Actually, it wasn't really a "West Coast" trip. I mean we did drive up to San Francisco partly along the coastlines on Highway 1, but the rest of our time was spent in California, Arizona and Utah. Get ready for a little story telling, because I'm all in this time.
So, when did it all start, you ask. Well, the basic idea of flying to LA and doing a bit of roadtrippin' in the US wouldn't be so special. I'm sure tons of people have done it by now. It all started with a friend's 30th birthday, which was this month, April 2017. I guess the first rough plan was centered around Las Vegas. Let's be honest, where better to celebrate a milestone birthday than in freaking Las Vegas with a group of friends and family, right? I've heard about the idea on and off some time at the beginning of last year, maybe a little earlier. I didn't get in on all the details from the very beginning. Like when the very first spark of this concept saw the light of day. However, I'm pretty sure it was way before I got involved in it. I know, I know, I could ask now, but where's the fun in that? After all you're here to read my perspective on things.
The next big thing on the agenda turned up around April, maybe May 2016, namely Coachella (ella, people!). I was way too excited about this one. If you're following even a few known bloggers on Instagram, or whatever Social Media websites there are, then you know what I'm talking about. Surprisingly (well, not really) I still followed a bunch of them back in 2016 and man, did I want to be at that 3-day-festival in this little town called Indio, CA.
Out of the blue (at least for me), a part of our group going to the US decided to buy tickets for the upcoming one in April 2017. Other than any other festival I know of, the ticket sale starts as early as June and tickets are sold out in no time (okay, there are still a bunch of tickets sold at the beginning of the new year, but I guess you have to be really lucky to get a hold of one of them at that time). To be honest, buying tickets in June isn't a walk in the park either. If you're too late, the online system, your computer or your internet connection fails, or karma simply decides to hit you in the face with a chair, you probably have to brace yourself for a big disappointment. Long story short, we were lucky. Lucky in a sense that each of us had the great honor to pay 399$ for three days of festival experience in Cali. It had to be worth it. And see, once you paid that amount of money "just" for Coachella, there's no way you're not going to LA in April next year.
September 2016 was the first and kind of the only time we met as a whole group before the actual trip, only because of a small get together a friend organized. Well, to be completely honest with you, one person still didn't make it that night. Haha. At that point it wasn't even clear who would really join that little adventure.
Fast forward to November 25th 2016, the day we finally booked our flights. By then, our group came down to nine people, which in retrospect was more than enough. Let me tell you, organizing a group this size is hard. Don't get me wrong, it's possible and we surely managed to do it somehow. I still believe we would do a few things differently the second time around.
Flights booked. A weekend in Las Vegas. Tickets to Coachella on the weekend of the 21st to the 23rd of April. What else do you need? Right. Maybe, just maybe, a planned route for your road trip. Okay, it's not a must. However, with 15 limited days abroad and a list of activities, which would still be too long for even one month of traveling, it's probably not the worst idea.
Obviously we started planning right away. And by right away I basically mean the middle of February. Yeah, only then it hit us again. Two months before such a complex journey would maybe be a good time to actually sit down and work out the details. Better late than never.
Our route stops shifted back and forth. Some places were cut out completely and later came back into discussion. More than once. And the only thing that really became clear was, that there wasn't enough time for everything. There never is.
The following weeks were spent with a few meetings, route changes, hotel and tour bookings and first glances at actual anticipation. The days, weeks and months before seem like a lifetime and still you suddenly find yourself at the airport, just about to board a twelve and a half hour flight to two weeks of amazing adventures, beautiful places, too little sleep and a few years' worth of fun. Just like that.
This is going to be one hell of a long post. I only realized that now. Actually I didn't intend to write this whole prologue of events, it kind of wrote itself. For those of you, who read this far and came for a summary of the journey itself: Say no more. You made it.
Here goes nothing.
The flight wasn't that memorable. We watched La La Land (shame on me, I hadn't seen it until then) and a few other movies. Took selfies. Had one of our group order tomato juice. Got it all offered only two seconds later. He didn't want it. We didn't want it. Poor tomato juice. Other than that we tried resting while starving to death. There might be a little exaggeration in that last sentence, but to be fair the airline should really work on their flight meal schedule (yep, that's how I call it). You get a bigger meal maybe an hour after take off and about one and a half hours before landing. In between you have to go with a liquid diet and snacks. Although it's debatable if one would call a tiny bag of pretzel sticks a snack. I'll leave that for you to decide.
Half a day and four pretzel bags later, we finally reached Los Angeles. Hellooo, beautiful Golden State. The seven of us (the 8th already there, the 9th arriving a few days later) split up at LAX for the first day already. The first three went straight up halfway to San Francisco the same day. The four of us stayed in LA for the first night and met for dinner and an epic sunset at Santa Monica Pier with the stray one that had already set foot in sunny California a few days earlier. So much for the end of the day. In between landing and this the four of us had one more quick stop on our agenda.
What are the essentials for a so-called road trip? Put simply: Roads. I know, you figured as much. And what else? Yes, you need a car that takes you from A to B on these said roads. We settled for a Chevrolet Suburban. A car so big we asked ourselves more than once why nobody even considered integrating an intercom. A normal conversation between the driver and a person sitting in the third seat row is like mission impossible. I believe walkie talkies were invented for that reason only. After all half of our group plus suitcases needed to fit in. So, first stop after LAX was the car rental and then we were ready to hit the road.
On to day 2: West Coast here we come!
To be continued in the next post(s). Brace yourselves for a series of epic tales.
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