I'm out of witty titles

We finally got the internet all set up at my parents' house, so I am able to post a recap of what's been going on with us for the last 10 days.

If you stretch your mind back to November 14 which was the date of my last post, you'll recall that we were planning on visiting the National Zoo on our way out of DC. That never happened, because the beautiful weather we experienced on our first day in DC took a turn for the worse, and it torrentially downpoured on Thursday (hence the need to purchase the tiniest, pinkest $10 umbrella EVER, which my dear husband gallantly carried through the rough U Street 'hood. See below!). So we nixed the Zoo idea, got breakfast at a great little coffee shop on U Street, then got in the car and started the loooooonnnnngggg drive back to MA.


Our last day of driving was the shortest in miles but lucky us, we hit the George Washington bridge (from NJ to NYC) AT RUSH HOUR!!! So we spent a long-ass time in the car, in traffic, with crazy drivers. You know, kinda like our commute in CA. What should have taken 6.5 hours took closer to 9. Blech. Good thing we had lunch at a Friendly's on the PA/NJ border to shore up our reserves, or else I think we would have been really bummed out about the whole day. For those of you who don't understand the beacon that Friendly's is to a Northeastern US east coaster, just look at the food-coma faces in the following (horrific) self-portrait of me and Z after our grilled cheese and fries and black raspberry ice cream and chocolate sprinkles lunch. Yeeeessss, master. Yeeeesssss.


Since we arrived at my parents' house, it's been one long day of manual labor after another, and I have been pretty tired. First we had to clean the room that we are staying in. Then we had to unpack our ReloCubes, repack everything into a Budget rental truck, drive that truck to my parents', unload the truck, with most of its contents going down a set of VERY steep stairs in the the basement, and the rest going up a set of stairs into our bedroom. Then we had to set up the room (still in progress). And I cleaned my mother's office because the amount of paper the woman had strewn about stressed me out and inspired a frantic cleaning frenzy (though for anyone who ever saw my desk at work, you'd wonder what right I had caring about my mother's).

Finally, Zac and my dad "flipped" the guest room and the office so my parents can redo the office. And although I did absolutely nothing to help with that (I was nursing a hangover resulting from a night spent at my year-younger best friend's 10-year high school reunion...don't ask), I WILL be helping to repaint the room and to do whatever else my parents can dream up to make me not feel like a total loser for living rent free in their home at the ripe old age of almost 30.

Oh, and Thanksgiving was fab, thank you for asking. Hope yours was wonderful, too. I think it's time to end this post, rambling has definitely taken over thoughtful writing.

Just a few housekeeping items:

Despite the fact that the roadtrip is over keep checking the blog because I'm going to use this space to update folks on what's going on with us. I'll try to stick to the interesting stuff, but can't promise that I'll always have something meaningful to say.

And if my words are boring the hell out of you, you can always check out pictures in our online Picasa gallery, which we're going to continue using as our photographic repository.
Click here, meaning click on the bold green lettering to visit the Picasa gallery. (I'm being specific because some of our more mature readers - you know who you are - didn't know that bold, colored type signified a link to something outside the blog, and I want you all to have the full experience!)

A DC lovesong

DC rocks. I've only been here for 24 hours, but I've definitely fallen in love with this city. We're staying at the Aaron Shipman House, an historic bed & breakfast in the Logan Circle neighborhood. The three-story house is filled with beautiful Art Deco prints, and there are homemade chocolate chip cookies set out for guests each night. Sweet!

Today we got up early to make the 8 am breakfast call (which we are skipping Thursday due to this morning's excessively long tirade against Costco that kept us trapped at the table long after we were finished with our meal) and then spent the day doing ultra-touristy things, including visiting monuments and Smithsonian museums. We even caught a 3-D IMAX film at the Natural History Museum theatre. Hope you enjoy our non-traditional take on photographing Our Nation's landmarks.



But the crowning glory of the day was the dinner we had at Dukem, an Ethiopian restaurant about six blocks from the b & b. The food was delicious and about halfway through dinner a band started playing traditional music and three performers did traditional dances. It was such an unexpected treat that literally brought tears to our eyes.

Tomorrow we'll explore the zoo and get on the road for the very last leg of our road trip. Can't believe it's almost over...

Truckers have a lot to say

We enjoyed a big dose of Texas hospitality in the Dallas suburbs at the Kubics’ home (thank you Cheryl, Mike and Jared – it was wonderful to spend time with you!), and were sent on the next leg of our journey laden with sandwiches, water, and snacks galore. Basically the contents of Cheryl’s fridge, and we were most appreciative of it when we arrived late in Nashville on Monday night.

Monday’s drive took us through eastern Texas, all of Arkansas, to Nashville, TN. Unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to stop and spend time in AK or TN, though we did decide that Memphis and Nashville would be worth a return trip.

On Tuesday we left TN for Washington, DC. The drive was beautiful. Highway 81 skirted undulating Bob Ross-like hills blanketed in trees displaying full fall color. The transition from Midwest to South to East-ish coast was almost palpable – the air became thick with moisture – and of course, it was easy to see the differences: lush trees, green grass, rickety wooden barns. Dunkin Donuts.

We have arrived!

Another marked change was the scarcity of billboards marring the view. Upon entering TN, billboards became almost non-existent. But lest you think these states have nothing to say, I invite you to take a look at the following “truck talk” photo montage. Do you sense an agenda?

Don't write a check your butt can't cash!

Here are some choice shots from the Bluewater Outpost stop Zac mentioned in the last post. Fireworks being sold next to Jesus and cactus statuettes, stuffed kittens, and fast food does not, in my opinion warrant billboards every 20 feet for five solid miles before the exit.

Not even the Blizzard could redeem this place. Well, not entirely anway.

So Texas is a pretty big frickin' state.

We’ve been driving all day long going a steady 80/mph and still haven’t managed to make it even a third of the way across. First impressions are that it’s really flat and there might not be a whole lot to do in way of entertainment aside from driving a pickup blowing donuts all day long. The predominant colors are bleached blond grass against the pale cloudy sky – it’s actually very pretty in a Zen-like way. I thought for sure someone would have shot at us by now being our license plate says we’re from California and we’re driving a Subaru, but so far people have seemed downright friendly. We stopped in Amerilla to pick up some gas, a cell phone charger and fast food – I can’t believe I actually witnessed Nicole mow down on a Wendy’s burger like it was no big deal. Thankfully we haven’t had to eat a whole lot of food like that because we’ve been taking the time to investigate better food options but today we just had to haul ass and not care too much.

Driving through Utah, Arizona, and New Mexico along Hwy 40 or “old route 66” has been eye-opening. It’s really strange to see such vastness and sparsely inhabited areas after living in the most populated state in the country, or being the only car on a lonely highway after doing a daily commute into San Francisco and contending with agro drivers going out of their way to tail you just to prove a point. I think we’ve seen a total of 3 BMW’s on the road since we left California, the predominant vehicles out here are big rigs. It’s pretty crazy to think there’s such a housing shortage in metropolitan areas along the coasts when cities out here are suffering from the opposite, not enough people.

We’ve noticed evidence of better times for towns along route 66 when the great American road trip was how people spent their vacations. Lots of old dilapidated billboards lined up for miles offering fireworks, “Indian hand-woven rugs” (do Native Americans refer to themselves as Indians or is that just a convenient marketing tool? I don’t get it), onyx chess sets, Dairy Queen, leather jackets, bull horns, gator heads, etc. The promise of a giant open market filled with Native Americans in full head dress and pawning unique treasures was squelched when we discovered these were nothing more than glorified gas station convenient marts. I was so disgusted I didn’t even bother buy any fireworks. We did savor our DQ treats but opted to scarf them in the safety of the car.

Out of one desert, into another

Before leaving Utah on Friday afternoon we hiked a wash (mostly dry riverbed) in Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. It was a great hike - we had to wade through streams barefoot, scramble up rocks and we explored windows (nooks in the canyon walls) and a very cool, though short and dead-end slot canyon. Here are some choice shots:

After fording our first of 8 or so cold and rocky streams.

See that little person in the picture? That's me, and this picture gives a great perspective on the scale of the canyon.

The sensuous curves and striated color patterns of the canyon walls were stunning

Zac puts his feet up in a window in the canyon wall.

That amazing slot canyon I mentioned.

Our original plan had been to camp in GSENM, but upon discovering the extremely remote location (no food anywhere for miles and miles!!!) we scratched that and proceeded to Flagstaff, AZ instead. It wasn't a planned stop for our trip, but we ended up at a great hotel called Little America (can't you just imagine George Dubya saying those words in his weird twang?) which looked frighteningly like a truck stop from the outside but was really nice on the inside. We ate two really great meals in Flagstaff: dinner at the Beaver Street Brewery and breakfast at Macy's cafe (oh, the irony of the name!).

Today we drove to Santa Fe, NM (also an unplanned stop) where we are staying for the night and tomorrow we head to Dallas, TX.

We said “Wow!” a lot

Because really there are no words sufficient enough to describe the amazing landscape in Zion. So look at some pictures instead.

We hiked the Hidden Canyon Trail

…and to Weeping Rock

We stayed at Watchman Campground in the park and this was the view

For more pictures, click here.

Woah, Bakersfield. Just doesn’t have the charm of Mexico, does it?

So, despite a potential setback (below, please see image of Zac in bed on Tuesday night with a FEVER!!! of all things) we did successfully get on the road at 10 am on Wednesday.


The first leg of our trip took us 700 miles in 4 states, California, Nevada, Arizona and finally Utah, where we stopped for the night at the Dixie Palms Motel in St. George.

The drive through California was looooong, and no offense to anyone who lives there, or knows someone who lives there, but Bakersfield (pretty much the only major city we drove through on our way out of CA) is kinda the armpit of the universe. I’m sure there are far worse places one could be in, but man, was Bakersfield ugly. And also very dusty.

There were lots of farms in the Bakersfield area, though, and on one 25 mile stretch of highway we saw almond, rose and sheep farms. Oh yeah, and on that same road, the Wasco prison which lives right across the street from the Wasco championship golf course and new tract housing developments starting in the $289 K’s. Bargin! Agriculture and criminals make for a sweet combination.

Anyway, here are a few pictures we took in the car once we’d gotten past Bakersfield on Route 58. The landscape was pretty interesting from there on out.

Aaaaaand Vegas…damn, that’s a distracting place to drive through. Just trying to keep up with the reading of about 8,000 ever-changing LCD-HD full-color gargantuan billboards was enough to tire me out.

Needless to say, we were psyched to get to St. George at around 11 pm (we lost an hour due to time zone change), and settle in for the night.

Thursday holds the promise of a sit-down breakfast, some rad hiking, and a night in the Watchman campground in Zion National Park.

Getting ready to go on the road...again

We had an epic day Monday emptying out our apartment into a Budget rental truck, which we then drove to the middle of nowhere in Oakland, only to unload and reload everything into two (deceptively small) ABF U-pack ReloCubes. We thought we were going to be in serious trouble when we pulled up and saw the cubes. They looked waaaaaay too small to fit all of our stuff, but we managed to get everything packed. Zac hummed the Tetris themesong as we fit boxes, chairs, hand-weights, table legs, and other things that didn’t look like they’d fit nicely together, into perfectly symmetrical and square formations. Needless to say, we were damn proud of ourselves, and I am bummed that I forgot the camera so I was unable to document our amazing feat.