the Malaysian Cowboy

(the main video)

(the epilogue, of sorts)

Today’s Flickr Gallery | August 2nd: Dallas to Houston-HOME!

Over the course of this trip, I’d gotten used to heading out on the road at progressively later times. While the first day started with me leaving home at the ripe hour of 5:30, I left yesterday for Dallas at only 11 am. Granted, not all drives were the same length, but, I’m pretty sure as the days wore on and I became progressively tired, I made up for that by getting just a little more shut eye when I could. Today was, however, a bit different: I was headed home!

Leaving Rebecca’s place at the ripe hour of 8:30, I made one stop for gas along the way, but otherwise pressed on. As such, I’m going to leave most of the explanation to the video above, and the epilogue below, which will end up doing most of the heavy lifting in this post.

All told, once home I snapped a shot of the GPS totals for the miles travelled, hours driven, and all the other fun stuff. 4,685 miles. It’s only four simple digits, but behind that number’s an awesome, truly memorable trip.

Emptying my bags later, I laid out all the tangible souvenirs I had accumulated over the course of the trip. A little bit of a mess, but it definitely tells part of the story. Much later, Keesh and I popped a bottle of champagne Mom had gotten for my return

In a way, it feels weird that I’m not going to be continuing with the onslaught of daily videos, photos and blog posts. For a long time I talked mightily of it but wasn’t quite sure myself whether I would actually follow through. Now that I’ve done it, what I can tell you, is that sometimes you just have to do something without thinking too much about it. I can hardly do justice to it all with just a few simple sentences, so rather than try, I’ll leave you with a massive thank you to everyone that made this trip possible, big and large: Mom, Dad, Keesh, my friends Rafaela, Julia and Rebecca, and everyone else that I’ve talked to about this trip either before, during, or after. It was a blast. Thanks for reading and keeping up with my blog, and if you ever do find yourself bored at random other points in the future, chances are I’ll be here blogging, so feel free to come back. For now, this cowboy’s signing off!

Today’s Flickr Gallery | August 1st: Oklahoma City to Dallas

The last two days were comparatively light on the photos, as the drives themselves were only about four hours, including the time I spent stopping off for photos. Still, as I set out from Oklahoma close to 11 am, I was interested to see what I’d find along the way to Dallas, as I was still on roads I’d never travelled before.

My first stop was just outside Oklahoma City, right off the highway. Nothing too different from what I’ve seen at this point, though the fullness of the trees was a little bit of a change.

Later, however, as I was nearing the Oklahoma-Texas border, I took another one of those “scenic overlook” exists . While this leg of the trip was short in terms of distance, it also hadn’t provided much in the way of easy-to-spot photo opportunities from the highway, which explains the other half of why it was relatively short on photos. That being said, at this stop, there was a pretty decent view, along with a bit of geological information along Interstate 35. Click here to read more »

Today’s Flickr Gallery | July 31st: Amarillo to Oklahoma City

The drive to Oklahoma City was as straightforward as things go: head east on I-40 and eventually I’d exit off to get to the hotel.

The first stop off the highway wasn’t terribly exciting, but it did give me another chance to get shots of a dirt road. And me in a cowboy hat, of course. Of note, about 25 miles into the trip I hit the 4,000 mile milestone.

For the moment, the skies were clear with nary a cloud in sight, making for some nice contrast between the fields and the wonderfully blue sky.

A few miles later I spotted more empty roads, and realized I hadn’t really tried out taking shots from the top of an overpass. So I pulled off, parked a little ways away, and made the trip across the overpass to see what kind of shots I could get. They weren’t awesome, but they were at least another angle that I’ve driven up and around over the course of this trip, so why not document them, eh? Looking back, I would like to get some shots in the dead of night, as The long exposure shots with the car headlights and taillights always make for beautiful shots…but I’m always fearful that I’ll get hit or something, what ith all those cars and a lot more darkness than there is light. So anyway, I still have to do that at some point in my life. Click here to read more »

(You’ll notice this is quite a long clip, there’s some editorializing and random thought in the second half of the video, depending on your mood, you may or may not enjoy that )

Today’s Flickr Gallery | July 30th: Denver to Amarillo

The drive today was somewhat of a homecoming, in the sense that my journey would be bringing me back to good ole’ Texas, and I’d put up at the same hotel in Amarillo that I spent my first night of the journey. Down through Colorado I went, passing through New Mexico for a little while before entering more familiar territory.

Like most of the journey, the clear skies through most of the drive afforded me lots of wonderful photo opportunities. This first set is just outside of Denver, just off Interstate 25.

I continued down I-25 for much of the drive, at one point pulling a fair distance off the highway a little north of Pueblo. Again, the fields, clouds and general atmosphere were a far cry from the concrete jungles I usually frequent when I’m not driving across the southwest, and, had I the option, I probably would have spent the night out there looking at the stars….however, I did have a schedule to keep to!

Click here to read more »

The Flickr Galleries: Day 1 | Day 2 || Denver: July 28th & 29th

After a good night’s rest and a late breakfast, our first stop was Casa Bonita, a wonderful dining experience similar to a Rainforest Café, only better. Now I must tell you that Julia and her mom went to great lengths to inform me that the food there was pretty bad, and, really, we were going for the experience over anything else. Obviously, being familiar with the numerous Tex-Mex dining options in Houston and Texas, while I can’t say I’m a connoisseur of good Tex-Mex, I can certainly tell good food from the bad stuff.

As it turns out, the food wasn’t really as bad as I’d expected (in fact, the nachos were pretty good, if not rather filling), and the rest of the experience was really cool (check out the video clip for a better idea)!

Having watched a few of the cliff diving shows and a pirate duel, we finished our meal and explored Black Bart’s hideout, which took us through a windy cave filled with lots of interesting creatures and sights.

Click here to read more »

Today’s Flickr Gallery | July 27th: Green River, UT to Denver

After gathering all my gear and checking out, I left at 10:30. Looking back, it’s a shame I ended up spending most of my time in Green River working on video and photo uploads. When I awoke this morning, gone were the foreboding rain clouds, replaced by clear, blue skies. The forecast did show a possibility of rain later in the day, and as it turns out, I did indeed encounter some.

As I made my way east on I-70, I was once again surrounded by vast, open stretches of land. One of the songs I’m particularly a fan of listening to while driving these stretches is “Cowboy Take Me Away” by the Dixie Chicks. That, and “The Long Way Around”. Indeed, I’ve found that there’s no substitute for some good country music while I’m driving these stretches. In the canyons and hillier areas, a bit of classic rock and some Phoenix and more experimental music works all right, but I’ve got to have the country blaring every now and again.

Click here to read more »

Today’s Flickr Gallery | July 26th: Las Vegas to Green River, UT

After a good amount of sleep, I woke up this morning and figured I needed a bit of a different breakfast. And by different I mean I had myself some of that Tazo tea I keep seeing everywhere with my cereal, along with a muffin. My nerves and head had been a bit shaken by the heat, tiredness, and general malaise that Vegas seems to give off when you’re walking around. I can’t say if the tea helped, but I definitely was able to brush off that tiredness relatively quickly.

On my way back to the room, I got a text from Dad telling me it’d be prudent to do the usual checks on the car. I generally check the tire pressure every other day, but I figured the oil, coolant level, and washer fluid might as well be added into the mix, since I hadn’t looked at any of them since leaving Houston. As it turned out, it appeared the coolant in the car was just a smidge low—not low enough to set off the alert in the car, but it still looked a bit off to me. Theoretically, it could have been this low all the while I’d been driving (after all, how often does your coolant just vanish into thin air?), but with the 115˚ weather yesterday, I had already seen three cars sidelined with smoke billowing from the hood, so I wanted to be safe. Despite my writings to the contrary in the prior post, I was fortunate to be in a city as large as Vegas, as it made finding a dealer for BMW coolant very easy.

So, after about an hour of scrambling and a trip to get the coolant, I was finally ready to make a move for Green River.

The drive through the desert was relatively straightforward, as I headed northeast on I-15.

I passed through Arizona for about half an hour, during which time I found some more canyons and desert, stopping to take some shots…

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Today’s Flickr Gallery | July 25th: Bakersfield to Las Vegas

I began the day with some delicious waffles. Up to this point, given that most of my breakfasts have consisted of eggs with too much salt, bland cereal, and sausage patties, this was certainly a welcome change. I also had a simple-but-awesome smoothie of sorts, which consisted of milk, banana and wheat-germ. Like I said: simple, but with an awesome taste. I’m going to be making more of those when I get home! I said goodbye to Rafaela and her family’s wonderful hospitality, setting off to find some gas.

The drive to Vegas was slated to take about 7 hours, including a planned stop at Death Valley National Park. As you’ll see in the video, this leg did indeed end up taking 7 hours including all my photo stops, but I didn’t end up making it to Death Valley. More on that in a bit.

Though I didn’t quite know it as I pulled out of Bakersfield, today’s route would allow me a rather breathtaking trip through the Sequoia National Forest.

Initially, it seemed I was in more of a valley, with the mountains off in the distance, but that soon changed. Winding through the hills, while the drive down California Highway 178 was at times slow going, it was anything but boring.

Click here to read more »

They’re coming, I swear! Once I get downtime later this evening, there will be a flood of posts, photos and videos .

Edit: Unlike the first go around, the hotel’s WiFi here in Amarillo isn’t nearly as speedy nor efficient. None of my video uploads are working, and the photo uploads are going at a snail’s pace. They’re coming, though. They are!

Wonderful news: I discovered the Green River hotel does have internet, and over the past twelve hours I’ve worked hard to get the photos, videos and blog posts up. I’m still a few days behind, but Day 4 and Day 5 now have more complete accounts; go check those posts out ! Day 6, 7 and, Day 8 (which I’m just starting now) will come in time. Again, I appreciate the patience…I think the message of this Panda Express fortune cookie (Day 7, for those playing at home) is wonderful.