Coast to Coast: Georgia to California
The move out to California was definitely a learning experience, and one I won’t soon forget. After packing up my apartment, moving my stuff down to my parents’ house, and having my car broken into (delaying my departure about a week), it was safe to say I was ready to get on the road and head to California.Once my car, a 1997 Honda Accord wagon, was loaded up and equipped with at least one bottle of every fluid the car may run out of, I headed up to get my friend Will and leave from Atlanta.
Day one, after getting Will, was a long day full of traffic, bad weather, and learning just how badly the gas for the trip was going to hurt. However, that being said, we made solid time and got from Atlanta to Shreveport, Louisiana by around 1 AM.
Day two was an absolute battle of attrition, trying to make our way across the great state of Texas in a single day. After leaving a big storm front behind us, we made our way across the flattest and dustiest farmland I’ve ever seen and hit straight highway after straight highway all the way to New Mexico. Along the way, we stopped at a rest stop, played around on railroad track and got a little too close to getting hit by a train, and stopped to shoot the Milky Way on the Texas/New Mexico border.
Day three, Albuquerque to Flagstaff, was our second to last day and the shortest of the four days. We only ended up driving for around 7 hours, not including the time we spent driving through the Petrified Forest and shooting around in the park. When we pulled in for the night, it was technically in Williams, right outside of Flagstaff. That night, after downing the best Mexican food I’ve ever had at Tacos Los Altos, we prepared to explore the Grand Canyon the next day.
Day four, our final day, had us travelling north to the Grand Canyon, then west through Kingman, Arizona and south to end up in Redondo Beach, California. As many have said before, the Grand Canyon is one of those places you have to see in person to take in. No picture or video can properly contain the immense depth and distant vistas the Canyon has to offer. After climbing over the railing to check out the sights without a fence in the way, we survived and proceeded to take full advantage of the higher speed limits in California to make it home around 11 PM that night.
With the trip wrapped up and my stuff moved into the new apartment with my girlfriend Morgan, I can look back at this trip as a rite of passage into adulthood, a little more so than even graduating college. Not everyone can say they loaded everything they owned into a car and forged across the country with their best friend. Thankfully, I got to my destination safely with no breaking down or getting (too) lost. With California being one of our top viewed states, we will finally be able to get that real west coast perspective.
