babble mix

NYC to California – Day 05, Monday

Day 5 Destination: Rosie’s place at Hollister, Northern CA
States: UT, NV, CA
Highlights: Salt Flats, UT, Lake Tahoe, CA

Nature showcased its mood swings today. It went from all sun in the Salt Flats of Utah, then gray clouds still somewhere in UT, then heavy, 0-visibility pouring rain, then sleet and snow from snow-capped mountains in Nevada (blown by the wind) then back to all sun and then finally cloudy skies in NV, all in a couple of hours. It felt like we were crossing weather boundaries. I was half expecting to pass by a hurricane. That would have completed nature’s weather showdown.

We passed by some pretty nice, wallpaper-material scenery. And when we finally crossed the border to CA, I was amazed. I envisioned California to be all beaches, some mountains and some boring land shared by the other states we crossed. But I later realized that California had much more topography to offer – deserts and valleys, beaches and lakes.

It was so beautiful. Either that, or mababaw lang talaga ako at madaling maaliw – I appreciate things like a cloudless, blue sky, or a calm, peaceful scenery. Maybe because I came from a place so chaotic that seeing a picture like that was a welcome change to me.

We even tried to find that beautiful rock by Lake Tahoe in CA where I went with my relatives last year, but to no avail. Naligaw lang kami, making our supposedly 13-hour trip longer by about an hour and a couple more gallons of gas, so we decided to just make do with what scenery we had and continue on with our journey.

Going to Rosie’s place in Hollister was a feat to accomplish at night, especially for people like us who were unfamiliar with the streets and unused to the local driving practices, a.k.a. speed of traffic. It can get really confusing.

Ang hirap kasi to tell kung alin ang ilaw ng kotse at ilaw pala ng reflector sa gilid ng daan when all the cars were just speeding by us left and right. Even Nino, who, we thought already drove fast, exclaimed, “why is everyone so much faster than me?!” Mukhang dito sa CA, suggestion lang ang speed limit, which if you try to follow, will make you a slow road hazard.

If we didn’t have our GPS, we would definitely have missed MORE turns and exits at the speed we were running. Buti na rin talaga, we had it, because it told us how many more miles to go before making the next turn, or before magbago ang pangalan ng street or road na dadaanan namin.

In the beginning, Nino and I didn’t mind when the GPS said “continue 300 miles…”, but after 4 days of driving, hearing the same thing, and knowing we were getting close to our semi-final destination, it was a relief to hear “continue 10 miles, then turn left”. That is until we realize that there are 50 miles more to go after that turn!

Grabe! “So close yet so far” never felt truer than any other time. So imagine our relief when dear GPS finally said, “Arriving at destination on right.”

Though Hollister is not our last stop – we’re still driving to our final destination, Torrance CA – I feel we have already accomplished something BIG. We made it through 90% of our road trip before we finally start settling down. We drove through 11 states, over 3200 miles, countless weather and landscape changes in 5 days

We finally made it. We’re here!

posted by meL @ 8:04 PM