America the Beautiful

NCCC members have two options to get them to their campus: fly or drive.

For me it was a no brainer.

I drove.

While it did take some convincing to get my mother to let me drive to 2,000 miles from Houston to Sacramento by myself, I did it. I made my first cross-country road trip and I could not have been more pleased. I had friends suggest the driving tunes, loaded up on dark chocolate (72% cacao) and healthy munchies, packed my life into my 2004 Saturn VUE and hit the road.

Like I said, I've never really seen the western part of the country. We did the California coast trip when I was younger but as talking to my mother recently revealed, the only thing a 10 year old will remember from a trip like that is going to Disneyland, seeing the Hollywood sign and Mexicans running across the highway to gain access into the United States without passing through border control.

This time my eyes were obviously wide open.

I was amazed by the vast desert landscape the exist through the entire southwest (most of which in NOT in West Texas, contrary to popular belief), the beauty of amber mountains against the clear blue sky, and the vastness that is the undeveloped stretch of land which (basically) spans Interstate 10 from El Paso all the way to LA.

My only regret is that I didn't have time or feel safe enough to pull my car over and stop for pictures. Nevertheless, my digital camera is relatively good at taking pictures from inside my car.

For more photos check out my Picasa Road Trip Web Album.