My very first self-sponsored road trip: in just a span of 9 days, I was in:
1) Las Vegas
2) Los Angeles
3) San Diego
4) Houston
5) New Orleans
6) Atlanta

and been through states:
1) California
2) Nevada
3) Texas
4) Louisiana
5) Alabama
6) Georgia

How cool is that?

Cool huh? And So the result is this:



It started at ~4500 miles. :)

Well anyway, the first 2 aren't all that interesting, other than the fact that my car got towed away by some idiots in Hollywood, which I don't want to talk more about. Stupid people...

The highlight of Houston is this:



The evil highway monster - toll roads. Damn the tolls! The lady in the GPS told me to exit right, and the signage says EZ tag only (which I don't have) tolls, with no ways to turn back once entered... Oh well... the good thing is I haven't received any letter till now... and hopefully not in the next few weeks...

ok... the key part of Houston is this:


eh no... this rather:


ahhh... kok face... I will get it right this time:


yes, NASA. hehe saw the control room where Armstrong visited Chang-er and her rabbit.

And yes, had some astronauts ice cream as well, which kinda taste like khong guan, just a little more expensive. Sorta remember eating that when i was small... :P



And then i hit the roads to Mardi Gras New Orleans! Shall not mention much about Mardi Gras here. Censored! Like what yuan yuan chun said, whatever happens in New Orleans stay in New Orleans. Bourbon street is not happening at all during Mardi Gras. Zip!
But, here is me and my beads!




But one thing does intrigue me though. This cart is taken from Walmart in New Orleans.




How on earth does this mechanism work? It says the wheels of the cart will lock up when it passes the boundary of the car park. Does it mean it'll lock up when it's outside some imaginary boundary? If it does, what if I carry it across that boundary instead of wheeling it across? How does it know? Or is it just some empty threat which Walmart puts on some carts, but not on others? Alas, I would never know, because I was too lazy to push it all the way to the boundary of the car park to test.

Atlanta. 7 hrs each way from New Orleans.



And if you've never been to the World of Coca Cola, you've never been to Atlanta. There're like 64 different kinds of fountain drinks found in all over the world to taste. The only place which does not have Coca Cola is Myanmar.



Of course, not forgetting the Stone Mountain, which is formed entirely beneath the earth surface, ie, it's one big piece of metamorphic rock.



And how not to visit the remnants of Hurricane Katrina if you're already in the area?





And lastly, guess what one does when one has got more than 20 hrs of driving to do?




You play with all sorts of gadgets you find in the car. The first is a seat warmer, which is kinda cool. And the second is a hands-free in-car calling device, which also is kinda cool. So I tried calling my cell phone with it, but alas, it wouldn't let me because I have no minutes. What a let-down.

But Pontiac G5 seems like a pretty good car. Quite stylo and has pretty good mileage, given the power of the engine.



And only now do I realize how lightweight my Civic is. It feels so light after driving the Pontiac for a week. The doors, the steering wheel, everything. But I still prefer my Civic, cos it has 30 mpg for a 2003 car. Of course the Pontiac G5 is comparable to this (fortunately), but the difference is it's a new car, so the engine has better be more efficient.

On the whole, those 9 days were too much city landscapes for me. LA, LV, Houston, New Orleans, Atlanta... and with American city life, eroticity prevails. I hate cities. You better get out of that place before 7 if you want to get out by 12pm...

And I guess there isn't a time I would not complain when I'm on US roads. Some people really just can't think.

For one, there was already a jam in a 3 lane road, and this guy could actually turn on his hazard light all of a sudden so that he can make a quick trip to a store nearby, since parking is scarce in the city. And thanks to his selfishness, that 3 lane road became 2 lane. Can't he just turn into any side lane and do whatever he wants there? Just like what I did when I had to pass the keys to yuan yuan chun...

And another driver, who thinks that going on 65 is really fast, so he/she took the faster lane. And yes, that was a 2 lane bridge. And for 3 whole miles ( I counted), he/she was there together with another car on his/her right. That means no one could pass. Can't he/she see that there're like 100 cars behind wanting to go faster than 65? I mean, I'd stick to the slower lane even if I was at 74 if there's someone faster coming up... Oh well... In the end, the car in the slower lane sped up and moved to the faster lane (because of a stopped vehicle in the road shoulder) and everyone switched to pass that inconsiderate driver. Grr... road rages! Because some people just can't think.