Coast to coast in the States: part 1 (non-car related)
 

As most of you know, I’ve been to the US in October last year. It’s about time I post some pics. I was planning to do a road trip form Massachusetts to Chicago after my first week in the States. But due to a lack of time this wasn’t feasible anymore. To be honest I didn’t had a lot of spare time during this month, apart from my 2 last days in LA, a day in Chicago and some half days. I passed my time mainly by working, flying, passing through security checkpoints, and waiting for delayed flights in the airport.

Though I had some time to meet up with some JW members, like sammeerrao in Houston, Minacious and Novass in LA. Sadly I just missed a meet with dutchmasterflex and Ronin005 during the second weekend.


My trip didn’t start that well since my flight into NY got delayed by 4 hours. But this also meant the plane had to take another rout. And there was a nice extra attach to this: a touchdown parallel with the Manhattan skyline. And that’s a really nice welcome sight. Too bad cameras aren’t allowed during landing. Of course I also missed my connection flight, so I had to wait for another one, a lot later in the evening. Luckily there was also an advantage included in this delay: take off with a nice view over NY by night. 24 hours after I left my home, I finally arrived at my final destination (or at least the airport closest to my final destination). My US colleagues had a nice welcome present: a limo to drive me to the hotel :mrgreen: It felt good to be able to stretch my legs!! The rest of my trip didn’t contain any limos anymore; one can’t have it all :)


Since I didn’t have a lot of spare time, I didn’t take that much pics, but here’s a selection anyway. Pics are taken with my cell phone, prehistoric cam, and DSLR. So the quality may change a lot ;)


First week I travelled through Massachusetts and Connecticut, I only briefly passed through Boston and New Haven, no time to take pics. I only took these pics of some typical MA wooden houses:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...2246_small.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/6729/dsc...rderqn8.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/9030/dsc...rderdb0.th.jpg


I also went one day too Pittsburgh, PE. What I really liked about this city was the huge contrast between it and its surroundings. Driving form the airport to the city, you’re driving through mountain roads with not many buildings. You enter a tunnel and you’re expecting the same landscape when you exit it. But it’s totally different. Once you exit the tunnel, downtown Pittsburgh is there. It’s a sudden and huge contrast in landscape, and pretty special if you ask me.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...8072_small.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/9779/img...rderbv1.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/1268/img...rderwc8.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/1776/img...rderyy9.th.jpg


The second week I stayed mainly in Chicago. But I also went to Wisconsin, Minneapolis, and I should have gone to Indianapolis too, but my flight was cancelled. I had one day to visit downtown Chicago. And I really like this city, apart from the cold and windy weather :D It’s hard to describe why I like it so much, but it just has a nice ‘feeling’ over it.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...2403_small.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/8223/dsc...rdervg5.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/430/dsc2...rderbo0.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/8341/dsc...rderky3.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/201/dsc2...rderxn8.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/6087/dsc...rderjt6.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/97/dsc2313eborderjm7.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/3203/dsc...rdertt9.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/8550/dsc...rderws0.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/1656/dsc...rderko7.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/8224/dsc...rderzo3.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/2272/dsc...rderyx9.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/9113/dsc...rderkn2.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/112/dsc2...rderxm5.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/6233/dsc...rderxw2.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/5388/dsc...rderjz0.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/1224/dsc...rdergn2.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/5036/dsc...rderjd7.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/7030/dsc...rderie9.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/3624/dsc...rderop1.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/998/dsc2...rderyo4.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/6317/dsc...rdermk8.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/9720/dsc...rderyv4.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/821/dsc2...rderot9.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/3408/dsc...rdermg3.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/7941/dsc...rdersq9.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/9941/dsc...rderss3.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/2783/dsc...rderuu4.th.jpg


Third week, and a change in weather: I went to Texas (Houston and Dallas). The day I arrived I was fortunate to meet up with Sammeerrao, thanks for the food btw ;) I didn’t had much time to take pics that week. Here’s a couple of them:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...8252_small.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/4344/img...rderdd8.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/2166/dsc...rderlc9.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/1558/dsc...rderbh2.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/999/dsc2...rderwe8.th.jpg


Last week, I ended up in the New Mexico desert and California. New Mexico was a strange place: a desert so high above see level surrounded by mountains. I’ve never seen such a thing in my life.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...8514_small.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/4759/img...rderwa6.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/9472/img...rdermb7.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/8886/img...rderrc9.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/1444/img...rderjb0.th.jpg


I don’t have pics of my first days up north in California, but I do have quite some pics of my last 2 days in LA. During the first day I rented a car and went for a drive up the Pacifica Coast Highway and up into the mountains. Ideal car for this trip would have been a sports car. So I rented a Mustang convertible. Sadly but true I ended up with a 300C. This car may be cool to cruise, but is rubbish to attack mountain roads: the steering is too light, it handles like a boat and the tires weren’t grippy enough. What I did like though was filling her up. US gas prices are ridiculously low (or our gas prices are ridiculously high, it depends from what angle you see it :)). I couldn’t fill halve of my car with the amount of money I filled a completely drained 300C. Btw, here she is:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...2472_small.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/2241/dsc...rderqh9.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/7185/dsc...rderna1.th.jpg


And here are some pics of my small drive around LA. At the end of the day I also visited the WB studios.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...8539_small.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/1413/dsc...rdertk4.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/3143/dsc...rderwb9.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/9561/dsc...rderol5.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/7448/dsc...rderfe5.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/5778/dsc...rderyj0.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/2023/img...rderoq2.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/927/img8...rderit7.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/6214/img...rderwc8.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/500/dsc2...rderbt7.th.jpg


Next day I was just hanging around in Santa Monica, enjoying the sun and nice view. And in the evening I met up with Minacious and novass. We went to Sunset Blvd to spot exotics. I’ll post those pics in another thread.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v3...2500_small.jpg
(babewatch :D)

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/8120/dsc...rderzs7.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/1884/dsc...rderrq2.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/5964/dsc...rderbe1.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/7946/dsc...rderqs3.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/5809/dsc...rderjp2.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/5770/dsc...rderbo9.th.jpg

http://img127.exs.cx/img127/5403/dsc...rdersc5.th.jpg http://img127.exs.cx/img127/977/dsc2...rderkg1.th.jpg

Dude! So jealous! Thanks for sharing!

Oh man! The dream trip for lost of us and sure it is for me :P
Thanx for pics, any pics form meeting with JW guys? :)

EDIT: on Texas pics I thought "oh he uses TopGear-like effects on the image" but than realised its the windshield :mrgreen:
BTW Chicago looks very interesting I'd be walking it thru day and night as I did in London while ago couldnt sleep much wanted to see everything :P

I totally forgot to suggest that we take a pic together as we may not get many chances. Over the summer on my Europe trip hopefully I can stop in Belgium and we can meet up again. :D

Nice pics BTW

:(

Awesome pics! 8)

I wanna go there (again) :P
Thanks for this huge report Wutputt !!
The Chicago skyline is to die for.
So cool to basically cross the whole country :D

Nice coverage!!

did you take a helicopterflight over the city ??

I went from Denver to LA! :D

Great trips, this one sounds very good too!

Nice cover of it all mate, read it with pleasure!

Great pics! Its too bad you didnt come up to the better part of California ;)

Seeing your pics brings back my memory of our trip in the west. I'd love to do a coast to coast trip like yours in the future.

The Chicago night photo has a nice angle, well done!

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dude, seriously, I enjoyed every second of this and I saved lot's of pics... 8)

thx!!

Hey man, sorry but i saved every picture - they are incredible beautyful.

I know its a car forum - but these landscapes are beautyful.

Wuttputt, your pics are always fantastic.Thanks

Yeah, I saved quite a few of those pics, thanks Wutputt, I've been to California myself a couple of times so good memories for me.