| 1,597 miles to go 06.18.02 |
| I'm sure it wasn't a record, but we definitely surprised everyone--including ourselves--by making it home by Tuesday. We set off from Chicago at noon on Sunday and stayed at a Motel 6 a few miles from the border of Iowa and Nebraska, checking in around 9 p.m. The next day, we were up at the crack of dawn and made it through Nebraska and Wyoming, such HUGE boring states. By 10 p.m., we were at Salt Lake City at another Motel 6. Another early start, after a few minutes at the Mormon Tabernacle, and we were speeding through the rest of Utah, Nevada, and finally California! Throughout the entire trip, we didn't run into any traffic and often didn't see too many other cars on the road. But as soon we got to California, the traffic got thicker and the downtown rush-hour traffic through Sactown slowed us down, pulling us into the driveway around 6 p.m. on Tuesday. It was all such a blur, though at the time, the miles just stretched themselves at. Word to the wise: if you don't have to take a road trip through Nebraska and Wyoming--DON'T...unless you make it a point to see some interesting points of interest along the way. The Great Salt Lake Desert is pretty fascinating...a huge expanse of flat whiteness, almost looking like snow. Many people had spelled out words or drawn pictures with small rocks in the white sand. Utah is fairly nice but California certainly beats them all as the most beautiful state along the route--and I'm not just being biased. Through the flat scenery of NE and WY, you can't help but get bored of it, even though it's all bright green, lush land. A. said that any green lover would get tired of green after that. Well, not this one. But still, anything out of the ordinary fascinated us. "Ooh! Round bales of hay!" *click, click* to take a picture. "Wow, look at all those cows!" "Hey look at that road sign!" Every few seconds, bugs met their death on our windshield, and sadly enough, many deer and other creatures met theirs on the side of the road. It was great to see A. again and it was like we had never had much time apart. It was fortunate that we kept in contact throughout the past year or else it might have been awkward to meet up again. It was just like old times...silly quips, dorky comments, me having to defend Lisa Loeb, etc. On our last day, we began to memorize the states alphabetically and although A. got tired of it, I saw it as a challenge to make the rest of the trip go by faster. So not like anyone cares, but I want to see if, a day later, I can still recall the states...Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Washington, D.C., West Virginia, Wisconsin, Wyoming...all 50! Look ma, no peeking! I'm still working on the capitals. So see, it's really pointless to learn all that, but when you're driving ALL day, you try to keep yourself occupied with the little things. It was interesting to see other parts of the country, and interesting to be driving through every mile of it on I-80, but I didn't realize how much I appreciated California, even after being away for only a few days. It's such a beautiful state and right when you enter, you're greeted by the breathtaking scenery of Tahoe. Would I do it again? I don't know...I would like to check out the Northeast, and I would also like to explore more of the sights of Colorado. I used to think the U.S. was so big, but after the past few days, it seems like the country is more within our reach than we realized. |
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