View Westcoast Roadtrip ’09 in a larger map
The whole company was sent packing for their annual summer vacation today (as per tradition, a thunderstorm over Copenhagen is welcoming them). I’ll be working throughout most of the next three weeks, with the exception of a short stint to England, for a friend’s wedding, as Rikke and I have finally manned up and gone ahead with our plan for a roadtrip through California (and parts of Arizona).
But those wonderful three weeks are all the way over at the end of August, so I get to stay behind and work while my buddies are drinking longdrinks indoors, imagining they were vacationing around the equator. Suckers.
At the top you can see the approximate route we’ve got so far. We’re obviously still adding and subtracting, but the basic idea is to gt around to all that’s worth getting around to (so feel free to drop address, maps, vague suggestions, food places and whatever else you can come up with), as we probably won’t be coming back to that neck of the planet for a good while afterwards.
One of our destinations we’re looking forward to the most is of course Pixar. I was there in 2005, but that was far from enough for me, and Rikke’s never even been on the westcoast, so we’re both giddy as children (and heavily indebted to the wonderful Kate for giving us this opportunity):
I’ve been trying to cash in some old favors/promises to get us into Skywalker Ranch, an honest to … boyhood dream (if you hadn’t guessed), but so far it doesn’t look too good. I’m still hoping though.
Either way, I’m well-excited about this trip, and not a little intrigued about the idea of circling California behind the wheel of some American monstrosity of a car.
Anyway, this entry was a) to inform you of our plans, and b) to try out some map embedding, which is generally done way to rarely on blogs, considering how awesome it is. I of course plan to do a travel blog of some sort, but I haven’t quite figured out the format yet, and I don’t know how much time I’ll have to play around with it either (both before and during).
Should I do it on Tumblr? Would make it easy, but on the other hand I want to keep it for posterity, so a local blog makes more sense. But then I’d want to do a roadtrip theme and that’d just turn into a major thing and I wouldn’t finish it in time and…
Either way, that’s what’s what from my neck of the planet on this, the most grey of fridays.
Pretty cool Roadtrip! Don’t forget to tweet :)
Amazing I am so envy of you. All my hopes into getting into Skywalker Ranch. :)
I plan to cover it. Extensively.
Are you thinking of taking a GPS data logger with you?
They’re great for geotagging photos and seeing exactly what routes you took etc;
I am in fact. Do you have any suggestions for which one to go for?
Henrik recommended me some stuff here and here.
You could take Hwy 1 all the way from SF, instead of going 101. No matter what way you go, do check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium once you get there. Clara and I also saw some ubercute seaotters in the water, while dining near the waterfront in Monterey. Also plenty of places to stop and watch sealions along the coast towards LA. Damn, wish I was going again!
We are actually taking Hwy 1, but from LA to SF (we’re going in-land first). The Aquarium is now on the list, thanks.
Be sure to take the tram up the mountains by Palm Springs, CA. As for Joshua Tree, it’s better to enter it form the south from the I-10 freeway.
This is the one I’ve got:
http://www.cbgps.com/v900/v900_index.htm
Suits my needs perfectly and I’m happy with the results/accuracy.
There’s a site I found that was full of people discussing these things in depth. I’ll keep looking for it.
Incidentally I found http://bt747.free.fr/ invaluable in converting the csv output into a variety of formats.
I don’t read Chinese :(
Added to the map. Looks very nice indeed.
Here’s the manual in English.
http://cbgps.com/download/Columbus%20V-900_User%20Manual_V1.1.pdf
Hi Michael. I live between Monterey and SF, and i hope you’ll say hello as you pass through Santa Cruz.
btw: thanks for the ongoing coverage of the DROIDMAKER stuff. More than 12,000 downloads, and it all began with your posting. (This old LFL footage is incredible. Glad to see they’re mining that stuff. You are starting to look like a StarWars fansite. Maybe just write July off to StarWars month, and get it out of your system…)
If you go to see the Grand Canyon, make sure you see the real thing (i.e. Grand Canyon National Park). Grand Canyon West is not the real Grand Canyon, is not in Grand Canyon National Park, and is not nearly as beautiful as the real thing.
Unfortunately, because Grand Canyon West is a lot closer to Las Vegas than the real thing, a lot of Vegas-based tour flight companies offering flights over the Grand Canyon actually just take their customers to the Grand Canyon West.
Also, Monument Valley (in northern Arizona and southern Utah) is a sight to behold. Check it out if you can.
Strange… not sure why my comment appeared before older ones…
@Michael Rubin: No problem, and consider it a date.
I’d love to make one month a year Star Wars month, but then I’d miss out on the scoops, and that’s half the fun right there :)
@Sean: I think I’ve marked the right one on my map. But it’s good to know, thanks. With regards to the comment appearing before others, yeah, something weird happened. I’ve turned off threads, which seems to do the trick.