To live in Rochester, we somehow had to get from California to Rochester. This took a few days.
Clouds, sky, corn. ‘Merica.
After a truly spectacular trip to Alaska, it was time for us to come home and, well, pack up everything and move. Small effort, right? Well, first…someone came and took my car. They took it, I tell you! And though I did eventually get it back, it was sad to see it go, and it was a small hassle to get it back at the end, but it was all done safely, so that’s good. Bye car!
Anyway, it’s always more work than you think it will be to get your stuff all squared away, but we eventually got our things packed up, though Nathan’s last things got done, well, as the movers were still basically there. I was working on things at my mom’s house, getting my things ready, as he was at his place with the movers getting all the last things out. Then he came over to my place (leading the movers there, and no one realizing that technically the absolutely enormous moving truck was not actually allowed on our road 🙂 and they came to our place, and put my stuff in a full very few linear feet of the truck, leaving basically, well, all the rest of the space for all the rest of the people they would be moving. I was honestly quite impressed at their packing abilities. They then, well, drove away with our things, leaving us with “only” what we had packed into Nathan’s Vibe.
We spent that night at my parents, and the next morning…we were on our way. It had taken some doing to plan our route across the country. We were traveling with the cat, and we had a bit of a time limit. So we couldn’t stop to really see any roadside attractions, we couldn’t linger much of anywhere, and we had to stay at pet-friendly lodgings, all with more or less reasonable amounts to travel each day. We’d put a plan together though, and it all worked out ok, if not overly interesting.
The first day we were headed to St. George , Utah. We set off east from LA, with Pasadena being one of the very first places we drove through, definitely making me a bit sad. The cat started to settle down after a bit, and we decided we needed to stop at In’n’Out. In Barstow, of course, though there were no drugs involved to be kicking in. Just delicious grease and salt. We kept on east through the Mojave, Baker, State Line, Las Vegas, and a heaping helping of desert. East of Las Vegas, the interstate continues through a quick corner of Arizona, heading through a fabulous mountain canyon, red walls starting to appear before you, quickly ending up in Utah.
We pretty easily got to our hotel, unpacked a bit, sorted the cat out, and went out to get dinner….more In’n’Out. I think. Definitely just some other quick fast food. Yeah, this wasn’t really the most enchanting of trips 🙂 The motel at least was tucked up both near the road, and right up against a red rock hill – the natural beauty being a truly redeeming feature of much of Utah.
Day two probably wins all the prizes for being the most beautiful day. It was all still interstate, but started out heading north through the always stunning red rocks of Utah, with buttes, layered rocks, clear skies, and great views anyway you look. Then we turned east In I-70 towards Colorado, and the landscape starts to grow around us. More buttes, more hills, slightly taller, a few more trees, and suddenly you’re just driving through the mountains. I’d never actually been in the mountains in Colorado before (heck, I’d never really been in Colorado before) and it was really spectacular. Driving through Vail, you can see where all the ski slopes are, but they just look like lush and green slopes inside the woods in the summer though. I would have wanted to get out of the car when we crossed the continental divide, but unfortunately, on I-70, it goes through a big tunnel , with no stopping allowed. (Though apparently the Eisenhower tunnel is quite the engineering marvel). someday I want to take the Loveland Pass though, so I can stop and get out.
Coming out the other side, we stopped for a brief break in Georgetown, Colorado, which was just enough time for us each to spent a couple minutes in the visitors center, before we had to keep on rolling. The cat did take a moment to look around, but really, he was mostly sleeping for most of the drive. We somewhat sadly left the mountains, and headed into Denver where we were spending the evening with Nathan’s godparents. I got to meet them for the first time, and their family. We had a nice dinner and got to spend some pleasant discussion time.
Day 3 combined, well, the third day with what I have to call the “boring part” of the drive. Eastern Colorado turns out to be just as boring as Western Colorado is beautiful, and there isn’t that much difference when it shades into Kansas. Lots of fields. Corn and sunflowers about as far as you could see. Some windmills, which are always nice to see. We stopped in the town of Colby veeeeeery briefly for gas and some quick food, before, as always, continuing on our way. We made it as far as Topeka that evening, where we dropped the cat off at the hotel, and went out for some supper. We went to a brewpub named the Blind Tiger. We had some good beers they brewed, fresh on site. Some other guy at the bar ordered a Coors Light. Kansas also has a “liquor drink tax” added onto the bill. Unsure why, but that names just cracks me up. Liquor drink? Heh.
Next day was Topeka to Manteno, Illinois. You heard me. Manteno. Yeah, we were a bit constrained with the single day distance + place that could take cats + trying to use hotel points as much as possible. The drive was ok. We took our one non-Interstate bit of the trip, cutting north across Missouri, crossed the Mississippi, and then basically drove past corn fields. We did finally get to our hotel, where the cat at least enjoyed hiding behind drawers. Anyway, this was a bit south of Chicago, and Nathan’s parents drove down to see us, staying at the same hotel for the night. We went for a dinner a town south, and then honestly mostly collapsed. Four days on the road leaves you tired. Nathan’s parents did leave us with a big bucket of cookies at least.
The cookies were certainly appreciated, since the next day was also our longest, and being our fifth day on the road, we were definitely getting a bit snippy. (I am sure that had we been able to take a more meandering trip, it would have been a bit better, but what can you do?) However, it was also our last day, so that was nice. Illinois, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and finally into New York. Everything was so very very green. We pulled up at our new place, excited to finally be able to be “home”, only to discover that the code we had been given to unlock the lockbox to get the key was not correct. We tried several potential variations, but none worked. We called, and left voicemails, but being Sunday evening, no one was answering. We ended up having to spend one more night in a hotel! It was probably honestly ok, since we didn’t actually have any sort of bed to sleep on. The property manager did call us back that evening with the code, but after we’d already checked into the hotel. The next day, though, we met up with her, and she actually lent us a futon mattress for a week until our things arrived, which was really kind.
The next morning we unpacked the car into the house, and it looked pitifully small in the space. I had to drive Nathan to work for a few days until my car showed up, and all our possessions arrived about a week after us, after which we could start to think we’d actually moved in.
