Day 13/14

Ben Lutz:

Well, what can you say about the mid-west? You can say that it is a vast, desolate wasteland that only exists, it seems, to get in your way when traveling from coast to coast. However, the mid-west is where Amy Runde hangs her hat thus making it not totally useless. It was exciting seeing someone I had not seen in nearly 5 years (for Ben j only 4 and 1/2). Sure she smells, tells bad jokes, doesn't brush her teeth, and has a taste for raw chicken, but we love her anyway. After watching some male enhancement infomercials and receiving some abuse about my sweet mustache we hit the sheets. The next day after bidding Amy a fond farewell we scurried out of Iowa around noon and entered toll road alley. From Illinois to Penn we probably spent around $40 on freaking roads. It was pretty ridiculous. To be perfectly honest we did not do very much yesterday, it was pretty uneventful. Ben and I did continue our ongoing argument on what would win in a fight; a male lion or a male tiger. Eventually we arrived in Pittsburgh where we went to Primanti Brothers to get one of their famous corned beef, coleslaw, tomato, and french fry sandwiches which I have had my eyes on ever since I saw 'Top Ten Places To Pig Out In America,' on the travel channel. Anyway, that was the highlight of the day. After that we continued to York, Pennsylvania where we stayed in yet another Motel 6.

The next morning I woke to a half flooded room. Ben had risen from the dead like sleep we were enjoying before I did and hit the shower only to find that when he was done, the bathroom floor was about 3 inches underwater. So, you know, that was mildly funny. Anyway we trekked on to Philadelphia and immediately hit 'Geno's Famous Steaks' (another haunt I have always wanted to visit ever since I saw it featured on a food network show). After asking some slick haired Italian standing in front of us in line how to order, I stepped to the window and, with confidence, ordered 'two wiz with,' which is two steak sandwiches with onions and a cheese wiz sauce. These sandwiches were freaking to die for. If some hooligan drove by and shot me in the face at the moment I completed my sweaty meat and cheese sandwich I would have had no regrets. However, I survived and no drive by's ensued. We continued on to Independence hall where the United States we invented. It was almost eerie being in the rooms where those treasonous slave owners drafted the blueprint of our Nation. I think I am safe in saying that both Ben and I were caught up in a kind of wave of respect and humility. It was pretty fantastic. (stairs to Centenial Bell)

(Original Senate room)

We then hit the Liberty Bell (boring) and the Rocky stairs at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Then UK lost....that's all I'll say about that.

Now we are in Washington DC watching 'Man versus Wild' whilst awaiting the Marquez/Diaz fight on HBO. Pretty exciting stuff. Oh, I also got a job over the phone, so that’s pretty rad.

We are STILL not dead.

Day 10/11/12

Ben Johnson:

The last three days have involved some sweet site seeing, ton of driving, and ultimately very few chances to take a load off and update the blog so let me get you caught up.

Tuesday was a day that I had been looking forward to the entire trip. My entire reasoning for wanting to come west was to see the Red Wood/Sequoia Forests and that day had finally come. We left Fresno, CA around 10am and made our way east into Sequoia National Park. After traveling on a never ending winding road up 6500 feet in elevation we were disappointed by a sign that said road closed in 8 miles. I was disheartened, but drove on and after a little bit of back tracking found our way to Grant Grove… home to the third largest tree in the world... General Grant. It was amazing and dwarfed any tree you will ever see.

We wanted to continue further to see the two largest trees in the world, but got black balled because of the record snows that had fallen the previous week. Ultimately, the Park Ranger told us that you would never be able to see a difference between the size of General Grant (#3) and General Sherman(#1), so we accepted this… took a ton of pictures… and got on the road for Vegas. One final fact about the trees; the largest trees range from 1800 to 2300 years old, which means that some of these trees were around when Jesus was born and have been holding on a long time for his return. That’s patience.

After we had snapped our final photo of the trees we made some sandwiches and then jumped in the car for the long haul to Las Vegas (because all of the mountain passes were closed we had to drive south all the way around the Sierra Nevada’s before heading back north). What we didn’t expect was some of the most amazing picture opportunities of the trip. We had to take this incredible unmarked county road south out of the mountains and found ourselves all by ourselves on this road for hours. This road had nothing but tight hairpin turns and 50 miles took nearly three hours, but the sight seeing was so beautiful that we stopped numerous times to take sweet pics. On the final leg of this road we ended up in this valley called Lemon Cove where 90% of California’s citrus fruit is grown (for those of you who have ridden Soarin’ at Disneyland/Disneyworld have flown overtop of these orange/lemon fields).

After the citrus fields we found our way back to reality and spent the next 6 hours driving east to Vegas. The drive was boring as sin and we warmly welcomed the bright lights of Vegas. At around 9pm we parked our car and checked into the Stratosphere on the northern side of the Strip. After dropping off our bags we took off to spend the rest of the night walking the strip. After 4 hours of walking (11 miles) Ben and I both agree that it is not all that it is made up to be. In fact, in Ben’s words Vegas is like ‘a filthy cesspool where hopelessness and sex mongering combine to make a putrid concoction of human emotional bile’. Thankfully, we are smart Vegas visitors and only threw a few bucks away on some silly gambling. All in all, when we finally made it back up to our room we were dog tired and crashed and burned almost instantly.

On Wednesday we woke up a little later than we wanted to and therefore had to skip the hoover dam and head straight for Colorado springs. All we can say about this day is that this trip is very long (around 14 hours) and don’t recommend it to anyone. Utah is boring as sin… other than a few cool rock formations the land was desolate and God forsaken. If it were blown up it would not be missed. On the other hand, Colorado/Rocky mountains would have been amazing to have seen during the day. Ben and I had both taken I-70 through the mountains when we were much younger, but did not remember Vail or the phenomenal Eisenhower tunnel. All we could see was silhouettes of the gigantic mountains around us. Also, we hit 11000 foot elevation making that the highest we had been on the trip yet.

We pulled into Colorado Springs around way later than we wanted to around 1am because of annoying traffic and us forgetting that we lost an hour. Thankfully we got to spend a little bit of time with Eric Dorsey before we hit the sheets for some much needed sleep.

Thursday started with us once again getting a later start than we originally wanted to. We wanted to stay and hangout with Eric in Colorado, but unfortunately we’re starting to feel the pinch since we have to have Ben back to Kentucky in less than a week and a half.

Before hitting the road we decided to stop off at the ‘Garden of the Gods’. This is a cool little collection of smaller rock formations that you are allowed to climb and stare at. The next 8 hours were very forgettable. Eastern Colorado and western Nebraska are as entertaining as female sports and had to do everything in my power not to go insane due to the droll. The only notable thing from the leg of the trip was that we had officially spent 100 hours driving on the trip. At this point the GPS showed that we had driven slightly more than 6100 miles thus far. Quite impressive for an 10 day stretch!

At around 8pm we pulled into Lincoln, NE to grab a quick bite to eat with my little sister Lydia. Although, we had to keep the visit short it was fun to spend some time with family even if it was just for a few minutes.

We pulled into Bettendorf, IA around 2am after 14 seemingly endless hours of driving. Amy Runde welcomed us with open arms and then we slept!!!

Bring on another 14 hour stint on Friday… ughhhh… Philadelphia here we come!

Ben and Ben

Day 9

Ben Johnson:

Today we got started a little slow. First we dropped Jared Marr off at work and then spent the next 2 hours searching for tire chains for our endeavor into Yosemite National Park. They had received over 3 feet of snow in the last week and we were not even sure if we would be able to make it in. After a three hour drive from San Francisco we found ourselves in one of the most beautiful areas in the country. The mountain passes, flowing streams, waterfalls, and vast forests are absolutely breathtaking and Ben and I both wish that we had another week to climb and explore the national park.

The giant Yosemite waterfall is outstanding. Ben and I climbed as high as we could to the base of the waterfall in order to get the best shots possible. We dominated, but underestimated how much the myst from the falls would SOAK us while trying to get the perfect shot.

After a few hours of roaming around aimlessly we decided to head south through Badger Pass in southern Yosemite and spend the night in Fresno in order to get an early start tomorrow when we head into the Sierra National Park to see the giant Redwoods! I am stoked and can't wait!

Ben and Ben

Day 7/8

Ben Johnson:

Yesterday and today were mellower days as opposed to the previous few. We woke up Saturday morning a little bit later than normal because of a very full and amazing day at Disneyland the day before and immediately took off for Hollywood. Hollywood really wasn't all that it is made up to be, but the cool thing is that we ended up there the day before the Oscars! They were getting everything set up and had most of the stuff for the show in place while we were there. We also were able to check out the famous Chinese theater where all of the stars put their hand prints into the concrete out front of the building and right out in front of the stars in the concrete. It was awesome!

After that we hit the road to go to Ben's friend Jared Marr who lives in San Fransisco. The drive was long and boring, but traffic was great. Northern California has nothing, but endless farm fields and absolutely no signs of human life for hundreds of miles at a time. We finally pulled into San Fran about seven at night and ate at an incredible hole in the wall thai restaurant for dinner. We ended the day by just hanging out at Jareds.

Sunday started slowly. We didnt get out of the house till 1pm, but that didnt stop us from dominating. We ate lunch at this delicious burger place and then headed north to the Golden Gate Bridge. It was pretty good. We then went onto this amazing winding road that follows the ocean north of san fransisco and ends at stenson beach. Gorgeous!

We ended the day by hanging out on the fishermans wharf and seeing the sea lions. finally, we hung out and watched movies for the rest of the evening while getting mentally prepared for Yosemite National Park tomorrow.

Ben and Ben

Day 6

Ben Johnson:

Today Ben and I dominated Disneyland! We opened and closed the park down!!! Other than that there isn't much to say so i will leave you with a bunch of sweet pics from our day!!!
Ben and Ben

Day 4/5

Ben Johnson:

Wow... we have not stopped trucking along these last few days and are now enjoying the night in a 4 star hotel outside of the Disney Parks in Anaheim California. Lets put this in reverse for a few moments and rehash a crazy couple of days.

Wednesday the 18th was jam packed starting at the butt crack of dawn and involved baseball, the Grand Canyon, and a ton of driving. We started off the day with a wonderful breakfast courtesy of Sarah Fox in Fountain Hills, AZ and then hit the road for Cubs spring ball in Mesa, AZ. Watching spring training got me so stoked for baseball and was amazing getting to be so close to the players!




After a few hours of baseball we got back on the road and headed north towards flagstaff and eventually the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon was amazing, but Ben and I found that we had more fun looking for photo opportunities than even enjoying the Grand Canyon itself. Our goal was to find the craziest places on the edge of the canyon to take pics and had a blast doing it!




After dark it was time to hit the road again and our next stop was in Lake Havasu, AZ and the London Bridge. It is not well known, but the original London Bridge (that fell down) pieces were purchased by Arizona and put back together in Havasu. We drove over it... walked over it... and snapped a few photos as well.




To end the night we finished our final leg of driving for the evening as we pulled into my aunt and uncles house in Parker, AZ. I don't get to see them very often and enjoyed every moment we were able to spend together.





Thursday, February 19th...

Today was once again outstanding. We woke up early this morning in Parker, AZ and headed towards San Diego, CA. Instead of going the guaranteed route Parker to SD that looked good in the Atlas we decided to put our fate in the hands of the GPS. It did not dissappoint. It took us on back road after back road through the middle of nowhere until we popped out on Highway 5 heading west into San Diego. At one point along the way we were lucky enough to drive through the Sand Dunes of SoCal and see the Dune Buggies shooting all of the sand (just like you see on TV). Also, we saw to Appache helicopters doing Training drills out in the middle of nowhere and even saw them shoot out flares.

Finally at around 11 AM we rolled into San Diego and ultimately the San Diego Zoo! The Zoo was cool and disappointing at the same time. The pros of the Zoo are that it is expansive and has every animal you could ever imagine. The cons were that none of the areas that the animals hung out in were very large or flashy. I was expecting these huge display areas and a whole pride of Lions to greet me with roars of welcome. Although, this was not the case it was worth every minute and i enjoyed it thouroughly!

After the Zoo we headed to the coast and ate dinner on the San Diego Boardwalk at 'Luigis at the Beach'. We ate a chicken garlic pizza and enjoyed a fresh local brew. It was worth every penny. The crust was incredible!

We left the boardwalk at around 6pm to head to LA and arrived at our hotel in Anaheim at around 8pm. The hotel is amazing. It is called the Anabella Hotel and is within walking distance of Disneyland (Fridays adventure). Ben and I got lucky and found the hotel on one of these cheap hotel sites and instead of sleeping in a Motel 6 tonight... we will be sleeping on feathertop beds in a 4 star hotel!

After we got settled into our hotel we decided to take a walk to Downtown Disney and soak up a little magic before dominating the parks tomorrow. It was amazing! I frequently crave disney and this is going to be great to feed the need!!!

Ben and Ben