Road Trip!'s Journal (original) (raw)
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded inRoad Trip!'s LiveJournal:
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| Thursday, September 30th, 2010 | |
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| _12:11 pm_[doisneau] |
New Zealand: Paparoa National Park Paparoa National Park…continued from part twoWe continued journeying down the west coast from the top of the South Island and it was our goal to stay at this really awesome looking beach b&b called Breakers Boutique. It was our big splurge for the trip and it just sounded awesome- we had to wiggle timings around a little bit, but we made plans to spend the next night down there. The owner Jan was just fantastic to talk to online and her husband is a photographer as well. Seriously, this lady went out of her way to provide custom directions and sights where us photographers should stop. Amazing!So it was still a few hours away from our previous hotel in Abel Tasman, well more than a few but that’s what I remember it as and so we had to do some hard core driving through the bush to get back over where we needed to be. The one benefit of the West Coast is it is home to many a Blue Penguin (Eudyptula minor). Next to the elusive Puffin it might be my second favorite bird I’ve never seen so we were holding out hope that we might come across one of those little guys. Sure enough as we’re driving down the ‘highway’, ie: two lane road, we start seeing signs warning us to not run them over. With all this excitement we had to see one right?On the way down was another park called Paparoa National Park which has these water carved rocks called pancake rocks…essentially it’s a tour bus stop, but not too shabby. I had read all about this special cave in the area so we went and found that, got soaked, and used my special REI shopping spree flashlight to look for penguins [I bought it specifically for this purpose]. Sadly none, but we thought we heard a cave bear.Not far down there’s also a really amazing small hike called the Truman Track which brings you through all sorts of trees and stuff and into a secluded cove [with tons of 'don't touch the Penguins' signs] and a medium sized waterfall that lands right on the beach! Nice! After all this fun we still weren’t seeing any stupid penguins so we decided to go for the gold and head over to Breakers, home of it’s own small colony! Maybe we’ll see some there…that and I was hungry and felt like I was going to pass out from all this sun. I don’t get out much.As I mentioned Breakers was fantastic and after a quick little bite we took the path down to the beach to go look for penguins and take pictures and do fun things couples do on their year-too-late honeymoon. After we did a little walking we saw this little midget bird hanging out by himself next to a rock…a blue penguin?! It looked kind of blue if you stretched the imagination and it kind of looked penguin’ish. It even waddled a little bit! So we convinced ourselves it was definitely a Blue Penguin and it didn’t seem to mind us getting in nice and close and staring at it, all while giggling quite loud. Not soon after, we were seeing tons of these little guys just hanging out getting bitten by bugs. Sweet! And they totally didn’t fly so they had to be legit!We enjoyed a gorgeous sunset by ourselves on the beach and with the knowledge that we just saw the long awaited Blue Penguin. Sure enough, as soon as we got back Jan told us that it wasn’t a penguin, but some other random gray sea bird that can’t fly for a bit when it’s wings got wet….seriously. Our excitement was destroyed, and we came away devoured by sand fleas. The little bastards destroyed our legs and we had bite marks for at least 3 weeks after. True story. |
| Monday, July 19th, 2010 | |
| _11:12 am_[doisneau] |
Iceland Road Trip – Part Six The final days of my Iceland roadtrip were spent driving around the Snæfellsnes Peninsula on the Western coastline. For the first time on my trip I had a decent amount of rain which thankfully included really nice dramatic clouds [and not blinding swan-dive off road fog like usual]. |
| Thursday, July 15th, 2010 | |
| _12:35 pm_[doisneau] |
Iceland Road Trip – Part Five Getting to Seyðisfjörður up in the north-east was way too much of a pain in the butt [mostly because I decided to drive too far in one day, per the usual] but this photo below was basically the end of my day. Mountain pass to get down into the valley. I knew something was up when I started getting ice warnings on my car and then suddenly it was white out conditions with snow on either side and some of the thickest fog I’ve seen in a while. Pretty cool though, wouldn’t want to be doing that drive in the winter however… |
| Monday, July 12th, 2010 | |
| _3:09 pm_[doisneau] |
Iceland Road Trip – Part Four The one place I wish I spent more time in was the Eastern Fjords of Iceland. It happened to be the day that I was going to pull a 6-7 hour drive [more like 9-10] north from Vik to Seyðisfjörður and I found myself stopping and running around every 2 minutes. There were a lot of dirt roads in this stretch, but nothing too bad…you just had to watch out for baby sheep. |
| Friday, July 9th, 2010 | |
| _10:36 am_[doisneau] |
Iceland Road Trip – Part Three This part really centers on the eastern area of Iceland’s ring road which is home to many a roadside glacier. It’s funny because as your driving along you pass a bend and are like ‘wow, that’s the most beautiful glacier I’ve ever seen!’ and then you drive a little further ‘Whoa! That one is even better!’ which goes on for a good couple hours. Flocks of swans flying parallel to your car with icecap mountains in the background helps too.It’s really pretty amazing and at one point you find yourself driving directly towards the biggest glacier you’ve ever seen [literally the biggest in Europe] while 2 other huge ones are on either side of you. If I had a 4×4 I would’ve been able to get closer, but frankly at this point in my journey I wasn’t going to put my car through too much more. Some of the roads to the glaciers were a little too hard core for my little beast of a car. After my car stuck incident my survival instincts [Tanya's voice in my head saying 'Ian bad! Death!'] was in full swing. |
| Tuesday, July 6th, 2010 | |
| _11:42 am_[doisneau] |
Iceland Road Trip - Part Two The next day I really needed to take it easy [after eventful car crash/stuck in mud] so I did what any person would do. Go see icebergs! But first I had to go see some awesome waterfalls and play with my new variable ND filter [essentially lets less light in so I can take long exposures in the daylight]. This first waterfall is named Seljalandsfoss [foss being Icelandic for waterfall...you see it a lot in a country with 10,000 waterfalls]. You can actually walk behind the waterfall, but I was getting my gear soaked enough and didn’t need a camera failure a couple days into the trip… |
| Monday, July 5th, 2010 | |
| _8:53 pm_[doisneau] |
Iceland Road Trip - Part One This June I found myself having a nice little window of time where I could get away and after reviewing my ‘_places I want to go_‘ list from every year, Iceland kept being on the top of the list. The two days of decent prices to go over there just happened to work as well, so two weeks ahead of time I got tickets from Los Angeles to Reykjavík on Iceland Air. Sweet!First things first, though I saved some money on airfare [It cost around 800vs.similardatesbeing800 vs. similar dates being 800vs.similardatesbeing1800] renting a car for a week wasn’t cheap. Though I understood later that it is impossible to not trash your car in Iceland hence the cost, the fact that the cheapest car to rent was 600foraweekseemedabsurd.Ihadreadthatgettinga4×4wasasmartmove,butdroppingcloseto600 for a week seemed absurd. I had read that getting a 4×4 was a smart move, but dropping close to 600foraweekseemedabsurd.Ihadreadthatgettinga4×4wasasmartmove,butdroppingcloseto1k for a week rental was out of the question.So after arriving at 7am I figured I’d head off to the world famous Blue Lagoon. More people come here each year than residents in Iceland. Sadly it was freezing out and insanely windy. Not the most exciting time to be throwing your clothes off and jumping in 100 degree water. I got some photos though.See more at iangrantphotography.com |
| Friday, September 4th, 2009 | |
| _2:04 pm_[skordi] |
Road Trip (duh) Hey I'm new to this community and just wanted some tips/insight on driving across the country. A friend and I are going to drive from the east coast to the west coast (SC to CA) next summer. Our budget is not very big, as we are college students. We were thinking of borrowing or renting a van so we can sleep in that some nights to save on cash. My main question is, what are the hardest parts of the trip and what are the most popular things to stop along the way and see? Also, if there are any books on this subject, I'd love some suggestions. Anything would help,Thanks!!Robin :) (1 Comment |Comment on this) |
| Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 | |
| _3:51 pm_[aquafea] |
Around the world by motorcycle - meet them in your country!!! "In March 2009 two of us will ride overland around the world on motorbikes. Beginning in Sydney Australia, the route takes in South East Asia, Japan, Mongolia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Eastern Europe. Then on to Canada and the USA, down through Central and South America, Antarctica and home via NZ. » RideRightRound is a unique global community based project, using the challenges of adventure travel to create a reason to talk about men's health. Greet and meet tem in your own country (Comment on this) |
| Monday, January 19th, 2009 | |
| _3:53 pm_[doisneau] |
Zion National Park in Winter I made a great little trip over to Zion National Park recently after a few years since my last visit. This time around though it was winter and apparently they got a little more snow than they're used to. This made the scenery really gorgeous, my hands significantly colder, and arriving at 3am much more treacherous! Anyway, hope you enjoy the National Park photos and you've got 10 or so days left to enter in the photo contest! |
| Sunday, January 11th, 2009 | |
| _1:34 pm_[adiktid2muzic] |
My boyfriend and I are going to be working at Yellowstone this summer, and we've obviously decided to drive there. We're coming from Boston, MA. Are there any must-sees in between Boston and Wyoming? Maybe some that aren't so well known? Landscapes? Even sweet cheap motels, or classic truck stop diners?Anything anyone can remember loving that's in between Boston and Wyoming that's worth checking out?So far, we're stopping in: Arlington, VA to see family and sleep/showerCedarburg, WI to see family and sleep/showerOmaha, NE just because it's Omaha, NE**( The RouteCollapse )** (Comment on this) |
| Sunday, January 4th, 2009 | |
| _11:04 am_[doisneau] |
Arches National Park My first real major trip with my new Canon 5D Mark II was spent out near Moab, Utah to visit Arches and Canyonlands National Parks. It's gotten to the point in my park travelings that I need to leave the western coast to photograph National Parks I haven't been to yet in my quest to visit all the US National Parks. The nearest park I haven't been to yet is Great Basin, and that's a good 8 hour drive from here in LA- It's on my goals list for this year though. To see past trips, visit iNationalPark.com. |
| Wednesday, September 5th, 2007 | |
| _3:50 pm_[indiatravel] |
Hi Hi,I am new in here. Just to introduce myself and my community India Travel Help.I love to read up on travel and during a lot of such reads I came across the problems travellers come across while travelling to a new country. I therefore decided to start this community. I am a resident of Mumbai, India . This community is just to help travellers who are visiting India. Just FYI: This is not an advertisement or company, just a voluntary project that I feel really strongly about. Not just online tips, please feel free to mail me at indiatravelhelp@gmail.com for any query that you might have about visiting here. I will try and help as much as I can - over mail as well as in person. Safe Travels!Nb: Please excuse me if such posts (introducing personal communities) are not encouraged here. Ciao! (Comment on this) |
| Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 | |
| _11:13 am_[purplemusic] |
Hello fellow road-trippers! I'm Susan, and I'm up for a big move on a very short time frame. Departing on the 18th of this month DH and I will be driving from Philadelphia to San Francisco. I am beyond excited as this is my first major road trip. We’re going to have to make the 40+ hour trip in 5 days so we’ll have to cover a lot of ground each day, but I think since we’ll be switching off driving and can if needed drive into the night on days we stop for tourist-y things, we will be able to enjoy seeing the country. Our current plan is to pretty much stick to I-80, and I’d love any suggestions on things that are “must –see’s”. My main question at this point is: what should my concerns be? Will I find that it’s more than a tank of gas between gas stations in the mid-west? Is cell service an issue? Since I’m traveling with a partner, what should by safety concerns be? I’m thinking that because I am admittedly clueless about some details, I’ll go down to AAA for their trip planning services. But, I really want this to be a fun adventure. Any advice for ensuring a fun, and non-stressful time? We will after all, be homeless for a week!Please offer any and all insight.Thank you. Current Mood: happy (1 Comment |Comment on this) |
| Friday, July 13th, 2007 | |
| _2:05 pm_[theory_of_chaos] |
Cross-Country Trip - June '07 - First pic batch As I posted here awhile ago, I took an 18-day, 5,000-mile road trip last month, from Southern California to destinations in Chicago and Western Michigan, then back again. On the trip out I took the southern route across 40, then took a combination of 80, 70, and 15 coming back West. This is the first batch of pictures, cross-posted from my own LJ with comments on a propensity I've noticed whenever I'm taking travel shots.***Many artists have recurring motifs, the Rosetta Stones to whatever inner turmoil prompted their life of groping towards a communicable truth. I still don’t know what the hell I’m getting at in my writing career, and may never know, but I think on this road trip I cracked the code to my photography.The hidden pattern that sneaks, Waldo-like, into my pictures time and time again can best be named: The Foreground Shrub.It could also be a bush, or a tumbleweed, or a small tree, depending on the scale of the composition. But I apparently love having something small and round and tangible in one of the lower corners of my shots, like a paperweight. It anchors the image, gives you scale, and tends to complement the color of the sky in a pretty classy manner.So here, for my first batch of real highway adventure shots, I present an exhibit of The Foreground Shrub in all its glory:( His art is just so Shrubby!Collapse ) (Comment on this) |
| Monday, June 4th, 2007 | |
| _11:29 am_[eskimo_war] |
me and my ex-boyfriend left New Jersey for California thursday night with hardly any money or food. we're staying in Jackson, Wyoming at my mom's friend's house for a couple of days to kind of re-group, get temp jobs and then we're off to San Francisco. we're going to be looking for the best places to crash, dumster-dive, etc. if anybody is familiar with the area or the route in between any tips or advice would be reallyreally appreciated as we're quite clueless. also, if anybody has some spare floor-space, we don't have any money but we could sing songs with you and give you hugs.cross-posted to thosegypsies and roadtrips (Comment on this) |
| Friday, May 25th, 2007 | |
| _12:54 pm_[theory_of_chaos] |
West Coast to Midwest, tight schedule! I'm leaving in less than two weeks on a trip from Orange County, California, to destinations in the Midwest including Chicago and the Grand Rapids, Michigan area. I've decided to make a road trip out of it for greater freedom and flexibility, but budget and my ability to take time off from work are going to really limit the number of days I spend on the road. I won't have much sightseeing time, particularly on the way out, but I'd really love if anyone in the community could recommend some things along the way that are close to my route and worth the time.Outbound, my intended route takes me across I-40, through Flagstaff, Albuquerque, Amarillo, Oklahoma City, and eventually up through St. Louis into Chicago. I only have three days to do this, which means 10-11 hours' driving a day.On the way back I'm giving myself a little more luxury - taking four days to come back the I-80 route through Iowa, Omaha, Denver, Southern Utah, and Vegas. Less miles, more like 7-8 hours' driving a day. I'll particularly have extra hours in the Denver area, so any advice on how to make the best use of my time there is most welcome.Thank you for your help - I look forward to sharing pictures! (4 Comments |Comment on this) |
| Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 | |
| _6:44 pm_[arcticpaw] |
Hey guys.The husband and I and a couple buddies are headin' on a road trip in August from Southern Ontario, out to BC.Any good places along the way to check out? (Comment on this) |
| Saturday, April 21st, 2007 | |
| _7:57 pm_[crazylife99] |
East Coast trip We're planning an east coast trip in Sept. Below is our tentative itinerary. Please let me know what you think... whether you think we're spending enough time at each place or if there is some place else that we need to visit. The plan is to travel from DC up to Maine. But we're not sure where in Maine we would want to go. So suggestions for that are also appreciated.Tentative Schedule:Sat- Fly to DCSun- DC/BaltimoreMon- Drive from DC to PhiladelphiaTues- Drive from Philadelphia to NYWed- NYThurs- Drive from NY to BostonFri- BostonSat- Drive from Boston up to MaineSun- Fly home.Let me know what you think. If you can recommend some place else we should stop and where/what you would recommend for Maine.Thanks (2 Comments |Comment on this) |
| _3:33 pm_[doisneau] |
Big Sur, California Photo Gallery; Location: Big Sur, CA [and Limekiln State Park] // Google MapsSee the Stock Photo Gallery / **See The Rest of the Big Sur Photo Galleries**Tanya and I made our yearly [and sometimes multi-year] trip up north to Big Sur, a coastline region of big cliffs and small roads. It turned out to be a great time to go up there as everything was in bloom and it wasn't too overly packed with tourists. We went camping up in Limekiln State Park which is a beach and redwood area right off one of the cliff bridges. We had a beach campground which was fantastic and saw a nice fog sunset complete with gulls and roaring waves. If you're yet to go to Big Sur, its a fantastic drive and always a great time._via wikipedia.org;_Big Sur is a thinly-settled region of the central California coast where the Santa Lucia Mountains rise abruptly from the Pacific Ocean. This geology produces stunning views and has become a magnet for global tourism. Big Sur's Cone Peak is the highest coastal mountain in the lower 48 states, ascending nearly a mile (5,155 feet/1.6km) above sea level, only 3 miles (4.8 km) from the ocean.[1] Although Big Sur has no specific boundaries, many definitions of the area include the 90 miles (145km) of coastline between the Carmel River and San Carpoforo Creek, and extend about 20 miles (32km) inland to the eastern foothills of the Santa Lucias, while other sources limit the eastern border to the coastal flanks of these mountains, only 3 to 12 miles (4.8-19km) inland. The northern end of Big Sur is about 120 miles (193km) south of San Francisco, and the southern end is approximately 245 miles (394km) north of Los Angeles.All photos are available as royalty-free stock photos or fine-art prints.Please click on the images and log-in for print ordering information |
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