the California Adventure

This was a fun trip for both of us. You know, even when we dated before, we couldn't afford to take a road trip. I mentioned before that I worked hard to get to the point that I would be ready to leave. I had to have a yard sale, donate tons of clothes, household items, etc., then I had to have a moving sale - getting rid of everything else that I had left to live on from the yard sale. Then I had to have time to tell my friends goodbye, finish my project and leave in good standing. There was a lot of pressure on me to wrap up on time. Of course, then there's the packing. I really didn't bring that much, but it ended up being more than I thought. But now that I'm here, I'm glad I brought what I did and only have to buy a few things. The most important thing is that I am here, I am happy and we are ecstatic to be together!! It's wonderful!

So here's a brief recap of the trip, state by state:

Indiana - you would think that it would be fairly uneventful to drive through Indiana. I mean afterall, I've lived by Indiana my whole life. I've spent summers camping in Indiana instead of living with my ex-husband. Believe me, living in a camper in the woods by the river with no electricity and no running water was better than living with my ex!! When we were younger, my honey and I did take trips to Indy 500 race, so we've had to drive up to Indianapolis many times before. So, you would think...............but that's not the case. We actually had to turn around twice because we missed our exit!! But you know the good thing was he didn't get upset because we had to turn around and he noticed right away that we went the wrong way.

Illinois - Pretty much the same looking as Ohio and Indiana. Hills, trees, grass - lots of green. The leaves weren't changing yet, so I guess I won't see autumn this year. I certainly thought that I'd see the leaves changing, but I guess it's too early. Oh well. The nice thing about the trip so far is that we haven't run out of things to talk about and we don't seem to be strangers at all. That's a wonderful feeling. I know I'm doing the right thing. You know, we racked up about 400 hours on the phone over the last 4 months talking, so I am sure that we've discussed everything possible!! We certainly know each other very well, have built on the years that we got to know each other when we were younger. In fact, the one thing that we've learned is that we are basically the same as we were back then and that's a great feeling!! We are a "little" more mature, however, I refuse to be anything but "forever young"!

Iowa - BORING!!
There is a city there named NORMAL - I doubt that there is anything normal about NORMAL. Besides, normal is a state of mind and is relative! Then there were the KUM & GO truck stops. Geez, what kind of a name is that? I guess our minds were in the gutter, because they were so funny!! Other than that - it was corn, manure, farms, more corn and YIKES.





Nebraska - Could I tell I ever left Iowa??
Who could live here? Corn, cows,wheat, wind and cold!! By the time we drove through, which took "forever", it was predicted to snow that night with freeze warnings. Shit, I was wearing sandles - my feet were freezing!! Besides, the winds never stop because there is nothing to stop it, I can't imagine living somewhere were it's always windy.

Wyoming - 29 degrees in Cheyenne!! That's was frickin' cold with strong wind warnings on the artimis system. Snow! Snow! Brrrrr! SO COLD THERE WERE NO BUGS ON THE WINDSHIELD!! Again, I am just not that into winter and certainly wasn't dressed for cold, so I was not thrilled to see snow! You know, in the past when I've had the chance to drive in Wyoming, I really loved it. I loved the fact that there was no cities, alot of just land. But now that I'm driving across the entire state, it's all the same, brown, no houses, no cities, a few cattle, and they have those snow fences up and ready to use. It does smell good and fresh and clean.

we stopped in Lyman, Wyoming to catch a bite to eat - I thought I heard the banjo music in the background and was ready for the Deliverance team to show up. We went to the bathroom when we first got there and then got seated in the restaurant. Everyone and I mean EVERYONE stared at us. You know, he has long hair and of course, all I could think about was they were staring because of that and because we were strangers. I wished he would have had on his military work jacket. It's obviously very patriotic and if we ever needed people to know that we were patriotic and conservative it was NOW!! I swear it was reminiscent of the 60s when we dated before! YIKES! I was more than ready to eat and run!!

One thing that was prevalent in NE and WY - the accents. They were similar to a Minnesota or Canadian accent. Hm. Didn't expect it to sound like that.

We did find gas in Wyoming for $2.67/gal. Little did we know then that that was the cheapest we would see it again.

Utah - All I could say was WOW!! I certainly can understand why people want to live here. It's absolutely beautiful. We drove in on I-80 and came into Salt Lake City. The 2002 Winter Olympic Park, mountains, resorts, canyons, chalets, apartments, if I was a skier this would be the place to live. I'm sure it's very expensive, but I'm also sure that they make enough money in the winter to support themselves all summer. It was cool driving through the city after flying into SLC so many times in the past. We went by the airport and drove through at rush hour, but there was no traffic jams. It was just a nice drive. We drove around the Great Salt Lake and then through the Salt Flats. It's very cool and to me it's an amazing natural phenomenon.

Nevada - Our last night on the trip we stayed in Winnemucci. I'm sure it's an Indian name and mean's something - probably "sucker" for all the people at the casinos. There were casinos everywhere, slot machines everywhere. The town itself was closed unless you were a casino, so we had to eat at one of the casinos. The food was pretty good, I guess. Then we went back to our room, relaxed and hit the sack. In the morning, we had the best breakfast at a place up the street from the hotel. very good and filling - in fact, our best meals on this trip were breakfast meals. I guess he's right, you can't screw up breakfast too bad, so it's safe to order!! :)

Anyway, driving though Nevada was pretty nice, especially when we got into the mountains. But, I'm a sucker for mountains. I guess just knowing this was our last day of driving was really important too. It made the drive even more fun knowing we'd be home and sleeping in our own bed before the day was over.

We drove through Reno, it was ok, looked pretty nice, big office buildings - more than just a city with casinos. That's pretty cool.

California - Well, everything was going along great. I mean we were in the mountains, lots of steep grades up and down, but the scenary was awesome. I was so glad to be here. And now I really got excited just knowing that we were in CA and would for sure be home soon. Then, we were heading up a steep grade and a truck came by and told us to pull over - and kept pointing at our trailer. So I pulled over, he got out and checked and DAMN! The door of the trailer opened up!! We were heading up a steep grade and THANK GOD, BUT NOTHING FELL OUT! I mean, all kinds of things could have fallen out and there could have been wrecks and everything!! Wow! I was freaking out and he was so calm. He didn't get upset or anything, he just closed it and relocked it and drove the rest of the way home :) I love this man, nothing seems to get him riled. That's fantastic because we know I can't take being yelled at or scolded.

We got home around 5pm and emptied the trailer, returned it the same night, ate dinner and cuddled in our own bed. I'm home and I love it!!

"Now this is not the end.
It is not even the beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning."

--- Sir Winston Churchill, November 1942