Cruisin’ the USA

Today we discovered the beauty that is Cruise Control. Having only really driven in LA, I never had chance to use it and never saw the point. But now that we’ve had nothing but flat, expansive road with little traffic ahead, we’ve cruised down the highway most of the way.

We drove over 500 miles in 9 hours. We grabbed breakfast in Phoenix, picked up some essentials from Target, and then we were off and running! We bee-lined to El Paso, TX. We hadn’t planned on stopping there, but KT applied to a job there earlier, so we decided to stop in to see if he could talk to the News Director to give him a leg up over the competition. After stopping in at the station, we grabbed dinner at CRAVE Kitchen. I got a burger with brie and chipotle aioli with a side of sweet potato fries. The burger was great, but the fries were the item to beat. They came with a dipping sauce that was close to the icing you get on a cinnamon roll. While probably terribly fattening, it was fantastic!

In other news, the drive was surprising eventful. Throughout New Mexico, there were dust storm warnings and we could even see one right off the side of the road. There was thunder and lightning with sudden downpours all in nearly 100 degree heat.

While driving I noticed a distinct change in the billboards between the states. While Los Angeles has billboards for movies, concerts, and various other entertainment promotions, Arizona had a lot for the military and how All State Insurance protects you from MAYHEM. New Mexico had a fair amount for reporting drunk drivers, which makes me wonder if it’s a big problem there. I haven’t been in Texas long enough to notice a trend here yet, but I’ll be keeping an eye out.

We’re currently holed up in a cheap hotel in Van Horn, TX to catch some Z’s and then drive the other 9 hours to Dallas. So excited to check out Dallas and to see some old friends!

It's Too Darn Hot!

Phoenix is proving too hot for me to handle! We got up early to try to beat the heat, but it just could not be avoided. We stopped for breakfast at Over Easy, a breakfast joint that was featured on Diners, Drive-Ins, and Drives on the Food Network. I had the best French Toast of my life - caramelized banana and pecan on brioche. Ah-maze-ing! KT had a pretty solid omelet as well. If you're ever in Phoenix or Scottsdale, I recommend stopping in.

After breakfast, we headed to the Desert Botanical Gardens. While it was a bunch of different cacti, as you would expect, it was cooler than I thought it would be. I had no idea there were so many types of cactus! We also go to see some desert wildlife like different little lizards, round tail squirrels, and mourning doves. We thought about spending our day at Castles & Coasters, or salt water tubing, but the heat proved too much and we ended up spending the hottest part of the day in our hotel room applying for jobs and networking online.

As the sun was setting we headed out to Rawhide - an old west "town" for dinner and a show. It got pretty mixed reviews overall on yelp, but the food was consistently rated highly so we figured why not. Worst case, we'd get good food and a laugh out of it. Well, we were right about that. The food was great - filet mignon steak with potatoes and fruit and the strongest $6 margaritas I've ever had. As for the show part.....if I were 5 I would have loved it! A gun fight filled with bad acting and only one real stunt where you could see the mat, killing the illusion of it. Oh well, the town was cute and straight out of that South Park episode about the old west actors who wouldn't break character.

After the show, instead of sticking around for Act 2 we headed to the nearby casino. When traveling with KT, you can count on some gambling happening. Since there were no roulette tables, we stuck to $5 minimum Black Jack. Luck was on our side tonight since we both ended up leaving with more money than when we came in! We should probably stop while we're ahead.

Tomorrow we leave Phoenix and no longer have any booked rooms or truly set plans. Our next major city is Dallas, where we'll be staying with one of my friends from Mystic Yankee (Girl Scouts 4 Life!). However, to get there we need to drive through 22 hours worth of desert. We'll be stopping somewhere to crash for the night, but have noooo idea what city or even what state that will be in. Wish us luck!

First day in Phoenix

So Kristal and I left the house at 10:15 this morning and after stopping by USC we were saying goodbye to downtown LA at around 11 am. We stopped by Cici's pizza in Chino Hills for lunch, and it was delicious as usual. There wasn't much to look at on the drive over. There was a weird elephant on a random hillside, and a pretty expansive and cool wind farm. Other then that, it was mostly mountains and deserts as far as the eye could see.

After a couple rest stops, we finally pulled into Phoenix, and after hitting our first round of traffic just outside the city, we pull into our hotel around 6. After a half hour of relaxing, we were all set to go to Rawhide Steakhouse and Old West Town until I was a genius and called ahead for a reservation. Turns out its only open on Thursday through Saturday, so good thing I call. We are going to swing by it tomorrow, and based on the ad in the hotel, it looks an awful lot like the western town in that South Park episode where they get taken hostage.

So instead of that we decided to go to a really good pizza place where Oprah apparently flies into Arizona just to eat there! But it was over a 90 minute wait so we decided to defer for a highly rated Mexican place. On the way out, we saw Chase field, home of the Diamondbacks, the ASU downtown campus, and I got splintered by a deceptive cactus.

We ended up eating at a nice Mexican place called Gallo Blanco Cafe. We both got margaritas, and for food I got a carne asada burrito while Kristal got a pork Torta. Unfortunately for me, Kristal got the better dish, so the count is 1-0 in her favor right now. After that, we swung by Downtown Scottsdale, but not much was going on, so we called it an early night.

Tomorrow we have plans all day, including trying out a Food Network recommended breakfast joint, the botanical gardens, and hopefully actually going to the Rawhide Steakhouse/Town we know will be cheesy goodness. Check back for a full update on that!

And we're off!

The car is packed, the tank is full, and I've got my mushroom buddy from Comic-Con! We're off to Phoenix and ready for an adventure! Stay tuned...

Help Us Pay For Gas!

Are you in the LA Area? Like watching movies in the comfort of your own home? We're selling a chunk of our DVD collection to help pay for gas on the long journey! All DVDs range from $5 - $10 each. Check out the full list below.

DVD WITH ORIGINAL CASE/PACKAGING
The Adventures of Pete & Pete Season 1
The Adventures of Pete & Pete Season 2
American Gangster (2-Disc Unrated Extended Edition)
Apocalypse Now (Complete Dossier Edition)
Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (25th Anniversary Edition)
Austin Powers in Goldmember
Benny & Joon
Beyond Sherwood Forest
Borat
Bride Wars
Bruce Almighty
Cold Mountain (Collector’s 2-Disc Edition)
Death Race (Unrated)
Drillbit Taylor
Eagle Eye
Everything is Illuminated
Failure to Launch (Special Collector’s Edition)
Family Guy Presents Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story
Fanboys
Fantastic Four 2: Rise of the Silver Surfer
Finding Neverland
Freddy Got Fingered
Glory Road
The House Bunny
Jarhead
Little Miss Sunshine
Live Free or Die Hard (Unrated)
Match Point (never opened)
Napoleon Dynamite (never opened)
National Treasure
Peter Pan
Reno 911!: Miami The Movie (Unrated)
RV
Saw III
Saw IV (Unrated Director’s Cut)
Semi-Pro
The Spirit (Special Edition)
War of the Worlds (never opened)
Watchmen
The Waterboy

DISC ONLY
2 Fast 2 Furious
All Dogs Go To Heaven 2
Clockwork Orange
Honeymoon in Las Vegas
Master and Commander
Mr. Mom
Napoleon Dynamite
The Prince & Me
The Rookie
Smallville (Pilot Episode)

Let me know in the comments if you're interested in any!

What Up Readers

Hey guys, this is Kristal's better half KT. For those of you who don't know me, I just graduated with Kristal from USC in 2009. I majored in broadcast journalism, and I'm currently looking to be a sports anchor or reporter. I'm applying all around the country, and I'm hoping to hear back from someone soon so I can start working right after our road trip.

I'm very excited about the trip. It will be a great combination of visiting some of my old homes and some new cities that I've always wanted to visit. Chicago, Phoenix, and Philly are at the top of my new cities to see, and it will be great to go back to New Orleans and Charleston to see how the cities have changed and hopefully to see some familiar faces again.

Kristal and I would like to thank everyone who will be following our progress. We have been excited for this for a long time and we cannot wait to take all of you along with us here, at AmericaEffYeah. Thanks again guys, and FIGHT ON!

The Planning Begins!

With Comic-Con only 8 days away, that means we're running out of time to plan! So far, this is what we know:

Leaving Los Angeles early July 28 (after Comic-Con) for Phoenix, AZ. Coming back to Los Angeles August 27.

We have a list of cities we want to hit but aren't going to limit how much time we spend in each one, so some cities may fall to the wayside.

Phoenix, AZ
Dallas/Austin, TX
Houston, TX
New Orleans, LA
Memphis, TN (during Elvis Week in early August)
Atlanta, GA
Charleston, SC
Washington, DC
Philadelphia, PA
New York City, NY
Chicago, IL
Denver, CO

We'll be blogging the whole thing, so be sure to check back her for updates!

Who are "we"? I'm Kristal - recently unemployed and taking the time to figure out what my next career move will be. I've traveled to Europe and studied abroad in Asia, but found my exposure to my own country to be lacking. Now, in one month I plan to see as much of it as possible to make up for it. I bought a new car (2009 Toyota Yaris, yet to be named) and figured what better time than now to break it in?

The other part of this duo is my boyfriend Kevin (aka KT). A recent graduate from USC, he's been applying for sports broadcast jobs around the country and is eagerly waiting to hear back. From the South, he'll be taking the lead for many of these cities. But, I'll let him introduce himself later since we both can update here from our blogger accounts.

From these cities? We'd love to hear your suggestions on what to do, see, and where to eat! And if you've got a couch we can crash on that's even better.