After beautiful but random spring snowfalls up in the mountains of Utah it is finally the end of my work at PCMR. Meanwhile in final days it is indeed sad to see all of my new friends had to leave for back their home. I planned an extravangeous trip across the states with my new buddy Sam (from Sydney); we bought an old second hand Ford Explorer truck (ahh memories in that!).
So we started out on the road through heavy and unusually cold snowy day in Utah towards the deserts of Nevada. Everything dried up suddenly and got a little warmer. It is first time I experienced temperatures above 20C since Australia. Got to Las Vegas with a bang, everything looks so full of colours. Casino buildings, touristy places and artifical landscapes dominated the city. Las Vegas is all about gambling.
We stayed in Vegas for a couple of nights, then left for Grand Canyon, Four Corners, Colorado desert and Rockies (beep beep!). Next five days of trip got brillant! I never felt how adventerous in my life by exploring the big country on my bare own hands. I always see these places in pictures until this day. Grand Canyon just amazing! And I found my new love with state of Colorado. The state is so incredibly distinctive and exotic!
Until got to Denver, I caught up with my old friend of mine from my University whose studied abroad. We spent time in between his work shifts at the airport. Explored the city and the views on the snowy side. Until this day, my feelings reached to new milestone! Then Sam and I continued on the road towards Nebraska. This was first time I experienced temperatures to above 25C. First time took my jumpers and long pants off! But wait! There was a severe thunderstorm struck us at the end of that day! Typical Nebraska weather. I learned that I have entered into the Mid-West, where the tornadoes live! Along the way continued driving through Des Moines IA, Minneapolis MN and caught up another uni friend in Madison WI.
From this point of time the trip got even better and more adventerous! With friend from Madison, she took us to Chicago! This city got me to experience for one of largest cities in the US. Chicago is brilliant! This got cut short for one day because Sam and I had to continue driving towards the East. Next few days we travelled through St Louis MO, plains of Arkansas, the music cities of Memphis and Nashville TN, and cave climbing in Kentucky!
Eventually spent several days in big state of Ohio. Again caught up an old uni friend at her host university town, Wooster! Driving across big plains of Ohio through so many farm towns and villages is so beautiful. We visited Cinncinati, Columbus, Toledo, Wooster and Cleveland. As days came past faster than before we kept traveling towards upstate of New York via Erie PA and Buffalo NY. This drive is one of most amazing cultural experience I ever had in my life. Stuff comes out of movies comes alive. Even got to see Niagara Falls, especially a short stint from Canada's side!
As the first leg of cross country trip comes to end, Sam and I continued travelling closer to NYC via NE states of US; going through Albany NY, Vermont, Boston MA, and Cape Cod MA! This part of the trip is extremely unique that I have experienced compared to vast deserts in Nevada and the Mid-West. At this day I finally got to see the east coast of the US, the Atlantic Ocean!
On the day it finally time to drive towards New York City! Visting to one of world's most famous and one of largest city is so exciting! Driving through Providence RI and Bridgeport CT via heavy traffic on interstates towards NYC was so thrilling because I never experienced traffic this busy before! Once I got to the city's limit boundary, it took me to drive to the hotel in Queens for about a couple of hours! Hours of heavy and congested freeways with headaches from constant beeping horns, it not only a bad thing because during the time I got to see best views of the great highrise buildings of the Manhattan! Sam and I started to split up and we decided to travel on our own for next 8 days in NYC. I spent every single day like a full time worker exploring the BIG APPLE. I visited Times Square, Central Park, Empire State, Wall Street, Statue of Liberty, views of Jersey City across the river and Chinatown. I may forget to list all the stuff I have explored since it so hectic! New York City, is now my favourite city in the world!
Places travelled - Nevada, Arizonia, Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wiscousin, Illinios, Missouri, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, bit of Michigan, Pensylanvania, New York, Vermont, Massachusetts.
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