LA to New York in 2 Days

---

A few weeks ago, my co-worker, Van, approached me with an idea to go on a cross country road trip to New York City and Washington DC. She had to drive back to her hometown of New Orleans and decided to make an entire road trip out of it. She offered to pay for the rental car and gas. All she needed was somebody to help drive with her. Of course I jumped at the idea of going on a cross country trip. We set off just after 10pm after I drove to Sherman Oaks to meet her at her apartment. Our plan was to just drive straight to New York City while switching off driving duties every few hours. Van took the first shift so we packed all of our things into our little rental car, got on Interstate 15 then Interstate 40 and set off for our adventure.

We drove through the Mojave Desert and into Northern Arizona through the night. By dawn, we were in Gallup, New Mexico where we stopped for breakfast and to switch driving duties. Continuing on the 40, we drove through Albuquerque before once again stopping to refill for gas in the small town of Santa Rosa. We again switched drivers and Van drove us into Texas cow country before stopping for a late lunch at Taco Bell in Amarillo, Texas. Afterwards, I took over the reigns as driver and once we were back on the open road, our first encounter with local law enforcement was about to occur. I was probably driving a good 80 miles per hour, when I saw the red flashing lights of a police car right behind me. I pulled over and was informed that I was indeed pulled over for speeding. Our problems started when he learned that we were driving a rental and asked to see a copy of the rental agreement. Van and I looked all over the car but were unable to locate any rental agreement. Now looking very suspicious, the officer pulled me aside and had me sit inside his patrol vehicle with him. He had to call in to verify if our vehicle was indeed a rental and whether it was rented in my name. Once it was verified that we were indeed driving a rented vehicle, the officer let us go with just a warning for our speeding. That evening we drove into Oklahoma passing Oklahoma City. We stopped around 9pm in the small town of Okemah which was about halfway between Oklahoma City and the Arkansas border. We had a late dinner and relaxed for a bit at one of the Love's rest stops which are common along Interstates outside the major cities.

With Van back behind the wheel, we drove into Arkansas and passed Little Rock. I was sound asleep in the back seat when I was awaken by Van telling me that we were being pulled over. I looked back and saw the flashing lights of a police car following us. Here we were 2 asians being pulled over in the middle of the night in the middle of rural Arkansas by 2 overweight country police officers. If this was the 1950's, we could be in some serious trouble. However, they had pulled us over for having expired tags. Again, the officers were very suspicious about our lack of a rental agreement. They pulled us aside and questioned us about where we were going and what our plans were. Our stories matched but they still weren't satisfied so they had us stand by the side of the road while they searched the entire vehicle. While I was standing there in the cold chilly night, all I was thinking was that I hope Van didn't have anything illegal in any of her bags. Having found nothing, the officers let us go with just a warning and advised us to get something faxed over from the rental company stating that our car was a rental. Our second brush with the law in less than 24 hours and we were still unscathed.

After passing Memphis, I took over driving through much of Tennessee. I was very weary of any police car that drove by and tried to avoid them. Driving through Tennesse was not what I expected. I didn't realize how beautiful the scenery in Tennessee is. I'm not sure what I expected but I didn't expect to see such lush foliage and green rolling hills. We passed through Nashville and had a late breakfast in Cookeville. Once we drove into Knoxville, our task was to find a Kinko's and have a rental agreement faxed over. Not wanting the the rental company to know that we drove the car out of state, I had to call Shea who luckily was at work. Our plan was for me to call the rental company and explain to them our situation. I would have them fax over a rental agreement to Shea who would then fax it over to us in Knoxville. The whole process took about an hour. It was a waste of time but at least we can relax a little bit easier. After Knoxville, we caught Interstate 81 which would take us through the Blue Ridge Mountains in western Virginia. Driving through the Blue Ridge Mountains was stunningly beautiful. That is, when we were able to see. For a good part of our drive, it was raining quite heavily. There were moments when the downpour was so torrential that people had to pull over to the side of the freeway or stop under a freeway overpass. We stopped in the city of Roanoke for lunch at McDonald's before heading up to Northern Virginia and into the Washington DC suburbs. We crossed the Potomac River and into Washington DC in order find Van's sister's house. Her sister wasn't going to be home but she was letting us stay at her place while she was away. We headed straight to her house and crashed for some well deserved rest. We had just driven from coast to coast in about 48 hours!

The next morning, we got up early in order to beat the DC traffic to head up to New York City. We drove up to Laurel, Maryland where we had breakfast at McDonald's. From there we would drive through Baltimore and into Delaware. Interstate 95 had so many toll stops. At one point we drove through the line for people with pre-paid passed. When we drove through, a red light started buzzing. After a brief pause, I just stepped on the gas, and got the heck out of there. I was on edge for a few minutes afterwards expecting to be chased by the local authorities for failing to pay our toll. Once in New Jersey, we drove along the New Jersey Turnpike and into the New Jersey suburbs of New York City. The Manhattan skyline was beginning to come into view and both Van and I started getting really excited. We began our drive into the city and I was very nervous as I had heard so much about the traffic here. We crossed the Lincoln Bridge and the first thing we saw was the Jacob Jarvis Convention Center which our hotel was located very close to. We breathed a sigh of relief knowing that we didn't have to drive into the chaotic traffic of Manhattan. Once we found our hotel, The Travel Inn located on 42nd Street, we parked our car in the parking garage thankfully knowing that we would not drive this thing again for the next few days!

After settling in, we decided to go out and find some lunch. We were so tired of eating fast food for the past 2 days that we wanted to splurge on a delicious meal somewhere. We walked towards Restaurant Row which is a very well known area with a large number of restaurants. We settled on an Italian restaurant called Capri. It was a very small and intimate restaurant but the food was absolutely delicious. Afterwards, we walked over to Times Square. This place is like Las Vegas times 10. It was absolutely insane. There were thousands of people everywhere, tall buildings towering above, and neon signs advertising anything and everything. It was definitely stimulation overload. We basically just wandered around trying to soak in as much as possible. Almost every well known chain store and restaurant was represented here in Times Square, from Starbucks, McDonald's, and TGIF's to Sephora, Gap, and Banana Republic. We managed to find one of those red hop on and hop off tour buses that would take you to all the major sights of the city. We purchased 2 tickets that would be good for 48 hours and climbed aboard. To get our bearings of the city, we were just going to ride it without getting off. However, we decided to get off near Wall Street to walk around and checkout Battery Park. We found the New York Stock Exchange and took pictures with the famous Merrill Lynch bull. Then we ventured over to Battery Park to walk around. Back on the bus, we continued driving toward the Lower East Side, through China Town, and pass the United Nations Building. Along the way, we spotted filming taking place for the upcoming Spider Man movie. Later that evening we wanted to go out so we decided to try the subway and venture over to the Greenwich Village area. Not knowing where to go, we just wandered around the various neighborhoods and ended up just stopping at a little pizzeria for a bite to eat.

The next morning, we made our way back to Times Square to catch the Hop-on Hop-off bus. Today was going to be a full day of major sightseeing. We drove by many notable New York landmarks like the Chrysler Building, the Flatiron building, the SoHo area, and Tribeca. We exited our bus near where the Twin Towers used to stand and walked over to Ground Zero. There were a lot of other people here to pay their respects and everybody was just silent. We walked over to the viewing platform where you can see the huge pit where the Twin Towers used to stand. I looked at all of the other people here and some of them had tears in their eyes but everyone was quiet in silent tribute to those who had lost their lives here. We left the area feeling very sad remembering what had happened her almost 2 years ago. We walked over to Battery Park where we purchased tickets to catch a ferry over to Ellis Island to check out the Statue of Liberty. The ferry ride gave us great views of the Manhattan skyline but it was still shocking to not see the Twin Towers. The Statue of Liberty was amazing but I was quite disappointed that we were not able to ascend it as it was closed for renovations. That evening we just did more wandering around Times Square. We also made it up to the Park Avenue area to see how the super rich live and shop. I found an NBA store where I probably spent a good 2 hours looking around and purchasing things. For dinner, we decided to check out Virgil's Real Barbeque while watching the Laker's playoff game.

---

Photos

Capri Restaurant
On Restaurant Row, lunch our first day

The Merrill Lynch Bull
Grabbing the Bull by the Balls

On Ellis Island
The Statue of Liberty

Aboard the Circle Line
Manhattan Skyline

Ground Zero
Former Site of the Twin Towers

Ground Zero
From the Viewing Platform