the roadtrip, part deux!

So....I guess where I left off was our initial arrival in New Mexico. I just have to say, the next day was quite interesting. We set off and the weather seemed perfect for driving. But, in fact, the sun and mild temperature was very deceiving. The wind was horrendous! It was blowing so strong that we had to steer very sharply to the left just to continue going straight down the highway. There were also some spots where we had headwinds while going uphill. Our gas tank really benefited from that, I must say. The countryside is gorgeous in New Mexico...


A lot of signs look a lot like this one...the upkeep around this part of the country is not too keen.

For lunch, we happened to stop off at another historic, route 66 town, so we looked for an authentic restaurant to stop at. We found El Rancho, a hotel/motel and restaurant built by D. W. Griffith.




At first, we didn't believe the signs that advertised the patronage of movie stars...but apparently they were true. This place used to house all sorts of old movie stars back in the day...



The menu looked good too...it had all the different entrees named after a different movie star. Jake ordered the "John Wayne" burger, which at the time seemed appetizing and different, since it was a cheeseburger with guacamole on it. (Unfortunately, in the wee hours of the next morning, Jake found himself quite sick with food poisoning. DO NOT ORDER BEEF HERE. lol. My "leading man" salad was very good though. I recommend it to anyone.)

This is Jake, very studiously driving against the wind. We HAD to make it to Mesa by that night, so we were booking it.


We made it to Mesa and stayed with some very nice relatives of Jake's. Because Jake was set to buy a car two days from then, we knew we'd have a nice day of reprieve from driving. All kinds of plans were made for us to go around and see Jake's hometown, where he grew up, his old schools, favorite places of interest, etc. But sadly, as I mentioned before, Jake came down with food poisoning early that morning. Everything pretty much went out the window at that point and so we spent the day getting Jake back to health. Thankfully, he pretty much 80% ok by that night, and much better the next day. We went to a car auction with a family friend to get his car, and that was an interesting experience in and of itself. It really opened my eyes to car dealers and all their wiley ways. ;)

We anticipated leaving AZ at the latest by 2, and although we found Jake's nice Solara relatively early in the day, many unforseen needs regarding the car arose, one after the other, so we didn't end up leaving Mesa until about 6pm. Yikes. With Jake at the Uhaul and me driving the new car, we sped as fast as we could into LA and arrived in the OC (our destination) by about midnight. It was late, and we were exhausted, but we had made it! I was very disapointed in my inability to get a picture of the "welcome to california" sign, but I was even more disapointed that I didn't get a picture of Jake crossing the California checkpoint in the Uhaul getting searched. Hahaha. California is weird about bringing in plants from the outside, apparently.

What they don't know is....I brought roses with me (MUAAAHAHAHAHAHAAAA!) well...dried roses that is. :D

More songs for the road....most of these are california themed, and appropriately so for the home stretch of our drive:

1. The Mammas and the Pappas: California Dreaming
2.Tom Petty: Free Fallin'
3. Kings of Leon: California Waiting
4. Barry Louis Polisar: All I Want is You
5. Phantom Planet: California
6. Weezer: Undone (The Sweater Song)
7. Sheryl Crow: All I Wanna Do

peace love and sunshine-
~*Jessica*~