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.

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.

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.

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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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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