact that this was our first home cooked meal since we’d left Lynbrook, NY, it was really quite good, and it was great to have a roof over our heads and a house to stay in.  We took it pretty easy that night, hanging out with the Dineens and just enjoying the comfort of domestic living.  

Us and Trevor at the Dry Bean Saloon...what a place

The next morning we decided to explore College Station, starting with a lunch stop at Fuzzy’s Tacos, a recommendation from Chris, another one of our excellent hosts.  After an excellent lunch we wandered around College Station, seeing everything from restaurants and bars to A & M specialty shops to cowboy shops and everything in between.  We had a great time exploring before we got back to the Dineen residence and were informed that we’d be hitting the town that night (we put up a big fight against that one).

Showing off our RTD (Road Trip Dance)

After a quick pregame we hit the town with our hosts Katie, Chris, and Megan and their friend Trevor, who seemed to know every bartender and bouncer in College Station, and who successfully got us into every  place we went to for free on a busy Thursday night.  It was a lot of fun to be back out in a college town.  We finished the night with a trip to the famous Whataburger, where Katie ordered a whole bunch of “honey butter chicken biscuits” for us—apparently this is their specialty.  Sure enough we weren’t disappointed, and they were delicious.  

Us and our hosts...Megan, Uncle John, Katie and Chris. Thanks again!

The next morning we woke up bright and early and drove the quick drive to Houston so that we could each catch our flights to our respective destinations on the east coast.  Corey took off for Newark to spend the weekend in Boston at an alumni event, and I flew into Raleigh-Durham, NC to spend the weekend with college friends, since I’d be missing alumni weekend while on the road.  

We’d like to say THANK YOU VERY MUCH to Uncle John, Katie, Chris, the Duff, and Trevor for treating us so well and showing us a great time in Bryan and College Station. 

Days 31, 32, 33, and 34: Desert Driving and Austin, Texas

Cactus Garden

We left Joshua Tree National Park pretty early in the morning, intent on driving out of the south exit of the park in order to pick up Interstate 10 which runs from just south of the park all the way east for thousands of miles.  We decided to take the “Geological Tour Road” which took us through the desert on a dirt road, past some really amazing mountains, cacti and rock formations.  After the first 9 miles, there was a sign recommending 4-wheel drive, so we threw the Rav4 into desert mode and continued on the road, confident in our noble Japanese steed to get us over the rough terrain to the interstate beyond.    

Our first impasse

Unfortunately, after another 10 or so miles—probably around 2 hours into our drive—the road was absolutely impossible to pass, covered in jagged rocks and boulders that would have chewed apart the Rav’s undercarriage.  With much dismay we turned around and retraced our path backwards, through the desert, all the way back to the middle of the park in order to find a better way to I-10.  With the loss of around 4-5 hours because of our little detour, we continued on down the road through Arizona. 

Phoenix, Arizona

We drove pretty much all day to make up for our directional snafu leaving Joshua Tree, driving through Arizona, past Phoenix, and ending up in Picacho Peak State Park, in southeastern Arizona.  This park was very cool…it was basically right off of I-10 on the side of a large mountain, surrounded by desert and huge cacti.  It was a cool place to spend the night.  

Picacho Peak

We got up with the sun the next morning to put some miles behind us, still trying to make up for Joshua Tree.  We made it as far as Sierra Blanca, a ghost town in the middle of nowhere in West Texas, before we crashed for the night.  The next morning we woke up bright and early, and drove all day to get to Austin for the night, which we did.  Unfortunately, the camera didn’t make it out with us in Austin, but we had a GREAT time.  We had some great food, saw some really cool shops on and around the UT campus, and heard some awesome live music downtown on 6^th Street.  We stayed 2 nights in Austin and had so much fun that we could easily have stayed for another  week if we’d had the time.  But, alas, we didn’t.  On to College Station, TX.

Days 29 and 30: Joshua Tree National Park

That's a lotta desert

That's our tent squeezed right in there

We arrived at Joshua Tree National Park after an all day drive through the desert, where we saw absolutely nothing but sand and mountains for hours.  After a quick stop at the visitor’s center to figure out the camping situation, we set out into the park to find a place to sleep for the night.  

  
It took a while of driving through crazy looking rock formations and a forest of Joshua trees (named after the U2 album) before we found an unoccupied campsite, nestled right up against one of the parks famous rock formations.  We cooked dinner after setting up camp, then settled in for the night to prepare for a day of hiking the next day.

Hidden Valley, famous cattle rustler hideout

We woke up bright and early, and headed out on our first hike of the day, a short 4 mile hike through the desert, past the abandoned Lost Horse Mine (in use around 1900), and up to the peak of Lost Horse Mountain.   

The Lost Horse Mine

The mine was very cool, with old rusting equipment just sitting out in the open, and clear signs of hikers making the ill-advised decision to hop the fence and explore the mine itself…something we certainly did not do.  The peak of the mountain offered some excellent views of a couple different desert valleys, as well as a birds-eye view of the Lost Horse mine.   After a few minutes we hiked back to the trailhead so that we could get started on our second hike of the day.  

The 49 Palms Oasis

Our next hike was a 3.5 mile hike through the desert to the 49 Palms Oasis, which was created when a fault line in the earth’s crust opened up, collecting rain water and forcing it to the surface, which supported plant growth in an otherwise arid desert.   

We hiked up that

 This hike was very cool…the trail took us through a total desert until we finally came over a ridge and off in the distance, in the middle of the sand and rocks, we could see bright green palm trees popping up.   

We continued all the way to the oasis itself, which looked like something straight out of a movie.  The highlight of this hike had to be when Corey came across sidewinder rattlesnake about 5 feet from where he was standing.   

He was a BIG guy

After a few minutes we worked up the courage to get close enough for a picture, and believe us, this snake was huge (probably about 8 feet long).  After all that excitement we made our way back to the campsite for dinner and to rest up for a long day of driving the following day.

Days 26, 27, and 28: Las Vegas, Nevada

Our stomping grounds

THE Circus Circus

We drove all day and into the night before we arrived in fabulous Las Vegas to check into our hotel, the Circus Circus.  After freshening up quickly we hit the blackjack tables.  Hard.  We stayed at the Circus Circus casino for a few hours until the decks got cold, then we decided to explore the strip and take a stroll down Las Vegas Boulevard.  

 

 

The Luxor

Since the Circus Circus is all the way on one end of the strip we had quite a walk in order to see the famous part of the strip, and on the way we encountered a few real characters, most of whom can’t be discussed on this family-friendly website.  We made our way through a couple of casinos in search of our favorite, the $5 blackjack table, before we finally settled at the Casino Royale.  We played for a few hours, finally making our way back to our room (after a quick breakfast stop) around 8.  

NY, NY, in motion

After sleeping until the early afternoon we went to the famous buffet at the Circus Circus to energize before hitting the tables again.  From then on, aside from breaks for food, sleep, and a quick run down the block to a Laundromat, we spent the rest of our time in Vegas at the tables.  Although neither of us left as winners, we had a great time, and still had enough money to put gas in the tank for our quick trip to Joshua Tree National Park.  Viva Las Vegas!

Days 23, 24, 25: Yosemite National Park

Roadside 7-point buck

After our night in Redding, CA we tried to drive all the way to the Yosemite to set up our camp before dark, but as we approached and the drive was almost entirely on curved single lane mountain roads we realized we would never make it there by sundown so we picked a state park a little ways outside of Yosemite N.P. and spent the night there.

Tuolumne Meadows in Yosmite

 The next day we drove into Yosemite, braving more single lane mountain highways before arriving at our campsite just late enough that we didn’t have time to do anything exciting in the park that day.  Fortunately, after we drove down into Yosemite Valley for some supplies the gentleman in the campsite next to ours suggested a serious 15 mile (roundtrip) hike up to the “Cloud’s Rest,” which we attempted the next morning.

Cloud's Rest

This hike was very strenuous, with a 3,000 ft. climb in elevation to 9,926 ft. above sea level (from our camp at Porcupine Creek which was at 7,000).  It took us about 6 hours to complete, after which we were both dead tired, but the views from the peak were absolutely incredible.  We could see snow top mountains, massive rock cliffs, valleys and lakes for 360 degrees around us.  It was amazing.

Immediately after we completed the hike, before we went back to our campsite, our plan was to go get gas for the car because the gas light had been on for about 30 miles already.  So we drove all the way to the east end of the park, only to find that the gas station over there was closed for the season.  This left us on the far side of the park, with around 50 miles to drive before we hit a gas station, and it was getting dark quickly. 

I (Joe) was driving, and with the mountainous roads it was pretty nerve racking—driving up big hills using the gas, then coasting allll the way down the other side of the hill, all the while never knowing if or when we’d run out of gas.  After riding all the way across the park with the gas needle fully below Empty, we actually made it to a gas station, saving us from the nightmare of being stranded on the roadside in Yosemite in the dark.     

After that adventurous day we passed out pretty quick back at the campsite, waking up in the morning to a cool, crisp 28 degrees.  We braved the cold, packed everything up, and drove all day and into the night to reach fabulous Las Vegas, where we are right now.

Days 20, 21, and 22: Redwood National Park

Wow.

So we left San Francisco with the intention of making it all the way to the Redwood National Park in one day.  However, we forgot to take into account that we’d be driving through Sonoma and Mendocino counties, which both have dozens of roadside wineries that offer free wine tastings all day.  Needless to say we stopped at 3 wineries (Alderbrook, Milano Family Winery, and Jaxon Keys), sampled some of their finest vino, and then promptly found an excellent campsite ON the beach that was recommended to us by the proprietor of Jaxon Keys.  

View from Navarro River campsite

Our campsite was about 100 yards from the Pacific Ocean, right at the base of steep cliffs, and it was VERY cool.  Our tent was actually pitched on the sand…this was one of our favorite campsites of the trip so far.

 

Pacific Coast Highway in Humboldt County

California 1

After our night on the beach at the Navarro River State Park we headed north along California 1, aka the Pacific Coast Highway, which was an impressive (and a little bit scary) drive right along the coast, up, over and around countless hills and mountains. 

That's a large tree

Oh yea.

 We finally arrived at the Redwood National Park with just enough daylight left to pitch camp and cook dinner.  Our campsite was set back in the woods a bit, and we had to hike about a quarter of a mile with all of our gear just to get to it.  We settled in for the night and planned a big hike through the Redwoods for the next day.  This night was also the first time we got rained on while sleeping outside, but fortunately our tent held up real well and we didn’t get even the tiniest bit wet. 

Fern Canyon

  

We woke up bright and early and after packing everything into the car we set out on a 12 mile hike through the Redwood Forest to the beach and a place called Fern Canyon.  After a small introductory hike telling us about the history and science of the forest, we headed out on the hike.  Along the 12 miles we hiked we saw a whole lot of incredibly HUGE trees and some other wild views that we couldn’t do justice describing here.  Just check out the pictures:

Yea those are wild elk.  Pretty sweet.

After our hike we left the Redwood National Park to put a dent in the 500 mile drive to Yosemite National Park.  We spent the night in Redding, CA at a Motel6 after a delicious dinner at Redding’s finest steakhouse.