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6 theysaidit CONTACT US n p IVFT A ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER: “You’re luggage.” E-mailusatgamecockfeatures@gwm.sc.edu 1 AAJ_J iTlliV after shooting an all,gator ,n the mouth w eraser’ GOIN’ TO CALIFORNIA THIRD IN A FOUR-PART SERIES Today was the day: I was going to reach Corona, Calif., or die trying. My eventual destination was (cue the warped trumpets) the Fender Guitar Museum. As I left Albuquerque be fore sunrise, I knew the day was going to involve : at least 10 j hours of | driving, j Luckily, a ] natural wonder in the middle of Arizona kept my sanity stewing in between New Mexico and California. No, I’m not talk ing about the Grand Canyon, which I wound up seeing on my return trip. I’m talking about Meteor Crater. Yes, that’s the official • name. It’s a big damn hole in the ground from a meteor strike about 50,000 years ago. This was not the one that killed the dinosaurs or their oppressive caveman rivals. By the middle of the after noon, after taking an easy five-mile detour from Interstate 40 and hocking $12,1 stood on the lip of a gi gantic crater in the middle of the desert and experienced true silence. Once the chil dren on a field trip piped down, I Heard no motors, no humming transformers and no people. My ears were but tressed only by the wind as I tried to grasp the immensity | of the crater. Quick traveling tip: If you have to choose between Meteor Crater and the Grand Canyon, choose the former. It’s cheaper, less crowded and easier to get to, and it has all the natural wonder of the canyon. Plus, there’s a Subway. After leaving, I blacked out again, cognizant only of various Route 66 tourist ad vertisements. Once I crossed into California, however, my trip turned into a veritable nightmare. I consider myself a typical 20-year-old male behind the ♦ GOIN\ SEE PAGE 7 STEVEN VAN HAREN Second-year mechanical engineering student —— i .i ii1— _*** - PHOTO BY STEVEN VAN HAREN/THE GAMECOCK Arizona's Meteor Crater formed 50,000 years ago. Rainer Maria is right): Kyle Fischer, William Kuehn and Caithlin De Marrais