Dark Lord's Cross Country Trip Report 2013

[Dark Lord]

Trip started in Austin, TX and ended in Indianapolis, IN. We drove through Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Illinois, and Indiana. Trip started April 4th, 2013 and ended April 21st, 2013.

This is long overdue since I have been back for a month, but have had little time to upload photos.

UPDATE 06/02/2013: A lot of photos have been uploaded, there are more, but these are the best so far. Be sure to watch the preview video before you view the photos! The photos don't look too great from uploading them on Photobucket. I may re-upload them with a higher resolution eventually.

PREVIEW VIDEO:

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/1zKyiB9hB5M" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


Sleeping Platform:







Texas:

Not a lot to see in this state.






New Mexico:

Only drove through so here is the sign. We were going to go to White Sands, but decided to skip it in order to have more time for other places.




Colorado:



Garden of the Gods


Pikes Peak:






Rocky Mountain National Park:
I didn't get a lot of good photos here because of the weather.




On the road in Colorado:



Morning after camping out by the lake.

 

[Dark Lord]

Utah:












Top of the World Trail:
When in Moab we decided to do one off-road trail. Since we were traveling alone we tried to pick something relatively easy, but would have a rewarding view. Top of the World trail was a great time, and had a great view!

 

[Dark Lord]

Celebrating our great time!




Arches National Park:

Delicate Arch






On the road in Utah


Zion National Park:











Arizona:





Grand Canyon National Park:

 

[Dark Lord]

California:

This isn't the entrance into California we took, we actually came in through the Las Vegas route. It was too dark to get a sign picture.


Yosemite National Park:

















This bird followed us the rest of the trip!


On the road in California

 

[Dark Lord]

Nevada:



Not much to see here.....



Idaho:

Not the entrance we originally came through. It got late, and we actually turned around to go back to Nevada and gamble some more!


Montana:



Yellowstone National Park:


There's that damn bird again!


Now I'm not a scientist, but I'm pretty sure that is hot lava. Don't quote me on that though!


The bird stalking us once more...








Bear










Believe it or not this is a picture of a pack of wolves. Look closely!

 

[Dark Lord]

Wyoming:




South Dakota:



Mount Rushmore:




Badlands National Park:























Iowa:



I hate Illinois so I didn't bother taking a picture of the Illinois sign.

Indiana:

HOME!!!

 

[hrt4me]

looking forward to all the photos and videos

how many total miles was your road trip?

and what happened when you slid off the road at 0200 hrs?

 

[Dous]

Sweet preview

That loss of traction had to have been really scary consdering your previous roll! :jaw drop:

 

[farmerjon]

I saw Yellowstone in there! Glad you made it there!

Wow, way to capture the moment! yikes. Glad you're okay!

 

[Swede]

Glad you guys are safe. It's amazing how fast conditions can change! Bonus that you captured it on video too. What were you using for a camera? The night shots were pretty noise free.

 

[Dark Lord]

looking forward to all the photos and videos

how many total miles was your road trip?

and what happened when you slid off the road at 0200 hrs?

It was between 6000-7000 miles.

About sliding off the road, I pretty much drove the entire trip. There was only one time when my girlfriend drove before that, and that was for a couple hours in Utah. After we hit our last destination, and started heading back for Indianapolis, I started to get tired, so she decided to drive. I did the dumbest thing ever, and went to lay down in the back while she was driving. She told me the roads weren't really that bad, but she saw snow on the side of the road so decided to take it slow at about 55-60mph. She hit black ice, and swerved off. She almost rolled it twice. She had it up on two wheels on road, and when she went off she almost tipped it over, but somehow managed to get it back straight. I was hanging onto my roll bar for dear life.

I managed to get us unstuck from the snow we were in initially, but couldn't get us out of the ditch. The snow was too deep, and the center of the ditch had at least a foot of snow with some water and slush underneath. I almost got it out all the way, but ended up getting stuck further on down the road. A pheasant hunter checking his traps ended up pulling us out with his Chevy Avalanche.

Glad you guys are safe. It's amazing how fast conditions can change! Bonus that you captured it on video too. What were you using for a camera? The night shots were pretty noise free.

The camera used for photos was a Sony NEX-5N. The dashcam is an Livue LB100.

Sweet preview

That loss of traction had to have been really scary consdering your previous roll! :jaw drop:

Yeah, it was almost an exact repeat of when I rolled my last truck. The only difference is when I counter-steered, my last truck did a complete 180, and went off the road sideways. My girlfriend managed to somehow save this truck (I guess she's a better driver than me).

 

[BrianSD_42]

Did you get a chance to see Carmel near Big Sur California?

 

[Dark Lord]

Did you get a chance to see Carmel near Big Sur California?

No, we didn't spend a lot of time in California. Our itinerary didn't go nearly as planned. We ended up spending a lot more time in Utah than we had planned. We also spent a couple extra days in Colorado. We were really only in California for about 2-3 days.

 

[jmildoc]

AWESOME MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad to see you are back finally, so when we headed out to the badlands?

 

[Dark Lord]

AWESOME MAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad to see you are back finally, so when we headed out to the badlands?

Oh dude, I thought you knew! I moved to Austin, TX literally like 4 days after me and Jane got back from our trip. I won't be back in Indy til at least after December since I'll be busy. I won't even have time to go wheeling down here on the weekends really....

 

[audiness]

Jealous! I hope to do this someday!

 

[farmerjon]

Jealous! I hope to do this someday!

Just go. That's about all there is to it. Your 4Runner is ready - I would drive my 4Runner cross country tomorrow.

 

[Dark Lord]

Update 06/02/2013: Photos added!!!

 

[the great him]

awesome trip man, and yay for dash cams... not gonna lie a little jelly about the road trip, i want to do one but i fear it wont happen cause im a go big or go home kinda guy, it want to go all the way back to DC and yeah im not sure ill ever have that much time off work with the $$$ to do it, and having kids really slows things down. looks like you had an awesome time though and glad you shared with us

 

[KidVermicious]

Cool photos, thanks for sharing.