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Trans-USA Roadtrip: Suggestions Please!

167
snooker

Look up Fred Stitt at the San Francisco Institute of Architecture....or any one of the people there. Tell them you British Story and they will be most accomodating....helping you how ever they can.

Aug 22, 06 6:50 pm  · 
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myriam

Ha, on MY cross-country trip I got tagged with a $170 ticket in a speed trap designed for out-of-state plates! I was lost and when I broke down crying (very shamefacedly) the officer actually LAUGHED. I kept thinking, aren't they supposedly to let girls off?! So much for nice cops. Moral of the story: SLOW DOWN when driving through Fredonia, AZ on your way from Hurricane, UT to the Grand Canyon. Actually, better yet, SKIP THE BLOODY CANYON.

Aug 22, 06 10:47 pm  · 
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Christopher Daniel

Now in Vegas. This city is crazy, ridiculous and brilliantly shit. I love it and never want to come here again. It makes me feel physically ill and childishly excited at the same time. I don't like that much.

Got stopped for doing 85 in a 65 just outside Moab, Utah. The State Trooper was very nice about it and only gave me a warning "as a souvenir". I might frame it. We were very well behaved across the rest of Utah.

Right. Back to the tables. So far I'm up a few $$$ but trying not to let it get to me.

Aug 25, 06 10:09 pm  · 
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the silent observer

It's the beauty of Vegas...the pure vulgarity and exhuberance...

85? In utah? Hmmm....funny, every time I drive around in Utah, I shoot to average 85...must have been your rental plates ;)

And, Chris...leave while you are ahead...remember "the house always wins"....

Btw, when you hit SF, check out berkeley...just to hang around, see the college life as it starts to pick up....and look out for a place called Zachary's pizza...my friends who live out there highly recommend it....

Aug 26, 06 5:26 am  · 
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athenaeum

Bartlesville, Oklahoma.
Marfa, Texas.

Sep 2, 06 5:25 am  · 
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WonderK

Best description of Vegas I've ever heard. "I love it and never want to come here again". Yep.

He should be home by now. I'm expecting a link to his Flickr slide show any day now.

Sep 2, 06 5:17 pm  · 
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siggers

Sounds great, wholeheartedly jealous (I don't even have a driving license...) - a few people will probably fall off their chairs reading that ;)

Sep 3, 06 8:34 am  · 
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Christopher Daniel

I'm home. Back in Blighty. Marvelous.

Got back on Friday morning. Had a hectic weekend helping out my family, filling skips with junk and climbing around in attics. When I get back to London I'll start looking through all my photos. I took about 6 gigs (approx 3000 photos). They'll need a little editing before I upload them to Flickr (lots were panoramas). I reckon I'll have to upload them in stages, city by city.

LA was ridiculous. The street party in Silverlake was excellent and I met many interesting people (including a guy who works on CSI, a record producer and a girl called Poptart Sprinkle). More on that later.

SF was wonderful. Definitely my favourite small US city (NYC was the best of the big fish, Boulder was the nicest town, Colorado was my favourite state). Many thanks to Javier, Juan and Jen for their hospitality.

Right. Back to the real world. Bye for now.

Sep 3, 06 3:16 pm  · 
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the silent observer

welcome back to cloudy and damp london :)

Sep 3, 06 5:10 pm  · 
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treekiller

Chris-

Where are the pics????? we're still waiting!

Sorry I missed you at the sunset junction- it was pretty dead this year (but still fun), thanks to the higher admission $$ and the water main break under the edgecliff stage. It was a good sendoff party for me- maybe will head back to LA next year just to catch it (but then coachella was more fun)...

Sep 28, 06 11:35 am  · 
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Christopher Daniel

Err... Many apologies, peoples.

I got back to London at the beginning of the month and had to dive straight into finding a job and a new flat. I've now got a job (in the small London office of a giant American firm... quite an interesting culture clash!) and am stilling looking for a new flat (I'm homeless on Monday 9th October, argh!).

I've therefore not had much time for sorting out all my photos (a lot are panoramas that require stitching). I've gone through the first couple of batches and they're posted here:
Set #01: NYC
Set #02: Pennsylvania (on the way to Fallingwater)
I've geo-tagged as many pics as possible so eventually there'll be a snaky route across the US on this map.
The next batch will be of Fallingwater itself.

It's hard enough finding time to sort the pictures so I've no idea when I'll get around to editing together all my video and posting it on YouTube.

Still, I guess it gives y'all something to look forward to, eh?!

Sep 28, 06 4:42 pm  · 
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treekiller

Good luck with the flat search, but then you've had some experience camping. Are there any nearby caravan/gypsy sites for you to pitch your tent in??? ;-)

Nice start with the pic posting. We'll patiently wait for the next installment.

good luck with the job...

Sep 29, 06 10:52 am  · 
 · 
A

Love the license plate trim "America - love it or leave it." So fitting that it's on a giant truck. Saw one the other day "Kansas - It IS as bigoted as you think"

How many "don't mess with Texas" bumper stickers did you see?

Sep 29, 06 2:52 pm  · 
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Christopher Daniel

Upsettingly our route took us too far north to see many Texan bumper stickers. I did however make several forays into gun/outdoor/bow-hunting shops in several states and have some very interesting conversations that I wouldn't have got away with if they hadn't been so pleased that an Englishman (or Irishman as I sometimes identified myself) was taking an interest in their opinions.

Our favourite roadside signs included:
www.gunssavelives.com
Reading, Writing, Arithmatic AND GOD (advertising a local school, their capitalization not mine)
We got pictures of both.

The best one of all unfortunately went by too fast to be recorded. The wording was quite complex but essentially amounted to a call for the US to pull out of the UN.

There were also a great deal of anti-abortion signs everywhere from Illinois to Utah.

On the flip side, most people I spoke to (when not in gun shops or one particular diner in Bird-In-Hand, PA) went to great lengths to assure me that they didn't vote for Bush and please could I not hold him againist them. In general, the signage and bumper stickers "on the road" were rather hostile but the people were universally charming.

Oct 2, 06 7:16 pm  · 
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the silent observer

glad to hear that you enjoyed your trip! and congrats on the job :)

Oct 2, 06 8:31 pm  · 
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Christopher Daniel

For those of you who still remember this thread...

Here's the long-delayed third batch of photos from my summer roadtrip:

Set #03: Fallingwater

I took so many photos over the course of the trip that it's really quite a task to sort through them and put them on Flickr. The panoramas (which I tend to take quite often) are particularly laborious, even with the right software.

A belated happy new year, everyone.

Jan 26, 07 10:55 am  · 
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Christopher Daniel

And another:

Set #04: Cincinnati (Zaha's CAC and some Morphosis)

Can anyone spot the regular Archinect contributor in the foreground of one of the Morphosis night shots? She was my very kind tourguide in Cincinnati. Introduced me to Skyline chilli (which isn't, to my European understanding, actually chilli... it's bolognese) and sent me to my first baseball game.

Jan 30, 07 7:00 am  · 
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