We jump started it this morning and drove it to a Ford dealership where they changed the battery. Halleluja!! We were soooo happy, and we will be on our way to Sedona and Grand Canyon shortly.
We'll write more later tonight :)
Vib.
tirsdag 17. august 2010
16 august: Texas- Santa Fe, New Mexico- Winslow, Arizona
Theme song: "Santa Fe", John Bon Jovi, "Det löser seg", Timbuktu
Vi dro fra Amarillo, Texas ikke fullt så tidlig som planlagt, men vi var på veien til kl 09:30. Jeg kjørte og kjørte til vi forlot Texas og endte opp i New Mexico. Vi spiste lunsj/middag på "The Silver Moon" på Old Route 66. Oh yes, det var en gammel diner med amerikansk og mexikansk mat, og med veggen full av bilder av kjendiser som hadde spist der (blant annet Angelina Jolie). UC fant enda en hatt, hehe, men om hun kjøpte den får være hemmelig enn så lenge. Her er iallefall et bilde av den:
Etter vi hadde spist satte vi kursen mot Santa Fe. En liten omvei på turen vår, men Matt hadde snakket så varmt om den byen og vi var veldig spente. Og byen innfridde defintivt! Det er det peneste og morsomste stedet vi har vært på så langt. Bygningene var brune leirehus og butikkene var fulle av morsomme småting, perfekt for oss :)
Det ble litt shopping, en milkshake og mye "åååååå", "se der!", "å, så søtt"..hehe! Jeg forelska meg helt i byen og håper jeg kan dra tilbake en gang.
Vi klarte å komme oss avgårde før det ble altfor sent, og veien gikk videre i retning Flagstaff. Jeg sovnet elegant rett før vi krysset grensen til Arizona, men fikk med meg en helt nydelig solnedgang inne på indianerreservatet Navajo.
Vi stilte klokka 2 timer tilbake innen vi bestemte oss for å ta inn på et motell i Winslow, Arizona. Vi endte opp på Quality Inn (enda et Choice hotell, og ja, det har basseng). Da vi skulle kjøre bilen rundt på baksiden for å lettere få lempet ut all bagasjen, konket bilen. Vi fikk ikke startet den igjen! Nå er det litt krisestemning her, spørs om vi rekker Grand Canyon og Las Vegas som planlagt i morra, men vi er positive. Kanskje holder det å få jump-startet bilen og fått den sett over av en fyr fra Ford butikken nede i gata. *Krysser fingrene*.
Akkurat nå er vi bare lykkelige over at bilen slutta funke mens vi sto stille og ikke mens vi var i fart (på nettet leser vi om flere som har opplevd det). Vi hadde jo heldigvis betalt hotellet og alt før den slutta funke :) Så nå er det senga som kaller, så får vi se hva morgendagen bringer.
Nattinatt!
English- a short summary:
We left Texas not as early as we planned (we seem to have a hard time getting up early enough). We drove to Santa Fe in New Mexico, the most beautiful place we've visited so far! We stayed there for some hours just shopping and looking around. Then we left New Mexico and drove in to Arizona. We saw a beatiful sunset when we were driving through an indian reservation. Then, earlier than before on this trip, we decided to stop for the night at 9:30. But: as we were going to drive the car to the back of the hotel the card just died! It still won't start, but we are optimistic and we hope we will be able to get it fixed in the morning so we can continue to Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Fingers crossed!
Night, everybody :)
Vib.
Vi dro fra Amarillo, Texas ikke fullt så tidlig som planlagt, men vi var på veien til kl 09:30. Jeg kjørte og kjørte til vi forlot Texas og endte opp i New Mexico. Vi spiste lunsj/middag på "The Silver Moon" på Old Route 66. Oh yes, det var en gammel diner med amerikansk og mexikansk mat, og med veggen full av bilder av kjendiser som hadde spist der (blant annet Angelina Jolie). UC fant enda en hatt, hehe, men om hun kjøpte den får være hemmelig enn så lenge. Her er iallefall et bilde av den:
Etter vi hadde spist satte vi kursen mot Santa Fe. En liten omvei på turen vår, men Matt hadde snakket så varmt om den byen og vi var veldig spente. Og byen innfridde defintivt! Det er det peneste og morsomste stedet vi har vært på så langt. Bygningene var brune leirehus og butikkene var fulle av morsomme småting, perfekt for oss :)
Det ble litt shopping, en milkshake og mye "åååååå", "se der!", "å, så søtt"..hehe! Jeg forelska meg helt i byen og håper jeg kan dra tilbake en gang.Vi klarte å komme oss avgårde før det ble altfor sent, og veien gikk videre i retning Flagstaff. Jeg sovnet elegant rett før vi krysset grensen til Arizona, men fikk med meg en helt nydelig solnedgang inne på indianerreservatet Navajo.
Vi stilte klokka 2 timer tilbake innen vi bestemte oss for å ta inn på et motell i Winslow, Arizona. Vi endte opp på Quality Inn (enda et Choice hotell, og ja, det har basseng). Da vi skulle kjøre bilen rundt på baksiden for å lettere få lempet ut all bagasjen, konket bilen. Vi fikk ikke startet den igjen! Nå er det litt krisestemning her, spørs om vi rekker Grand Canyon og Las Vegas som planlagt i morra, men vi er positive. Kanskje holder det å få jump-startet bilen og fått den sett over av en fyr fra Ford butikken nede i gata. *Krysser fingrene*.
Akkurat nå er vi bare lykkelige over at bilen slutta funke mens vi sto stille og ikke mens vi var i fart (på nettet leser vi om flere som har opplevd det). Vi hadde jo heldigvis betalt hotellet og alt før den slutta funke :) Så nå er det senga som kaller, så får vi se hva morgendagen bringer.
Nattinatt!
English- a short summary:
We left Texas not as early as we planned (we seem to have a hard time getting up early enough). We drove to Santa Fe in New Mexico, the most beautiful place we've visited so far! We stayed there for some hours just shopping and looking around. Then we left New Mexico and drove in to Arizona. We saw a beatiful sunset when we were driving through an indian reservation. Then, earlier than before on this trip, we decided to stop for the night at 9:30. But: as we were going to drive the car to the back of the hotel the card just died! It still won't start, but we are optimistic and we hope we will be able to get it fixed in the morning so we can continue to Grand Canyon and Las Vegas. Fingers crossed!
Night, everybody :)
Vib.
mandag 16. august 2010
August 14 and 15: Stillwater, Oklahoma and Amarillo, Texas
Theme songs: "Man in the Mirror" by Michael Jackson, "How do you do" by Roxette and "Here we go again" by White Snakes
We got up and left Alma by 11, after having my first peanut butter/jelly-sandwich for this trip, yeah! On the way to Ele we stopped by another Target, just to get a break from the road really, but we, ehem, ended up shopping some more - they were much needed items by the way ;) We also went to an at&t to see if the american phone could be fixed. The lady asked me if I had turned the phone off and on again, I replied that I of course had done that. What I hadn't done was removing the battery and putting it back in. And miraculously it was working again, go figures, but good times nonetheless.
We arrived in Stillwater at 5 and it was awesome to see Ele and Matt again =D
We did the practical things as laundry and organizing things, before some of Ele and Matt's friends came over at 6 for home made pita bread pizzas (yummi). Atfer this we went to a restaurant, Joseppi's, for a red dirt concert (!). There we had horrible Mojitos and great beer - one was with apricot and was surprisingly tasty. We went home for drinks and got to bed early in the morning.
Ele and Matt has a pool that comes with the apartment complex, so we stayed in that for quite a while after breakfastt/lunch (we were also in the hot tub for a while and boiled ourselves, don't ask us why), then left Stillwater at about 4, after checking out Walmart (Vib had never been there before :) ). We stopped by a rest area to have laaaate lunch - there were swing sets - good times!
On the way through Texas there were magnificent lightning strikes and the flat landscape gave us (stekepanneskaftet til Texas er paddeflatt) an excellent view for the whole show. Fortunately we missed the rain this time, as it was far far away.
We power-balladed the experience and leaned back in our seats.
We ended up in Amarillo, Texas before 10 PM (yeah!), and went to Holiday Inn Express to check out lodging. It looked very expensive and it was! But the manager, an indian-american with a very sweet accent (he reminded me of the guy in Slumdog Millionaire, and his last name was Patel!), gave us a discount for 40 $!! We went for it, and were glad we did! This really was the best hotel we've stayed in so far, with a splendid indoor pool (do you sense a red thread for our hotel choices?); the pictures speak for themselves:
Of course, even with all our good intentions, we didn't get to bed until 1 in the morning, so much for getting up early tomorrow!
And tomorrow will be a day of DRIVING for sure: We're hoping to make it all the way to Flagstaff, Arizona by tomorrow night, stopping by Santa Fe in New Mexico and the petrified forest national park in Arizona on the way. Hehe, it's always good to be ambitious ;)
UC
We got up and left Alma by 11, after having my first peanut butter/jelly-sandwich for this trip, yeah! On the way to Ele we stopped by another Target, just to get a break from the road really, but we, ehem, ended up shopping some more - they were much needed items by the way ;) We also went to an at&t to see if the american phone could be fixed. The lady asked me if I had turned the phone off and on again, I replied that I of course had done that. What I hadn't done was removing the battery and putting it back in. And miraculously it was working again, go figures, but good times nonetheless.
We arrived in Stillwater at 5 and it was awesome to see Ele and Matt again =D
We did the practical things as laundry and organizing things, before some of Ele and Matt's friends came over at 6 for home made pita bread pizzas (yummi). Atfer this we went to a restaurant, Joseppi's, for a red dirt concert (!). There we had horrible Mojitos and great beer - one was with apricot and was surprisingly tasty. We went home for drinks and got to bed early in the morning.
Ele and Matt has a pool that comes with the apartment complex, so we stayed in that for quite a while after breakfastt/lunch (we were also in the hot tub for a while and boiled ourselves, don't ask us why), then left Stillwater at about 4, after checking out Walmart (Vib had never been there before :) ). We stopped by a rest area to have laaaate lunch - there were swing sets - good times!
On the way through Texas there were magnificent lightning strikes and the flat landscape gave us (stekepanneskaftet til Texas er paddeflatt) an excellent view for the whole show. Fortunately we missed the rain this time, as it was far far away.
We power-balladed the experience and leaned back in our seats.
We ended up in Amarillo, Texas before 10 PM (yeah!), and went to Holiday Inn Express to check out lodging. It looked very expensive and it was! But the manager, an indian-american with a very sweet accent (he reminded me of the guy in Slumdog Millionaire, and his last name was Patel!), gave us a discount for 40 $!! We went for it, and were glad we did! This really was the best hotel we've stayed in so far, with a splendid indoor pool (do you sense a red thread for our hotel choices?); the pictures speak for themselves:
Of course, even with all our good intentions, we didn't get to bed until 1 in the morning, so much for getting up early tomorrow!
And tomorrow will be a day of DRIVING for sure: We're hoping to make it all the way to Flagstaff, Arizona by tomorrow night, stopping by Santa Fe in New Mexico and the petrified forest national park in Arizona on the way. Hehe, it's always good to be ambitious ;)
UC
søndag 15. august 2010
12.-13.august: Memphis, Tennessee - Alma, Arkansas
Theme songs: "Walking in Memphis" by Bruce Springsteen and "Burning Love" by Elvis Presley
Louise: I'm in deep shit; Deep Shit, Arkansas.
Sorry about lack of blogging, but we have been too busy having fun ;) We left Nashville thursday at noonish after taking a walk on Broadway (the main street), windowsshopping, and having the best burgers in life for lunch:
Vibeke drove us to Memphis, but boy, it was impossible to understand where we were supposed to go! Bad marking for Memphis and places there. We finally found another smooth hotel a block away from the main street (Beale) and it also had an outdoor pool, this time on the roof! We are suckers for pools :) First thing we did was taking a dip of course, and we were freezing afterwards so we turned the air conditioner in our room to heating - we should not have done that, because it set on the fire alarm - ooops!
The next day we got up and went straight to Graceland for a premium tour. It was pretty amazing! Not at all what we pictured as we more or less pictured minimalism - not the case ;) It was the other way around as you can see from the pictures:
It was great to be there and to see Elvis' house (mansion), cars, airplanes, etc, unfortunately the sky decided to open up and it rained cats and dogs for a while, which meant we had to give up seeing a couple of the attractions. It was okay though, we were filled up with impressions already.
We went back to the city and stopped by the National Civil Rights Museum, where Martin Luther King was shot. It was special to see.
We stopped by Beale street again to see it in daylight, went by a pizza place that sold pizza new york style; the guy who owned it was an egyptian muslim that waited for nightfall before he could eat. I can't imagine working at a pizza place and not being able to take a single bite the whole day.. Awesome pizza though, he knew what he was doing. We managed to do a teeny bit of shopping on the block home (!), jumped in the car and headed for Oklahoma.
After driving for quite a while with time ticking away for midnight, we had to give up half an hour from the state border of Oklahoma, and ended up in Alma, Arkansas - we crossed that state in about 5 hours, and had not seen any exiting stuff really. We've since heard that there are more beautiful places there, just not on the route we were. We couldn't help dallying around a bit before bedtime though, and watched the most hilarious show on Comedy Central - celebrities roasting (making fun of is an understatement) other celebrities. Poor Pamela Anderson.
Oklahoma and Ele tomorrow, yeaaaaah!
UC
Louise: I'm in deep shit; Deep Shit, Arkansas.
Sorry about lack of blogging, but we have been too busy having fun ;) We left Nashville thursday at noonish after taking a walk on Broadway (the main street), windowsshopping, and having the best burgers in life for lunch:
Vibeke drove us to Memphis, but boy, it was impossible to understand where we were supposed to go! Bad marking for Memphis and places there. We finally found another smooth hotel a block away from the main street (Beale) and it also had an outdoor pool, this time on the roof! We are suckers for pools :) First thing we did was taking a dip of course, and we were freezing afterwards so we turned the air conditioner in our room to heating - we should not have done that, because it set on the fire alarm - ooops!
After this we we had dinner and went out on the town. There were a lot of people on Beale! And they had walk-by-beer-sales, goodness! Street drinking wasn't only allowed but encouraged. We ended up in B.B. Kings Blues Club where a local band played cover blues songs. Good times!! And the base player was very good looking; he also had a girl friend, oh well..
The next day we got up and went straight to Graceland for a premium tour. It was pretty amazing! Not at all what we pictured as we more or less pictured minimalism - not the case ;) It was the other way around as you can see from the pictures:
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| Living room |
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| The Jungle Room |
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| At the car museum, I want this one!! |
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| Pink Cadillac |
We went back to the city and stopped by the National Civil Rights Museum, where Martin Luther King was shot. It was special to see.
We stopped by Beale street again to see it in daylight, went by a pizza place that sold pizza new york style; the guy who owned it was an egyptian muslim that waited for nightfall before he could eat. I can't imagine working at a pizza place and not being able to take a single bite the whole day.. Awesome pizza though, he knew what he was doing. We managed to do a teeny bit of shopping on the block home (!), jumped in the car and headed for Oklahoma.
After driving for quite a while with time ticking away for midnight, we had to give up half an hour from the state border of Oklahoma, and ended up in Alma, Arkansas - we crossed that state in about 5 hours, and had not seen any exiting stuff really. We've since heard that there are more beautiful places there, just not on the route we were. We couldn't help dallying around a bit before bedtime though, and watched the most hilarious show on Comedy Central - celebrities roasting (making fun of is an understatement) other celebrities. Poor Pamela Anderson.
Oklahoma and Ele tomorrow, yeaaaaah!
UC
onsdag 11. august 2010
August 11th: Indiana, Kentucky and Tennessee (Nashville!)
Nashville, at last!! :)
Theme song: "New Shoes" by Paolo Nutini
I was still not feelin' a 100 %, so UC drove all the way to Nashville, again we had to drive through the most horrible rain, now with thunder and lightning as well. On our way there we stopped in Springfield, Tennessee, to take pictures at the sign (yes, I am a Simpsons fan!!!). On our way there we drove through Bartholomew and Simpson County, and saw the exit to Shelbyville.
From Springfield we drove to Nashville. There we decided to stay at the Comfort Inn on Demonbreun Street. And: they have a pool! So guess where we spent the first half hour..of yes..it was fantastic! With 98 fahrenheit (36,5 grader) outside, a swim was more than welcome. We shared the pool with lotsa kids and their parents, and a few hunks! And two middleaged men in their Speedos, but we mostly ignored them, and focused on the cute guys. And as we were leaving for dinner they made it clear that they had noticed us too. Always nice to be appreciated :)
We walked down to Broadway street where we went bananas and bought awesome cowboy boots and UC also bought a wicked cowboy hat =) Oh, we had so much fun!
We just had to post pictures of our new shoes:
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| These are UC's boots, and they ARE made for walking :) |
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| I love this store, and we got a really good discount for no reason at all! |
The store is located om 219 Broadway in case any of you are planning a trip :)
After shopping we went for some food at a restaurant nearby, the Big River, and had starters for dinner (the starters are huge, it was enough for us). Here I got a really nice compliment. Some guy walked across the restaurant just to come over to us and ask me if I was single. I had to answer that, yes I am, but I don't live in Nashville. And today of all days, when I still don't feel well. It was perfect timing! The guys in Nashville (old (referring mainly to the old cowboy where we got the boots) and young) were real gentlemen and we got lots of compliments all night, niceness ;)
Now we're just hanging out in our hotel room, we'll soon go to bed I think. And tomorrow I hope I'm back to normal.
Have a good day everybody!
Vib.
August 10th: Lafayette, IN
Theme song: "Fever" by Peggy Lee
Vib unfortunately caught what I had the other day, so we ended up staying in Lafayette today. I got organized and we were good girls and finally ordered tickets for our return to NY from SanFran - been pushing that ahead of us a while now - procrastinators? Surely not.
We spent the morning and afternoon mostly in bed, Vib sleeping it out, and I reading "The Gathering Storm". Goodness gracious, it's nervewrecking! I finally had to tear myself physichally away from it to head downtown Lafayette alone for some meandering. It was hard. But I'm glad I did! Lafayette is a charming place with some really nice people who all seemed genuinly happy for us and our mad roadtrippin' :)
Cross fingers that we'll be on our way tomorrow! Cheers :)
Vib unfortunately caught what I had the other day, so we ended up staying in Lafayette today. I got organized and we were good girls and finally ordered tickets for our return to NY from SanFran - been pushing that ahead of us a while now - procrastinators? Surely not.
We spent the morning and afternoon mostly in bed, Vib sleeping it out, and I reading "The Gathering Storm". Goodness gracious, it's nervewrecking! I finally had to tear myself physichally away from it to head downtown Lafayette alone for some meandering. It was hard. But I'm glad I did! Lafayette is a charming place with some really nice people who all seemed genuinly happy for us and our mad roadtrippin' :)
Cross fingers that we'll be on our way tomorrow! Cheers :)
mandag 9. august 2010
August 9th: Michigan, Indiana og Illinois
Theme songs for the day: "Material Girl" by Madonna and "Rain down love" by Freemasons
Luckily UC was feeling a lot better this morning, and we hit the road at 10 o'clock to go shopping at Woodfield Mall right outside of Chicago. The drive there was rainy, my first day of rain while driving. It was kinda scary, I have to say.
We arrived at the mall at 12:00 Illinois time, and stayed till 19:00. And a lot of money changed hands in that time :) We went shopping-crazy and had a lot of fun at Victoria's Secret, Urban Outfitters, Abercrombie and Fitch etc.
Here is a picture of all our bags with our new stuff in it, we are so happy:
We had lunch at Rainforest Cafe (Siri: I had my first Caesar Salad, and now I understand why you like it so much!) alongside baboons, fish and butterflies. There was even a thunderstorm..that part reminded us a lot of YaYas in Oslo.
When we were done shopping (or rather: when we had to leave the mall) UC took the wheel and drove from Chicago to West Lafayette, Indiana. On our way here we suddenly saw, in the middle of nowhere, a bunch of red lights blinking. From a distance it looked like an airport, but as we came closer we saw that it was actually windmills. It was the strangest thing, many miles of nothing but blinking red lights. As we drove past that we realized it was time to get to bed and we found a motel and it has free internet! I like it :) So now we're gonna go to sleep soon and tomorrow we'll drive to Nashville, hopefully we'll be there early afternoon.
Have a great day! (And feel free to comment on our posts, it makes ut happy..hehe!)
Vib.
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| Ready to hit the road in our borrowed car :) |
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| Chicago skyline, not raining anymore |
Here is a picture of all our bags with our new stuff in it, we are so happy:
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| Den hawtteste dama i Chicago |
When we were done shopping (or rather: when we had to leave the mall) UC took the wheel and drove from Chicago to West Lafayette, Indiana. On our way here we suddenly saw, in the middle of nowhere, a bunch of red lights blinking. From a distance it looked like an airport, but as we came closer we saw that it was actually windmills. It was the strangest thing, many miles of nothing but blinking red lights. As we drove past that we realized it was time to get to bed and we found a motel and it has free internet! I like it :) So now we're gonna go to sleep soon and tomorrow we'll drive to Nashville, hopefully we'll be there early afternoon.
Have a great day! (And feel free to comment on our posts, it makes ut happy..hehe!)
Vib.
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