After returning from Ecuador and spending a day in Austin, I took our little yellow FIAT 500 across to the West Coast to visit some family and friends. Here are highlights of my solo excursion across the U.S. Southwest.
Austin
After getting back to Austin, Ruhi and I spent some time decompressing from our trip, re-acclimating to the United States, and taking care of a few odds and ends.
We spent a few hours working at a Barnes & Noble while Sheena had an appointment. Plus other exciting things like laundry, job applications, business building, and the like.
One of the highlights was getting dinner at an amazing Turkish restaurant with Trina and Sheena. I haven’t had a ton of Turkish food, but this place was awesome, and we got more than enough deliciousness for the four of us.
But then, less than 48 hours after returning to Austin, I got in our packed-up little yellow FIAT 500 and headed out on my Journey to the West. I started by heading out on 183 to highway 29 towards Llano where I jogged down on Highway 16 to arrive in Fredricksburg.
While I was there I visited the last HEB I would see in a while to pick up some fruit, tortillas, and peanuts. Those ended up sustaining me for most of the whole next day.
During the first 2 hours of the drive to Fredricksburg, I didn’t listen to anything in the car. I wanted to just totally let my brain reset and de-stress, so I just drove in silence and let my mind absorb the rhythm of the road. It was surprisingly effective and by the time I got to the HEB I was feeling pretty refreshed.
West Texas
From here it was a long, straight, and flat drive for many more hours in the barren landscape that is West Texas. I listened to a few web development YouTube videos and some random Spanish language comprehensible input stuff. But for the most part I was just vibing with the road.
And, yes, the drive was pretty uneventful and relatively boring, but it was also very soothing. Lots of beautiful rock formations and interesting plant life. The roads weren’t too busy and I made good time.
Every two hours I would stop, either for gas or just at a rest stop to recharge my brain. Before I knew it, I was skimming the border of Mexico as I approached my first stop at a motel in El Paso, Texas.
Speaking of skimming the border, I was really surprised by just how close to Mexico the 10 Freeway goes. I guess I knew that in my head, but I just didn’t realize how it felt when you’re spitting distance from another country.
I’m not sure why since I used to live 30 minutes from Canada when I was in Bellingham, Washington. But I’ve only been to Mexico once and the idea of easily driving across the border to a country where they speak a different language is kind of exciting.
Clearly I have never lived in Europe. lol.
El Paso to Mesa
Right before sunset I “landed” in El Paso and pulled into my motel near the freeway. I wasn’t hungry so I just relaxed in the room. But I had a plan for something I wanted to do so I spent the next few hours on that.
Specifically I recorded a packing video to review everything I took with me on the trip to Ecuador, and to evaluate what I didn’t need to take with me. The video will eventually go on my Walk the Planet YouTube channel, but the gist of it is that I could have gotten everything down to just a backpack instead of also having a carry on wheeled spinner luggage.
Lessons learned. 🙂
The next morning I woke up as the sun was rising over the horizon. I quickly took a shower, got dressed, packed things up, and headed out to the car and on to the road.
My right ankle was feeling pretty wonky (i.e. it was hurting) so it was a challenge for the first half of the day to drive, but I made it work.
Finally getting to a new state helped with that. I crossed the border just past El Paso into New Mexico and stopped briefly in Las Cruces to get something to drink at a Starbucks.
I noticed the night before that I had passed into the Mountain Time Zone, which brought me one hour later than Austin. For some reason I didn’t realize that Texas had two time zones so I was a little surprised.
But as I crossed New Mexico and headed towards Arizona I realized that I would only be in the Mountain Time Zone for a very short span of time — around 3 hours. After that I would effectively be in the Pacific Time Zone, since during the summer months Arizona is in the same time zone as California.
But the weird thing is that, because Day Light Savings was happening one day later, and since Arizona doesn’t follow that time-changing convention, it would slip over to the Mountain Time Zone while California moved an hour further away.
Time zones and Daylight Savings are so weird.
And suddenly I was in Arizona and on my way to Tucson. It was getting warmer and dryer and the rock formations were pretty impressive.
I stopped in a small town go gas up at a Speedway station. But otherwise it was pretty uneventful until I got to Tucson and decided to get some caffeine for the last leg of my trip. I picked up an iced drink at a Dutch Bros drive through and then got back on the freeway for the last 90 minutes of my trip for the day.
The highway opened up, more cars got on the road, and it started to feel like I was in a proper city, even more so than El Paso did. But again it was a long straight road and then I was arriving in the Phoenix area, driving up through Chandler into Mesa.
I checked into the Motel 6 on Main Street, put my clothes and a few things in the room, and then got back in the car to head out to see the nieghborhood.
Specifically I wanted to check out where we would be living starting in January. If you aren’t aware, Ruhi and I are moving to Mesa, AZ starting January, and we already signed a contract for a place there.
Good news: it is actually there. Phew!
And it is in a nice neighborhood. But I had some work to do, so after mulling over the idea of seeing a movie, I opted instead to head to a Panera Bread and get some work done.
I stayed until it got dark and then went back to the motel and crashed for the night.
Mesa to San Diego
Another early morning watching the sun rise. A shower, change, packed up the car, and then decided to get a haircut. I knew I would have to look for places to get my haircut once we lived there, and since I needed a cut I thought I would get a jump on that and check out a place I found online.
It was one of those old school barber shops. They keep things high and tight and the barber did a great job. Much shorter on the sides than I normally get it, but I knew it would be a while before I get another cut so that worked in my favor.
Total cost was $20 + $5 tip. I think I found my new barber.
After that I went to the coffee shop, Buddha’s Brew, that is located about a half block from where we’ll be living. I figured this is where we would end up spending a fair bit of time next year so I parked myself there for a bit to do some work.
Good coffee … nice vibes … and overall a nice place to hang out and get things done. Approved!
And then it was time to head out. I got in the car around 10:30 AM and started the long drive to California. However, because I found out my friend was in the hospital in San Diego, I opted for the southern route and made my way down to I-8 and did more border skimming as I headed through Yuma.
Since gas in California is pricier than many other states, I stopped at the Circle K in Yuma before crossing the border.
And then I was back on the road and crossing another state border. California here I come!
It was getting pretty warm. The temperature outside the car was around 95 degrees (keep in mind this is November) but as soon as I passed the mountains to the east of San Diego, the temperature dropped and the moisture levels in the air went up dramatically.
So dramatically that my fingers started puckering up like I had just spent a few hours in the swimming pool. On top of that my body suddenly had to go to the bathroom really bad. I must not be the only person who this happens to because there is a rest stop right after it happened.
Another hour or so and I was pulling up to the UCSD medical post-op housing location and visited with my friend. I’m glad I was able to drop by for an hour, but I didn’t want to overstay my welcome (and inhibit their recover) so I got back on the road and drove another 90 minutes up to Long Beach where my dad lives.
Long Beach
I was pretty familiar with this drive since I’ve lived in Orange County and Long Beach before. Lots of wide open freeways with people driving 10-15 miles over the speed limit. It was a quick trip.
For the next few days I stayed with my dad and my step-mom, Elaine. We got to watch the last game of the World Series, which was quite the nail-biter.
The next day was Elaine’s birthday so while she was out with her daughters (and one grand-daughter) I took my dad out for a seafood lunch at San Pedro Fish Market. He loves seafood and Elaine doesn’t so this was a treat for him.
It was great to see some of the family again since I don’t get to see Elaine’s kids all that often. I’m glad they were all able to spend the day together. 🙂
I took my dad out again for another errand the next day to get a haircut, and then we went out again to pick up a prescription at the doctor’s office. I think he just loves driving around in a car but since he doesn’t have a car anymore he gets to do it vicariously through me. 🙂
After all that driving we were both wiped out so we got an early rest.
The next day I was back on the road and headed up to San Gabriel Valley for some work-related tasks and activities. But I also got to visit and stay with some wushu friends in Monrovia.
San Gabriel Valley
It was a straight shot up the 710 and then over to the 605. I spend a few hours in the afternoon doing work at Panera Bread and Starbucks before heading to Wushu Unlimited to watch some wushu training.
There is nothing more challenging than to watch wushu when you can’t even walk, but it was fun anyway since I haven’t seen a full wushu training session in quite a while. It was good motivation for me to heal up as soon as I can so I can get around normally again.
The next morning Wang Wei took me to a nice Taiwanese cafe, Yi Mei, for some yummy Chinese breakfast food. Soy milk, some meat and veg filling wrapped in various things. It was all delicious.
After that it was back to Starbucks for more work. Apparently I’m not the only middle aged man who has this idea as you can see from this picture of the Starbucks customers doing their thing.
Then in the evening it was back to watch some more wushu training and then I went out for Korean food with Avi and Julianna. Always nice to hang out with them and get some delicious food. Thanks! 🙂
On Thursday I had a meeting with a friend / previous co-worker, so I headed early over to Claremont and found a (super busy) cafe to plug in and do some work.
This place had pretty amazing drinks, but the lines from 7:00 AM to noon were out the door the ENTIRE time. It was crazy.
I mean, yeah, it was pretty tasty. But still … I didn’t think it was “stand in line for 30 minutes” tasty. lol.
After that I met with Christopher and we grabbed some grub (yum!) and then headed to his place where I got to play with his two sphynx cats. They were super cute and it was my first time hanging out with hairless cats.
My days were all pretty much a repeat. Spend the day working or having a meeting, and then the evenings watching some wushu. Friday was upon us and I did the Panera Bread / Starbucks run again.
The good news is that I was able to drum up a bit of business during my travels, so I think it was overall a productive stay.
Also, a happy birthday to Avi who had a birthday on Friday, November 7th. I didn’t see her on this day since she had plans with friends (and rightfully so).
SoCal to San Francisco
Saturday morning it was time for the last leg of my trip. As Ruhi was flying from Austin to Tulsa to wrap up the last week of our rental and get Milo ready for the trip to the Bay Area, I was driving up the I-5 over the Grapevine and through the central valley to my old stomping grounds.
I opted to go over through Gilroy instead of paying the $8 to cross the Bay Bridge. It was only 10 more minutes of driving so it was worth it.
When I got to my mom’s place I unloaded most of the car and then went out for a couple hours to do some work and get a bite to eat. But then it was time to head back and hit the hay … or couch, actually.
A song for the trip
And, yes, I made a song …
Get in the Little Yellow Car
Lyrics
Chorus
Get in the little yellow car.
Driving on the road is a blast
Get in the little yellow car.
Time for a road trip to the West!
Oh, get in the little yellow car.
Yeah, driving on the road is the best.
We’re in the little yellow car.
I said it’s time for a road trip West!
Heading out from Austin. Keepin’ it weird.
It’s a long drive, just as I feared.
Stop at H.E.B. for tortillas! Ya heard?
Drivin’ through the roads to Fredricksburg.
The road to El Paso. Straight as an arrow
Stay in a motel and then New Mexico
Cross to Arizona and another motel
Staying in Mesa. And then time will tell.
Chorus
Haircut, a coffee. Then down to Yuma.
Get some gas. Zoom-a, Zoom-a, Zoom-a!
Pass through San Diego to see my good friend
Long Beach is where this day will end
Two or three days with my dad and Elaine
Using the crutches cuz I’m feeling some pain
Driving errands. Family time for me.
And then go north to the S.G.V.
Chorus
Repeat the sequence every day non-stop
Work on the business at a coffee shop.
Watch some wushupractice at night
Then rinse and repeat. All right, All right!
Finally time to head to the Bay.
San Francisco. Driving all the way.
Took 10 days but I finally made it.
Now back to the chorus. C’mon and let’s say it!
Chorus
The car is half the size of a humvee
But this yellow buggy is so fun, see
Even in the rain, the car feels sunny
Lovin’ a drive in the FIAT five-hundee
Chorus