Day 10 - September 9, 2011

Sorry for the delay on this post, it's been hectic moving in and going to orientations. But the destination has been reached!

But before I go into our new place in Oregon, I need to go back to Nebraska, the country's worst state to drive across. But it's not the fact that I stared at cornfields and open highway for seven straight hours and had complete, meaningful conversations with the cats in attempt to quell the boredom. It's this I want to talk about:

 your toilet's worst nightmare

It was long past lunchtime and Arthur and I decided to make a stop to eat food. For 99% of the roadtrip, I was the front driver. But for some strange, horrible reason, Arthur was leading when we pulled off I-80. We had chosen a great exit for food variety. McDonald's, Subway, Arby's. Burger King, a few others. I was hopeful that one of these places would be satisfactory enough for Arthur. But his love for Mexican food and his curiosity for a place he had never eaten before overrode the risk of what this place could do to our already-weakened digestive systems, and with horrible dread, I tried to come to terms with the fact that his car was pulling into the Taco John's parking lot and I had no choice but to follow.

It was, by far, the worst filth I have ever put into my body, and I'll keep it at that. If the world is ending and you have to choose between starvation or Taco John's, starvation is the preferred option. Just don't eat there. Nothing good can come out of a place that makes Taco Bell look like a five-star paradise. And Taco John's has now completely ruined Nebraska for me because it's all I can think about every time I relive my experience driving through that state. Nebraska probably has some redeeming qualities. Like endless corn on the cob and limitless cow dung. But I can never embrace those redeeming qualities, ever. Damn you, Taco John's!

Anyway, back to the trip. Colorado was a great vacation and I can totally see myself living there someday, even though my car hated navigating the Rockies. Apparently trucks hate navigating the Rockies as well, because the interstate was full of these runaway truck lanes that cut off into a steep incline for those times when, you know, your brakes decide to quit, nbd. They were really quite terrifying.

Yeah I'll just ram my car up this 90 degree incline no prob

 Also there were multiple warnings of 5 and 6% downgrades, which aren't that big of a deal - they exist in Western Mass, no problem. A 15% grade on a dirt road, however, is the equivalent of driving off a cliff, and Arthur's car decided to throw a tantrum after that one and the result was a temporary loss of power steering. I guess it didn't like the exhilaration of off-roading.

Utah brought more mountain driving, which my car protested every step of the way. Unfortunately, keeping one eye on my temp gauge meant taking pictures while driving became increasingly more difficult so I only got one decent shot:

And I am going to snag a photo off of Google Images to show you Black Dragon Canyon, which we drove through. It was so gorgeous!

Charlie, however, wasn't enthused.

When we left the morning of the 9th, we were gung-ho on getting through the rest of Utah, Idaho, and across Oregon in one day, so we whipped through the last leg of the drive and made it into Albany at midnight - 16 hours straight of driving. It was as awful as it sounds.

Idaho was boring, but at least it was flatter so I didn't have to worry so much about my car. It was covered in those windmill things - there were literally hundreds of them all over and you could see them going back for miles. They're kind of creepy.

And then, finally, the last state crossing!

I celebrated until I realized I still had nine more hours of driving

The Oregon drive was beautiful, especially through the Blue Mountains. 

... and then it got dark so I pretty much missed out on seeing everything cool. But we made it in that night and the kitties were very happy to have a whole apartment to bounce around in. All night long. 

Our apartment is really cute, clean, and bright. It's in a state of chaos right now because all our things made it yesterday so there are boxes everywhere, but I'll post pictures on Facebook, featuring our beautiful new couch, when it's done. 

OSU is a beautiful campus and meeting all the other grad students at orientation was really great. I don't start classes until the 26th, but I'm excited to get started. Oregon itself is wonderful - minus the fact that it's illegal to pump my own gas (I already had to be a bitch to the attendant - I told you I wanted premium, dammit!), everything is really relaxed and convenient. And the Mexican food? To die for. 

And this completes my blog - I've run out of country to drive on :) Here is the obligatory map, and thanks everyone for following! When are y'all coming out to visit? :)

Day 9 - September 8, 2011

Short and boring post tonight because I'm exhausted the internet connection is absolutely awful at this stupid motel and I have to wait half an hour just to open an email. But anyway, we opted to skip taking I-80 to Salt Lake City and took some smaller, much more scenic routes instead. We drove through canyons and desert and prairie and it was incredible. However, these more scenic routes tacked on an extra four hours onto our trip, which we did not anticipate :( so instead of reaching our new apartment tomorrow night, it looks like our trip is going to carry into late Saturday morning.

Down for the night in Nephi, UT. I'll post pictures tomorrow!

Day 5, 6, 7, and 8 - September 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th 2011

We made it to Colorado Springs on Sunday night and it is absolutely incredible up here in the mountains. We're staying for a few days since we do have some time to kill (all our things aren't going to make it to Oregon until the 15th!) and enjoying a vacation :)

We're staying with the cats in a gorgeous motorhome. Merlin enjoys the view:

We took quads out the first day and went driving up through the mountains. It was beautiful!

It's Jeeps or bust out here!

Where we're staying:

We're heading to town today and then leaving to head on the road again tomorrow morning - not looking forward to three more days of driving after being able to relax here. If all goes according to plan, we'll be at our new apartment by Saturday!

Day 4 - September 3, 2011

Today was an exciting day. It started with my first exposure of exotic fast food in Indiana:

However, things got way more interesting right after we crossed the border into Illinois - I had lost Arthur at the tolls, didn't realize I-80 and I-90 split, and continued driving down the newly separated I-90, blissfully unaware that I had missed the exit for I-80. I was so blissfully unaware, in fact, that I didn't realize something was horribly wrong until I found myself on the Chicago Skyway heading right into downtown Chicago. Don't worry, my GPS steered me back on the right track - after taking me through a thoroughly detailed tour of the Chicago ghettos.

I just want to express how disappointed I was with the actual Chicago Skyway. If you're going to call something a skyway, it better be cool. I expected a scenic drive over the city (high up, you know? Sky?) with some nice views. What did I get? Nothing. It was just a stupid road that I had to pay $3.50 to drive on - and I didn't even want to drive on it in the first place.

I really like Iowa. It was stormy for most of our drive and everything is so open, you can watch the storms roll in and see lightning all around you, it's really cool. These pictures do the sky no justice (taken with my phone while driving, ha), but it was really dark and quite dynamic.

And of course Iowa came along with the infamous gas station:

Watching the sun set all around us tonight while on the road was beautiful. We quit for the night in Adair, IA, which is about two hundred miles away from the halfway point of Lincoln Nebraska. We should make it to Colorado Springs by tomorrow night to visit Arthur's family. 

Day 3 - September 2, 2011

Today, I learned:

• Ohio is a much bigger state than it looks, especially when you're trying to drive across it
• New York tolls are highway robbery
• Don't ever choose the cheapest bike rack at Target, and if you do, make sure you have bungee cords
• The Great Lakes are really quite large

Today, Merlin learned:

• How to slip out of his harness

Merlin's new trick meant that he got to ride in the front for a portion of today's drive, and it also meant I had to reconfigure the way the car was packed because I finally admitted defeat - the cats do not want to ride in the hatch, and there is absolutely no way I can make them. I have tried everything, short of supergluing them to the hatch floor.

Merlin also got very creative today with his sleeping positions. It was hard to capture how contorted he was because I was sitting too closely, but here's him while sitting in traffic in Cleveland:

One back leg is propped on my water bottle in the cupholder, the other is stretched forward to his nose, and the shifter knob is pretty much rammed up his butt. Clearly, this is much more comfortable than the cat bed in the hatch.

We stopped for the day in Toledo, OH. There is nothing exciting here and it's a little sketchy. Looking forward to the miles of cornfields ahead. 

Day 2- September 1, 2011

Today was spent travelling to the Door to Door facility, unloading all our things into a box, and then dropping off the UHaul trailer. We got on the road around 5:30 pm and we didn't even make it out of Groveland before the cats shoved through the netting I had rigged up to keep them in the hatch of the car and buried themselves in the piles of clothes I have in my backseat. Fortunately, they're being quiet passengers otherwise.

We made it to Amsterdam, NY for the evening before deciding to call it quits for the night. It was really sad leaving Massachusetts - this whole move has happened so fast and with the stress of the trailer yesterday, it hasn't really sunk in until now that we're not going back to our little basement dungeon apartment in Sunderland.

I have an insane addiction to pamphlets, and I of course scouted out what the motel had when we got here. Mostly pamphlets for Quebec, and I don't think Arthur would appreciate a detour there.

Day 1 - August 31, 2011

Amherst, MA to Groveland, MA

Welcome to my very short and most likely very boring blog - I'm not going to be doing much besides driving, after all. But I figured I'd track my progress and update everyone along the way as I go!

Day 1 started off as really exciting because I learned after half an hour on the Mass Pike heading home that hauling a uhaul trailer across the country with my car just wasn't going to be possible. So we sat on the lawn of a Super 8 motel in Sturbridge with the cats, waiting for my dad and his trusty truck to come get this damn trailer.

After many phone calls on Arthur's part, we had a plan B in action. Door to Door Moving Service, who I cannot recommend enough, could take all of our crap right away for the only affordable place we could find. Even better, UHaul was willing to refund us. So we made it back to Groveland all in one piece, and my car is much more pleased about doing the cross-country drive all by herself.