When I was a kid I was absolutely fascinated by science and nature, especially very large and very small things like quantum mechanics and space. I guess you could say I was a bit of a nerd. It was probably because I was always surrounded by popular science magazines and books courtesy of my parents and my grandfather Sveinung.

One of my early memories is someone showing me a picture of this big hole in the ground caused by a meteor impacting the earth. It was an awesome photo and I was captivated by it. How could something fall out of the sky and cause so much damage? Could it happen again? How big was the explosion? The questions came in endless cascades and my poor family was subjected to endless speculation and progressively more complicated and annoying questions.

As the years went on the image of Meteor Crater, located in the Middle of Nowhere, USA, stuck in my brain like a catchy pop tune. And I knew that the chances of me ever actually seeing it in real life were slim to none.

A serendipitous hapstance

On Tuesday as the sun set we found ourselves in Yuma staring at the closed gates of the Yuma Territorial Prison – the only worthwhile thing to see in that city according to our research. With the prison closed we needed to find out where to go next. The original plan was to head on to Tucson and take the southern route all the way to New Orleans but just to make sure we weren’t missing anything spectacular Anny dove into the AAA book for Arizona / New Mexico. As we drove out of town she goes “There’s a place in Arizona called Meteor Crater”. My jaw dropped. Are you kidding me? We are actually close to the big hole in the ground I’d been thinking of since childhood. It was too good to be true. But as with many things it was actually true (though “close” was a bit of a stretch). So we laid a new course that took us to Phoenix, the city famous for their $15 hot dogs that come with a free ticket to the Coyotes.

After a quick rest in a motel in a creepy part of town we piled into the car and drove for 4 hours through Flagstaff to get to the big hole in the ground in the middle of nowhere. And there, on a side road right off the 108 between Flagstaff and Winslow, the edges of the crater appeared like an apparition. Even from the outside it looks weird, like the edges of cake crust when the filling has burst through. I was so excited my skin was tingling.

Meteor Crater – The Experience

On this trip we’ve learned one thing: If it’s worth seeing and it’s in the US, it’s going to cost money. To experience Meteor Crater you’ll have to shell out $15 per head. And though I’m normally frugal to a fault I actually think that’s fair considering the place is privately owned and operated and kept in meticulous condition. The visitor’s centre has a huge presentation on meteors and space in general, two pieces of the actual meteor itself and a crappy 10 minute video they should have paid me to produce. But I digress. The important part is that the price includes a 1 hour walking tour along the crater edge, complete with history and whitty commentary. Definitely worth it.

The tour requires good walking shoes, sunglasses and strong legs. I’d also recommend sun block, a hat tied firmly to your head (it’s insanely windy up at the edge), and drinking water in the summer. The terrain is uneven, steep and littered with rocks and dust. But the view is breathtaking. I’m not even going to bother trying to describe it – just look at the photos instead.

Here’s a tip: After getting back from the crater rim you’ll be all drugged out on crazy geology and you’ll end up in the gift store where they sell real fossils, real petrified wood, gems, toys and other stuff you’ll want to bring home with you. Don’t. It’s way too expensive. The fossils are all from other places like China, Poland and Africa and the petrified wood is cheaper from the roadside stores closer to Petrified Forest about an hour down the road. I know it’s enticing, but keep your wallet in your pocket. The memory won’t be any better if you walk out with a bag full of expensive rocks.

That said, this place is amazing and if you’re ever anywhere close by or have an interest in geology, astronomy or natural wonders, Meteor Crater is definitely worth a visit. I know my dad would love it and probably drive the guides bonkers with complicated questions and comments so when I earn my first million I guess I’ll have to fly him out.

It’s weird how you don’t realize you miss things untill they appear right in front of you. When we drove over the hills from Santa Barbara into Solvang on one of our detours that is exactly what I thought. There, in the middle of California, a tiny piece of Denmark – my father’s native land and the country I spent pretty much every summer of my childhood in – appeared like a mirage. Only this is the real thing: A tiny village settled by Danish farmers that has kept true to it’s roots and retained pretty much everything that is Danish.

Stereotypically wonderful

It’s a joke passed between Europeans travelling to the USA that where old cultures have been carried to the land of milk and honey it is always exaggerated, often to the point of charicature. Not so in Solvang. Even though the vilagers have managed to capture pretty  much every Danish archetype imaginable in a tiny area which only covers about 10 blocks, it is done in taste and with such attention to detail it is hard to distinguis the copy from the real thing.

Entering Solvang you’ll find it all: Storks on the roofs (in Denmark a stork roosting on your roof is considered good luck), bakeries aplenty, street side cafes, wind mills, a Carlsberg horse towing a cart, stores selling almost exclusively Christmas decorations and ornaments, an H.C. Andersen museum, a scale model of the Little Mermaid statue and even a 1/3 scale model of Rundetaarn – both famous Copenhagen attraction. Incredibly the tiny town is also placed in an area that looks remarkably like Denmark (if you ignore the distant mountains). The rolling hills and grass covered farmland is so close to the real thing it is almost scary. Driving toward the town Angela actually burst out “This looks just like Denmark!”

A taste (or ten) of Denmark

Anyone who has been to Denmark will tell you that the Danish culture is heavily focussed around food. And good food at that. The problem is that the so-called “Danishes” you get in North America are a complete travesty compared to the real thing. In fact a Danish baker would scoff at most of the danishes you find in USA or Canada and refuse to even touch them. Denmark and the other Scandinavian countries also has a strong tradition when it comes to dinners, especially the use of meats. Most North Americans are familiar with Swedish meatballs like the ones  you get at IKEA. Well, there’s a whole range of different types of meatballs and other dishes in the same family as well as a massive assortment of lunch dishes like open faced sandwhiches that are unique to these cultures. And like the true Danish pastries, these dishes are pretty much impossible to find anywhere else. Except in Solvang.

Going to The Little Mermaid Cafe you can order hakkebøf (sort of like a big hamburger that doesn’t really taste like a hamburger) with potatoes and pickled red cabbage, medisterkager and medisterpølser (meatballs and sausages that taste heavenly) and an assortment of other traditional dishes – all served up with boiled potatoes and greens. And for desert you can have Tilslørte Bondepiker (literally “veiled peasant girls” – a layered mix of whipped cream, apple sauce and bread crumbs).

Several of the bakeries and restaurants also offer one of the most inaccurately named and most treasured baked goods you can get in Denmark: Æbleskiver (literal translation “apple slices”) which contains no apples and is actually a ball of pancace-like dough cooked in specially shaped pans. Delicious.

If that’s not to your liking you can go to Olsen’s Bageri and buy true traditional Danish pastries like Napoleon’s Hats, Napoleon cake, Kransekage, Swedish Delight, Seven Sisters cake, rum balls, Sarah Bernard, school bread and tons of other sweet, savoury and salty baked goods that will make your mouth water and your belly explode.

Finally, if you’re truly adventurous and want to try something utterly Scandinavian, go to  Ingeborg’s Chocolates and buy some salty licorice from their huge selection. In my almost 8 years in Canada I’ve discovered that North Americans not only don’t have proper licorice, but they don’t know what it tastes like and they usually hate it. Talking to other Scandinavians and even Dutchmen who usually love the super salty and ammonia like black treats it’s clear that for whatever reason the taste for this delicious candy never made it across the Atlantic with the rest of the European culture. I’ve not been able to find proper black licorice anywhere in Vancouver so when the smell of salt, licorice and ammonia hit me as I walked through the doors of Ingeborg’s I was in heaven. Yes, I know most people hate the black stuff but seriously, to me there is no better candy!

Seriously, you should go!

Our intention was to drop by to see what the town was all about but we ended up spending two full days there taking in the sights and enjoying the super relaxed and calm atmosphere. It was a nice change from the overtly hectic and chaotic Los Angeles life. When we left all I could think of was that we have to go back at some point, probably around Christmas time, and spend a good week or so. There is just too much to see and too much great food, delicious pastries and relaxing to be had for just a couple of days. If you’re ever in the area, or ever wanted to visit Denmark but didn’t want to travel all the way to Europe, make your way to Solvang, California, and stay for a few days. Or a lot of days. Or forever. It is both bizarre and magnificent at the same time and a place everyone should visit.

Oh, and on top of it all Michael Jackson’s Neverland Ranch is a 15 minute drive away – not that you can see much except the gates. But still, it’s pretty cool.

After a brief stop to get some much needed ZZZs in Redding we piled into the car early Wednesday morning and headed for the hills – literally. Whereas Google Maps claimed the I-5 route down the coast through Sacramento and then up again to Las Vegas was the quickest by several hours, Jill, our intrepid Garmin personality, had other ideas. She said the route across the mountains was slightly faster and honestly, we didn’t need much convincing: The prospect of driving 13 hours on a highway was not very enticing. Fortunately for us, Jill turned out to be right and the trip across the mountains was truly spectacular – so much in fact I would consider doing it again, though not in one day.

The trip took us along CA-44 to Reno before heading down I-95 to Sin City passing through numerous tiny towns on the way. We shared the driving load so each person only drove for about 2.5 to 3 hours total and had frequent stops along the way to take pictures and get food. Our original idea was to stop in Reno for a bite to eat, but honestly, Reno looks like it has been pretty much abandoned maintenance wise since the mid-80s and was very unappealing so after some driving around in circles we moved on to Fernley and got $4.99 cheeseburger baskets instead. On the way we passed several weird flat areas that our map claimed were “lakes” and “reservoirs” though there was no water and they were either overgrown with grass or covered in sand or salt. I guess that’s the result of the extreme drought California has been experiencing for the last several years.

A lake in the desert

It wasn’t until we came to Walker Lake that we actually saw some water – and here there was plenty of it. The vista was spectacular if bizarre: On the bottom to the left of the road was the huge and bright blue lake. All around were the brown sandy mountains and to the right was a massive snow-capped mountain more akin to the British Columbia interior than the Nevada Mountains. After a short break to take some photos we drove on and hit an area called Hawthorne. I say “area” because although it looks like a town, it’s almost completely deserted. On the left you have the tiny town of Hawthorne while on the right and further down the highway there is an enormous army depot and hundreds of bunkers (you can see them on Google Maps).

From Hawthorne we drove onwards along the Veterans’ Memorial Highway when after about half an hour we discovered that we were very quickly running out of gas. Not cool. What do you do when you’re in the middle of a mountain desert with no cell reception, the sun quickly fading, few cars passing and no clue how far it is to the next town? Do you turn around and drive for another half hour hoping you won’t run out or do you continue onward in the hopes there is a town somewhere close by? We asked Jill (the Garmin GPS system) who told us to go a couple of kilometers up the road and then turn around back to Hawthorne – a ride that was estimated at a full 45 minutes. Considering how long we had driven with only one bar left on the fuel meter there was no way in hell we’d make it back to Hawthorne. Scary stuff. But a closer look at Jill’s map showed that the turning point up ahead was a tiny town called Mina. We crossed our fingers and hoped that Mina would have a gas station. And 10 minutes later it turned out it did – one called “Hard-Rock Market”. Can’t tell you what a relief it was to find that place.

With a full tank and fuel for ourselves as well we left Mina (and its curious onlookers) behind as the sun started to set. Unfortunately we were going eastward so the spectacular sunset was behind us and we had to stop to truly appreciate it. The low sun threw crazy shades along the mountains and desert formations and Kim and I kept gawking out the window instead of paying attention to the road. Which was fine, because we were pretty much the only car on the road and the road is as straight as if someone laid it down with a ruler.

Tonopah – a true frontier town in the middle of nowhere

Just as the sun was dipping below the horizon we came up on a row of mountains that looked like a big dragon had taken pieces out of it with its giant claws. As we climbed in between the hills another small town started to appear with a new settlement on the left side and an old and close to abandoned mining town on the right. The very first thing that met us as we entered the town was a huge sign saying “Clown Motel”… not exactly a good first impression. But as with many other things the first impression is not necessarily the correct one. Driving further into the town, which has the weird name Tonopah it turned out to be a true and well preserved frontier town with buildings dating back to the late 19th century. Though many of them are obviously abandoned the majority of the town looks not only inhabited but well kept. There are several museums covering the towns mining history, the old railroad and the frontier life and just from what I saw driving through I can say there is a lot to see and I wish we had time to stop and stay for a day or two just to explore everything. There were several major motels and I saw camper vans parked along the road and in lots throughout so Tonopah is obviously a well hidden tourist gem. If ever we find ourselves in a car around Las Vegas and we have a few days to spare I’m definitely driving back to Tonopah to see what’s there.

Dark road, starry skies

Leaving Tonopah the sky quickly transitioned through deeper and deeper shades of blue until it hit the blackest of black. And with the dark came the light – the brightest starry sky I have ever seen anywhere outside of Svalbard close to the North Pole. No moon meant that every little star popped out like a tiny hole in a black canvas and after driving through this wonder of nature for a few hours Kim and I decided we really couldn’t get the full experience while blasting down the highway at 75mph. So we stopped at a humongous rest area, woke the girls, got out and turned off all the lights in the car. What met us was a truly spectacular starscape that gave us a clear view of not only the major constellations but also the Milky Way going straight up from the south west and crossing right over our heads and down on the other side. I shot a series of long exposures with my 5DMKII on a Gorillapod on top of the car. Unfortunately I forgot to set the ISO manually so all of them were shot at 3200 which meant a lot of grains. Even so the photos show the crazy starry sky in most of its spectacular beauty. As we stood there all I could think was how much we are missing by living in cities that outshine the starry skies.

From our rest stop it was pretty much straight (literally) driving all the way to Las Vegas. I know we passed by a bunch of other interesting towns and sights, but since there were no lights there really was nothing to see. It’s actually quite creepy driving through the night like that because the road is straight like and arrow and you have no reference points to tell you how far away you are from the cars that are coming toward you in the opposite lane. At one point I started checking how long it took from I first saw a pair of headlights till I actually passed the car. I got to about 10 minutes which means if we both were going around 75mph it was well over 30 km away when I spotted it. That’s pretty impressive but there really is no way of knowing how far away the car is until it gets scary close which means passing other slower cars is a truly harrowing experience. Bottom line is if you don’t have years of experience driving in the dark like Kim and I do and you don’t know how to use your high-beams properly you really shouldn’t do this drive in the dark: Better stay in Tonopah or one of the other old mining towns along the way and take the long stretches during the day. But like I said, Kim and I were born, bred and learned how to drive in Norway where the sun goes down at 4pm and comes up past 10am for 3 months of the year and “Dark Driving” is a mandatory class to get your driver’s licence so we have our night driving down pat.

From quiet desert to Vegas hell

The entire trip from Redding to the outskirts of Las Vegas was quite enjoyable, if long. But entering the roads around Sin City and trying to find our way, even with Jills help, was pure hell. Holy crap there are a lot of cars in Vegas even at 11pm on a Wednesday. And they are all driven by demolition derby wannabes. Even the Strip itself is packed with maniacs that remind me of Goofy’s Mr. Wheeler. But eventually we found our way to our chosen destination, TI (formerly Treasure Island). Unfortunately it turns out TI has “flexible rates” that go up progressively during the night so because I was stupid enough to not book the rooms in advance online they were a full $20 more expensive than a few hours earlier. Checking the internet we found alternative accommodation at the Luxor for $50 per night so we jumped back in the car and drove there instead. But at the desk they gave us a price of $79.99 per night so while the clerk stared at us in dismay we pulled out our laptop and booked $50 rooms from Expedia right there at the desk. Take that stupid Las Vegas hotel people! With the room booked and keys picked up we spent about 10 minutes finding the parking area, which is well hidden in a separate building behind the Luxor before we all collapsed into the room at around midnight.

It may sound like we had a horrible run but it was actually quite enjoyable and something that will live in memory for quite some time. Although I would recommend doing the crossing in more than one day and I would have liked to stop at Tonopah and a couple of the other places we passed by I highly recommend taking the trip if you’re coming down from Oregon on your way to Las Vegas. With one major caveat that is: This drive is not recommended during the mid-summer and mid-winter season. The summers up there are supposedly unbearably hot and unpleasant. Likewise the winters are biting cold and the entire mountain region is prone to high winds (which we experienced), dense fog and snow – none of which are ideal conditions for a safe crossing.

We’re rushing to get to Las Vegas by Wednesday night so Kim can get the full sin city experience before he has to be in Los Angeles (which is on Friday). That means a lot of driving and not a lot of time to enjoy the scenery. Today was one of two long drives – a total of 9.5 hours – and tomorrow will be a gruelling 11-13 hours depending on driving conditions.

The day started out well with a nice drive from Florence, Oregon after a stay at a surprisingly clean and well equipped motel. We stopped at a little roadside restaurant in the middle of nowhere and had an excellent meal (the guy explained that since there were so few people in the area he had to really step up the quality to keep people coming back) before powering on to the Oregon Caves National Monument. This was quite a detour but we figured it was worth it because the caves are supposed to be spectacular.

On the way to the caves it started to rain and by the time we arrived it was pouring. While Angela, Anny and myself all brought rain proof Vancouver jackets Kim only had is stylish European leather jacket so he donned Anny’s blue emergency rain poncho. It looked pretty silly.

Lucky for us this is not the main season at the caves so when we got there there were only two other people waiting and the next tour started in 10 minutes. I won’t go into a lot of detail about the caves themselves – that deserves a dedicated post – but I will say it is definitely worth it to go. We took a 2.5 hour detour and all agreed it was time well spent.

We left the caves at around 5:30pm and had dinner in Cave Junction before getting back on the road. The target was Redding, California – a 4-5 hour drive that took us back up north before heading down I-5. By that time it was dark (as in pitch black) and my night-time driving experience from Norway came in handy. By the time we hit I-5 it was coming down in buckets and extremely windy so the car was being pushed here and there and soaked every time we passed one of he many trailers climbing the endless hills. The rain turned on and off for the next couple of hours before kicking into high gear as we were about an hour from our destination. At one point it was raining so hard the wipers couldn’t get the water off the windshield fast enough and the roads were flooding so I couldn’t see the reflective tags deviding one lane from the next. Scary stuff.

Even so we made it to Redding around 11:15pm and booked in at the Value Inn (cheapest in town and AAA recommended) on a 6 lane road with 8 motels and no cars. It’s like being in a ghost town.

Now we’re all off to bed to get some much needed rest before the long haul to Las Vegas tomorrow.