Starting on the road

We officially started our road trip today, the first drive to my uncle's house in Washington DC.

Having made good time for most of the day and somehow not getting stuck in traffic leaving Boston area or driving through New York, we were going to arrive in DC around 7, most likely in time for some delicious food.

However the Jersey turnpike had different ideas, while crossing a rather large bridge we hear a beeping and notice the engine temperature indicator light had come on and the gauge in the car read the engine temperature to be at 260 degrees Fahrenheit. This is a rather worrying thing to happen while traveling over a bridge with a narrow shoulder when the other drivers on the road simultaneously speed like demons and pay no attention to their surroundings.

So we pulled over, checked the various liquids, and decided to keep going slowly and pull off at the next exit in hope of finding a garage (On a side note standing on the shoulder of a bridge while cars and trucks race by you realize how much the bridge sways and shakes with each car, it felt like the thing has going to fall over).

After pulling off the turnpike and finding a garage that said they could fix what they thought was wrong we realized we were pretty much broken down in inner city New Jersey, probably the most dangerous neighbourhood I had ever been in.

After an hour and a half the mechanic said it was the water pump that was broken not the thermostat like they thought, it was not going to be ready till tomorrow and was going to cost six times as much as they though to fix.

After digesting this news we placed some rather frantic phone calls and the very nice garage people drove us to a nearby hotel, so now Stephanie and I are watching Gran Torino on the TV and ordering pizza from a nearby place instead of eating Philly cheese steaks and hanging out with my uncle.

All things considered, it is good that this happened here, where there are garages with friendly mechanics, instead of Texas, New Mexico or Arizona where there are many miles of empty desert.

No picture today because we left the cord for the camera in the car in the garage.

Also here is a rough timeline for our trip.

July:

2nd-4th, Washington dc.

5th-6th, traveling to New Orleans, hotel probably night of the 5th, camping out side New Orleans the 6th.

7th, in New Orleans all day, staying at a hostel at night.

8th, leaving New Orleans later in the day, Houston Texas for night.

9th, hotel at junction Texas.

10th, Carlsbad Caverns for the day then arriving at Hueco rock ranch near El Paso.

11th, climb at Hueco tanks with a paid guide in the morning, check out El Paso at night, stay at Hueco rock ranch again.

12th, climb at Hueco tanks again in the morning, once it gets too hot, drive up to Albuquerque after and stay with my mom's cousin for the night.

13th, check out Bandelier national monument in the day, camp/stay with my friend graham near flagstaff at night.

14th, climb near flagstaff.

15th, check out the Grand Canyon.

16th, climb near flagstaff.

17th, travel towards Joshua tree national park, sleep in car or camp somewhere.

18th-24th, boulder, camp and hike in Joshua tree national park.

25th, possibly stay in Santa Barbra.

26th-28th, San Francisco and the bay area with Rowan.

29th, redwood national park.

30th, Portland Oregon.

31th, Vancouver, and climb in Squamish.

August:

1st-3rd, Vancouver and climb in Squamish.

4th, Kelowna with dads brother possibly.

5th, jasper.

6th-7th, Banff and the Colombia ice fields.

8th, glacier national park.

9th-13th, Yellowstone national park and the grand Tetons.

14th, a hotel somewhere near Glendive.

15th, Winnipeg.

16th, Duluth Minnesota.

17th, Sault st-marie.

18th-19th, Toronto.

20th, Montreal.