This would not be my best idea of the trip. Driving to the Grand Canyon with limited sleep into a snow storm. I had actually been warned off by various people back home but I decided it was worth the risk. I left the hostel at 5AM. It was a nice hostel but not overly friendly and I do prefer hostels have a friendly atmosphere. I drove on the same route that the bus took yesterday. There was a storm coming in later that day but it was not expected to hit until early afternoon and I was hoping to reach the Grand Canyon and get out before the storm hit. 4 hours later I reached the Grand Canyon at 10AM (Time zone change). There are surprising number of hotels, motels and other accommodations right next ... read more

Left Yosemite at 5AM in the snow and rain. I was sorry the park was a wash because I was really looking forward to it. The drive down was both challenging and dangerous in the dark. If you want an extreme drive go down from Yosemite in the dark during winter. It would be an 8.5 hour drive to Las Vegas. It is not exactly my favourite city but I figure it is a place you should visit at least once. The drive through Northern California and Nevada is good and the Mojave desert is desolate place. Case in point when my GPS showed I was crossing the Mojave river I saw just an empty dusty riverbed. I got my first view of the Las Vegas Strip once I hit the city. It is a dizzying ... read more

Left hostel at 7AM on way to Tijuana and San Diego. My left foot had been hurting the day before and I was planning on visiting a pharmacy before heading out but Zaina who is a doctor advised me to elevate my leg as I slept. That really helped because my leg felt much better after 1 night. Driving through the desert away from Phoenix I made good time but when I hit California the gas prices jumped to the same as Canada $1/liter. I was surprised about this until I figured out that it discouraged people from Mexico from coming up and taking gasoline down to Mexico where the prices are high. Driving through Southern California is surprisingly challenging because the mountains are so high and the highways go right up the mountains. The engine ... read more

Today I will be going hundreds of feet underground in the form of Carlsbad Caverns. One of my earliest memories was reading an entry in a fact book about Carlsbad Cavern. It is the deepest natural cavern in the world and was created when sulfuric acid dissolved the surrounding limestone. Native American artifacts have been found deep in the caverns so human beings have been exploring the caverns for thousands of years. It is an 8 hour drive from Austin to Carlsbad so I left at 5:30AM. I stopped for breakfast at a small Texas town called Sonora which is also the name of the desert I was driving in as well. I must admit I felt out of place in a room full of Texans in their boots and big hats with me in shorts ... read more

Woke up at the hostel and checked the weather report. The ice storm did a lot of damage to Dallas and it was advised to stay off the road. I went out to take a look at my car. It was encased in ice and I had to use my ice scraper to shatter the ice while I set the heater to the highest level. Took a bit of time but I cleared the ice. I had spoken to my local friend Jillian at this point and we arrange a meetup at her place for pizza. I was considering heading into Dallas to look around but there was really nothing I wanted to see so I held off. So I have no pictures of Dallas landmarks. First time I ventured out was to drive Salira to ... read more