Egregoros

hello

i was on roadtrip in usa from nov 15 to jan 21. thats 68 days i travelled from DC to maryland/baltimore to pennsylvania to niagara to detroit to chicago to kansas to ca-lee-forny-uh to vegas and arizona to tennessee (memphis) to georgia to circle back to DC, a few more places and then home

The plane tickets cost me about 350€ roundtrip from home airport to washingtonDC and back. The roadtrip, ALL EXPENSES DURING, cost about 6000$ for 2 people, roughly 50 days. Includes car maintenance, hotel stays, gas, food, tickets for places, etc etc. And another extra 2500€ spent by me after messing around alone without my road trip partner after the road trip. Total cost for me personally, ~5000€ ish for my 68 days.

I drove about ~9000 miles, ~14500km.


to start off: MARYLAND and PENNSYLVANIA
photo thread begin

walked along/on some river, gunpowder river, maryland, or something like that. its a very cool river because theres enough rock debris to cross the river without a bridge on atleast 2 points, assuming youre not afraid of gigantic short-run-jump leaps from foot sized rock, hopping to foot sized rock, to foot sized rock, with very mild rapids around you. 100 squirrels chipmunks and birds, despite november. Some big rocks have weird cooking pot shaped holes in rocks that look weird.

Also sat on the king and queen seat, last photo, a very fall-off-able rock featuring a 190foot (~60m) drop straight down! (very cool!)

there was a group of ~6 or so college kids there and one of them was scaredy as fuck to do a very easy and not dangerous rock hop waaay away from the tip of the seat; i watched him panic for a good 5 minutes and laughing at him and egging him on so to say. Eventually someone else showed how to do it to him, (just a 2 foot, or 0.66m deep drop, you can ass slide down along it) and he did it. At this point i got bored, walked past him (i was more towards the rock peak) and said "Good job, Handsome" and left. This left him incredibly flustered which was really funny as i walked away

LONGWOOD GARDENS, (repost!)

this place was hyper fancy, and the entry ticket was only 30$. Definitely one of the places where i felt the price was much lower than the value i got out of it.

Minus ofcourse the cold as fuck eggnog i was served that tasted like the worst eggnog ive ever had for 8$ in a 200ml cup, fuck that

The entire 1000+ acre (400+ hectares) during the winter time was covered in insane lightshows on the outside, and the most beautiful garden greenhouses on the inside. There were several displays with LED waterfountains (no water, just LED pretending to be splashes of water) and other light shows synced to various orchestral musics as you walk the gardens.

aesthetic

also a fuckload of bonzai (pronounced BONE-SIGH) photos that i took but ill maybe post them later because who wants to look at bonesigh anyway

WASHINGTON DC

parked car, went in hotel, tried to sleep in hotel next to the white house, some black kid kept doing knock-knock-ditch on my hotel door and it pissed me off

black people kept yelling at me all around washington DC streets for various things
"BUY TRUMP 2028 MERCH"
"SIR YOU LOOK LIKE YOU WOULD DONATE TO WAR VETERANS" bro get the fuck off meeeeeeee im walkin here
"NO KINGS"
etc

everyone that wasnt a tourist, a protesting peasant or merch selling peasant, was a VERY fucking fine-quilted looking motherfucker in five figure $$$ tuxedo / suit on the streets around the area. A hot dog in the whitehouse area was ~15$, but walk 2 streets off the National Mall (name of the giant lawn 5km*0.5km where the whitehouse, washington monument in the middle, and capitol and lincoln memorial are) and you can get a full meal for that, so weird pricing things i guess. Also the whitehouse was like being half-renovated so one half of it was fully demolished for the future ballroom at the time. Lotsa construction so neighbouring streets were extra closed off. Sidenote: it took me about 6 hours of walking around to figure out that the "National Mall" is not an underground mall under the giant whitehouse area lawn.

All the flags were at half mast for the death of DICK CHENEY which was the funniest thing for me because the end of the half masting ended in the middle of the evening so i was left rather perplexed for a long time why they were half down in the morning and full mast by evening (daytime photo of the monument with all flags half mast, and few hours later, night time with all flags full mast)

Last photo, after leaving washington DC, saw this highway protest and cringed to death, my god.

the giant rubber screaming chicken costume man waving sent me to orbit + the man fumbling with the canadian flag on the left

Also saw the best protest in Washington DC, though i didnt wanna take a photo, it seemed rude to. A woman in the most elaborate costume (mustve taken weeks to fabricate), dressed as a very elaborate and shiny goth chick demon, solo protesting right infront of the whitehouse entrance booth with a sign against trump. It was elaborate, it was non intrusive, it was eyecatching, it was beautiful to look at, and most importantly, it wasnt retarded. Also had big booba

WASHINGTON DC, SMITHSONIAN

smithsonian museum is cool would recommend (and free!)

some things worth pointing out:
The shiny and pretty rock and crystal collection they have is fuckin awesome. The hope diamond (the diamond, whos every owner ever has died a very gory, publicly violent death or otherwise grand catastrophe. According to the plaque somewhat nearby, The shiny Hope diamond now, very ironically, belongs to The American People.

The hope diamond was behind glass, in the dark, and really small, so i took the shittiest photo of it possible of course

I took a FUCKLOAD of pretty rock photos but unless someone has rock autism i aint postin all that

There was also one section of the museum dedicated to Woke, and it was incredibly cringe and tonedeaf. EXCEPT FOR THE PART of the woke section where it was african artists, they were giga based.

WASHINGTON DC ZOO

was cool

there was a tiger that had his head in the bush for ~~3 minutes. One moment he jolted out of the bush, and then just stood there with his tongue for minutes, all the time until unknown time, like he had just experienced the most disgusting thing of his life. He was grimace-ing and ungrimace-ing his face for the entire time, i wodner what happened. He didnt seem distressed in any other way, just really disgusted.

the zoo had ropes over where people walked and orangutans would traverse the ropes right above you, crazy cool shit

snapping turtle is the spookiest animal there, he can see u through the glass, and if you put your head right infront of the glass, after waiting for 5 or so seconds, he will explosively snap in the blink of an eye and smash into the glass with a really loud bang. Its mouth looks fucking gnarly disgusting as fuck, like 100 wriggling rotting worms, fishfood bait. i ofcourse put my head infront of him and had him lunge at me, and everyone filmed me doing it around me, too scared to experience the funny themselves

one section entirely dedicated to rats, with a buncha rats in tubes and habitats. it even had a painting made by rats! rats are so smart animal (wow! so smart! they paint! :> )

the oppossum they had had died in the summer so i didnt get to see an oppossum, which is sad. one of my goals was to see an alive oppossum during my usa trip, but no zoos had it, and i saw like a 100 dead ones on the side of the highways, but i am still oppossumless in my skull.

CORNING MUSEUM OF GLASS and hill

sick museum, so much eye candy. also they had a workshop where they showed how they quickly made a lump of molten glass into a fancy decorated colored vase with a handle with extreme skill and precision handcraft. I was so mesmerized by the handcraft skill that i forgot to take a single photo of the thing :<. They also had a machine where you could bend modern produced glass (which was freaky as hell cause it felt like i would break the glass exposition) with a bending machine with your hand. didnt know modern glass types can bend 90(+?) degrees without breaking...

corning was a very nice place, and the first time i saw snow in the U S A during the trip

NIAGARA FALLS

ending my posting spree for today with this post

Niagara falls was cool. A bit of a repost post but reposting anyway. Annoyingly all the platforms REAALLY close to the falls were closed, but understandably so as every single surface was instant-icing from the cold combined with the water vapour being splashed into the air.

It was so cold from the infinite freezing temp water and so moist, that it was pretty painful for everyone around that wasnt fully skin and eyes covered (i was smart). Arrived a little bit before sunset, got a bunch of sick photos nonetheless. In the last photos, pay attention to the ground and bushes which had become into ice-spikes from the moisture in the air. No snow.

Funny moment in niagara falls is that buildings areound have giant electronic billboards that spell out the name of the area, and slowly, so it goes "N" ... "NI" ... "NIA" etc. i dont know how they get away with this lmao

also, there are boat tours you can get that are below the falls, that take you into the fog of the falls. That seemed suicidal, but i did look at a boat go into the fog in that temperature and come out. The winds down there are supposedly insane due to the intensity of the waterfall, so i would absolutely not desire to go on that boat ride during late november with freezing temps

they had an entire museum dedicated to me, crazy innit

Turns out the American Basketballer lebron ALSO loves to cosplay, crazy innit?

also cool af church i visited while visiting Maija, very cool epic
supposedly a church that kept being burnt down cause hate-blacks era hijinks so they rebuilt it out of big rock and it looks giga cool, brutalist church almost. made it to the church right after some sermon ended so i got to wander all around

detroit's cool except for the fact that when i arrived, the first frost-melt-snow-sleet had just hit and every single "4x4" driver had summer tires on and oh dear the nightmare of suicidal snow drivers who think they are better than nature without using good tires

one friend who i planned to meet in the detroit area flaked on me ;_; and didnt show up, very angering. fortunately, it was made to happen successfully a month later again so big loss big win

i had my worst dining experience in detroit, i went to dunkin donuts for the first time in my life cause i wanted to

2 indians were working, the clock was ~18:00, i ask for a regular coffee, nothing special. "10 minutes", what ok. they had to change the coffee beans, some filters, and some other bullshit. eventually after watching the lay-zee-est motherfuckers doing the la-zee-est service ever, i get my order + a blueberry donut cause why not. i get to pay (tip? lmfao) and sit down, coffee is 110C boiling, i burn my lips off, the blueberry donut tastes nor of berry nor donut but does taste of blue paint

worst experience

chicago was nice, most pleasant city in the usa i was in

met disarray, went minor/major barhopping with disarray and had good drinks at a cheap place and terrible cocktails at an expensive place. went to a christmas market and had my yearly glühwein at weihnachtsmarket (which i actually completely despise and hate, most disgusting alcoholic beverage outside of mint-cocktails), but its tradition so i got to do it yearly

chicago hot dog (pictured, with radioactive relish) is mb the best hot dog of all time. i tried ordering it in other states too, they just dont have the pizaaz and the kick of the chicago hot dog ordered in chicago, no pride (which translates into flavour and visual) behind it if it aint in chicago

there's a giant mirrored bean in the main park of chicago, which is cool I GUESS. you can stand under it, i went under it twice and looked up, and in 10 seconds both times, looking up under the bean made me sick to my stomach and dizzy.

midnight-time winter chicago looks neat as fuck, not many pics of it tho

saw 2 druggies in close proximity, one was against a glass window/wall, staring at his own reflection, when he saw others approaching he'd stare intensely at his own reflection. later i went to a 7/11 at my accomodation to get some milk, and saw another druggie nestled up in the corner of the 7/11 (indoors), sitting on his ass on the floor, self-mumbling. very uncomfortable because he was sitting next to the milk fridge so i kind of had to shuffle into him to get my milk gallon.

valueable mention: the BEST FUCKING CREPES IVE EVER HAD IN MY LIFE THAT SHIT WAS BUSSIN, had 3 pint glasses of milk that shit was soo good mwah chefs kiss bien bueno bone apple teeth

met why (very cool)

met why's cat (very cool but loud as FUCK)

walked on a frozen lake with fishermen on it (cool, it was cold)

found nature's corndogs, a lot of them, picked up a bunch and asked my friend to record me doing something retarded

went to krampus nacht parade which was neat. Played the "throw ball at target knock it down win something" game and won some things. After i won some things, a man dressed as a very evil looking krampus came up to me, handed me a bag from Home Depot, that had stickers for becoming christian, a peppermind candy, a glow in the dark green baby (about an inch, or 2cm, sized) and ofcourse, a bite sized snickers that just had the letter "N" on it and nothing else. Man dressed as Michael Myers Ghostbuster was my favourite in the parade

also krampus nacht alleyway rap battle between mari lywd

also went to a huge (perfectly average) sized botanical gardens which was like 3 giant glass booba in milwaukee which was cool but its just plant pics so whatev

went to kansas, met zonk, was cool
also met some gamer friend ive been friends with since i was 10

wanted to go to the WW1 museum, was closed. wanted to go to a jail museum, was closed. went to federal reserve money museum (the museum is ass but it was fun cause you could see the money being printed in real time and through explosion proof glass look at a warehouse where they store the money in like billions or something)

saw humans on lawn-mower ATVs WHILE WEARING AND USING A BACK MOUNTED GASOLINE LEAF BLOWER at the same time, that was fucking INSANE they did that

went to the Harry S Truman Museum, actually peak kansas; It's Truman's post-presidency office, that he turned into a museum about his past, his achievements, and most importantly all his failures in grand display. What makes it crazy to me is that he worked in his office for other things in the same building, and would often come out and be a impromptu guide for the museum. To hear about the failures from the mouth of the horse mustve been amazing.

had some soul food and witnessed the most peak "black man ordering food". Changed his order 5+ times after ordering it, timed the cook's french fries for him to the second to be half-uncooked, cancelled an order mid cook, temporarily stopped 2 other peoples orders from being made half-way by shouting "THAT AINT WHAT I ORDERED" "NO SHIT MURDOC ITS NOT YOUR ORDER BECAUSE THIS IS NOT YOUR ORDER". changed the desired beverage after having it poured out. when it came time to pay (21 dollars), he used a credit card that had no money on it. then he tried a second credit card. then he tried a third credit card. then he took out ~10 dollars in cash and asked if he could have the rest split in ~5 dollars across his credit cards. in the end he wasnt able to pay the full thing and had some things "removed" from his dish. also a pic of the soul food (it truly was soulful soul fool gobless black people BBQ places) MMMM mm

climbed around an actual abandoned castle (needles and trash ahoy), and also had a train go under me and zonk on the bridge, and we both did the "PLEASE HONK" hand sign ; see the video for the rest (R I P homeless people that went to spend the night under the bridge)

went to a chatty barber in kansas and asked if there is anything interesting to do or see in kansas as a tourist, after about a minute of silence, the barber went "nope not really"

i saw the most distressing sight in kansas, that is still in my soul. while driving, a 4 way, rather busy intersection with streetlights. On the very edge corner, a sign spinner spinning a sign for a company or something. Except it was a fat, downsyndrome, man in a wheelchair who clearly didnt control his muscle movements and was just flailing a sign that felt like it was forcibly attached to his hands. Not only his hands were flailing, but his head and neck, and a little bit his torso too. It was so shocking and hilarious at the same time, that even on the return trip it was so funny that not me nor my 2 friends in the car were able to notice: WHAT company is that sign spinner spinning his sign for?

also a cinema that had
"FIVE NIGHTS FREDDY"
ZOOTOPIA and WICKED

and all of them were the 2nd installment but i guess they didnt have any 2's remaining lmfao

The great plains fucking suck
Alberqueue fucking sucks
The desert overall fucking sucks, im a big desert hater
if there is 1 desert hater alive, its me

picture of the milky way taken with my shitty phone camera taken while in 0.0% light pollution area in the north tip of Texas

petrified forest is hella cool though, all the jungle trees that have become solid crystallized rock that looks kinda like tree. ran around on hills like a dumbass and just kept going "WHOAH" and soyjack pointing at things. So what happens is that trees in what USED TO BE A JUNGLE would fall into a riverbed (kinda like the amazon) and get covered in sand and mud so quickly that there was no hope that it even would decompose a little. So it would fall deep into rock, and then due to it being in wood it would be overtime be hyper mineralized by the rock under high pressure and temperature ; not enough biomass and temperature to get oil, so we get rock-tree instead. then over millions of years shit becomes mostly sand-ish (dry af desert) and the treelogs are slowly pushed back out of the sand due to them being less dense than the sand around it weightwise or some shit, physics you know. The trees are SELF-CUT (broken, but they look like a chainsaw has cut them near straight) due to temperature changes, and the rock trees self-break into what look like firewood logs on their own. also some indian ruins with a news rock (rock that they wrote news on during wild west indian times)