Monday, August 30, 2010

Superlatives

Yes, it's high school all over again. But here are the superlatives for our trip.

  • Worst Road Maintenance: Oklahoma Obama, please give them some stimulus money, it felt like we were riding on cobblestones for the whole state.
  • Best Stretch of Road on Which to Drive: Wendell H. Ford Western Kentucky Parkway Beautiful scenery, beautiful weather, no traffic, high speeds.
  • Worst Stretch of Road on which to Drive: I-40 Memphis to Little Rock There were more trucks on the road than cars, they were all going slow, and with only 2 lanes, it put a serious damper on our average daily speed.
  • Best Highway Scenery: I-40 in New Mexico See previous posts as to why, but it was gorgeous.
  • Best Food Stop: Owl Cafe (Albuquerque, NM) which puts green chili on everything, and Mary's Cafe (Flagstaff, AZ) which served the best egg and chorizo tacos on earth.
  • Top Speed: 86 MPH, reached by both of us at one time or another, mostly on accident.
  • Best Road Name: Zzyzx Road (CA). We don't even know how to pronounce it but it is awesome. It is the first exit in CA on I-15 coming from Vegas and I think the one person who lives off this road, some 10 miles from the interstate, thought to himself "screw you, I'm not putting vowels in my road name."
  • Best Rest Stop: New Mexico with its friendly staff, who insisted on having a conversation with everyone that walked in the door.
  • Cheapest Gas: $2.49 in Oklahoma
  • Most Expensive Gas: $3.55 in CA right before the Grapevine on the last stretch going into LA
  • Coolest Cargo: Blade for a wind turbine (NM). There were three, each on their own truck, and they were so long that I'm not sure how they are able to make any turns on regular roads.
  • Most Entertaining 5 Miles: Chasing a clown who was riding a motorcycle in full costume and makeup (we have picture evidence) on Hwy 99 outside Stockton, CA
  • Least Entertaining 5 Miles: the first 5 miles on Hwy 50 in West Virginia, which included the accident
  • Most Insects Killed in One Day: 376,028 on the 900 mile day. I think we could potentially be arrested for insecticide

One More Causality

In addition to our broken wine glasses, we had one other minor disaster: our canister of Hershey's hot chocolate seems to have explored all over the box of food we packed. Most items were simply cleaned with a wet cloth, but our Wegman's Honey Bear was a mess.



Poor little honey bear.

Sunday, August 29, 2010

Skillz That Killz



We've unpacked pretty much everything at this point and it seems that the only causalities were three small wine glasses. All of our framed paintings and pictures, dishes, glass lamps and tchotchkes made it in one piece. One small box with two wine glasses from the Darden School of Business at UVA and a third wine glass from an awful vineyard outside of Charlottesville were delivered in pieces. In truth, it was probably our packing job that was at fault as the box seemed to be in good shape. Considering this was the first real move for either of us, we're thrilled that all we lost was three wine glasses (all of which we actually got for free).

Our biggest concern was the dozen or so framed paintings and pictures. We bought (or acquired from our neighbors via the dumpster) real picture boxes, but did without any other protection, save bubble wrap, of which we used about 150 feet. But the contents of all four picture boxes arrived intact.

We've still got a few items left to put away and some furniture to buy, but the apartment is coming together nicely. Once we get everything in its place, we'll post updated pics.

P.S. Bonus points to the first person who can correctly ID the movie from which I stole the title to this post.

Friday, August 27, 2010

And we're back

Sorry for the delay in posts, faithful followers. Today we got our internet and cable hooked up in the apartment, and we don't have to pirate our neighbor's poor signal anymore (thank you "newport" for not securing your wireless). Not too much has been going on in the last few days - there's been a whole lot of unpacking, moving things into a closet, taking it out and putting something else in, and moving things around so that they all fit and are easily accessible. We are still working out the kinks and the only major thing we have left is where to hang the pictures. There are a handful of things we need to get over the next few weeks - 2 nightstands, a few lamps, and a large bookcase. Tomorrow we are going to wake up early and hit up some yard sales. We are only a few miles from Bel Air and Beverly Hills, so we are hoping to get lucky. Of course, I'm not sure if folks that live there have yard sales or not, but we'll give it a whirl.

I took a few pics of the place. Remember it's still a work in progress so please forgive the huge pile of boxes, but you will get the idea.

From the front door into the family room. Mike is already working on homework.

From the hallway toward the dining room.

Into the kitchen (my favorite room!) There is almost enough room for both of us in there at the same time, so long as we are at opposite ends.

And our bedroom, from the doorway. To the right is the closet that goes across the whole wall. It has mirrors on the doors, which I think we are going to cover in some way (any ideas as to how are welcomed!). It's no walk in closet, but with the large closet in the hallway, we are making it work well.

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Our First Dinner

After spending most of the day unpacking, we were able to clean up the kitchen and sit down to a simple little dinner, our first in our new apartment. We've still got a lot of unpacking to do over the next few days but it was nice to take a break for a few minutes and enjoy a home cooked meal.

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The Movers Are Here

Nothing like a 7am wake up call telling you your stuff is ready.

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Monday, August 23, 2010

4500 Miles Later

Just made it to LA, got off the 405 and Wilshire. We're driving by our apartment to wave hello. We'll be back in about 90 minutes to get our keys! I'm so excited to be here!!

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Sunday, August 22, 2010

Change of Plans, Effective Immediately

Just before dinner this evening, Mike got a call from our movers. Our stuff is going to be dropped off Tuesday morning at 8am. This is a full 24 hours earlier than they originally quoted us. Annoying, yes, but there isn't anything we can do about it. We are at the mercy of our movers. This also means that the day we planned tomorrow will be spent in a flurry of errands in the morning, and then booking it down to LA in the afternoon. Our new landlady, who is awesome so far, agreed to meet us a day earlier so that we can get our keys. The plan is to stay in the new place tomorrow night; we have a blow-up mattress, and we are going to make ourselves cozy in our new home. Unfortunately, this means we are cutting our visit to NorCal a little short. Luckily, we aren't too far away now, and we can make it back up here for a weekend if we like.

I'm very excited that we are going to have a permanent address in less than 24 hours; being on the road has been a fun and unique experience, and I'm glad that we had the opportunity to do it, but it will be nice to be "home." And nice to unpack my suitcase that I've been using for the past 3 straight weeks.

Also, check out our new feature at the bottom of the main page - links to photo galleries, available to all to see, through Facebook. We'll keep adding more when we have time (and internet connections.)

Day 9-10: Rocklin, CA

We got to Rocklin last night (a suburb of Sacramento), our first official stop in CA. The plan was to stay three nights, but that's been cut down to two (Megan will post more about it later). We are staying with my Aunt Sue and Uncle Stu and have had a chance to see my brother and his girlfriend, my grandfather and his wife and my cousins Andrea and Dustin and their kids. In about 21 hours, we will no longer be homeless.

Mileage:
Time:
Gas:
States visited: NV, CA

4000 Miles and Counting

At 1:33am Pacific Time we officially hit the 4000 mile mark on this trip. We are already 500 miles over our expected distance with another 500-600 left to go before we arrive at our new home in LA.
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Saturday, August 21, 2010

Day 8: Las Vegas

Yesterday was, as Megan put it, the day of wonders. We started out at the natural wonder, the Grand Canyon, moved on to the engineering wonder, Hoover Dam, and ended up at the "I wonder what they were thinking" aka Las Vegas. All three were beautiful in their own right, each appealing to different parts of our psyche.

We stayed last night at the Excalibur right on the strip. Megan's favorite part of the hotel was the fact that we got to stay in a castle. But her favorite part of Vegas was definitely the Fountains of Bellagio (watch the end of Oceans 11 if you don't know what I'm talking about).

Mileage: 398.5 (cumulative - 3338.8)
Time: 7 hours, 30 minutes (cumulative - 51 hours, 13 minutes)
Gas: $34.50 (cumulative - $226.14)
States visited: AZ, NV
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Our Stuff

We just passed our stuff going down the highway. Actually, we have no idea if our stuff is in there or not, but the timing works out, and it's more fun to think we were 15 feet or less away from our own bed.
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We Made It... Almost

At least we are in the right state now! It's a bad picture, but it marks the last border we had to cross to make it here.
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Random Thoughts from the Road

1. 75 speed limits should be instituted across the country. You are more likely to follow them, more likely to slow down when they change, and you just go faster.

2. There were more people at the Grand Canyon that don't speak English than those that do. I had no idea that it was an international draw.

3. Mike and I have nothing else to talk about with each other. We've even discussed this fact with each other 3 or 4 times. Being together 24/7 for the past month, many of those hours in the car together, we've exhausted topics of conversation.

4. I packed two full bags of "things to keep us entertained in the car" and haven't used any of them. It is great to see our country and that is what we've been doing instead of reading.

Friday, August 20, 2010

The Grand Canyon

Wow.

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Thursday, August 19, 2010

Day 7: Flagstaff, AZ

After pushing it yesterday and driving almost 900 miles we were able to take it a little easier today with only about 400 on the schedule. So we slept in, ate a real breakfast (instead of granola bars in the car) and took our time. We stopped multiple times to see various things including the Continental Divide and some of the views that New Mexico and Arizona had to offer.

Around mid-day, we arrived in Flagstaff and began our visit to the Grand Canyon. Before we even got to the Grand Canyon National Park, we had to drive through the Navajo Indian Reservation, which offered some amazing and humbling views. We'll post pics later (probably on Facebook), but the Little Colorado River Gorge provided some amazing views of a site that would be a major draw just about anywhere else in the world. Meanwhile, as you drive through the Navajo Reservation, you see Navajo Indians in little roadside stands selling trinkets. It's a sad reminder of our history and how little some people have.

When we eventually pulled into the Grand Canyon National Park, I was a little surprised that admission cost $25 per car. It only took, however, about 20 minutes to feel that it was money well spent. The Grand Canyon is truly amazing and awe-inspiring. I think Megan said it best when she commented that the views made her feel small.

Mileage: 525.7 (cumulative - 2940.3)
Time*: 5 hours, 8 minutes (cumulative - 43 hours, 43 minutes)
Gas: $37.77 (cumulative - $226.14)
States visited: NM, AZ

*We had to estimate time today because of all of our stops, which were tourist stops, not travel related stops.



At the Continental Divide

So beautiful. We have more pics from the camera we will upload later, too.
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I 'Heart' New Mexico

Yesterday was the first time I had been in the state of New Mexico. And I love it. It is like no other state I've ever been to. Closer to the Texas line, it is flat... and I mean flat. You can see for miles and miles. Then there are small plateaus that jut up out of the land with very steep sides and completely flat tops. There is a little bit of grass all over, and small bushes and trees occasionally - very different from the forests in the East and farmland in the Midwest.
As we got closer to Albuquerque, it became more mountainous. And again, they look very different from the Smoky Mountains I'm used to; they are craggy, grassy, and steep.
And finally, I think my favorite part of New Mexico so far is the Owl Cafe, a dive that we ate dinner at last night near our hotel that puts green chili on almost everything they make. And I love me some green chili. I had a roast beef sandwich in a tortilla with green chili inside. Yum. Maybe I like New Mexico because it is different than anywhere I've been before (which is part of the point of this whole trip) but regardless of why I've enjoyed it so far, I think it is on my list of places I want to live some day.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Day 6: Albuquerque, NM

About an hour ago, we rolled into Albuquerque, NM. Megan said yesterday was a mostly a driving day, but today was really the driving day. We left Little Rock early this morning and just kept going and going. In total, we drove just under 900 miles. It will all be worth it tomorrow when we have extra time at the Grand Canyon.

Mileage: 881.6 (cumulative - 2414.6)
Time: 13 hours, 15 minutes (cumulative - 38 hours, 35 minutes)
Gas: $50.79 (cumulative - $188.37)
States visited: AR, OK, TX, NM

2000 Miles and Counting...

At 2:56PM this afternoon we hit the 2000 miles mark in Oklahoma about 20 miles east of the Texas border. If our count was correct, we've got about 1500 miles left.

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Day 5, Little Rock, AR

Day 5 was mostly a driving day. We left Cincinnati early in the morn and took off southwest. Most of the day we were on Kentucky parkways and US highways. It was a great drive averaging 70+ and hour while we were in the car. With bright blue skies and lush green fields, and few cars on the road, it was an easy and quick drive.

We were even able to see a few friends on the way. Andrew Musashe, a former Davidson teammate of Mike's, let us stretch our legs at his house for a bit outside Memphis, and my good friend Melissa Bandy and her husband Calvin generously hosted us at their place for the night in Little Rock (thanks again!)

You may be able to tell that this update is coming from the road. Mike and I got up early and headed out. We have a big driving day today, trying to knock out almost 900 miles. More on that later.

Mileage: 663.1 (cumulative 1,533)
Time: 10 hours (cumulative 25 hours, 20 minutes)
Gas: $70.44 (cumulative $137.58)
States visited: OH, KY, TN, MO, AR
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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Mighty Mississippi

We just passed over the Mississippi River into Missouri officially leaving behind the East Coast. I think Megan shed a little tear.


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1000 Miles

At 9:38 this morning outside Louisville, Ky, we officially hit 1000 miles! Thanks to Mike, too, for timing it so that we hit traffic at the exact moment so that I could easily snap the picture.
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Monday, August 16, 2010

Day 3/4: Mason, OH

Last night and tonight have been spent in Mason, OH, a suburb of Cincinnati visiting my cousins Heather and Ravi and their two daughters Hannah and Rebekah. As luck would have it, Heather's parents, my Aunt Susan and Uncle Stuart, also happen to be visiting, coming in from Sacramento (which should be Day 9 through 11 on our trip). It's been great to see everyone again; the girls haven't started school yet and Heather took some time off, so we were able to enjoy each other's company all day today while catching up. It's been over a year since we've seen Heather, Ravi and the girls, and about nine months since I've seen my aunt and uncle (and much longer since Megan's seen them). Even though not a lot changes in 12 months time, it still seems like a long time to go in between visits.

One story that hasn't made it on to the blog yet is the story of Megan's cell phone. As we were leaving DC on Thursday, about 20 minutes after we turned in our keys and hit the road, Megan managed to drop in BlackBerry into a cup of water. She immediately pulled the sucker out, removed the battery and prayed for the best. After four days of drying (which included the use of a hair dryer and lots of sunlight), we decided that today would be the best day to see if her prayers had been answered and the phone still worked, or if we would be out a couple hundred bucks on a new phone. Luckily, about two seconds after Megan popped the battery back in, a red light came on and the phone started working. As far as we can tell, everything works just fine, so we are back to being a two cell phone enterprise.

We received another piece of good news today: my car is in good shape and she should be able to make it all the way to LA without the bumper falling off. Megan and I ran over to the local Honda dealership this morning and talked to Nick, some dude in the body shop. He came out and looked at the bumper and undercarriage and said that the bumped is still bolted to the body in a few places and that the undercarriage won't be going anywhere. Both will probably need to be replaced, along with the tip of my muffler, but that can wait until LA.

Lastly, we talked to our movers and the driver expects to be in LA on August 25, meaning that we can now officially plan the rest of our trip out. We'll be in Little Rock tomorrow night (the 17th), followed by Amarillo, Flagstaff, Vegas, Sacramento (for three nights) and show up in LA on the 24th, a day ahead of our stuff.

Mileage: 138.3 (cumulative - 864.3)
Time: 1 hour, 15 minutes (cumulative - 15 hours, 20 minutes)
Gas: $0 (cumulative - $67.14)
States visited: IN, OH

Sunday, August 15, 2010

Life out in the Country

We stayed Friday and Saturday night with my uncle, aunt and three little cousins in Vevay, IN. My mom and sis happened to be there on Friday getting in a quick visit before Elaine starts back into school. We had a great time relaxing with the family. The kids showed off on their four wheelers/go carts/motorcycles for us with donuts in the yard. Mike even took me for a ride on the four wheeler. We fed chickens, goats, kitties, guineas (ask Mike what those are, he knows now) and peacocks. Mike even helped with some chores around the house - only out in the country do chores involve a fork lift and electrical wires.

I also got to see my grandma, uncle, and baby cousin. I'm so thankful that we were able to spend some time with my extended family. I don't get to see them too often, so it was a real treat to hang out with them for a few days and hear some of their stories about my grandfather, of growing up on the farm, and living out past the boonies.

Day 1/2: Vevay, IN

After some excitement on Friday, we finally got to Meg's aunt and uncle's house in Vevey, IN. We stayed two nights in Vevay visiting Megan's family.

Mileage: 588.5 (cumulative - 726)
Time: 10 hours, 40 minutes (14 hours, 5 minutes)
Gas: $46.77 (cumulative - $67.14)
States visited: PA, MD, WV, OH, IN
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Friday, August 13, 2010

Screech.... BANG!

We started our trip off with a bang... literally. After about four hours on the road this morning, just after we merged on to Hwy 50 in West Virginia, we had a little car accident. Everyone is fine, the car is still running and it wasn't my fault, so we've been able to move on and continue our trip. Here's what happened: a guy, who was probably no older than 18, was lost and decided it would be a good idea to make an illegal U-turn through the emergency access median. All of a sudden, he came to a complete stop in the middle of a major highway. I slammed on my brakes and was able to stop in time but the woman behind me was not so fortunate and plowed into my bumper. Luckily there isn't much damage, although I will need a new bumper and possibly a little work to my undercarriage .

Like I said we're both fine and have continued our trip to the Cincinnati area. We're planning to spend a few days here anyways, so we'll have the car looked at to make sure its safe to drive another 3000 miles.
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Day 0: Harrisburg, PA

We officially began out journey to CA yesterday evening, arriving in Harrisburg, PA late last night. (It was a little too late for a post, so we're updating it before we hit the road again this morning.) We considered yesterday Day 0 - because most of the day was spent finishing up our lives in DC. The movers were great, but the three of them took longer than we thought and our errands took even longer. Harrisburg provided a great location for two reasons: first, my parents are here, so we were able to see my mom one last time (my dad is actually visiting his father in Sacramento); second, it provided a place to sleep for the night. All of our possessions, included our bed, are now in the hands of the Allied Van Lines, so unless we wanted to start our 9 hour trek to Indiana at 6pm at night, we needed a warm bed in which to sleep.

We'll be using the same format for each of our upcoming travel updates, letting everyone know how far we've come, how long it took and how much we spent on gas. Here are our stats so far:

Mileage: 137.5 miles
Time: 3 hours, 25 minutes
Gas: $20.37
States visited: VA, MD, PA

Thursday, August 12, 2010

The Movers are Here!!

Three little guys are here to move us! They can carry three or four boxes on their back at once (there are some boxes we packed that I can't carry at all). It is crazy. I'm also SO glad we decided to pay someone else to move us down 4 flights of stairs in 95 degree heat. Worth EVERY penny.
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Tuesday, August 10, 2010

Ode to the District

We have one full day left before we head out of town. Within the last 48 hours, the move has become very real for me. Mike and I have been living out of suitcases for the past week and a half, having packed all our other clothes. We have nothing in the kitchen except some plastic utensils and half-full condiment jars. We have packing paper strewn about the apartment so it looks like we've held our own private ticker-tape parade. We've been out with our DC friends across the past two days, saying goodbye and having one last laugh with those with whom we are close. We have a list of things we have to do in the next two days - transfer utilities, return the cable box, pack our car snacks, and turn in our parking passes and keys - and there will be little time to let it all sink in. DC has been our home for the last four years, and it has treated us well. I for one have had a great time here, and would certainly consider returning to live in the future. I never tire of seeing the monuments on the mall, or driving by the Pentagon. I still say a small prayer of "thank you" every time I pass the Arlington National Cemetery, and I always look to see if Barak is home when I pass the White House.

So here's to you, DC and NoVa: may your monuments stand tall and your buildings always be 5-sided. May your Metro line expand West and your beltway always be under construction. May your traffic flow freely (or at least flow at all), your baseball always come second to the Braves, your cherries bloom every year, and the Mall be as green as the money you print.
Cheers, and thank you.




Monday, August 9, 2010

So Nice They Named It Twice

We spent last weekend in New York on the last leg of our so-called "victory tour" of the East Coast seeing some friends and being tourists again. Technically, we stayed in West Chester with our friend Jason (pictured below) and not NYC, but who's counting.



We got to New York on Friday afternoon and visited Jason at his summer job working at the Stone Barns Center for Food & Agriculture. Stone Barns used to be the Rockefeller's dairy farm, but a few years back they donated the 80 acres and it now operates as a sustainable teaching farm and restaurant.

On Saturday, we got into the city in the early afternoon and walked across the Brooklyn Bridge to eat real, New York style pizza at Grimaldi's. Even though the wait was an hour long, it was definitely worth it. We had a thin crust sausage and black olive pizza that was fantastic. Had we not seen ice cream in the neighborhood, we probably would have had another pizza. After eating, we walked around Brooklyn Bridge Park, and then back over the bridge to go see Ground Zero. Unfortunately, we're not VIPs and couldn't really see anything at Ground Zero except a whole lot of construction.

We spent Saturday night hanging out with two more friends from Davidson, Garen and Will. (FYI, Garen recently finished in third place in the Block Island Triathalon - he's pretty awesome.) Besides the company, I think Meg's favorite part of the night was the drinks we had at this little dive bar. The first was a dark n' stormy which came in little tiki glass. The second was called a Rusty Knot (named after the bar) which was some frozen concoction that included basil.



Sunday was our travel day, so we took things easy and met up with Garen and another friend, JP, for brunch at a cool little spot called the Spotted Pig. After enjoying a burger with bleu cheese (for me) and strawberry french toast (for Meg), we hit the road.

All in all, we now have traveled about 2400 miles on our three-week victory lap. We've survived with each other thus far, so hopefully another two weeks and 3500 more miles won't be a problem.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Not on our Diet

Tonight we dined at Ray's Hell Burger. If you're wondering why that might sound familiar, its because our president recently took his counterpart from Russia there for a good ol' American style lunch consisting of a greasy burger and fries.




(By the way, it is just me or does the guy sitting next to Obama kinda look like Hitler's son).

Oh, and Ray's is also the place that Obama and Biden went for a casual working lunch a couple of months after the inauguration.



(Yes Joe, I am going to eat that.)

Anyways, Ray's Hell Burger is an extension of the Ray's franchise, which includes Ray's The Steaks and Ray's The Classics. It's a simple burger joint, but with really good burgers. If you're ever in DC, I would definitely recommend stopping by.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

... And More Packing

I didn't want to write a second blog post about packing, but that's all we've really done over the last three days. We now have about 50 boxes/suitcases/crates packed and our apartment is starting to look bare. Nothing is left on the walls, the bookcases are empty and our closet has only a few solitary items.



On a positive note, a Korean family moved into our apartment complex earlier this week. It's positive not because I'm excited about meeting new neighbors (anyone who knows me well enough knows I'm not really the neighborly type); nope, it's positive because they dumped all of their boxes and packaging materials. We collected five boxes, including a picture box, and bunches (that's the scientific term) of paper and protective foamy paper (another scientific term).

We've still got a bit more packing to do. The kitchen is still almost full and there is always other junk that needs to find its way to a box. We're planning to spend all day tomorrow packing, but then taking the weekend off to go visit some friends in NYC. Hopefully we'll do something more exciting than packing.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Packing...

... sucks. There is just no other way to describe it. It is monotonous, back-aching work, and in an honest moment, we have no idea what we are doing. We are putting our precious belongings - which aren't actually worth anything but the sentiments we attach to them - in boxes we've acquired from Home Depot, Packing Stores, my former office, and even the recycling bin at our apartment (thank you to the couple that just moved here from Korea). We are tenderly wrapping them in packing paper, newspaper, old school work, bubble wrap, and a prayer that they all make it there in one piece.

We've gotten a whole lot done, but it doesn't seem like we've finished anything yet. Everything is going into the second bedroom as we pack it. It's a complete an utter mess, as you can see here. We have nine (!!) days to go. We can do it!!! (At least that's what Mike keeps telling me.)

Sunday, August 1, 2010

Music for the road... Need some help

With only 12 more days until we hit the road one final time, we are starting to compile a play list for our trip. We've added all of our CD's to our respective Ipods, and have bought most of the other songs we like. Now, we need to start to make some play lists. We figure we'll need a handful of lists for various occasions on this trip so that we don't listen to NPR all the way across the country. So far we are starting to develop the following play lists:

-Hip-Hop/Dance mix: something to get us pumped up as we drive past corn field after corn field and begin to feel the monotony of the trip. Includes songs like Forever (Chris Brown), Stronger (Kanye West), Just Dance (Lady GaGa), Tik Tok (Ke$ha).

-California mix: all songs related to CA. Includes Hotel California (Eagles), Hotel California (Gypsie Kings), California Girls (Katie Perry), California Love (2Pac), Should've Been a Cowboy (Toby Keith), I Love L.A. (Randy Newman) and a few others.

-80's mix: Nothing like big hair and ridiculous songs to sing at the top of your lungs. Includes To Be With You (Mr. Big), Love is a Battlefield (Pat Benatar), Every Rose Has Its Thorn (Poison), Died In Your Arms Tonight (Cutting Crew), Centerfold (J. Geils Band), Sunglasses At Night (Corey Hart), and more.

-On the Road Again mix: just songs about driving. Inclues On the Road Again (Willie Nelson), Let's Go (The Cars), Take It Easy (Eagles), Little Deuce Coupe (Beach Boys), Pink Cadillac (Southern Pacific), Dead Man's Curve (Jan and Dean), One Headlight (The Wallflowers), Low Rider (War).

-Rock mix: all the best classic rock n roll. Includes Layla (Derek and the Dominoes), Baba O'Reilly (The Who), Stairway to Heaven (Led Zepplin).

What we need help with is filling out the mixes we've already created and ideas for new ones. If you can think of any good songs or themes, please let us know in the comments section. We're open to all ideas, no matter how ridiculous (we did, after all, already create the 80's mix).