Travel, like anything else in life, has ups and downs. In the same day you can go from rainbows over the desert (beautiful Arches National Park in Moab, Utah) to snow in the mountains (the Rockies in a rental car with bald tires). Black Cloud and Worse Luck have seen their share of Roadside Americana, National Parks, Scenic Byways, authentic hometown restaurants, once in a lifetime scenic overlooks, and other generally cool stuff... and now this blog is a way to share it all with you.
Why follow the adventures of these two crazy kids you ask? Huh... read on and you'll be amazed how two people can be in the wrong place at the wrong time with such consistency. Their first trek across the US in 2009 was interesting. Despite sleep deprivation, dirty gas station bathrooms, altitude sickness, too much fast food, a malfunctioning GPS, and the other hum drum problems of life on the road... Black Cloud and Worse Luck managed to drive from the Northeastern Corner of the United States in Madawaska, Maine, to the Northwestern Corner of the country in Blaine, Washington, in a little over a week. From there they headed south to Oregon for a few days hoping to get a glimpse of California. However poor planning and heavy traffic during Memorial Day Weekend foiled their plans and the two turned around and traversed the country back to the East Coast.
In 2011, the dynamic duo decided to drive to California again. The trip was filled with many unlucky perils. Car trouble in Missouri stranded Black Cloud and Worse Luck for several days in a town out of the Twilight Zone where nothing was ever open (or within walking distance) and the rental car company never had any cars. When the couple finally procured a rental car they did not have enough time to reach Cali, but figured they would try to have "that positive attitude that people were always talking about," and venture on. They reached New Mexico and after salvaging the trip with some spectacular sightseeing headed back to pick up their SUV.
En route to Joplin, Missouri, is where it all went wrong. After a long day of driving and a phone call that repairs on their SUV's engine totalled well over 3 grand, the weather began to turn. The skies grew dark and ominous, the wind picked up, and it began to rain. Minutes later a State Trooper flagged Black Cloud and Worse Luck off the highway onto an overpass. From their vantage point the couple watched in horror as a massive high precipitation tornado leveled the town and crossed the highway right before their eyes. For the duration of the trip severe thunderstorms, flooding, and more tornadoes followed the couple as they made their way back to New England.
Now why would anyone with any shred of sanity decide to travel cross country again? Well, the answer is that Black Cloud and Worse Luck can't stand to be told that they can't do something... So here we are in 2013, fixated on California again, and in the planning stages of CROSS COUNTRY 2013: CALIFORNIA OR BUST!!
There is so much more to come on this blog, so stay tuned for pictures, travel tips, updates from the road in October, and hopefully videos. Or just laugh at us as we get into ridiculous amounts of trouble and misfortune... or not... who knows what's going to happen to Black Cloud and Worse Luck?
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