Spring Break in San Fran - Day 1: Epic Drive

So I hate when people say "epic" when referring to everday things, but the length of the drive from San Antonio to San Francisco is deserving of epic status. We completed this marathon driving trip in our AWESOME stow-n-go minivan rental. Seriously, this thing had compartments everywhere, and we used them. We left late on Saturday, so the drive from San Antonio to Tucson, AZ was mostly dark and uneventful. With the coming of dawn however, Arizona turned on us and became evil.

In Phoenix we decided to stop and see a sculpture made from old weaponry. We were all picturing something tough looking, but apparently most of the weapons were melted down and then cast into this random thing. The bottom however showed some of the weapons that were placed into the sculputre.

After a disappointing sculpture visit, we decided to get some breakfast at a local cafe that we had spotted across the street. BAD IDEA. The doors proclaimed this cafe to be "open and accepting to all" and blah blah blah, but what they really meant was "we are going to be douches to everyone who comes in here". When asking for a recommendation about their sandwiches, the cashier acted like I had insulted her. She gave me a rude look and said "I'm a vegetarian. I couldn't tell you." I thought 'okkkkkk, how about you at least tell me which one people buy most or something' but I shook it off and simply ordered. Also, Kelsi had to go request that they bring her sandwich out, because they simply didn't make it after telling her it was on the way. And then, they threw away Ashley's coffee while she was in the bathroom. She had literally ordered it a minute before to take for the rest of the trip and it was full. After asking the lady who threw it away about it (she was also the lady who had JUST made it for her), the a-hole didn't offer to get her another and didn't even apologize for the mistake. Needless to say, we were done with Phoenix, so we bid the place effing adieu.

We were forced to stop in Arizona one more time to get gas, and once again, we had trouble. The gas station we stopped at was crazy crowded with cars, so naturally people forgot their manners and how to drive. As we were circling the pumps (we had already been in the lot) a guy who apprently REALLY needed gas came flying in from the road and without even hesitating cut us off from an open pump that we were obviously driving to. Luckily, the pump was out of order, so he didn't get the satisfaction of getting gas before us. We finally just picked a pump and got in line behind the car. Another fine citizen of AZ however decided that he wanted to be next, so he got in line in FRONT of the car at the pump. I'm not sure if he had never been to a gas station before, but normally, you have to give a car room so that it can pull away from the pump. Again however, this jerk did not prevail. We were able to secure our spot at the pump (of course only after waiting on the woman and her kid to come back out of the store because she didn't move her car to allow the dozens of people waiting to fill up). After pumping gas (we moved the car when done to allow others to fill up) and taking a bathroom break, we got out of AZ as fast as we could.

Once we got into Southeastern California, we drove thru the MILLIONS (okay more like hundreds or thousands) of wind mills they have set up. Our next stop was Beaumont, CA (ah Beaumont).

Beaumont is located east of LA, so after a gas stop, we proceeded thru the madness of LA as quickly as possible. We finally got off of IH-10 and turned north toward San Francisco. The shot below was on IH-5 in between LA and San Francisco. It was definitely an improvement over the desertness of LA.

However, for a 5-10 minute stretch, we encountered the WORST SMELL I HAVE EVER SMELLED. We identified the source of the smell, after a few minutes of it creeping into our car. What was it? Are you dying to know? Well........it was tens of thousands of cows crammed into a small stretch of land (sorry no picture). The dairy farm (I'm assuming that's what it was) went on for a few miles, but it was made so that the cows were concentrated into small areas directly by the road. They were packed in there tighter than Rosie O'Donnell's legs into some skinny jeans. So you can imagine how the Methane Cloud that was flowing from their arses was quite overwhelming. I can't recall many smells that choked me up and made my eyes water, but this one definitely did.

Finally, after 30ish hours of driving, we finally made it to our destination, Nick's Aunt & Uncle's house in Tiburon (north of SF). Below is a picture of the view from the upstairs balcony.

And so ends Day 1 of the 2011 Spring Break Saga.