Day 5: Arizona to California!

The fifth day of our trip began a little bit late due to Hank. His stomach issues still hadn't gone away and after waking us up at 330 in the morning, we decided that a trip to the vet in Flagstaff. Flagstaff is a really cute college town that sits in the shadow of several mountains. The vet was very nice and accommodating to Hank, giving him medicine to get his tummy back in order. We then got the best coffee/breakfast of the trip at Wildflower Bread Company, a Panera-like restaurant that is local to Arizona. I would definitely recommend stopping there to anyone who happens upon one while in Arizona.

We then headed to the Grand Canyon, which is about 80 miles from Flagstaff. The Grand Canyon is almost too difficult to put into words. One second you're driving through densely packed woods and the next there is a breathtaking view of the canyon. I'll just leave some photos here for your perusal instead of explaining it in words.

After visiting the Grand Canyon, we got back to our trek to California. Due to our late start, getting to San Diego was going to be too much of a trek so we decided to make Barstow, CA our stop for the night. The weather finally warmed up as we left Arizona and entered into our new home state. The day started at 30 degrees and it reached a high of 66 on the road! We are elated to finally be in warmer weather and it looks as if we're clear of any inclement weather.

We arrived at our hotel in Barstow around 6 p.m., gaining an hour when we entered into Pacific Time. Tomorrow we'll head to San Diego, which is just over 2 hours from our current location, for a relaxing final day before Chris needs to check in with work. Til tomorrow!

- Kate

Day 3: Arkansas to Oklahoma to Texas

I’m sorry that this blog post is coming a day later than expected, but I was too tired after last night’s drive to write a worthwhile post. I’m currently writing this as we drive through New Mexico, but more on that on the day four blog.

The picture we took of the welcome to Oklahoma sign was blurry
but we got a photo of this

Day three was the polar opposite of day two. It was cold, but clear when we left our hotel in Arkansas and we soon entered into Oklahoma. It would be really awesome if the transitions between different states were more drastic, but you wouldn’t know without those large signs welcoming you to a new state. However, Oklahoma obviously got a lot more snow than rain and had not yet cleared their major roads. Thus, the first part of Oklahoma was a slow trip as we slowly followed in the paths cleared by the tractor trailers.

By the time we reached Oklahoma City, it cleared up and we were back up to speed on the roads. Oklahoma, as expected, is very flat and pretty boring. It hovered between 26 and 33 for most of the day, becoming overcast in the afternoon and not really clearing off until the evening hours.

We got the Texas welcome sign!

We entered Texas around 4 p.m. and the landscape became flatter and full of cows. Sometimes the cows looked so still that I swore they were fake. Chris has repeatedly made fun of me for this since I vocalized it. The panhandle of Texas is flat and dry, with acres of farmland and grazing fields of either side of the highway. The speed limit went from 70 to 75 as we entered Texas and we were able to pick up our speed on the last leg of today’s trip. We booked ourselves into a hotel in Amarillo for the night, thus ending day three of our trip.

Hank has been handling the trip alright. He’s majorly confused, but his body has reacted negatively to the constant travel, which is a blessing for us. He’s just being a bit stranger than he already is. We remembered quickly that he hates elevators, so staying on the first (or ground) floors of our hotels has been nice. Outside of that, he just sleeps in the car and periodically drops his toys down between the door and seat, so we’re forced to climb into the backseat to rescue his precious playthings.

Hank sleeping

In writing this blog, I’ve come to realize that my writing skills have severely diminished over the past 6-9 months. Graduating from grad school and not having a job in which I write frequently are the major culprits, but in reality, I just did not make time to write in the past year. Nevertheless, like any ability, writing takes practice and hope that in the future I will be at ease with writing once more.

Our travel distance and time for Day 3 is as follows:

Time: About 10 hours

Distance: 588.3 miles

Weather willing, we’ll try to be in Flagstaff by the end of the day on Tuesday. Til then!

- Kate

One Day More

Sunday night, before the packers arrived

I write this while sitting in our hotel room, which is located about .25 miles away from our current/old apartment. It's been an extremely busy week and this is the first time I've really had the energy and time to write. Here is a short recap:

On Monday morning, the packers arrived at our apartment and began to pack all of our belongings. This took all day Monday and spilled over into Tuesday midday. Hank spent most of the day attempting to eat the packing paper and bothering the three workers. Chris and I sat on the couch and read while they worked. By midday Tuesday, everything was packed in the apartment and in our storage unit, minus the televisions and one bed, which made sleeping that night much more enjoyable.

Monday night, after packing

Monday night, after packing

On Wednesday morning, the movers arrived to put all of the furniture and boxes onto the truck. That was an all-day affair. They arrived at 9 and did not finish removing all the items from the apartment until 7 p.m. The movers were very friendly with Hank but he got very confused throughout the day and had several accidents in the house. Once they left, all we had left in the apartment was our aero bed and our belongings for the trip.

Post movers = empty house

On Thursday morning, we got up early to pack the car since the cleaning people were arriving at 9. Alas, we discovered that the packers had forgotten to pack some things that were in our cabinets. They had packed the lids to the pots but not the pots themselves, and had packed the glass oven dishes but not the lids. They also missed a bunch of ziploc bags and some coffee travel mugs. In haste, we put together two leftover boxes and packed them. Luckily we'll have space in the car for them, but it is definitely not an ideal situation. When the cleaners came, I left to drop Hank off at a friend's place for a couple of nights so we could run errands and relax. He was no longer upset after that and I'm not sure he noticed when I left.

Thursday was filled with errands that we had to run, including dropping the cable box off at Verizon, mailing last minute packages, exchanging our coins for cash, and shipping Chris's car. Once completed, we finally went to see the second Hobbit movie, since we've had no time to go since it came out.

Today has been a very relaxing day. I've come down with a bit of a cold so I slept in and Chris went back to the apartment to handle the exterminator appointment. Then we got breakfast and Chris got his haircut while I finished a book. Now we just have to wait around until 3 when we have our final out appointment with the rental company.

Hank, before he ran away because the photo flash was capturing his soul

Chris and I are amazed and excited that our trip is finally here. We've been talking about it and planning for it forever, so it's surprising that it has actually arrived. It probably won't feel real until we're on the road tomorrow. I've posted a link here the route that we will most likely take. Everything will depend upon the weather, so if it's nice tomorrow, we may take Skyline Drive and if we have enough time, we may head up to Vegas after the Grand Canyon.

That's all for now. I will do my best to post every night about that day's distance covered and eventful occurrences!

- Kate