After an excruciating 12 weeks stuck in the office with nothing to do I have started traveling again! And due to recent staffing events at work it has turned into marathon travel, almost (but not quite) rivaling last summer. Here are the place I'm currently going to:
King City, CA
Spring Valley, IL
Albany, GA
Albany, MO
Houston, TX
Lebanon, IN
Easton, MD
Irving, NY
Rapid City, SD
Last week I was in Albany, GA and I'm currently in Albany, MO on my 4th trip in a row. Next week will be Texas which I'm excited for because I've never been to Texas. Here are some pics of my recent trip to California:
I was staying in Monterey, CA and drove down the coast on Highway 1 to Big Sur (Big South) which has been shortened from the Indian name - The big wild wilderness to the south - which encompassed the entire uninhabited area south of Monterey. The road was built in the 1930's as part of the effort to employ workers during the Great Depression. All of the bridges I drove across had a date of 1932 on them. This drive was one of the most amazing I've ever been on - it even rivaled the Amalfi Coast in Italy. As you're driving south the road curves in and out of the mountains on the left and looks down on the ocean to the right.
The road itself is about half way up the mountain so as you're looking up on one side you can look equally far down on the other. There are no guard rails, but every so often there are scenic outlooks where you can pull over to take in the view (also without guard rails). Several of these at least had 'DANGER' signs right at the edge of the cliff. Most of the way down to Big Sur, right before you enter the town, is the Historic Point Sur Lighthouse (pictured to the right).
I was able to take a tour of the lighthouse which was built in the year 1887, before any roads existed so far south. They had to build a train system to get supplies to build and maintain the lighthouse that came in on a boat 4 times a year. The picture to the right is the lighthouse from a distance and you can see how Point Sur sticks out farther into the water than any other point.
I'm looking forward to going back to this part of California when it's a little warmer (it was 30-50 degrees while I was there) and ideally I would like to hike up one of the mountains in Big Sur. My travel schedule right now looks like it's going to be 5 weeks on the road and then 1 week at home for the next 3 or 4 months so stay tuned for more pictures from some of the least interesting places in the US (with a few exceptions of course).
Well I made it to my 32nd state this week: Nebraska. I also decided it would be a good idea to start taking pictures of the 'welcome to this state' signs. It's a little late, I know, but I actually don't see them very often so I don't feel like I've missed too many. I mean think about it: how often do you cross a state boarder on a road that's not a highway? I suppose you could get good enough at taking pictures while driving to get pics of the highway signs, but that's probably pretty dangerous (actually I know from experience that it is...)
Below is a picture of the bridge that crosses from Missouri to Nebraska. To the right is a picture of a wildlife reserve I drove past. There were more birds in one place than I've ever seen in my life. According to the sign they migrate from Canada to South America and stop to rest at this creek. It was shockingly loud there. I can't even describe the sound of the millions of birds in such a small area with no other sound to disrupt their squawking. Unfortunately most of them were geese, so it wasn't exactly a beautiful sound, it was more like a majestic sound - overwhelming and powerful.
