3 days, 5 cities...

Joshua Tree

Thursday morning Kt and I woke up bright and early ready to visit Joshua Tree National Park and head to San Diego. Before we left to explore the park we stopped in at the wonderfully tasty and inspiringly hippie Crossroads Cafe for breakfast. I think Kt wished she lived in Joshua Tree just so she could be a regular there. With local artwork hung on the walls, a coffeehouse/bar vibe, and nice fluffy pancakes, we were sold.

Due to the heat and our desire to get to San Diego before it got too late, we didn't hike much, but instead drove through the scenic loop and stopped for pictures. We also repeatedly expressed gratitude that we were not camping as there was NO shade and tents were literally backed up against boulders in the heat of the day. Joshua Tree is definitely a place I would like to return with more time and cooler weather. The rocks are ridiculous, looking more like giant (really giant) pebbles stacked into dirt piles, than mountains (which I guess they are), and the night sky is unbelievable. I literally watched the stars twinkle and repeatedly compared them to what I've seen only in a planetarium.

We got in to San Diego around 3 where we stayed with our friend Tommy for the next two nights. Tommy proved to be a great tour guide and had a list of fun things for us to do in the city. That night we went to the famous San Diego Zoo and saw lions and tigers and bears, oh my! (and elephants, pandas, koalas, rhinos, hippos, giraffes, gorillas, etc etc etc). I tried some of my evasive bear attack techniques and I'm happy to report I think I am now prepared for Yellowstone as I clearly escaped the zoo unscathed. We stayed until dark and then went to the Gaslamp District for dinner.

La Jolla

Friday we planned to go kayaking in the La Jolla caves, but due to wave heights we instead drove to another part of La Jolla to see the sea lions and then on to Ocean Beach, Mission Beach, and Pacific Beach. Once home we went to the Padres game where we stuffed ourselves, enjoyed a win, and watched fireworks. Tommy also got to meet Cheech Marin who was eating lunch where we were.

Padres game with Tommy

This morning Kt and I got back in the car to drive up the coast towards San Fran. We took the PCH most of the way up stopping for In-N-Out Burger, an Elephant Seal sighting, the Whale Watcher Cafe, and a beach along the way. We, of course, also made a quick stop to put flowers in our hair. The drive was beautiful, but different than I expected in a few ways: 1. Though I expected the road to be along the beach and with cliffs, I did not expect winding, nauseating roads reminiscent of Arizona's Coconino Forest; 2. It is COLD! 3. It was foggy/smoggy most of the way here due to the marine layer (I thought Cali was sunny); 4. IT'S COLD (highs in the 60's)! 5. It's surprisingly similar what I imagine Ireland/England to look like.

Elephant Seals

We arrived to San Fran, where it is even colder and windy, and drove around the block about 4 times before finding our hotel. After driving up the same extremely steep hills, screaming the whole way as we rolled back at each stoplight (remember Clueless when Dion gets on the highway?), but finally arrived at the beautiful Mark Hopkins InterContinental. This is by far our biggest splurge, but I have to admit, it feels nice.

I hope everyone has a wonderful 4th of July! Think of me and light a sparkler or blow something colorful up in my honor tomorrow. We are on day 14 and approximately 3500 miles from home...but still loving this moment.

Then things started to get tents...

Pun intended.

Lincoln National Forest

Yesterday Kt and I left Carlsbad around 9:30 hoping to arrive in the Grand Canyon before dark. We got some sparse directions from someone at the KOA who suggested we drive through Cloudcroft instead of Roswell for a prettier route. Her advice did not disappoint as each mile grew more beautiful. It's almost as if God was hearing our exclamations and saying, “Oh yeah? You think that's cool?” and then around the next curve something even more astounding would come over the horizon. While we were silenced into a reverent state by the natural beauty around us, we noticed far less natural things happening with the technology in front of us. We had lost service, lost the power to charge anything through the cigarette lighters, and were quickly losing charge. Directions were not existent, contact was lost and power was gone.

I had picked up a map of New Mexico at the KAO by chance (you taught me well mom) and had also grabbed a KAO guide that included basic maps of each state. Using a combination of the two we somehow managed to find our way. Yep, I am now a professional cartographer. I will not say we did not miss a few road signs or that we smiled beatifically the whole time, BUT we did make it to the GC safely. Albeit 14 hours later. To be fair, we drove blue highways and mountains and weren't afraid to stop for a picture or two. We drove through the smoky mountain-esque Lincoln National Forest, saw White Sands, past the Valley of Fire, the site of the first atomic bomb, the Malais Mountains, the village of Tularosa (twice), stopped at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert State Park, onto the Coconino State Forest, through a few restricted Native American reservations (oops) and crossed into a new time zone (who knew Az (only parts mind you) didn't do day light savings time?).

We made it to Flagstaff around 9:30 and headed up more mountains and into Kaibab State Forest. Kt saw 4 deer (I only saw 3) one of which was a 6-8 point buck about to cross the road. I don't think we are in West Palm anymore. The higher we climbed, about 8,000 feet, the cooler it got. By the time we reached site 148 we were exhausted and ready for those KOA yellow shirts to greet us. Except we aren't staying in a KOA. As we set up the tent, things got increasingly tense. A word of advice to those who may follow our path: it's not the dark that makes putting the tent up hard, it's 14 hours on the road, dark, cold, and exhaustion that make it difficult. Though we alienated all of our camping neighbors, we did manage to finally set ourselves up and were giggling while we fell asleep. After all, we are in the Grand Canyon.

Today we are taking it slow and getting settled. We will be here four nights and could use a little relaxing. We had our first glimpse of the GC today and....it deserves it's own post.

Pictures are coming, I promise!

***Special thanks and a note: Kt drove the ENTIRE way to the GC. I think she deserves a few woot woots (it's the farthest she's driven in one stretch!). Also, I still don't have service and we are having a hard time charging so the blogs may be few and far between as well as the phone calls.

Desert by night. And by blur

Really doing it....

We set out this morning right on schedule and ready to get into NOLA around 7 pm. Then a tire blew. In Port St. Lucie. It was.....classic.

After AAA showed up, we made it to a Walmart where we replaced our tire, added 3 hours to our arrival time, and befriended our 10 year old mechanic. Finally, off we went.

We crossed four state lines today as we went from Florida to Alabama, Mississippi and then Louisiana. Though we got in later than we had hoped, we still made it safely to NOLA where we checked into our historic hotel that is currently undergoing renovations. The jury is still out, but I think we'll be quite comfortable. A quick late night meal and N'Awlins Golden Ale, a few conversations with some locals and we are ready to call it day one.

We are really doing it.

Thank you so much for your all thoughts, prayers, and good wishes. We are ready to experience it all. I am repeatedly reminded of e.e. cummings' poem, somewhere i have never traveled gladly and beyond; we are somewhere we have never traveled and we will continue gladly beyond.

I'm having some trouble uploading pictures tonight, so I will try again in the morning.

As the pile grows...

...so does my unfounded anxiety. For some reason today has brought some sort of bizarre anxiousness with it. Maybe it's just the Barry Manilow medley Kt is currently singing.

Paula Abdul had it right.

Now that school is out for summer (cue Alice Cooper), Kt and I have stepped up our preparation for the impending trip, while simultaneously dealing with my procrastination head on. This may come as a shock to some, but I am a fabulous procrastinator and manage to resort to organized chaos. O.k. semi-disorganized chaos. Kt, on the other hand, is uber-organized and matches my fabulosity with procrastination with her mad skills of list making and sorting. Kt's packing list easily has 137 items on it, while mine looks a little something like this:

Sunday night I may up it to 4 items

Like Ms. Abdul once told me, opposites attract and therefore we only have a few more things to "collect" before we leave. This time next Monday (barring natural disasters and the ridiculousness of life I've come to expect) Kt and I will be well on our way to NOLA. Our goal is to be as flexible as possible and we expect plans to change. With that said, I will use the word "plans" as a loosely defined term needed linguistically to communicate and not as something we are determined to do or dead set on happening. So, for those of you are wondering and have been asking, here is our plan:

		Destination
Day 1	Mon, June 21	WPB to New Orleans
Day 2	Tues, June 22	New Orleans
Day 3	Wed, June 23	New Orleans, La to Houston,Tx via Baton Rouge
Day 4	Thurs, June 24	Houston to Carlsbad, NM via San Antonio
Day 5	Fri, June 25	Carlsbad
Day 6	Sat, June 26	Carlsbad to Grand Canyon, Az via White Sands
Day 7	Sun, June 27	Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Sedona
Day 8	Mon, June 28	Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Sedona
Day 9	Tues, June 29	Grand Canyon, Flagstaff, Sedona
Day 10	Wed, Jun 30	Grand Canyon to Joshua Tree, Ca
Day 11	Thurs, July 1	Joshua Tree to San Diego, Ca
Day 12	Fri, July 2	San Diego
Day 13	Sat, July 3	San Diego to San Francisco
Day 14	Sun, July 4	San Francisco
Day 15	Mon, July 5	San Francisco
Day 16	Tues, July 6	San Francisco to Napa, Ca
Day 17	Wed, July 7	Napa to Redwoods, Ca
Day 18	Thurs, July 8	Redwoods
Day 19	Fri, July 9	Redwoods to Seattle, Wa via Portland?
Day 20	Sat, July 10	Seattle
Day 21	Sun, July 11	Seattle to Bozeman, MT/Yellowstone
Day 22	Mon, July 12	Yellowstone/Bozeman to Denver, Co
Day 23	Tues, July 13	Denver
Day 24	Wed, July 14	Denver
Day 25	Thurs, July 15	Denver
Day 26	Fri, July 16	Denver to Badlands, SD
Day 27	Sat, July 17	Badlands
Day 28	Sun, July 18	Badlands to Chicago, Ill
Day 29	Mon, July 19	Chicago to Winchester, Va
Day 30	Tues, July 20	Winchester, DC, New York, Philly
Day 31	Fri, July 21	Winchester, DC, New York, Philly
Day 32	Sat, July 22	Winchester, DC, New York, Philly
Day 33	Sun, July 23	Winchester, DC, New York, Philly
Day 34	Mon, July 24	Winchester to West Palm Beach (Flow-Rida)

Guess who made this chart?

There are a few changes already in the works (Yosemite?) and places we want to stay longer (Seattle), but for the most part this a fairly accurate guide to our 34ish days on the road.

So, what do you suggest? Places to stop in those states? Eateries, attractions, last minute tips? We'll take them. Well, I'll read them and if I like them I'll pass them on to Kt (insert emoticon smiley. I don't publicly emoticon).

I'll update this picture as we (Kt) organize(s) this pile.

14 days....

Sample Print via Art.com

"For what was a vacation but a chance to be someone different?"

David Sedaris, When You Are Engulfed in Flames

What's in a Name?

Juliet famously asks this question after meeting her star crossed lover, and asks us if a rose would smell so sweet if it was called, say, “frog”. Though Shakespeare seems to think a name means little (or at least lets his heroine believe so), I disagree. A name means a lot. A name is how we're known, how we're identified by friends and family and how we present ourselves to our society. I'm a firm believer in names. Do I think names predetermine our futures? Maybe not, but I think names are important and deserve thought and time. That being said, my poor children will probably lay around nameless for God knows how long, while I “try on” possible names for them. Hope they like “baby” in the meantime.

Though perhaps not as important as living things, a blog deserves a good name too. And THIS blog deserves a really good name. For years, I have dreamed of going on a road trip. And by road trip, I mean Road Trip. In high school I wrote short stories about road tripping cross country and learning about not only oneself, but the world in which we live (embarrassingly enough, I'm not joking, that's really what they were about. Most of my stories also involved red jeeps....guess I haven't changed much). In college, I planned road trips, mini-road tripped to Ohio, Virginia and Philly, and often thought of simply using 4 wheels to escape whatever ailed me. Needless to say, road trips have long appealed to me, so when Kt mentioned going to California this summer, and I shuttered at the thought of another stagnate summer in Florida, a neon sign lit in my mind and the words it so beautifully flashed were: Road. Trip. Kt was game and our plans began to form.

It was not until this weekend when things finally calmed down enough for both of us to be able to sit down and start planning definitively. We breakfasted Saturday and, while sipping coffee and sneaking bites of blueberry pancakes, we began to actually write down our plans. Later that afternoon, between booking our hotel in New Orleans and yelling out names of random cities that called to us, “Loving, New Mexico! We have to stop there!” Kt began loading her new iPod with music. Now, if you've spent more than twenty minutes with me, you're probably aware of my Counting Crows/Adam Duritz obsession, (I. LOVE. THEM.) so when August and Everything After began playing, I felt some sort of divine intervention. As we planned, and sang along with Adam, so many feelings ran around in my head...road trip....3,0000,0000,008 things to see....California...the Painted Desert...Mt. Rushmore?...I can go anywhere. I am about to live the life I imagined. (So cheesy I just gagged, but so true it had to be said).

The Counting Crows' song, Omaha, is a song about starting over, life going on, and beginning again even when we think we can't. It's a sort of redemption song about what really matters, as opposed to all the crap that usually chokes us up, messies up our lives, and distracts us, or makes us feel worthless. Like when we think we'll never achieve those things we dreamed of, when life begins to get monotonous, or when we want to get our money back at the door, Omaha reminds us there is another; there's more. It's also an ironic song, because while seeming to deep-down offer hope, at times, it definitely seems more hopeless. But, man, I love my irony. And in that vein, the irony was not lost on me when Kt and I loudly sang, “Omaha, somewhere in middle America...” It was also no coincidence when Kt later sent me a link to Roadtripusa.com with the comment: “Start threading the needle”, as that's exactly what we're about to do as we sew our paths, stitch by stitch, across the middle, outside and inside of America. As that phrase keeps repeating itself, I realized...that's the name. So tonight, as I book our home away from home campsite in the Grand Canyon, I realize, I'm threading that needle, I'm putting one more connection, making one more stitch through this crazy life, and that's what names are all about. Connection.

So, what's in a name? Quite a lot.