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The Journey: Day 5 and Epilogue

April 28, 2012 by joielovestchotchke

Day 5: Saturday, December 31st.  Total Miles for This Day: 608.6.  Total Miles for the Trip: 3162.8.

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Comfy bed, clean room, cat-friendly, affordable rate: Best Western Twin View Plus Inn & Suites, winner of the coveted Joie's Favorite Hotel of the Trip Award

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It was hard to believe when we awoke on this morning that by the end of the day, assuming no major catastrophes, we’d be home together at last.
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"Yes. This is a vast improvement over that moving chair you've had me in for four days."

Fritz makes himself at home.

"You guys go on ahead; I'll catch up."

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The feeling was thrilling, but we had some obstacles to overcome as well.  For starters, we still had a long way to go mile-wise, and we were still living life with a check engine light hanging over our head.  Second, we knew that Oregon had seen some serious snowfall in the past week.  The weather was clear for our trip through, but as far as I could tell, some areas required you to have chains in the car as a just-in-case.  We were off to another Auto-Zone, where we dropped $80 on chains we planned to return but wound up keeping (for now).  Another stop at Starbucks, and we were on our way for the last leg of the journey.
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It's POSSIBLE that at some point I told Stephen to play with Fritz a little, and that Fritz did not play nice. Hello kitty, indeed.

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Once again I was grateful we had waited for morning to continue.  Continuing on north of Redding took us through some incredible, breathtaking mountain scenes.  We had great views of Mt. Shasta.
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Mt. Shasta peeking out

We were loving all the different rock formations in this area.

Approaching Mt. Shasta

I'm interested in the tiger mural on the left side of this picture. I didn't realize we'd gotten a picture of it; when I saw it as we drove, my Alabama brain naturally assumed this was an Auburn tiger. Aubie miles from home? I'm guessing not.

Does what the picture title says: This mountain looks like a big pile of dirt.

Based on what I've heard about Portland, I'm surprised the two weren't closer together.

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The pace and attitude of other drivers was on the other end of the spectrum from the rest of our time in California, too; here everyone moved safely, respectfully, and peacefully.  As we continued on, the scenes just became more and more spectacular; Northern California was otherworldly.  We passed mist-covered fields with rolling hills and trees with flowing nearly-white tendrils; it was like something out of Tolkien.  These weren’t the absurd groves of the I-5 corridor in Southern California, where endless rows of identical trees looked like disturbing inorganic machines; these were real farmlands.  I was smitten.
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Mountain under a cloud comforter

I loved the clouds that hung so low they seemed about to fall out of the sky altogether.

Even Fritz wanted to get a look! (Don't worry; we only let him take a peek from the center console, but he wasn't allowed in the front seats while we were moving.)

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Poor Fritzy wasn’t entirely recovered from his respiratory issues, which was sad for him but hilarious for pictures.
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"Ah-... ah-... AH-..."

"...CHOO!!! *sniff*"

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We stopped at a rest area in the mountains of the extreme north portion of California to take pictures.  Since our time was limited and we very much wanted to make it home to ring in the new year, we opted to make that our last stop for scenic purposes.  I made it count.
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CLASSY, Y'ALL

Okay, that's a better view.

Making a hilarious joke, I'm sure.

This was a fantastic little rest area, nestled smack in the middle of the mountains.

Patiently enduring more photos...

I refuse to be deterred from taking pictures!

Of course, eventually my subject tried to escape. :(

You are here!

Happy travelers

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A few last images of California from the road…
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Hilly Northern California

The Auburn-like tiger painting was not the only sight that reminded me of Alabama.

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And then we passed into Oregon, still marveling at the incredible mountain views and the green-green-green that was beginning to show up, a welcome contrast to the desert scenes we’d spent so much time in in previous days.
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Still technically California, I think, but on the border.

Oregon Road

Kind of hard for the passenger to get pictures out of the driver's side at 70 miles an hour, but you get the idea: mountains, trees, general prettiness.

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But around halfway through Oregon, something changed.  The hazard of knowing you’re hours away from your destination means that those hours play a cruel joke on you, stretching out so that you look at the clock after you’re sure you’ve been driving for 30 minutes, only to see that barely 10 have passed.  What?!  Stephen, fix the clock.  Also, invent teleportation.

Furthermore, days of driving on mostly straightaways had yielded to the most windy-ass mountain roads I’d ever driven on.  In Northern California, at the beginning of the day, it was “Oh! How lovely!” But in the middle of Oregon, in the waning daylight hours and a persistent Pacific Northwest drizzle, it was, “I CANNOT DRIVE FASTER THAN 55 WITHOUT GETTING MOTION SICKNESS AND/OR A TICKET, I CANNOT PUT CRUISE CONTROL ON, I CANNOT ZONE OUT.”  In short, I was a crank-pot.  We were both feeling pretty antsy and tried to listen to some stand-up comedy on Stephen’s computer to relax and distract ourselves, but I was watching every sign with eager, frustrated eyes.  Portland, 117 miles.  Portland, 113 miles.  Portland, 110 miles.  We stopped taking pictures.
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This was the last shot we took between southern Oregon and our destination: a view from a Taco Bell parking lot. Which sounds depressing, but kind of makes me happy in a weird way.

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The pleasant surprise came from the fact that I had no idea where Portland actually is in relation to anything else (“I’m not a geography major!”).  All my life I’ve imagined it smack in the middle of Oregon.  So when we finally got there—and if I’d been in a better mood, I’d have wanted to explore; even the bridges were beautiful!—I despaired.  It was already after dark!  We still weren’t even in Washington!  How on earth could we possib-

And right there, smack in the middle of my mounting tantrum, we crossed into Washington.  I wouldn’t have even realized it if I hadn’t seen good ol’ George’s silhouette start appearing on the route signs.

Public Service Announcement: Portland is right at the tippy top of Oregon.

This was … a huge moment.  For both of us, I believe.  Without getting too sappy, I’ll just say that crossing into the state where we were about to begin our lives together was momentous.  For months my wailing refrain had been, “We’ll never live together!”  This was sad when the time was so far away that it indeed felt like it would never arrive, but as our trip drew closer, it had morphed into a running joke with us.  As we crossed into Washington, Stephen said something to the effect of, “We’re here.”  ”We’re not there yet!  We’re never going to live together!” I whined back.  But even I couldn’t stop smiling.

Unfortunately, Bellevue did as Portland didn’t and located itself right in the middle of the state, which meant that even after crossing the border, we still had another 2+ hours of driving.  We spent the time fantasizing about the Papa John’s pizza we planned to order as soon as we got in.  We grabbed a few snacks and drinks at a convenience store to avoid having to get in the car the next day for a trip to the grocery store (as it turns out, man can live on potato chips, pizza, and Pepsi alone) before making the final push up I-5 to I-90, and from there, finally, mercifully… to home.  The car was unloaded, the pizza was ordered, and Inception was watched for the billionth time.  We rang in 2012 in the best way possible: together.
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Home at last!

Map of Day 5

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Epilogue

Fritzy finally got over his sneeziness after we’d been settled for about two weeks.  My car’s check engine light turned out to be related to “insufficient coolant temperature”—but this seems to have been an error.  The battery, as I previously mentioned, lasted until the car sat unused for a week in cold weather. I STILL HAVEN’T CHANGED MY OIL EVEN THOUGH I SHOULD HAVE RIGHT AFTER THE TRIP; I’M SORRY, DAD.

It took me two and a half hours to write a first draft of this tale, using more words than total trip miles.  Photos came from my cell phone, my Fancy Nikon, and my little Sanyo camcorder.

I still can’t believe we did this, and I can’t believe that—a few minor inconveniences and anxieties aside—we were so incredibly fortunate to not have any real difficulty.  It was, as several people told me it would be (and as I tried to convince myself), a fantastic adventure.  It looks as though we’ll be making a similar (BUT SMALLER) trip this summer… but that’s a story for another day!
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Thanks for reading!
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That's a whole lotta country.

Trip Map

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The Journey: Day 4

April 27, 2012 by joielovestchotchke

Day 4: Thursday, December 30th.  Total Miles for the Day: 729.8*.  For the Trip: 2554.2*.

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"I guess we didn't pay that much to sleep" is about the nicest thing I can say about it.

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Despite my disgust with our hotel accommodations, I was grateful that we stopped for the night when we did.  Driving on would’ve been a LONG trip before we reached another city, and would’ve meant losing a lot of beautiful views to the dark.  This area of Southern California was gorgeous; such rich browns and reds, with lovely mounds and mountains appearing in our windows where the day before we’d seen plateaus, and the day before that only flatness.  Sitting in the same car for days, it’s hard not to feel sometimes like you’re holding still while the world is shifting and moving outside.  It was a remarkable change.
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Mountains. Mountains everywhere.

Not bad for driving through.

Obligatory rest stop!

Mountain view from the rest stop.

Desert mountain

Rest stop memorial

Rest stop textin'

Rest stop posin'

Row of mountains

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At some point we were passing a very long train with colorful cars.  I thought it looked like the desert was wearing a necklace.
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Desert necklace

These photos originally came out way too dark---I had to do some after-the-fact editing to get this to show up properly. Forgive me if the color looks odd! This was the best I could do.

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We had traveled off the Interstate for some time—we had to get from I-40 to I-5, and the best way to do so without having to drive south and without risking encountering city traffic was to take a few highways.  We wound up taking California State Route 58 (being done with I-40 felt like a feat in itself!) to State Route 223, which would get us to I-5.  (We saw some gorgeous countryside and a beautiful cemetery/memorial site, but unfortunately I have forgotten its name.)  Along the way we stopped at a vineyard, and that’s when things began to go a bit wrong.
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Dusty vineyard

Endless rows

Parked

The way we came

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After I’d parked to take some pictures, we got back in the car only to find the last thing you want to see in a relatively desolate area on a long road trip: the check engine light was on.  We thought back to the night before, when the car had taken a second longer to start than usual in the parking lot of In-N-Out.  We’d had no trouble since then and hadn’t worried about it, but now we stopped using the cigarette lighter to charge our electronics.  After a nervous phone call to my dad, we found a garage who would look into the matter for the nominal fee of $75.  I instructed Stephen, “Use my phone to find an Auto-Zone”—and found one a block away.  Good fortune!

Bad fortune: California Auto-Zones, it would seem, will not tell you why your check engine light is on.  But they will test your battery and alternator, and what do you know—”Bad Battery.”  I am ashamed to say that I was not comfortable changing the battery (and not comfortable letting Stephen try, despite the fact that he’s quite good at these sort of things). And unfortunately, California Auto-Zones will also not install your battery, but conveniently, the clerk had a friend who would do this for us.  She called him.  ”He lives right over there,” she informed me.

“How much will he charge for that?” I asked.  We decided to simply try our luck driving on when the answer was something along the lines of, “Oh, he’ll only charge what is fair, I promise.” [SPOILER ALERT:  The car made it the rest of the trip without incident.  But the battery did not survive a week of not being used in Washington.  It has since been replaced and gone to Battery Heaven, where good batteries that live 6 years and still manage a cross-country trip in their Golden Days go.]

The stress of a check engine light and the fear of battery failure made the drive through Southern California a nervous one.  It didn’t help that as soon as we hit I-5, traffic became much more congested, and a gross haze (seriously, was that smog? is that what smog is?) lay over everything.  And as if that wasn’t enough, we made the mistake of stopping in farmland to eat and found the smell of manure so overpowering we had to hold our breath every time the door to Taco Bell opened.  But we soldiered on, eventually making it out of the congestion (and the smelliness).
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Not all of us were stressed on this particular day.

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We didn’t hit traffic again until Sacramento, which we drove through toward the end of evening rush hour.  While it should have been stressful, it was mostly just hilarious.  If I were to title a chapter for this section of our trip, it would be called “Unapologetically Bad Drivers and the Unapologetically Angry Drivers Who Like to Aggressively Address Them.”  The highlight of this chapter was when a man, after having suffered some traffic wrong at the hands of another driver, threw his middle finger into the air with all his force, pushing his entire arm out the window and above his car.  Classic.

We pushed on in the dark for several hours, hoping to reach Oregon… but as it turns out, California’s a pretty big state and Oregon is pretty far away.  We settled in Redding, California for the night in what turned out to be the nicest hotel of our trip, a Best Western.  Another last minute pizza order, a comfy King bed, and the knowledge that we had just one day of driving left made for a pretty happy night.
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Map of Day 4

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Coming Up in Episode 5:  A detour through Middle Earth!  Oregon!  Impatience! Washington! And maybe… home?!  Stay tuned for the mildly-exciting conclusion!
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*A note about miles:  I had made an effort to note our mileage each morning when we set out, since by the time we stopped each night not only were we exhausted, but we had to unload a lot of the car (suitcases, cat stuff, electronics).  Unfortunately on Day 5 I forgot to note the mileage until we’d driven for a few miles (3-5?), so alas, there’s minor inaccuracy in the exact mileage here.

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The Journey: Day 3

April 26, 2012 by joielovestchotchke

Day 3: Thursday, December 29th.  Total Miles for the Day: 653.9.  For the Trip:  1824.4.

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Another Comfort Inn stay

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Day 3 began with a disappointment: there’s a frightening shortage of Starbucks in New Mexico, and gas station cappuccino was a sorry substitute.  But the landscape quickly made up for this, and we stopped at a tiny, truly middle-of-nowhere gas station to take pictures (and get real coffee).
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Every time we crested a hill, we were treated to a view more gorgeous than the last. It became something of a joke for us---"Oh, just driving up a hill. I bet there's nothing spectacular or interesting on the other side and HOLY SMOKES WOW THAT'S BEAUTIFUL"

View from the driver's side

View from the passenger's side

Gas station stop

Southwest Winter

Scrub, Shrubs, 'n Snow

Snow pony!

Fenced Wilderness

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This was an image of the Southwest I never could have imagined if I hadn’t seen it myself.  A bright blue, sunny sky above us, but an endless sea of snowy white all around us.  It was truly breathtaking, and I couldn’t get enough of it.  (Stephen had to endure a lot of rest area stops and commands to “Take pictures!” “Take video!” throughout this day.)
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My trusty car takes a well-deserved break at a scenic rest stop.

Lovely views, even with the highway.

A sunny, snowy travel day.

Wind will never stop ME from posing with snow!

Figuring out how to walk in deep snow was a challenge for this Alabama native.

Stompin' and scene-seein'.

Yes, I may be a LITTLE snow crazed...

...or a lot snow-crazed.

New Mexico Snow Bird

Sweetly tolerating my snow obsession.

I make no apologies for how long I made us stay at this rest stop, or how many pictures I insisted we take there.

Clearly I did.

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As we neared Arizona, the scenes became even more dramatic.  Bold red rocks jutted out of the white land, sometimes dusted themselves.  I loved it—well, up until the moment that I was forced to drive on it.  The interstates were of course clear, but we had to stop for gas and lunch eventually.  This meant pulling into a small town and, for the first time in my life, actually driving on snow.  (Since I’ve been old enough to drive, in Alabama it’s never been cold enough for significant snow to stick to the roadways.)  Fortunately I had my Yankee boyfriend to coach me through, not to mention a belly full of road trip courage in the form of Taco Bell (A DRIVER’S GREATEST ALLY).
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Red rocks, white snow

I love that everything on this morning was rocky, snowy, shrubby, sunny.

Desert + Snow

Plateau Snow

Photographic evidence that I am not only capable of driving, but parking, on snow-covered pavement. NEVER BEFORE SEEN OR EXPERIENCED!

Fritz was less concerned about my driving and more concerned about soaking up the sun.

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We made it safely back on the Interstate and continued on to Albuquerque where, miracle of miracles, we managed to snag some Starbucks.  The day was saved!

…Or so we thought.

Fritz had been sniffly since the day before, and had taken to sneezing—a lot.  He also spent all of our travels sleeping, never eating or drinking, and using the potty infrequently.  I am the kind of person who tends to cat-astrophize (HIYOOO!), and so naturally in my mind this behavior could only be symptomatic of an Upper Respiratory Infection, which would inevitably lead to more serious illness, which would naturally end in my cat raising his head to say “You did this to me. It’s all your fault. You should’ve just flown,” before dying dramatically in the carrier in which he shat himself two days before.  Stephen, being the King of Patience and Kindness, was completely understanding when I decided to detour into Flagstaff to find a vet.  We got into town around 4pm and called at least seven offices looking for someone to take a walk-in; spending the night in town was not an option if we wanted to make it to Washington on schedule, but continuing on with Fritz could’ve been disastrous if he got worse and we were out in the boonies (which I think refers to everything in Arizona west of Flagstaff).  Finally, a small office generously agreed to allow us to come in.
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My heroes!

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About an hour later, Fritz had gotten a shot, we were assured his lack of eating/drinking/peeing was natural stressed-out-about-travel defensive behavior, and we were on our way again with the kind well-wishes of the entire staff.  If I ever live in Flagstaff—and it was so lovely, it has absolutely been added to my very short list of Places I Would Love to Live—this will be the vet I use.  The doctor himself was hilarious and narrated our entire visit as Fritz.  ”Whoa, hey bud.  Whatcha doin’ there? I liked the petting, now stop.  Put me back in there.  Where’s that stick going?  What does that—I AM NOT OKAY WITH THIS.  I FEEL A LITTLE VIOLATED.”  It was fantastic.  …Well, not for Fritz, but you know.
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We were treated to a gorgeous Flagstaff sunset from the parking lot.

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We got more Starbucks and were on our way again.  Flagstaff was the last of the Southwest Snow for us, so we continued on driving well into the evening.
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Proof it wasn't all snowy travels, taken sometime earlier in the day.

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Shortly before California, I was given an unexpected but glorious gift by the gods of travel:

HEAVENS TO BETSY

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I had longed for another taste of In-N-Out burgers and fries for years.  I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten to even be looking for them, and I thanked my lucky stars they appeared right when we were looking for dinner.
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And it was everything I'd hoped it would be. <3

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We crossed the California border and were stopped (along with everyone else) at a border crossing station.  ”Do you have any plants or animals in the car?” the attendant asked me as another car was searched a lane over.  OH GOD ARE THEY GOING TO TAKE FRITZ FROM ME AFTER ALL WE’VE BEEN THROUGH?!  

“I… have my cat in the backseat?”
“Have a nice night, ma’am.”

WE ARE SAVED

At this point in the day, all my elation at being over halfway through the trip couldn’t make up for the physical toll stress over Fritz had taken on me.  To make matters worse, we couldn’t find a decent area to stop for the night; our choices were to stop in an area with limited hotel options, or drive on at least another hour, probably more, to the next city.  We settled for stopping, which was good for us safety wise, but unfortunately, meant sleeping in a hotel that was, shall I say, not up to the standards to which I wish to become accustomed.  (It probably did not help that we were in a place called “Needles” California.  NEEDLES.)  It was another moment on the journey when I was grateful for Stephen’s patience, as I complained myself to sleep.
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Map of Day 3

+++Coming Up in Episode 4: California! There Is a Light That Never Goes Out (No Matter How Hard You Wish It Would)! Smells you don’t want to smell while you’re eating Taco Bell!  Birds flying (and I’m not talking about our feathered friends)!

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The Journey: Day 2

April 25, 2012 by joielovestchotchke

Day 2: Wednesday, December 28th.  Total Miles for the Day: 469.2.  For the Trip: 1170.5.

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A good night's sleep---or at least, as good as you can get with a restless cat in the room.

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Owing to our fatigue, we got a much later start than planned on Day 2.  But we had a successful day behind us, we had a much calmer cat who was sleeping in his carrier of his own free will, and we had a lot of Starbucks in our veins.  The day was made to be a good one, and it wound up possibly being my favorite of the trip.
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"What? I'm cool."

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We continued on largely empty Texas highways for miles.  The speed limit was high, the traffic was minimal, and the views of ranches and wide open space was just beautiful.  We had some fantastic and very silly conversations, and even met another couple—an older couple with whom we chatted at a rest stop as they made their way to Santa Fe from the Carolinas.  I must admit, as pleasant as the day had been, I was a bit jealous that they would be home by its end.  They took some pictures of us—though the wind wasn’t so helpful:
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Rest Area Delirium

Somehow, wind-blown hair isn't as sexy in real life as it is in magazines.

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For my part, I took pictures of the cat.
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"Are we there yet?""Okay, well, wake me up when we are."

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And other important scenery:
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Well, if you'd let people bring their pet rattlesnakes inside, you wouldn't have this problem.

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We had a good laugh as we passed through Bowie, Texas, and found ourselves singing “Bowie in Space” for the rest of the trip (and beyond, honestly).  And I had a good laugh when we finally reached I-40 and found it was, as expected, still full of snow.  Oh, snow, you enchanting temptress.  So fun to play in.  So scary to drive near.

Stephen got some shots of what seemed like an endless field of wind turbines:
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Windy Country

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As we neared sunset and the New Mexico border, we decided to stop at a scenic picnic area to take some pictures.  If you’re wondering what time it is, it’s TIME FOR A PHOTO DUMP:
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Tree Line

Plateau Across the Road

Crooked Tree

Plateau-tally Awesome Views!

A view of the way we came.

The Distant Horizon

Forgot to mention: when Stephen's not programming, he's modeling.

Don't fence him in.

More obligatory couple shots!

Show Shoes

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And of course, what’s the fun of taking a more northerly route if I can’t play in the snow?
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It's difficult to overstate how much I love snow.

...No, seriously. I really like snow.

AND I WILL MAKE YOU LIKE IT, TOO.

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I was thrilled to see the landscape begin to churn up the occasional plateau, and pleased to find we’d at last made it to New Mexico.  I could now say we were officially in a new region of the country, and if the Southwest was here, then surely the Northwest couldn’t be that far away.
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The sun sets on I-40 (and on our second day of driving).

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The sun was sinking fast as we continued through the eastern portion of New Mexico, and since signs still warned of ice on the roads, we decided not to stay out long after dark.  We hunkered down for the night at another Comfort Inn, this time in Santa Rosa.  The room was okay, but the to-do list we found tucked away on the nightstand was excellent:
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We weren't the only ones with a full day.

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Although our late start and relatively short day meant we didn’t reach our mileage goal, we also didn’t feel dead tired and even had time to sort through some photos.  Even Fritz took the opportunity to re-energize:
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"Sure, looks fun, but I think attacking your feet while you sleep will be even better."

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All in all, a pretty perfect travel day.
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Map of Day 2

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Coming Up in Episode 3:  Not enough caffeine!  Too many kitty sneezes!  More snow!  Feline smuggling!

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The Journey: Prologue and Day 1

April 24, 2012 by joielovestchotchke

Prologue

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I’ve been thinking about writing this post (or posts?) for more than three months now, and each time I consider it, I give up before even trying.  How can I possibly organize the bajillions of pictures and five days’ worth of stories into a coherent, readable whole?  But I realized I’m writing this post more for myself to remember, and the memories are becoming fuzzier every day.  For that reason, at 2:30 in the morning, I’ve decided the best plan is to just start writing already, damn it.  I can’t guarantee that it will be readable or pretty, but if you feel like reliving my trip with me, I hope you enjoy the ride.

After living my entire life in Alabama, it was decided in January 2011 that I would be moving after finishing my psychology degree at the end of the year; long-distance relationships are tough, and don’t let anyone tell you differently.  But Stephen and I had a light at the end of that tunnel.  Unfortunately, moving across the country is neither a simple nor inexpensive task.  We decided against flying—I was worried the trip would be too long for Fritz to go without pottying, or that he would be altogether too big for the cabin pet size limit.  We also weren’t comfortable driving a U-Haul, especially with a cat.  So we utilized a nice service called U-Pack to take care of my belongings and drove ourselves in my beloved little Mazda 3.  Our course wound up looking something like this:
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That's a whole lotta country.

Trip Map

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With one person driving (Stephen doesn’t drive stick, and maybe I have some control issues I wanted do all the driving), the trip would take five days.
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Day 1: Tuesday, December 27th. Total Miles for the Day: 701.3

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All my bags are packed / I'm ready to go

Stuffed Trunk

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This was the longest day of the trip and probably my least favorite.  It was rough enough saying my goodbyes with my family, and too little sleep plus too much anxiety didn’t help.
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Car takes gas, Joie takes coffee

Coffee always helps, though.

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We at least had a gorgeous morning to see us off.
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Will the sky look like that in Washington?

Morning Sky in Alabama

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Fritz, whom we’d originally planned to allow free reign of the car but whom we wound up confining to a large carrier on the recommendation of my vet, became very, very agitated after about 45 minutes of driving—and very, very loud about it.  And he wasn’t stopping.  ”Just give him time,” I said.  ”He’s just anxious.”
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Kitty Jitters

"I did NOT sign up for this."

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But I knew Fritz could make the hour commute from my apartment to my parents’ house without complaining.  After just one hour of driving, we were stopped in Union Town, a notorious speed trap.

But we were not stopped by police.  We were stopped by my cat crapping in his carrier.

Really?!  Already?!  This trip couldn’t have given me ONE DAY of smooth sailing to ease into it?!

Fritz was given free roaming (and constant access to a litter box) from that moment of the trip forward.
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"Don't even look at me. Don't. You. Look at me."

Also, he was no longer speaking to us.

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Crossing over into Mississippi felt monumental.  Construction work in Alabama was the slowest and second most agonizing part of our trip; but crossing into a new state, where we could actually go the speed limit, was the first time I really felt I was on an adventure.  I allowed my brain to tell itself, “Wow, we’ve already gotten to another state!  And we only have to go through like, seven, so we must be close already!”
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The state that consistently makes Alabama look good.

The free coffee was welcome enough.

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You need these kinds of things when you’re going to be in a car for four and a half more days.
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It's only balanced if you eat two bags.

You also need healthy food, which Mississippi's rest areas were happy to highlight.

+++

The rest of the day went surprisingly well.  We passed into Louisiana from Mississippi (crossing the bridge was gorgeous!… and something we failed to get a picture of).  My brain congratulated itself on conquering another state; my butt congratulated itself on not being asleep yet.  I had some major Sleepy Moments in Mississippi and Lousiana, but they passed as we entered Texas.
+++

"We have to go deeper!... into Texas!"

At least, I THOUGHT I woke up. But then there was this Texas within a Texas... TEX-CEPTION?!

+++

Our original strategy was to take Interstate 20 all the way to Interstate 5 in California.  But somewhere shortly before Dallas, we were advised to take Interstate 40 instead.  I was wary of this, given the blizzards that much of I-40 had seen in the week or two before, but I gave in, and we started making our way north.
+++

"Still not speaking to you."

"What kind of cat carrier is this?"

+++

Even at no-traffic hours, driving in Dallas was terrifying.  I can’t imagine commuting in that city.  We got ourselves as far away as we could for the night in hopes of avoiding any traffic the next morning.  It was a wise decision, but it left us completely exhausted.  We stopped at a friendly Comfort Inn in Decatur, Texas, managed to order pizza ten minutes before Pizza Hut closed, and finally, we relaxed for the day.  My left knee was killing me, I suppose from being ready to hit the clutch for the last 12-13 hours.
+++

That's gotta be like, 75% of the country or something, right?

Map of Day 1


Coming Up in Episode 2:  Texas!  Texas!  And more Texas!  Texas represents 67% of the area of the United States of America*.


*Not even a little bit true

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Snow Days

January 23, 2012 by joielovestchotchke

It’s been over a month since my last post, and I’m feeling quite settled here in Washington!  The trip out was an adventure, and one on which we had a lot of good luck—but I’m not ready to build that post yet.  Instead, I want to talk about what last week brought, which represented a dream come true for this Alabama native: SNOOOOOOOOW!!

A LOT OF IT.

One disappointment I had upon finding out that Stephen and I would be living in Washington rather than Colorado was that I wouldn’t get to see nearly as much snow.  Fortunately for me, last Wednesday our area saw a historic snowfall, fresh on the heels of a couple inches of snow from earlier in the week.  And in case you didn’t know: I am the Queen of Loving Snow.

I even have a crown. Although I haven't been able to find it since it warmed up outside...

Now much like Alabama, this area is apparently not equipped to handle any kind of substantial snowfall in terms of road maintenance.  And with the addition of a crazy ice storm on Thursday (followed by even more snow), travel was pretty much a nightmare.  Good news for me, as that meant that Stephen could work from home—and of course, I could make him take his lunch break to go Snow Walking with me!  We’d already snapped some pictures around our apartment from the previous weekend’s relatively minor snowfall:

Bridging Washington's lovely green and snow's sparkling white.

These snowberries taste like snowberries!

Snow at Sunset

 

But that was nothing compared to Wednesday and Thursday’s Snowmageddon 2012!

 

Fence along the trail

Evergreen icicles

I have reason to believe Narnia is just around that curve.

A snowy place to sit

It was a working lunch for some of us.

 

One of my favorite things about this past week was that we had been walking this trail before the snow began and I’d gotten a lovely picture of a moss-covered rock wall.  I took a picture of it on Saturday; got another one for the first snowfall almost exactly 24 hours later; and took another picture on Wednesday, after Sunday’s snow had melted and been replaced with even more:

 

Saturday...

...Sunday...

...and Wednesday!

 

I was in heaven for most of last week, with both my snow-loving self and my inner weather geek satisfied (I was even featured on my beloved weather blog from back home—something I shall brag about until the end of time).  But I must admit: sad as I am that most of the snow has since melted, it’s nice to no longer feel too afraid to drive anywhere.  Of course, maybe my favorite thing about this cold weather is that it’s an excuse to get cuddly.

 

The Snowy Couple

 

Here’s hoping for more snow days this season!

 

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End of the Line / New Train

December 13, 2011 by joielovestchotchke

According to Abraham Maslow's theory, people who have achieved self-actualization---that is, those who have achieved the full development of their abilities and the complete realization of their potential---are an extreme minority, representing less than 1% of the world's population. Maslow's self-actualization is also something that can't be achieved until middle-age. If that's not a system that warrants youthful rebellion, what is?!

The semester is wrapping up at long last, and only one little final stands between me and graduation.  Then the real fun begins—frantic packing, a few days of holiday down time with the folks, and a drive across the country.  It promises to be an adventure, but I’m looking forward to having some time to sit, relax, and not stress about the immediate future, at least for a few months.  I’m going to try to make some posts during the Epic Journey, and hopefully I can resume regular commenting and posting come January!

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