On Wheels through America: From Chicago to Los Angeles
When we decided to go to America, we realized that we wanted to cut her wheels thoroughly and poke tent pegs into her land. Our route began on August 4 at exactly 7 am in Chicago, Illinois, and ended on the evening of August 24 in Los Angeles, California - the full version of our travel diary with all the stops can be read on Tumblr. There were six of us: Roman, who constantly lives in New York (and took over the entire organization), his brother and Vova, who flew in from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk through half-planets, as well as Krasnoyarsk resident Valera, Muscovites Max, Tanya and me.
Chicago: City of the Future, Skyscrapers and Art Objects
Two days before our start, I had to spend in Chicago visiting an unknown person - an acquaintance of my acquaintance of mine, whose house was lost in the green lawns of the famous University of Chicago. Its territory is not fenced, and the building looks like a secret laboratory surrounded by trees and surrealistic art objects. Chicago is generally a street art city, a pure modern art museum. Here is a huge red whether beetle from the "Star landing", or a tripod from the "War of the Worlds". Elsewhere there were huge bald heads of marble.
Millennium Park, which is considered one of the favorite places for recreation of citizens and tourists, is solid futurism. Although it is strange to rest here. Everything is very concrete, angular and cosmic, there are almost no park amenities to which we are used: herbs where you can lie, shops and tables made of environmentally friendly materials, a galley of hot-dog and Chinese noodles, no carousels or fountains in the usual sense this word, nothing. Instead, there is a drop of mercury in a moment before the fall, an intergalactic theater with a roof likened to Saturn's rings, and huge cubes from which water flows - the Crown Fountain. Tall parallelepipeds are made of thousands of small glass bricks, which are illuminated by LEDs. Holograms of persons who can smile, laugh, get angry appear continuously on the inner sides, but each of them will eventually put lips into a pipe and make a fountain. The water will be real, not hologram. The people who appear on the screens are ordinary people of Chicago, and the idea of the project is to show the ethnic diversity of the citizens.
The design, nicknamed The Bean (that is, the bean) has long been the hallmark of the city. Initially, it was conceived as a drop of mercury in a moment before falling. But, you see, it is not so easy to pronounce "Let's meet at 5:30 pm at a drop of mercury just before the fall." Much easier "Meet at 17:30 at the bean." So he became a mirror bean, in reflection of which, probably, they made a million selfies, and mine was a million first. Another symbol of the city - Nicholas Bridge - connects part of the park with the third floor of the Museum of Modern Art, which is also located here. From it you can make excellent pictures of the spans between the Chicago skyscrapers or Lake Michigan, which is also very close and masterfully disguised as the sea. Even from the air, you can hardly see the other shore, a lot of yachts are moored on the embankment, omnipresent seagulls fly and beg for food.
Here is the theater of Harris. His scene actually stands in the open, it is framed only by wide metal plates - as if tin curls are curled onto a curling iron, and the audience seats are located directly on the lawn. There are free festivals with diverse musical groups, as well as operas or performances by Mikhail Baryshnikov. We found the Lollapalooza music festival taking place in the city - half of the park was blocked under it, but every word of Arctic Monkeys was perfectly heard on the shore of Lake Michigan. It is not surprising that crowds of tipsy and cheerful young people in kersey boots and with flower wreaths on their heads walked around the center of the city.
In addition, Chicago is the birthplace of the tallest American skyscraper, the 102-story Willis Tower, which, according to architects, depicts an open pack of cigarettes. We found the best time of day to climb - sunset and twilight. From the plane of the building protrude the famous glass cabins, in which you stand as in a capsule: we watched as the pink sun slowly rolled across the sky to the horizon and disappeared, giving way to city lights. We saw how the lanes of roads suddenly turn into yellow rays, which almost go to the horizon. As the tops of skyscrapers begin to flash, like lighthouses. If you still associate Chicago with Al Capone, then these are remnants of the distant past. Little is said about this here, but only the thematic “Untouchable Tourists” sightseeing bus, black as a coffin, and old two-story houses with wooden staircases zigzag, remind us of the dashing 30s. It is not a city of the past at all, but a city of the future, similar to the fantasy of Wachowski. Steel, shiny, futuristic.
Natural Parks: Heads of Presidents, Bad Lands, Prismatic Lake, 2000 Martian Arches, and Grand Canyon
Departure from Chicago for the first five hours resembles the near Moscow region, but in the late afternoon the suburban landscapes are replaced by miles of corn fields, through which in the horror films the heroes escape from the killer. We rented our Chevrolet Impala at the Chicago airport, each costing about $ 1,500, half of which is the price for returning elsewhere. Suitcases, a tent, and a barbecue grill, and even refrigerators for beer, got into the trunk. On the way, we met a couple of colorful abandoned gas stations and roadside motels, although all this abandonment does not seem dull.
In American poverty does not feel hopelessness, as in ours. Rather, it is cinematic, as if it were a pavilion with decorations. At the entrance to Badlands Park, ominous silence, strange lifeless forms of white limestone with pointed tops, wind, more like a whisper of spirits, and dry air are shocking. We drove through some sort of kiosk that looked like a checkpoint forgotten by people, and only after reaching the campsite did we realize that we had entered the park not quite legally.
It is very strange, waking up in a tent, to find yourself in America. Not too often I hear from friends: "Oh, we were resting here with tents in the Badlands in South Dakota!" Maximum: "Oh, we rested here with tents near Tver!" American national parks - a unique phenomenon. In terms of the scale of well-established service and comfort, in the scale of the territory, in the scale of unearthly beauty. All of them, despite the fact that the nature of each park is unique, have a common structure or some kind of "service basis". There is a huge reserve area with its points of view and trails (paths), which are indicated on the map attached to the ticket; there is a camping area, which has everything you need, including an acceptable shower and toilet; and there is a zone of all kinds of activities - restaurants, bars, maybe even a museum of some kind. In general, everything so that people do not shrink from boredom and not merged with nature in the literal sense. True, if everything is more or less equally good with the first and with the second, then with the third in some places it is difficult.
Here, in a small wasteland, a bar was standing near the road, and around it - everything that only Americans could mix: horses in a small pen, and neatly lined up in an old but very polished car - Pontiac, Ford, Dodge "(an exhibition or just a warehouse is not clear), a little distance away - a large iron canopy under which wooden benches and tables stood, ominous iron hooks descended from the roof of the canopy. The whole picture was completed by a couple of collapsed houses and rusty troughs of Ford origin. The pictures here are atmospheric, but there is no one to ask what is happening.
In general, Badlands Park is far from mainstream among tourists. Once the Indians called this land bad because of a not very hospitable look. All these peaked rocks in the ground from afar look like peaks, which you can pin. Wikipedia claims that the remains of saber-toothed tigers and giant pigs are still found here. The general panorama that opened before us on all observation platforms was a bit creepy and apocalyptic, and Mount Rushmore was waiting ahead - the very thing with the bas-reliefs of four presidents of the USA: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln engraved. 18 meters head. This is another unique American phenomenon, about which you can say: "Nowhere on earth is there such a thing."
At this time of the year, we encountered another unique phenomenon, similar to the locust plaque on corn fields. This is the annual congress of bikers (damn it). In their black leather portraits on black motorcycles, they filled the roads of all the surroundings. Bikers packed into motels not only of all nearby cities, but also the nearest states! In the morning we realized that checking into a motel would be a serious problem for us. However, while they seemed to us quite nice guys: we took pictures with them several times and even taught them to say "boobs". The Sturgis festival has been held since 1938 in the town of Rapid City. What they do there, everyone knows - they drink. This is what we liked.
The next in line on our route was Yellowstone Park, which captured the territory of several states at once: Wyoming, Montana and Idaho. Entry to it costs $ 25 from the car for a week, and about as much it can be spent. As befits this season, all the camp sites were occupied, so we had to look for a camp site outside the park - but only for $ 2 per tent. Just so you can’t put up a tent in any place you like — fines from local rangers rely on it. These measures give nature a chance to remain practically primeval: for so many years, all these parks have been visited by millions of people, and even if it is for them, everything is worth everything and the purest.
During the day, the whole Yellowstone to go round is unrealistic, but definitely not to miss the Great Prismatic Lake. It is not difficult to find it by the number of steam that all geysers in the area eject, and by the number of people that all cars ejaculate nearby. While walking along the boardwalk, you are covered in mist from all sides and you feel better than in the five-star resort of all five-star resort spa. Around - frozen lava, dead trees on snow-white thermal springs, waterfalls.
Of course, it is a pity that the unusual colors of the Prismatic Lake can be clearly seen only from the air, and from the height of human growth one can observe the fusion of yellow with blue or orange with blue only along the horizon line. Yellow is not sand, but yellow. Orange is not some red. And blue is not turquoise, but blue. Another feature of the park is animals that almost give a paw at the meeting. Here is another bear again created a traffic jam from onlookers, who admiringly watch him scratching something right at the curb. Here is a herd of buffalo, which, having lifted the hooves, lie on the shoulder blades and catch the rays of the sun. The family of tame deer unceremoniously chews grass directly on the lawns of tourist centers, and even look at you, as if inviting to join.
Having entered Yellowstone from the north, we headed for the south, and then across the Salt Lake near Salt Lake City, famous for the 2002 Olympics, to the Arches National Park. For several miles we drove through Utah, and nature again radically changed its appearance. After the mountain lakes and dense forests, which are familiar to our eyes, it was strange to feel the cold breath of red stone blocks that hung on both sides of the road. As usual, we arrived at the park late at night. The entrance is open, but the ticket office does not work. According to the old scheme, having slightly stood at the booth, we gave gas to the dark corridor of the park: the second illegal entry into the national American park was given to us much easier. Here the hot air, enveloping and suffocating, like a mountain serpent. The full moon illuminates the motionless stone sculptures, which seemed to have grown a few minutes ago to welcome us or drive us away. I was ready to give a hand on clipping, that we are on any planet, just not on Earth
Actually, spending the night in the parks is great! You get up early and after spending the night in the parks you have much more time for a day than after a night in a motel. A numb body, intolerable heat or intolerable cold, danger of meeting insects, coyotes, bears or rangers, low probability of washing - who cares about such trifles when the world's largest natural arches are ahead? Two thousand red arches are scattered over a huge territory, and they have a hard time: so that the arch is registered and given its name, its span must be at least a meter wide. The sculptor of all this fiction is the wind, which for many centuries sculpts them to the sound of its own howling. During the day we walked around, rather, climbed, only a few: we still had 1994 arched objects, but it was time to go further - the Monuments Valley was waiting for us. We smoothly entered Arizona, where little meerkats ran across the road, and the wind twisted into the sand whirlwinds away. The landscape was very reminiscent of "Fear and Loathing": monuments appeared on the horizon, growing in the middle of a shallow desert.
In Arizona, very dry lips. Hot wind is better than any hair dryer dries hair in seconds. Arizona is love at first sight. In Arizona, it seems that all dreams have already come true, and you should not wrestle with your head to invent them again. As if the injection of the Arizona cactus is a panacea for universal sorrow. It is full of places that are definitely worth a visit: the Horseshoe Horse Rift, the Antelope Canyon, where divine light somehow correctly falls in the morning, and Lake Powell, on the stone bank of which we made contact with the descendants of the Indians. They are a little loose body, and their hands in strange tattoos. But their faces are as strict as those of the guys we saw in the films and imagined when we read The Last of the Mohicans.
Traveling in America, it is impossible to drive past one of the largest nature reserves in the world - the majestic Grand Canyon. There are many observation sites here, but there are the most famous ones, where there are campgrounds and magnificent tourist centers. We were at the southernmost - South Rome. If you once heard about the Grand Canyon, that it is majestic, huge, amazing and incredible, then you will still imagine it less than it actually is. It is impossible to imagine oneself at its bottom, which, it seems, for all the millennia of its existence, only crows have seen, slowly flying along toothy crevices.
The Grand Canyon, like a chameleon, changes colors depending on the time of day. In the photos we saw it in red or orange. Under the noonday sun it is yellow. But we were very surprised to find it purple-pink - that is exactly the color it is at sunset. Its horizon is ideally smooth - it seems that nature, creating this miracle, first took drawing lessons. By golly, when I stood on the edge, I was so drawn down. I read that someone falls there in ecstasy. Of course, the inspection of all points of the reserve can take more than one day, therefore, having measured one and a half hours, we drove on - to the city of a thousand lights, spread out in the middle of the vast desert.
Los Angeles: Broken dreams, perfect beaches and a flea market
It seemed to me that, being in Los Angeles, you cannot miss Hollywood and its famous boulevard with stars. Following my requirements, Roman stopped the car in some industrial zone: "Well, we are in Hollywood." I went out, dragging along the ground a train of blue dress, like the queen of an exploding gas station. Just something exploded in my head. "How, Hollywood?" “Well, the very center of Hollywood is right,” Roman smiled sarcastically and triumphantly. So I met LA. The area called Hollywood looked like the worst ghetto in Paris, only in American style: squat concrete boxes and mats, closed shops and restaurants were barred and inhospitable, everything was painted with sloppy graffiti, there were no people, even homeless dogs were not. But my disappointment agonized on Hollywood Boulevard. It stretches for a very long time, and for a very long time you will not find a single familiar star there. Approaching more familiar names, you will see to what extent they are trampled and wiped out. Along the street stretches a series of marginal bars and dubious clubs, belching unimaginably drunk people right on these stars.
Hollywood hills - a place where it is impossible not to hold the inscription "Hollywood" on the palm - a much more pleasant area. Beautiful houses and palm trees on the steps along the roads - California's business card. The letters H, O, L, L, Y, W, O, O, and D turned out to be larger than I thought, like everything else in this country. The distances between areas of Los Angeles are simply colossal. Most of the way - this is a very wide highway overpass, difficult interchanges, and below them - empty spaces or some kind of garages or industrial zones. Without a car here is no way: Los Angeles does not look like a familiar city, it has the strictest structure. As if these are dozens of small towns, connected by wide drives, which you can travel endlessly without seeing the target or the final destination.
Я очень хотела полюбить Лос-Анджелес, запомнить его только с хорошей стороны, и в итоге он ответил на мои старания. Во-первых, его спасли пляжи. Они тянутся вдоль всего LA, расходятся в разные стороны за пределы города, и все одинаково прекрасны. Прибрежная полоса очень широка, и места хватает всем. Красавчик-спасатель в красных шортах всегда вытащит тебя, если ты будешь захлебываться в воде, но, скорее всего, вы даже не заметите, что за вами приглядывают: никто и ничто не мешает сливаться с океаном в экстазе. Названия пляжей столь же упоительны, как они сами: Эрмоса, Манхэттен, Венис, Санта-Моника.
Secondly, an acquaintance who lived here at one time told me about the Melrose Trading Post, or the Fairfax Flee Market. This is a flea market in its best traditions, held every Sunday in the area of West Hollywood. It is located on the territory of the school of arts, and the entrance costs three dollars, which go to charity. Here you can buy a ragged American flag, a pimp coat, old beer cans, your grandmother's dress, worn leather shoes, glasses of any shapes and sizes, postcards that some Americans wrote to each other, jewelry of all stripes, and God knows what. I bought my best friend a pendant made of a shell in the shape of a huge heart from a very nice African-American grandfather, from whose player the whole district thundered jazz. For my boss, I found superhours, my sister bought body oil that is more natural than anything that smells of body for three days. Among other things, for pennies, you can score points, badges, postcards and other rubbish for all your friends, who suddenly ask at the meeting: "Will I have a gift?"
The last item on our big American tour was Beverly Hills - an area with rich houses and bohemian coffee houses. Before our eyes, a skater African-American in a dress with gold sequins, sparkling in the sun with pain in her eyes, smoothly emerged from one mansion. The woman was surrounded by people with cameras when she passed to her limousine. Yes, in Los Angeles, everything changes dramatically, it is worth a little change of coordinates. As, however, and throughout America.
On the same day, we needed to get to LAX airport and fly back. Everything is fast: checkin, control, duty-free, coffee, pour whiskey to pour in sadness. And here we are in the plane. Of course, it was a little sad, and I even sobbed in the plane indiscreetly, looking out of the porthole at beautiful Los Angeles, looking like a golden octopus and even as if it was so dear from a height of flight. We returned to Moscow with a feeling of deep fatigue, but full of pride in such a brave trip we made.
