First Weekend

So, I wish I could say we did some really amazing crazy stuff on first weekend here in LA... but it was a pretty low key weekend, probably because we had to wake up early every morning to apartment hunt.

About that, apartment hunting can be REALLY intense, and stressful, and disappointing at times. Sometimes it seems too good to be true, so we're just keeping our fingers crossed and doing what we have to do to find the right apartment for us.

 

I put the phone next to the fro-yo cup to show how big it was, but that didn't really work. It was actually a bowl, and I was okay with that. 

 I got a badge before Jeremy! Rarely does this happen, I guess my caffeine addiction paid off.

Yes, that's a Kool Aid aisle at this supermarket, Jeremy really enjoyed this, but we did not buy any Kool Aid this trip.

"Do you know how to get to Smaland?" asked a random young child. Why yes, yes we do... we took a trip to IKEA to look at some prices and pretended that we lived there! Don't laugh, you know you do that too.

After walking like 3 miles in IKEA, we were really hungry. We hit up Tomato Pie and got some slices, this is probably one of the best meals we have had since we've been in LA. Oh and Poquito Mas, so delicious.

Well, we are off to work in the morning! Hope everyone had a great weekend.
-Charlsie

Los Angeles

Well we made it here, alive and in one piece. Driving across country is such a freaking amazing experience. I know some people cringe at the idea of sitting in a car for 8+ hours a day, but if you have a great buddy it doesn't seem that long and you really get into a groove of switching on and off. I can't believe we saw so many things in such a short amount of time, and I can wait to do it again sometime in the future.

Los Angeles has been very welcoming so far, some might argue that traffic is not welcoming but we view it as something that is just "the way it is". Today we start the apartment hunt but here is some fun we've been having the first few days in LA.

Wish us luck with the apartment!

-Charlsie & Jeremy

Day 6 & 7: Winslow, AZ to Phoenix

WOAH. We finally made it! We did have a few stops before we actually hit LA. On Tuesday morning we went to the corner in Winslow, if you don't know what that refers to, check out this YouTube clip.

I had a nice couple take a picture of us, one of the few of the two of us in that same picture, unfortunately. The city of Winslow is literally, the La Posada hotel, this corner, the snow cone booth and a daunting correctional facility that we passed. It's pretty desolate.

The road we took to Phoenix was basically a one lane highway with ZERO rest areas. We passed through a town called Stawberry and there were signs for the oldest standing school house in AZ, so we stopped.

It was very cute... but thats all it was. We needed to stop since there was no rest areas and we passed this honey stand in Pines, which was right after Strawberry. It was the cutest honey stand ever and we bought some orange blossom honey, which is kind of random but the flavor is great.

 

After we finally got to where Charlsie's family lives we nommed a delicious dinner at Olive Garden and then finished the night with some intense Wii bowling/ golf. Has anyone played the 100 pins game? Insanity.

We had such a fun time and crashed early so we could get up and hit the road to LA, but not before some of my uncle's pancakes. My little cousin B calls him Poppy so now the world famous pancakes will now be referred to as "Poppy's Pancakes" and they were such a great way to start the day!

Big shout out to my gracious family and my hilarious little cuz who had us cracking up all night! Well we need to get to bed early tonight so we can apartment/car hunt tomorrow. More to come!

-Charlsie & Jeremy

Day 5: Amarillo, TX to Winslow, AZ

Leaving Amarillo, we knew we wanted to visit Cadillac Ranch, a bizarre but super cool art display that's different every day. This is because people who visit are free to spray paint any of the Cadillacs. We saw everything from a detailed mandolin (presumably painted by a girl we saw with an actual mandolin) to "JUGGALO" written large on one of the cars. Those Insane Clown Posse fans are everywhere. Before leaving we put "J & C" on one of the cars to leave our mark.

After this stop, we said PEACE to Texas and began driving through New Mexico, which was pretty uneventful but the speed limit was 75 mph and we made a really touristy pit stop in Santa Rosa, where we visited a gimmicky auto museum with like 20 beat up cars that the owner was trying to sell and then proceeded to The Blue Hole. It is in fact a big hole filled with water. Fascinating, huh? Besides the fact that it was 81 feet deep, we were not particularly impressed.

During the drive to Arizona, we actually hit some unexpected thunderstorms (see ominous sky below) but that didn't deter us from hitting up some Navajo Indian Stores. Charlsie was hyping up "fry bread" and I wanted a Powerade to wash down the Jack Pack I just ate (the road makes you crave weird food) so we pulled off the road to Chee's Indian Store. Where else in the world could you buy moccasins, amethysts, and Powerade in the same place? Maybe Walmart but that's besides the point.

Now we're at La Posada Hotel in Winslow, AZ and about to leave for Phoenix to visit some of Charlsie's family. This place has a ton of history behind it and used to be a popular railroad hotel, back in the days when Winslow was poppin'. It has been restored and contains what appears to be most of the original structure and art. Here are some pics of us goofing off after dinner last night!

We ate a little mexican spot down the road from La Posada since you need reservations to eat at their restaurant and it is $$$. We ate HUGE but nothing to write home about chimichangas. Breakfast at the hotel is supposed to be great so we're looking forward to that!

We're getting closer to our destination and being homeless- which is exciting nonetheless!

-Charlsie & Jeremy

Day 4: Memphis, TN to Amarillo, TX

Let's get one thing out in the open here first... Oklahoma is a freaking long state.

We drove about about 724 miles on this leg of the journey, bringing our total mileage to 1,853. It was a pretty uneventful drive, seeing as OK basically is just flat and dry, nothing special. We barely has cell service in most of the state! We did get a pretty good pic of the entering sign, even though it wasn't the best state...

Oh well, at least we got Panera for lunch which was the least greasy food we've eaten all trip and it was pretty good to change it up. After driving for what seemed like eternity in what felt like 1000 degree weather, not kidding like half the country was in a heat advisory! We saw lots of nothing until we hit Texas! No sign picture of course... but there was some pretty scenery.

Cool windmills! After we got all settled in at our hotel in Amarillo we went to pretty much the only place in Amarillo worth going to, The Big Texan. Yep you read right, home of the 72oz steak. Wowzers.

We opted for the 21oz steak to share, and two of their home brewed beer. Pretty delish! Texas sure knows what they are doing in the beef department. Stay tune for a full post/review on The Big Texan.

Were a little behind on the posting, but I promise there will be pleanty to read as we figure out our lives in LA. Look out for tomorrow's post, Day 5: Amarillo, TX to Winslow, AZ.

-Charlsie & Jeremy

Day 3: Memphis, TN (Graceland & Beale Street)

We were fortunate enough to have a day off from driving today and got to explore Memphis, including Graceland and the famous Beale Street. Within walking distance from our hotel, Elvis Presley's Graceland is a collection of exhibits, tours, and a TON of gift shops (like gift shops that actually lead into more gift shops). Although touristy, the two of us really enjoyed being able to go inside his mansion, his private jet plane, and check out his legendary car collection. Let's be real: "the king" was a baller.

After a while, we were a little burnt out from Elvis overload and worked up quite an appetite! Since we didn't go with a Man v. Food spot the night before, we hit up Gus's World Famous Fried Chicken in downtown Memphis and prepared to eat ourselves silly. The place was packed, even at 3pm, and when we finally got seated, we immediately ordered two sweet teas and fried chicken plates from our boy (the waiter) Steve, who asked us if we would like an appetizer of fried pickles. Why, yes, Steve... yes, we do.

These delicious dill spears were hands down one of the highlights of our trip so far. Literally amazing. It makes sense that such a delicacy would exist in Memphis, seeing that you can purchase packaged pickles from Walgreens and it's completely normal. With our bellies full of incredible food, we set out to explore Beale Street. Packed with venues and bars showcasing all types of music (with a heavy dose of the blues, of course) there was an amazing energy about this place, and definitely somewhere we'd love to spend more time if we could.

Tomorrow, we have a long day of driving (through Arkansas and Oklahoma) to Amarillo, Texas, where we plan to eat steak, visit Cadillac Ranch and go cattle tipping. Kidding on that last one.

-Charlsie & Jeremy

Day 2: Salem, VA to Memphis, TN

Today was filled with lots of driving again, but were making progress! We chose to visit Graceland because who knows when we'd be back here again, at least there is a possibility that one of us might travel to Nashville for business. Today we drove about 650 miles which went by rather fast considering how long we were actually driving. That brings our total to about  1,150 miles- wowzers!

Sorry about this kind of blurry picture, but we figured you wouldn't have believed us if we told you we got the Alaska license plate! Currently were at 40/51 plates. It's 51 because of stupid Washington DC and I'm pretty sure the only cars that actually have DC plates are town cars and taxis so... yeah. Otherwise the only thing were absolutely screwed on is Hawaii, but no one thought we were going to see Alaska.

After about 10 hours in the car we arrived at Graceland, were staying about a 5 second walk from this sign, which is pretty cool. Naturally we were hungry because we hadn't eaten in 5 minutes so we decided to consult Yelp, Foursquare, Google and the guy driving the pink Cadillac limo where we should get some "real" Memphis BBQ. We found this place...

Yup, thats BBQ spaghetti you're looking at and you know what? IT WAS FREAKING DELICIOUS! Jeremy ate most of it but look what Charlsie got a hold of...

She asks that you please ignore her unkept eyebrows, but who could look at that when there is an entire pig full of ribs on that plate? Jim Neely's Interstate Barbeque, it was pretty freaking delicious, we heard Adam Richman went to Rendezvous and were pretty bummed with didn't consult the all-knowning food guru prior BUT Jim Neely makes a fine barbeque and the staff was SUPER friendly. Oh and the cole slaw is worth eating instead of giving it to your grandma.

This pic was snapped as we drove back from barbeque with our tummies really happy. We need to get some shut eye, gotta rest up for the 50 PB and Bacon sandwiches were going to devour  tomorrow at Graceland.
-Charlsie & Jeremy

Day 1: LI to Salem, VA

 Hello from Salem, VA! Today we traveled about 500 miles from Long Island and only had to stop a few times, which is good.

So there isn't really that much to write about, we haven't seen any giant balls of yarn or a colossal cups of coffee. We did see three "Now Entering..." signs, which looks something like this...

 needless to say the pics we got look something like this...

timing/camera fail. Oh well, you can enjoy the musical stylings of Charlsie below instead.

So a few other things we learned...

• all tractor trailer drivers have IPhones
• there are about a gazillion different variations of VA license plates
• it is nearly impossible to get a picture crossing over the state line unless you stop the car and get out, which is probably dangerous and we promised our parents we wouldn't do that.
• Qdoba is not as good as Chipotle but suffices when you're starving

We hit the open road early tomorrow, hopefully the free hot breakfast is good.
Charlsie & Jeremy
ps- check out Blink 182's new single: here!