California........ My Epic Adventure

[fishki]

So recently I made a drive to Napa California from Independence Kansas, 1900 miles one way, this sucked, but I was being paid to make this drive to pick up a fifth wheel camper trailer for a lady in Independence.

The drive out itself was pretty uneventful until 10 hours into the drive, Kansas is flat, so is eastern Colorado. Very flat, nothing lives here.

These are the 3 main routes on Interstates, I-40 lower route, I-80 upper route, I-70 middle route.

Interstates are boring on long ass drives, So I took I-70 across to mid Utah then US 50 on across and tied back in to I-80, I wanted to make some detours in the Rockies but knowing most passes would be closed for the winter I did have to stick to a main US highways, this also sucked, but oh well

So this is how I went to California

This did let me see some decent scenery that I have not seen before.
Once west of denver it was a long ass steep climb up to the Eisenhower tunnel

Knowing I needed to cross the mountains in the daytime, I actually left home at 10pm, drove for 5 hours then took a 2 hour nap. Doesn't look like I made it far, but needed those hours behind me so I didnt hit mountains at night.

First nap around 3am.

and first sunrise after i had been driving an hour after napping.
Boring...

I did pull off at a ramp to take a leak, saw this thrown in the ditch, yes its a dead baby puppy, i'm not much into pets but this pisses me the fuck off, it could have been taken to a shelter and adopted out to someone who who love and care for it, but some piece of shit threw it out like trash.

Finally see mountains by 10:30 am, almost to Denver.

I will skip the traffic and post some of the climb out of Denver on I70, alot of this is actually pretty steep, would hate to be a truck driver here.

Then suddenly a wild bimmer appeared out of nowhere!!

And one of the many fucking tunnels...I hate tunnels... and mountains...


And now enjoy this shaky video of the Eisenhower Tunnel at 11000 ft


What I forgot to do was after going thru the tunnel was turn the fuck around and go over loveland pass on highway 6.

And finally back down the hill..

Ski Slopes

And some more random down the hill pics...

Now I'm coming into Glenwood Canyon in western colorado, this canyon is only 12.5 miles long, scenic as hell, loved it, beautiful place to be.... but it feels like it takes forever to get thru here because you are basically still in a canyon when you are thru this... canyons are now on my suck list, But I would like to go back here and see more of it. I missed alot of cool features here.

Thats all of that, skipping quite a few pics, now for more driving so I can make the San Rafael Swell in Utah before the sun goes down.

Crap I'm here...

Oh Yeah, If you dont know about this place google it.. Would like to come back here someday and fuck up my truck.

So its now late in the day but I made it to the San Rafael Swell, this is another place someday I would like to come back to and do some serious exploring.

And the suns going down, time for some more endless miles before another nap.

My day of driving. 6am to 4am, 22 hrs with all the site seeing stops, gas, taking a leak... im fucking very tired.

Slept for a few hours then took off again, I'm a country boy and getting damn tired of highways and interstates, time to go look for moose (cause i seen a bunch of watch for moose signs....

Meanwhile, somewhere in Nevada, I find dirt roads... kinda... who cares, i'm tired and have no fucks to give... lets see where this goes

No moose yet...

So I never found any moose, did see some very wild ass horses and antelope, but no damn moose. Time to head to California I guess.

Wasn't much to see driving across nevada... just this sign

And this lone sand dune

And then this sign ..

And then this traffic, and me in the car pool lane

I really wanted to go see the ocean, but after all the traffic I said fuck it, this place sucks and i'm ready to leave, nothing but endless rude road raged drivers. So I got to the ladys house and got the camper all hooked up and pulled out on the street from her yard, checked lights and brakes, unhooked and went to a motel she paid for. Talk about a ripoff, I had a friend with me and she got us each a room, 190 bucks each for 1 nite. WTF! Here a room might cost 50 bucks.

So got settled in and went to find a convienence store to get a 44oz pepsi. Ask the lady where the styrofoam cups were and got a damn lecture on how bad styrofoam is for the environment.... wait what??

I'm getting a lecture on the environment while you are putting shit on shelves with plastic wrappers?? Only have paper cups that someone killed a tree for?? What the living fuck lady! Definitely ready to head home now, these people are whacked.

SO went and crashed for a good 8 hours, got up at the ass crack of dawn and hooked on to camper for the long ride home, complete with the lady who hired me riding along.

I wanted to go home on I-40, no hills, no mountains, more flat. She talked me into I-80, fine whatever, less california that way.

Its saturday morning she says there wont be traffic.... pfft.
This happened...

A 2 bloody fucking hour traffic jam.
All because someone decided to wreck, or had road rage more likely, speaking of which, some dumbass decided to drive on shoulder and thought he would cut in front of me and get behind the semi I was behind, not happening bitch, I pulled up so tight to the ass of that semi we were married. This idiot rolled his window down and starts cussing me out, stay the fuck in line homo where you belong, I just looked at him and shrugged my shoulders, which pissed him totally off, I think all that saved me was a cop that pulled up behind him for driving on the shoulder.

So long story short, dont care to go back to california, Im sure its fine if you been there all your life. And made it home at 1:30 am monday morning, what a sucky drive.

[nymphetomine]

Sounds like a blast!

[Drew]

Hey fish, you covered a lot of my old and current stomping grounds. Good stuff man.

You may not know, but I grew up in Chicago and lived in Denver for a couple years before coming to cali. I've driven I-80 more times then I would like to speak of... lol. But I have officially driven that highway from coast to coast, tho it mysteriously dissappears between Chicago and Cleveland.

We used to drive the Eisenhower tunnel just about every weekend. It's not fun when the western exit is covered in ice. That sucks you missed the pass, it's really cool up there. We used to go snowboarding off the top. Some pretty easily accessible back country and as long as it was before noon easy to hitch hike back up. Man as long as no ding bat truck driver rolled his trailer over in one of the turns. That was always super annoying when that would happen. They built that big ass tunnel but not high enough for trucks unless they drive down the middle in 2 lanes. Which is what they do when it snows. Close off the highway and let the trucks go through.

Glenwood canyon, just south of the town Glenwood springs is Aspen. My father in law lives up there and we spend a lot of Christmases there.

When I moved from Denver to SF I drove the moving truck out on I-80. Then flew back and took my car over on I-70. I spent the night in the Colorado/Utah rest area in my car. Dude I was hung over and couldn't drive anymore. But I woke up in the morning and visited Moab and arches park. I took some dirt road somewhere, it was fun, I had awd... But the road didn't seem to end so I turned around.

So I take it you have been to greenriver, Utah. Great place huh? Lol

In Nevada I found that my little car could hit 140 on a straight and then 145 if it was a down hill. Good times.... Then I was doing 120 through some twisty part and got rolled. I had slowed down but only to 102. Cop was cool he was coming the other way. I stopped and waited for him. So he was really nice and we chatted but he wouldn't let me go. Just wrote me an endangerment of life ticket... not a speeding ticket I guess. Only cost 300 back then and never showed up on my license... out of state I guess.

So you took 80 back home? There was no story for this part of the trip. Where is the picture of the ball statue? You either didn't take 80 back or you lied about this trip. It's a well known fact that if you drive 80 through the flats you have to share a pic of the ball statue... So where is your pic man?

Oh and bay area to Tahoe on Saturday is risky business. You can hit ski traffic all the way up there if you time it wrong. But with little snow this year that's prob not an issue.

It would have taken longer but I would have told you to visit Tahoe and maybe drive highway 50 and take 89 to emerald bay, beautiful area.

Oh and fish, it's not 1993... No one has Styrofoam cups anymore.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[fishki]

Nah didnt' take many pics of the return drive. I really wish I had not taken my hired help along as I would have been able to spend more time sight seeing along the way, only took him cause he never had a raod trip like this and begged me to go, his wife was constantly calling wanting to know if we were there yet and what was taking so long blah blah blah, bitching cause I wanted to pull over and get some sleep, she even got totally pissed cause we spent the night in napa. At this point I was in a pretty shitty mood, never again.

I will make another trip out that way, I really want to go to MOAB for a day.
Would like to do some more exploring around glenwood canyon and maybe some hiking around the swell.
Beautiful country there.

I actually did consider staying on 50 all the way into sacramento and going by tahoe, but time was an issue at this point so I jumped back on 80 right before reno.

I got lucky on 70 going out as there wasnt much if any snow, a week after i got hone they got hit hard and part of 70 was closed for awhile.

Heres some 80 pics drew, just so you know I went home that way cause it was dark and couldnt get a pic of that stupid statue on the salt flats if thats the one your talking about lol.

Left Napa at 7:30am Saturday morning....

The cause of the traffic jam just out of napa..

This was AWESOME! Never seen one in real life!

Emigrant Gap Gas station

And my little truck by fedex

And some random pics...

And Reno Nevada..

And a random pic

And I have no idea where the fuck im at here..but its nite time now..

Casinos everywhere I go.. no idea where I am...
I'm just driving on autopilot now wanting to get home

And the sun is coming up, not sure exactly where I am, east of salt lake city somewhere

And the Green River Tunnel in Wyoming.

My last pic of the trip, absolutely no clue where I am, nor at this point in the trip do I care, I am beyond tired and now just want to get home. Still heading east toward Lincoln Nebraska so I can hang a right at the exit to go south on US 81, at that point I will be with 7-8 hours of home. Which I made at 1:30am Monday morning.

Green River Utah... back there somewhere lol

Guess I live in the past.. all of our stores have styrafoam cups

[Noodlez]

I love coming back here every once in a blue and seeing a new post, damn good trip fish however...you just blew my mind. All this time...these 10+ years I've been a part of this forum, after all the games we played together (mostly warhawk obviously)...I swear on my soul man I thought you were black.

[fishki]

I swear on my soul man I thought you were black.

lol Noodlez how you been, crap yeah been a decade and then some since we all started playing warhawk. but nah, i'm still white

[GerardMes]

Man, that dead puppy pic pissed me off too. That's just awful. The rest of the pics and the trip itself is epic! Glad you had such a good time.

[fishki]

Man, that dead puppy pic pissed me off too. That's just awful. The rest of the pics and the trip itself is epic! Glad you had such a good time.

Yeah, kind of sick that someone would do that to a puppy. It was an epic trip

Welcome to the site tho, it is kind of dead as this was a gaming site from our ps3 days, a few occasionally drop by here and say hi, I just leave it up for old times sake and post random shit.