Wednesday, December 27
10:30 a.m. CST: We're picking up a truck, packing up Maureen's stuff, and plotting our course home. Here's the tentative route we're planning to take: Due west to Denver on I-80, then south to New Mexico where we turn west again until we hit California. Then it's up through the Central Valley until we make it back to Half Moon Bay.
Wish us luck, and check back often for our road report.
1:00 p.m. CST: A change of plans already! Julio has us spooked with a snowy forecast for the Denver area, so we're considering an alternate route through Oklahoma. Anyway, we're off to get the truck!
7:00 p.m. CST: The truck is loaded, except for a few, final items (like the luggage we brought to Iowa). We've stocked up on munchies, water, cold medicine (we're both coming down with something), pillows, blankets, iPod chargers, and everything else we could think of. Maureen is pretty excited about the whole thing, as you can see by the leftmost photo (although she's not anywhere near as excited as her dad is to get his garage back!). Mike, on the other hand, is skeptical about where everything will fit back in California.
Huge thank-yous to Justin and Julio, who helped us move all the furniture, boxes, and "stuff" (as one carton was labeled) into the truck. We should get to Half Moon Bay sometime Sunday night, so why don't you guys plan to be there around 10:30 Monday morning to help us unload? And if you can pick up some bagels or donuts on the way, that would be just fantastic.
Thursday, December 28
8:00 a.m. CST: And we're off! Those colds haven't gotten any better overnight, but our chariot awaits. We'll try to post at least once or twice during the day.
1:00 p.m. CST. Ottawa, KS: Four-and-half hours on the road, and we're starting to lose it. Maureen's been taking photos of herself pretending to be asleep, and I've been making a list of cities we've passed that sound like places in other parts of the world (Truro, Trenton, and our current stopping spot, Ottawa).
We've stopped for lunch at a place called Henry T's, which was the only place on Main Street that looked A) open, and B) reasonably sanitary. I'm hoping that a little blood sugar boost will cure Maureen of the rampant case of the sillies she's been demonstrating for the last half hour or so. She's taking over the driver's seat for the next stretch, so I'm rewarding myself with a cold beer. Much better than the truck stop chai tea and Airborne cold medicine (not in the same glass!) I've been guzzling for the past four hours.
One interesting thing so far: all the flags at half-mast in honor of Gerald Ford, who died yesterday. Maureen's dad was watching something on TV last night that played a couple hours of footage from the Watergate investigation, and we were listening from the other room while we packed. That's really the first major news event I remember being aware of as a kid, and I can still recall my parents explaining (not without some glee) how Nixon was no longer the president and Ford was.
We'll post more, including some photos, when we get to our hotel in Oklahoma City. Until then, keep on truckin'...
7:00 p.m. CST. Somewhere in northern Oklahoma: Maureen is taking the wheel again for a bit, so I thought I'd share a few things we've noticed while driving across the wintry plains of Kansas:
- Just one whiff of the big chicken processing plant in Emporia is enough to put you off poultry forever.
- Some kinds of crackers taste curiously like toasted marshmallows. This isn't as pleasant a discovery as it may sound.
- If you ever wake up wondering where you are in some dingy little bar in some crappy little town in rural America, chances are the joint is called "The Hitching Post."
How did we wind up off the interstate and out in the middle of nowhere? We decided to make a quick sightseeing detour to the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve just outside of Strong City, Kansas. This is the only national park dedicated to preserving the history and heritage of the American prairie, and I think I've figured out why: prairies are really freaking boring. Once you've looked in one direction, you've pretty much seen 'em all.
On the other hand, we're feeling pretty smug about choosing this route ever since we heard the truck driver on the call-in radio station reporting blizzard conditions in Colorado. I'll take boring over terrifying any roadtrip!
I'm going to make an attempt to post this using my cell phone while we drive. (Don't worry, Maureen is still behind the wheel!) Next installment in a couple hours...
11:00 p.m. CST. Room 221, Comfort Inn Oklahoma City: We made it! After a quick stop at the Oklahoma City National Memorial, which commemorates the victims of the Murrah Federal Building bombing in 1995, we checked into our hotel and headed across the parking lot to the Cracker Barrel for dinner. Check the photo album for more details and pictures of our adventures today. We're exhausted and have another big day of driving tomorrow, so good night everyone!
Friday, December 29
7:25 a.m. CST: See that little map to the right? The green area is every place in the U.S. where it's raining today. The red line is our approximate route to Santa Fe. The whole thing is what we call an unfortunate circumstance.
I'm hoping to stop at the Route 66 museum in Oklahoma today, then to take some photos of the famous "Cadillac Ranch" outside of Amarillo. Otherwise, it doesn't look like a great day for exploring or photos, which should help us make good time. I figure we'll get to Santa Fe by 7:00 p.m., even factoring in the bad weather. We'll keep you posted.
Now it's down to the lobby for our free continental breakfast. Will wonders never cease?
8:00 a.m. CST: Change of plans. Interstate 40 looks like it's going to be a mess, so we're going to keep heading south for a bit as far as Wichita Falls, then through Lubbock into southern New Mexico. With any luck, we'll make it to Roswell, NM for the night. Sigh...
1:00 p.m. CST. Hwy 277 outside Munday, TX: This damned weather system keeps driving us further and further south before we turn west. Maureen just pointed out that we're barely any further west than Omaha, and we've been driving for 850 miles. And we long ago reached the point where every mile we go south is a mile we need to go back north at some point.
The latest plan (such as it is) is to head almost to Abilene, than take Highway 380 west into New Mexico. We considered picking up I-20, but that sags even further south before winding back toward Las Cruces. According to our GPS, Route 380 should get us into Lovington, NM by 7:00 p.m. or so. Then we can see what the forecast looks like for tomorrow before planning our next leg.
Not much of interest to report, since we were forced to detour around all of our potential stopping spots. There's nothing in this part of Texas but cotton fields and oil pumps. I guess I'll have to see Cadillac Ranch some other time.
3:00 p.m. CST. Post, TX: Somewhere about 100 miles ago, the landscape changed from cotton plains to Southwestern scrub. Rows of gnarled mesquite trees stretch toward a horizon studded with buttes. At their feet, low clusters of round, prickly pear cactuses are interspersed with their droopy, long-limbed cousins. And muddy rivers the color of cappuccino meander through wrinkled layers of red-orange soil.
The air in this part of Texas is pungent with the smell of petroleum gas, although we can't see anything that looks like a refinery. Maybe that's why so few people choose to live on so much land. The entire sweep of Kent County, which we just left, holds only 770 souls.
Since I began this entry, the terrain has changed again. The neat rows of dirt and skeletons of irrigation equipment tell us that this is farm country. We're making good progress toward New Mexico, and are thinking about pushing all the way to Carlsbad. Which reminds me that I'd better try to find us a hotel.
986 miles so far (because we know Julio is wondering).
6:30 p.m. MST. Carlsbad, NM: Made it to the Days Inn in Carlsbad, after some pretty torrential downpours en route. We're off to celebrate with mexican food and a margarita! Will post more (including pictures) later.
11:30 p.m. MST: Maureen wants to post the recap for tonight, so I'll just give you the link to our photo album. Although the "Free Hi-Speed Internet" here is free, the "hi-speed" part is debatable, so it may be tomorrow before this shows up online.
Saturday, December 30
3:00 p.m. MST. El Paso, TX: Maureen is still mulling over exactly how to describe our experiences last night (for now, let's just say it all went horribly Carlsbad) but I wanted to give our faithful readers a quick update on our progress. We just had a tasty Mexican lunch in El Paso, TX, and are back on the road toward Tucson, AZ, where we hope to spend the night.
Any regrets we had about taking the southern route (and Budget Rent-a-Truck's insurance policies prohibit us from going any further south than we are right now, smack up against the Mexican border) vanished when we heard the phrase "worst snowstorm in New Mexico history" on TV this morning. Almost every highway north of us is either closed or slowed to a crawl by the weather. Meanwhile, we're zipping along through the desert, and headed for sunny Southern Arizona.
We're running a bit behind schedule because we stopped for a quick tour of Carlsbad Caverns National Park, and wound up spending almost two hours there. The "Big Room" cave was absolutely amazing, and we lost track of time wandering around the massive underground chambers. We took tons of photos, so we'll post a few highlights when we get back to the land of high-speed Internet.
Mileage for Julio: 1,360.
9:45 p.m. MST. Tombstone, AZ: We didn't make it to Tucson, but that's 'cuz we decided to go someplace wayyyyy cooler: Tombstone, Arizona. Home of Boot Hill Cemetery, the OK Corral, and countless other cliches from Western movies. You can follow along with our trip here by visiting the photo album.
Sunday, December 31
3:00 p.m. MST. Phoenix, AZ: One word for Tombstone: Hilarious!
We walked the half-mile or so from the hotel into town, stopping at Boot Hill Cemetery, which was closed at that early hour. All of sudden, we turned a corner and it was like we'd stepped into some bizarre amalgamation of a movie set and a mall. Mustachioed men in 10-gallon hats and ankle length dusters wandered the wooden sidewalks, horse-drawn stagecoaches hauled tourists up and down Toughnut Street, and every store window looked in on the most incredible display of crappy, overpriced souvenirs you've ever seen.
We had breakfast at one of the "saloons," and were just starting back toward the car when we were accosted by a group of cowboys promising a "gunfight show that will kill you with laughter." How could we resist?
We paid our $4 each to enter Helldorado, the cheesy little theme park where the gunfight was held. If Tombstone is a cartoon recreation of the old west, then Helldorado is a cartoon recreation of a cartoon recreation. We tried our luck at the shooting range (if you need to pick one of us to cover your back for a gunfight, choose Maureen), then wandered over to the theater area where a dozen or so rows of bleachers overlooked "Main Street."
A few minutes later, one of the cowboys who had been touting the show outside the saloon came down the stairs firing his pistol. He instructed us to boo for the bad guys (who wore red sashes to make it obvious) and cheer for the good guys, then took his place on the Main Street set.
The show ran about 30 minutes, and was as full of corny jokes, loud gunshots, and bad acting as we could have ever hoped. The good guys prevailed (of course), and we dropped a couple bucks in the "tip spittoon" as we shuffled out, laughing at ourselves for enjoying the whole thing as much as we did. We were in such good moods, in fact, that we spent another $35 on a bleached longhorn skull to decorate our front porch back home. We hauled our new treasure back to the truck, jumped in, and headed back toward the Interstate.
A few miles up the road, however, the Border Patrol had set up a checkpoint. Our big rented truck was too tempting a target for them to let through, so we opened up the back door to give them a good look at all Maureen's worldly possessions. Satisfied that we weren't smuggling Mexicans in boxes labeled "Art Supplies," the officer waved us on.
The big decision now, as we speed toward the California border, is whether to stop in the Palm Springs area for the night, or just keep going all the way home. I guess we'll see how we feel after dark.
Mileage: 1,803. And my sore back feels each and every one of them.
11:00 p.m. PST. Bakersfield, CA: Happy New Year, everyone! We're in a Best Western hotel watching Dick Clark, after much debate about whether to drive the last 4+ hours home. We decided to play it safe, and be someplace other than behind the wheel of a truck at midnight.
Total mileage: 2,301. Relive the last 650 or so by browsing our photo album.
Monday, January 1, 2007(!)
3:00 p.m. PST. Half Moon Bay, CA: We made it! Rolled into our driveway around 2:30 p.m. and immediately headed out for lunch to fortify ourselves for unpacking. We'll post our final trip report on Tuesday, because right now we're exhausted.
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