journeyintocalifornia

[journeyintocalifornia]

Intro: Starting the Adventure

Hello Tumblr's, Not sure how many of you are actually going to follow my journey in California. My name is Rachel Roth and in this blog, I'm going to be documenting my journey into the film industry. Well, let me start from the beginning so you all can understand why I'm writing this. On December 26th, 2015, I road tripped out to Los Angeles with my friend Rachel (ironically enough.) The first day of our travels, we went through 7 states: Maryland (our start), Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Indiana, Missouri, Ohio and Illinois. Lots of driving. Lots of tiny states. The next leg of the trip however, wasn't as...pleasant...as we would have liked. We wind up heading to Albuquerque only to head straight into Storm Goliath. For those who don't know about Storm Goliath, it was basically a giant blizzard that hit the south west of the United States. They wound up closing down the interstate that we were heading too and had to pull over before we reached Albuquerque. We pulled over in some part of Texas, having to wait out the storm. The following day, we were able to go to Cadillac Ranch before heading to the Grand Canyon on our trip to California. We walked across the horizon as the metal skeletons stood out of the ground like the stones in stone henge silhouetted against the setting sun. The only sound that could be heard other than the inane chatter of tourists were the spray paint cans while people were openly expressing themselves as paint could be heard against the raw metal of the cars. As the night drew near, we soon found a place to stay in Albuquerque. The man at the desk at the hotel in which we stayed was very kind. He fell in love with my pet rat, Ivy (as in Poison from Batman) and talked to us about his past pet rats and we kind of bonded. In the morning, to the other Rachel's behest (since I had woken her up bright and early the last two previous days of our trip), I looked out the window to see snowflakes dance from the sky. We were pretty sure we had beaten the storm but since we didn't know the area and there was a possibility snow, we wanted to get out of Albuquerque as soon as possible. The farther we got away from Albuquerque, the weirder the weather grew. I was at the wheel of my snow white colored 2006 Toyota Corolla and it was strange because I drove through at least three different snow storms. It was like I would drive several miles and it would be sunny than maybe 5 miles down the road an onslaught of white powder bombarded my car. Yes. Bombarded my car. Then another ten to fifteen miles a slower bout of snow would hit the windshield and there were little piles of snow on the highway. Once we got through the strange weather, we were once again headed to the Grand Canyon. We had to stop there on our way. I mean, how many opportunities do you actually get to visit the Grand Canyon? However, once we got to the area, things started to get a little dwonkey. Yes, I used the word dwonkey. So, we arrive on this weird strip of road leading the to Canyon itself. We had the radio on just so we could see where we would lose service, just in case we needed to use our phones for anything. It turns out as we headed to the Canyon, which supposedly closed around 5. Okay, the Canyon Visitor Center closed at 5 but still. So we're like, 'Okay, let's find a hotel.' There was a whole slew of hotels near the Canyon. For the majority, most of them were filled up and or weren't pet friendly. Rachel and I were getting really hungry and were really afraid that we were going to have to drive back to Flagstaff, Arizona. It was getting dark and eerie as we lay waste in the desert debating about what we should do. We start driving back, we're on the phone trying to find a hotel in Flagstaff and Rachel starts to get nervous and pulls over to the side of the road. While I'm on the phone, I give her a strange look. She mouths to me that she thinks something is wrong with the car. Frustrated, tired and really hungry after I made these reservations to a hotel that looked amazing with the dread that something could potentially be wrong with my car, I was sent a text verifying our reservations. They were for the wrong day! So, I get on this whole long conversation with Expedia and long story short after two days we were able to get things worked out and Rachel got reimbursed for the charge on her card. Also, nothing was wrong with he car, it turns out. But we wound up finding a hotel close to the Canyon. It was about 45 minutes to and hour but it was a helleva lot cheaper and easier to sneak Ivy in the hotel too. We went to this really awesome little diner too that was in walking distance too. The next day, we head back up to the Canyon. The layers in the rock were covered in snow and pictures alone couldn't exploit the beauty that we saw. We went to the visitor center and began taking pictures. The colors were mute in the rock as far as we could see but looking deep into the caverns of the Canyon was definitely a site to behold. It looked like a movie set or as it is, nature in its rawest form. Untouched by anyone. Even when you wondered on the cliff you were standing on and were taking photos beyond the gates that were meant to protect you from an abysmal drop, you felt truly one with the canyon itself. The various kinds of rock shown through the layers was an incredible sight to behold. The amount of different kinds of rocks visible, just by picking up a single rock on the ground too. Rachel and I both took various pieces of rock from the Canyon. A nice momento that holds so much history in itself. It's like, can you image what the hell that stupid piece of rock could say to you if it could talk. Wow, that was a stupid stupid sentence and I'm so sorry ya'll had to read it. Rachel drove the entire way to LA after that. In fact, one week ago today at 10:30pm we landed here in Los Angeles, California. Now this is where the story truly begins. I forgot to mention that I'm a graduate in Film and have come to LA to fulfill my dreams in the Film Industry. I know, I know, I know, millions of people every year come here to try to fulfill their dreams. I like to think my odds are a little better then most but then again, most people think the same thing. But this blog is here to document the adventures, luck, dreams and anything else that might happen to me on this incredible journey. I'm ready for this and I hope everyone reading it ready to take this journey with me. Thanks for taking the journey with me, RR P.S. If you'd like to see this trip, please feel free to watch my igdocumentary on Instagram at cinematicsweeti. There will also be an igdocumentary on getting into the Film Industry as well. Feel free to watch :)