sick!: all good things…

so the trip is over, here's a brief recap of where I left off in albuquerque, NM.

We woke up fairly early, and after some doing some errands, we were back on the road. Our first destination was the four corners. dumb. Then we were on route to the Grand Canyon. We hauled ass and got there with about 20-30 minutes left in the sunset. I can't begin to explain how beautfiul it was. We parked the car in a lot at the top of the canyon, and crashed there that night. Looking up at the stars with no light pollution was surreal, like being in a planetarium. We woke up with the sun, and got to catch the sunrise over the grand canyon which was equally as magnificent as the sunset. I took like 150 pictures there alone.

So we got back on the road at about 9:30 towards Vegas, with a stop at the hoover dam, meh, we got there at about 4:00. Had a quick shitty lunch and decided to see the dark knight at a theatre there, movie ruled. We got out, and after charging my phone and making some calls, we hit the strip to find a hotel. Lucky for us, we booked a room at the travelodge for 60 bucks! Long story short, I lost 40 bucks, then won 22.50, and Lore and I found out that though Las Vegas is the 'city of sin' they are ashamed of their strip clubs, and left us high and dry in our search for them on the actual strip. We didn't go off of it, cause we weren't trying to get stabbed. got to bed around 4 and woke up around 10 to get on the road for the final leg of our trip to cali.

I got behind the wheel and took us to ronalds donuts (vegan donuts) it was delicious. Then we drove through the unforgiving desert, and through the reasonable CA traffic to LA/Hollywood. I got an uneccesary pair of jeans, and we got back on the road to santa barbara. I managed to get us a place to stay through the girl (angel) we were staying with, she got me in contact with her friend sara, and after getting to the hotel and waiting a bit, showed up with this kid darrin and manny mares, and we crashed with them.

Friday was the first day of the fest, I got some sweet stuff, let down played, reign supreme played, it was a good day. Got some good hanging out in, and met some rad people.

Saturday was more or less, bands I wasn't really into, except for end of a year, which were really fucking good. I fell asleep really early that night, manny stayed with us that night as well.

Sunday was the last day, mother of mercy played, and it was sinking ships last show. They played really well, even though I didn't hear 2 of the songs I was hoping for, and I'm still bummed that I won't ever see them again. Went to dennys after the fest for an awesome boca burger and fries with Ki Seok (the geeks' singer) this dude preston from CT (solid) angel, lore, andrew, and manny. greg and ray from the mongoloids approached us and asked if they could crash on our floor, and I also saw my b9 lunch bud lynn there. all in all, and awesome last night in CA, and an awesome way to end the fest.

The drive out monday was miserable, the weather was crappy. It was a blur until we made it to a red robin somewhere on historic route 66, then andrew drove for about 9-10 hours. I picked up somewhere in southern utah (I think) which sucked, cause it was night time and there is a ton of shit I would have loved to see down there, as far as natural rock formations are concerned, but whatevs. It was a steady switch on and off between me and andrew from there to chicago, except for our shittily worn tire somewhere outside of denver that we had to get changed. I did however, drive through the rockies at sunrise, which was breath taking. I really want to get out to vail to snowboard at some point, cause it was really nice looking. Getting a couple hours of lousy car sleep here and there and then getting about 2 on his floor in his apartment in chicago didn't make the rest of the drive home any fun. Lore and I departed chicago at about 9am wednesday morning, and after stopping at a lot of rest stops and shit we got back to reading, PA at 11:30pm, where I stayed up till about 3:30 and went to work at 8:30.

So, all in all, the trip was flawless and amazing. ~6,600 miles, $1,200 for gas and car rental, hashed 3 ways equalling $400 a person, which was the price for a plane ticket, not including parking/rental car. We saw so much awesome stuff, and would do it again in a heartbeat. I still feel like I'm catching up on all that lost sleep, but I should be ok by next week. I think next year for S&F, I'll be taking a plane though, haha.

So here are a few pics that lore took, that I like!