Day five on the road... and DONE!

Hello everyone!! I'm sorry it has taken me a while to get on this, but we have been having some major internet issues. Luckily, Scott came to the rescue and fixed it up yesterday. I will give you a recap of what has been going on. Get ready, it's going to be long.

Tuesday July, 31st
Tuesday was the day that changed our trip. We had a nice stay at Motel 6, especially Turkey. He "happy flopped" all over the bed, as evidenced in this picture. How could I not share this?
We decided to eat at Bella's (a diner where everything was homemade) over Burger King for breakfast and met up with a PSU alumni! He and his wife (the first woman Chaplin of the Navy!!) had just traveled north from Las Vegas and suggested we get off I 80 and take the route they had. They called it the "scenic route" and also advised us to stay away from 5 and 99 (these go south to Bakersfield). Scott and I checked the map over delicious breakfast burritos and decided it would cut a lot of time, and we wouldn't have to deal with traffic through big cities like Sacramento and Fresno.

The route we followed was definitely scenic! We traveled through the mountains - a little scary but we took our time. Here's a view from the top of a very winding road.
We also traveled through a lot of dry, desert area. We were pleasantly surprised to see some hope for civilization, though.
After what seemed like endless desert, we came to Las Vegas. It was 4:30 PM, so it didn't look very different from any other big city located in the middle of the desert (that's a joke, there are no other big cities like this in the middle of no where). We drove straight through and saw the gaudy buildings in natural light.

^^I didn't take this one, it was on Wikipedia^^

We stopped at the Nevada/California border for gas and food and then pushed ourselves to make it to Bakersfield. Desert sunsets are so beautiful!!
We got to my apartment at 9:30 PM, ending with 13 hours of driving on our final day. The grounds for Rio Paseo are only about a year old (just like my new school) and there was plenty of space for us to leave the truck. My apartment is absolutely gorgeous, and the roommate who moved in first, Jeff, said I could pick one of the remaining two bedrooms. It was a pretty easy choice for me, as one of the bedrooms was the master (I don't know why he didn't take it!) and has it's own bathroom. Scott and I were exhausted, so we just grabbed two pillows and slept on the floor. Here's a picture of my living arrangement from the following morning:


August 1st - 4th
The past four days have been very busy. Jeff had his first day of work at Dreyer's (he's an industrial engineer, more on him and my other roommate later) so Scott and I moved everything in on Wednesday. It was really hot and my second floor apartment proved to be very annoying when moving the couch, dresser, and chest of drawers. Thursday I bought Old English scratch hider and we polished the old bedroom set that my dad gave me. I was very pleased with the results. I apologize for not thinking of taking a picture of the entire dresser before we started, but you can see the difference with this one drawer.
Yesterday, we returned the Penske. This proved more difficult than expected because the site I was told to return it to had canceled their contract with Penske... and didn't notify me. We had to drive to the opposite end of the city, but we finally got rid of it. I then took Scott to my school (only about a 10 min drive from my apartment!) and chatted with one of the secretaries. She gave us some beach recommendations and we are going to Santa Barbara this afternoon. We have been working so hard, and I wanted Scott to have some relaxation before he leaves me on Monday.

A note to my readers, I will be keeping up with this blog. I've already found it hard to keep in touch with friends and family because the 3 hour time difference and having the blog allows me to show and tell. I know once school starts I won't be able to post daily, but I will share when I can. There will be lots of pictures when I get the apartment set up so keep checking for updates!

- Carol

Day 4 on the road

For a change of pace, we’re staying at Motel 6 tonight. It is super cheap, clean, had space for our truck, and pet friendly!! We drove though Wyoming and Utah today, and we’ve stopped about an hour into Nevada. We’re now in Pacific Time, so we have gained our final hour of the trip.

Today was so much better than yesterday. Scott and I left about an hour earlier this morning and got the heck out of stupid Nebraska. Wyoming and Utah were absolutely beautiful and we took tons of pictures. We crossed the Continental Divide in Wyoming, though we didn’t realize it until looking at the map. Here are some random shots from Wyoming - remember, you can click to enlarge!

I love how the rocks are so smooth!

Turkey's specialty travel cage. And for those who have asked (or wondering), his name is Turkey because I adopted him from the animal shelter the day after Thanksgiving. :)

A huge line of windmills!! You can see it much better with the picture enlarged.

Look at the gorgeous weather we had today!

This makes me feel so small...

Just incredible.

Check out the trees growing on that!

After we crossed the boarder to Utah, Scott moved to the passenger seat and I drove through Utah to where we are now. Even though I like that we switch driving, this meant I had to drive through Salt Lake City at rush hour (YUCK) but we were able to check out the Great Salt Lake.

A view of Salt Lake City from I 80.

The Great Salt Lake - this picture does not do it justice.

Scott and I after enjoying a Burger King truck stop dinner in Salt Lake City. And for the record, their new grilled chicken salad is not too shabby!

We think these are huge piles of salt!!

Tomorrow we hope to get most of the trip done. This would be the rest of Nevada (it's wide), through Reno to Sacramento, then we have to get off the route we've been on the whole trip (I 80) and head south on 99. I don't want to get to Bakersfield at night because of the truck getting in the way of other residents at my complex plus, we would really be pushing it to get there tomorrow anyway. So the goal is to get within a couple hours of Bakersfield by tomorrow night. Thank you to everyone who's been leaving me comments and for all the love and support. Let's hope for another great day!!

Day 3 on the road

Today was full of annoyances. We started our day off on the wrong foot when we tried to leave and found a car had parked directly in front of us. Actually, the car was in the spot we were already holding. We don’t know why he decided to park there since there was ample parking the entire night and we were far away in TRUCK parking. We had to wait until the truck next to us left so we could swing around the jerk. Then there was traffic in Omaha that delayed us for about 45 minutes. The picture below is a reflection of the traffic behind us from my side mirror. Yes, I was in the driver’s seat, but don’t worry, we weren’t moving.

Other annoyances included:

- The ridiculous price of regular unleaded fuel compared to everything else (even super unleaded with ethanol – so we can’t use it)

- The absolute worst “Chinese” food ever aka a big, heaping bowl of salt with some chicken.

- People who zoom up the right lane to pass me while I have my right blinker on trying to move and THEN cut in front of me and YELL at me to move right.

- Absolutely awful cow/pig poop/rotting garbage/flesh smell originating from seemingly harmless open land. Believe me, we looked for the perpetrator to no avail.

- Over-priced Super 8’s that claim to have internet but the network is not setup.

- The entire state of Nebraska for being too wide.

Now that I’m done ranting, I will share some positive things. One word: Fazoli’s. We ate there for lunch in Council Bluffs (in Iowa, just before the boarder for Nebraska). Their motto is “Italian Food, Fast” and boy was it good. Not just good, but great, amazing, wonderful, yum yum yum. Scott had meat lasagna and I had a grilled chicken Panini on herb ciabatta. Everything was so fresh and we wish we could eat every meal there. There was even a cute, little old lady walking around offering more breadsticks. Another plus is our change to Mountain Time, gaining another hour. Our saving grace of the day (next to Fazoli’s) was Mad Libs. I know it sounds lame, but Scott and I were laughing almost to the point of crying at these. Here’s a picture of Scott cracking up.

Final positive for today was the beautiful landscape. Click on the pictures for a larger size. Enjoy!

We’re staying in Kimball, which is twenty miles from the boarder out of Nebraska. WAHOO.

*This was written last night, but posted this morning.*

Day 2 on the road

Today was a loooong day. We started at 9:30 AM and made our final stop at 8 PM. This was actually 11.5 hours of driving because of a time change mid-Indiana. Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois are complete!! Now in Iowa, we are staying at another Super 8, about 100 miles from Des Moines. Turkey was so happy to jump on the bed, but I won't post more pictures of that!

Here are a couple photograph highlights from today:






Stuck in some traffic after entering Illinois.















Oh yeah, that's just a Viper... being driven... on the road.










Visual of what we drove today!! Wow.









**Correction to my first post, Marc is a METEOROLOGIST.**

Day 1 on the road

Hello friends and family!!

Today was the first day on the road. Scott, Turkey (my bunny), and I left at a very prompt time of 1:30 PM. OK, without the sarcasm now, I was a little mad at myself for letting some packing wait until the last minute, but it could also be a good thing that we didn't have a huge drive on our first day... We hit I 80 around 5 PM and stopped at a Super 8 Motel at 10 PM. Our locale is Richfield, Ohio, near Cleveland.

I drove today, and found it pretty easy to adapt. Give more space for turns, longer break time, yadda yadda. There were a couple showers, but I was ready since Marc (my weatherman boyfriend - SO convenient) warned me earlier.

Scott and I went through four CDs and had a lot of laughs today. I'm really glad that we get along so well and I couldn't ask for a better brother, or friend. That said, I hope we don't get on each other's nerves too much during the trip!!

Turkey thinks that we are at our new home... sorry fur ball.

It's time for me to be hitting the sack. I apologize for my first post being so lackluster but you could give me some credit for that adorable picture (and it was from my phone!!) As you can imagine, I didn't sleep much last night because of the excitement. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again, but I'll be sure to keep a record.

Much love,

Carol

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