super-heated plasma
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So my wife wanted to take the kid to Disneyland. However, I decided to make this my opportunity to do much more than that and see some things I've always wanted to see. Our first stop was Crater Lake, Oregon. It has the most amazing blue water I have ever seen. But here I also learned that drones are now banned in State and National parks. 
I did manage to get some footage though. The following is a mix of DSLR and camera phone pics.
We stayed at a nice little woodland resort in a cabin for the night, by the Rogue river.
Next stop was San Fran.
Holy hell was it cold and windy as shit in that fog. Down in the city was nice and hot though.
Next we made our way to LA to pick up my in-laws who flew in to stay with us in a house we rented in Anaheim about ten minutes from Disney. Nice place with an amazing pool which came in quite handy after two days of Disney and one day of Legoland(which kinda blew). The entire first day was mostly all about Star Wars. All of tomorrowland is basically Star Wars land now. I am a huge Star Wars fan, but even I was getting kind of sick of it the first day. The jedi training was cool to watch.
At least we were at Disney on the 4th and got some amazing fireworks.
After 4 days in Anaheim we hit the road again. We drove through the scorching southern California desert to Arizona and one of the most amazingly gorgeous places on Earth. Sedona. Here is the view from our hotel. I HIGHLY suggest everyone check out this place at least once in their life. You won't regret it.
When I was out flying my drone I came across this little guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnVaGJO0wdQ
The next day we drove to the Grand Canyon which is about two hours north of Sedona. It was quite Grand indeed.
There was also a forest fire some miles away near there.
And now, MY favorite part of the trip. We drive down a little road called the ExtraTerrestrial Highway on our way to Rachel Nevada, just outside of Area 51!
Of course we stop at the Alien Research Center, which is basically just a souvenir store.
We finally make our way to the Little A'Le Inn!
.
Rachel, Nevada is, how shall we say, a speck on a speck of a hole in the Earth. lol. The nearest gas station is almost 50 miles in one direction, and 150 miles the next! The only business in "town" is the Inn, where we witnessed one woman chewing out another over talking shit about her horse. lol.. Off to Area 51!
This is the back gate of Area 51. You have to drive a few miles down some desolate dirt road that seems to lead nowhere. Less than a minute that we were there a guy in a white pickup came barreling at us from the other side of the fence. They knew we were coming as soon as we turned on that road I bet. I got tons of pics of the gate. We were warned that if we stuck one finger over the gate that we would be arrested. The woman running the Inn told us how unpleasant an experience it would be as you wait for up to six hours for the Sheriff to come get you if you're arrested. The sheriff is over two hours away from Rachel. He would get the call, make the drive, but first order a double cheeseburger and fries at the Inn. Enjoy his meal, and then proceed to go to every house and building in town and check up with everybody. Eventually he would come get you at the gate, but all that time you will be face first on burning asphalt, as the guards will not let you move. This has obviously happened before.
After that I found a nice spot to fly my drone. We would come back that night to sit and watch the stars. My son has never seen a night sky like it before being a city kid, and he was utterly amazed. We actually some some crazy thing zipping over the direction of the base as well. Dream come true for me!
We started the leg of our journey home the next morning. We literally went stretches of over 150 miles at a time before coming across ANYTHING, let alone a town or gas station. Nevada and Idaho don't have much going on that's for sure. There were alot of little rinky dink towns that were not much better than Rachel. It's hard to imagine living in a place so far from everything. Some places you need half a tank of gas to just go and fill up on gas at the nearest station!
Here was our route, minus the trip over to Crater lake which I forgot to add in. All in all we drove over 3500 miles!
Anyways, so much happened on this trip and we saw so much, I could fill a book. We drove back and forth to Michigan before several times, but I always wanted the see the Southwest. I will say one more thing about the U.S., for as many problems as it has, and all the turmoil that's happening; in all my travels I've come across mostly decent, nice people everywhere, no matter the city or state. And I've been to well over half the states now! The country is so amazing in its beauty. It is something we all really need to cherish and strive to keep whats great, and turn whats no so great to good, because from what I see it is definitely worth fighting for.
Check out my drone footage below. Thanks everyone, and feel free to share your great vacation stories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdGAb4DxyGc
I did manage to get some footage though. The following is a mix of DSLR and camera phone pics.
We stayed at a nice little woodland resort in a cabin for the night, by the Rogue river.
Next stop was San Fran.
Holy hell was it cold and windy as shit in that fog. Down in the city was nice and hot though.
Next we made our way to LA to pick up my in-laws who flew in to stay with us in a house we rented in Anaheim about ten minutes from Disney. Nice place with an amazing pool which came in quite handy after two days of Disney and one day of Legoland(which kinda blew). The entire first day was mostly all about Star Wars. All of tomorrowland is basically Star Wars land now. I am a huge Star Wars fan, but even I was getting kind of sick of it the first day. The jedi training was cool to watch.
At least we were at Disney on the 4th and got some amazing fireworks.
After 4 days in Anaheim we hit the road again. We drove through the scorching southern California desert to Arizona and one of the most amazingly gorgeous places on Earth. Sedona. Here is the view from our hotel. I HIGHLY suggest everyone check out this place at least once in their life. You won't regret it.
When I was out flying my drone I came across this little guy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnVaGJO0wdQ
The next day we drove to the Grand Canyon which is about two hours north of Sedona. It was quite Grand indeed.
There was also a forest fire some miles away near there.
And now, MY favorite part of the trip. We drive down a little road called the ExtraTerrestrial Highway on our way to Rachel Nevada, just outside of Area 51!
Of course we stop at the Alien Research Center, which is basically just a souvenir store.
We finally make our way to the Little A'Le Inn!
Rachel, Nevada is, how shall we say, a speck on a speck of a hole in the Earth. lol. The nearest gas station is almost 50 miles in one direction, and 150 miles the next! The only business in "town" is the Inn, where we witnessed one woman chewing out another over talking shit about her horse. lol.. Off to Area 51!
This is the back gate of Area 51. You have to drive a few miles down some desolate dirt road that seems to lead nowhere. Less than a minute that we were there a guy in a white pickup came barreling at us from the other side of the fence. They knew we were coming as soon as we turned on that road I bet. I got tons of pics of the gate. We were warned that if we stuck one finger over the gate that we would be arrested. The woman running the Inn told us how unpleasant an experience it would be as you wait for up to six hours for the Sheriff to come get you if you're arrested. The sheriff is over two hours away from Rachel. He would get the call, make the drive, but first order a double cheeseburger and fries at the Inn. Enjoy his meal, and then proceed to go to every house and building in town and check up with everybody. Eventually he would come get you at the gate, but all that time you will be face first on burning asphalt, as the guards will not let you move. This has obviously happened before.
After that I found a nice spot to fly my drone. We would come back that night to sit and watch the stars. My son has never seen a night sky like it before being a city kid, and he was utterly amazed. We actually some some crazy thing zipping over the direction of the base as well. Dream come true for me!
We started the leg of our journey home the next morning. We literally went stretches of over 150 miles at a time before coming across ANYTHING, let alone a town or gas station. Nevada and Idaho don't have much going on that's for sure. There were alot of little rinky dink towns that were not much better than Rachel. It's hard to imagine living in a place so far from everything. Some places you need half a tank of gas to just go and fill up on gas at the nearest station!
Here was our route, minus the trip over to Crater lake which I forgot to add in. All in all we drove over 3500 miles!
Anyways, so much happened on this trip and we saw so much, I could fill a book. We drove back and forth to Michigan before several times, but I always wanted the see the Southwest. I will say one more thing about the U.S., for as many problems as it has, and all the turmoil that's happening; in all my travels I've come across mostly decent, nice people everywhere, no matter the city or state. And I've been to well over half the states now! The country is so amazing in its beauty. It is something we all really need to cherish and strive to keep whats great, and turn whats no so great to good, because from what I see it is definitely worth fighting for.
Check out my drone footage below. Thanks everyone, and feel free to share your great vacation stories.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bdGAb4DxyGc
