FLASHBACK! East Coast Girl Heads West, Vol 2 (or, Why I Hate Kansas)

Here's the update from my second day on the road.  Here I did not tell anyone that I was
alone, but did have quite the adventure!

I'll make this update much shorter, since it's late and I hate Kansas.  I mean, since I'm tired.  I have successfully made it to Golden, Colorado, home of Coors Brewery and best friend Erin!  The last two hours of my trip today were wonderful, but the first two hours were... well, more exciting...

I ran over a four-by-four.

And before you judge, no, I did not have time to swerve effectively, as I was in a work zone and had a guardrail to my left and a tractor trailer to my right.  Turns out, I did not plan on hitting a giant piece of wood.  Go figure.  So the tire (sans hubcap) looked okay when I stopped for the second tank of gas the first time, but not so hot when I stopped in Russel, Kansas.

Ahh Kansas.  If you ever want a fate worse than death, drive through Kansas. 

A Kansas mechanic did only charge me $12 to unbend my tire rim and patch the tire "the farmer's way" and assured me that I would be able to get where I needed to go.  So far, so good.  I have noticed that the tire is slightly flatter now that I'm in Colorado, but I feel like compared to the Rockies, everything seems flat.  Ha, ha.  Seriously, I've bought my can o' Fix-a-flat and am ready to take on Nevada tomorrow.  Or just Utah; we'll see how far the Suby goes! 

I'm having a lovely night in Golden (it's nice to be able to talk to someone face-to-face, especially when it involves margaritas and chocolate kahula cake!)  and will start my journey again tomorrow. 

Talk to you soon!

Love,

Torrey

So I've now minimized my hate of Kansas, since the whole situation really wasn't that bad and I'm actually thinking that since I ran over the block of wood in Kansas City, MO, the blame should be on Missouri (which I have since visited and rather enjoyed, thanks to ADEC!)  I'm hoping the the general "awfulness" of what happened on Day 2 is about the level of bad stuff that happens to us on Coast to Coast 2010.  Luckily, I've got my AAA plus membership and my AAA car emergency kit (cheaper here even with shipping than it was anywhere else I looked, including target)  Think good thoughts for exactly 2 weeks from today when the adventure starts!

Vegas!

Welcome, followers!  If our following continues to grow exponentially, I see us taking over the world in about two weeks. 

So our next stop after LA is Vegas.  Here we plan to take a breath and stay for a couple of days.  We've been debating hotels and deals (and have already decided to lie about how many people are in our group because some hotels charge anywhere from $10 to $30 a night per person for persons #3 and #4 and beyond.  At that point, everyone should have their own hotel room!)  The only thing I know for sure is that I want to have us in the middle of the strip (think Caesar's/Bally's/etc.) but don't want to pay an arm and a leg (so the two story suite at the Bellagio is out, as much as Michael wants to stay there.)  I would not mind some "lazy river" action because I have an inner tube from a stay at the Monte Carlo that needs to see the light of day (and justify why I have kept a tube for 3 years) Thus, we have not planned a hotel. 

While in Vegas, we are seeing Love at the Mirage and then Viva Elvis at the Wynn (warning: that link involves a siren noise as the start of Jailhouse Rock)  I had no idea that I would be so enamored with Cirque du Soleil until I saw my first two shows in Las Vegas a couple of years ago.  So this will be my second viewing of Love and then we will all get to experience Viva Elvis for the first time together! 

In other entertainment, we plan on taking in the fountains at the Bellagio along with the crab legs at the buffet and maybe some MGM lion habitat and Treasure Island Siren show.  I have never been to Sin City with children so I'm not sure what else to do, while trying to avoid the worst of the heat. 

We will be going to Hoover Dam, the Grand Canyon and four corners on our way out of Vegas so no suggestions for that!

Victoria

FLASHBACK! East Coast Girl Heads West, Vol 1

Although many of you may have already read this, here was the first day of my solitary trip across the country, on June 20, 2005:

Hey Everyone!

I just wanted you all to know where I am and what I am up to so far in my journey to Cali!!!

I did not end up going to Kentucky... I did end up staying an extra day in Frederick to pack up my life (My mom walked in and commented "I should have come up yesterday," just to give you an idea of the mess that I had made!) It was nice to have the extra night to spend with some of my favorite Hoodlums!  I drove off Monday morning around 8 am down the glory that is Interstate 70 West. 

In the last 14 hours, I've made it through Pennsylvannia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Missouri.  That's a 7 state day!  I've seen more interesting town names than I thought possible.  (Note to Indiana: Having towns named Brazil and Paris does not make a Midwestern state exotic).  I've also hit up the musical catalog.  I must look ridiculous to those I'm passing by... this little girl in a car stuffed to the gills, singing her heart out. 

Anyway, it's 10:30 pm CST and I'm exhausted.  The Comfort Inn bed in Kingdom City, Missouri is calling my name! 

Talk to you soon!

Love,
Torrey

P.S.  I have not driven in the dark, told anyone that I'm alone and defenseless, I'm staying in a hotel that you have to walk into to stay in, and all that jazz!  I'm being safe--promise!

Great times!  And the change in the trip this time, it's going to take us about 4 days to get out of one state.  Silly west coast. 

The p.s. is a reference to all of the rules that my family and co-workers pounded into my head before I left on the trip by myself. And I followed them mostly... so, just to get this off my chest: at a Steak and Shake (shout out to Amber and Jay!) in Indiana I absolutely DID tell an older guy that I was traveling alone and he regaled me with stories of his mother-in-law.  I feared that he was going to serial killer me off for about 500 miles, but it appears that he was just some weird dude in a Steak and Shake who really needed to talk about his in-law.  Sorry mom!

Victoria

The Bay to LA

Okay, so I'm a daily double poster.  We'll pretend it's me being productive, but really I am taking a break from packing and cleaning and selling and planning (for teaching, not from the trip!)

We will start our trip in the Bay because that's where I live (so smart, right?)  Abby gets in earlier in the week, so she will be forced to do all the things that I haven't done in the last five years, including but not limited to the Charles Schultz museum and the SF zoo.   Mom and Michael will be forced into my world famous San Francisco in a day trip, which I have almost perfected in my tenure here.

Read about Dani's SF in a day in a experience.

The conundrum is that Michael is reading Al Capone Does My Shirts for school and it amazingly takes place at Alcatraz, so that looks like a "have to," which throws off the general plan for SF in a day, so we'll see how that fits in to the day experience.  Another necessity is that we hit Fenton's, an Oakland mainstay even before it was featured in Pixar's UP.  The service is usually horrendous (although it was astonishingly better when Dani and I went) but the ice cream creations are worth it.  Fenton's was the first restaurant I ate at when I moved to Oakland, so it has a special place in my heart.

Our trip around the bay has to be pretty quick because Michael has his heart set on finding Rob Dyrdrek's Fantasy  Factory, as well as "the stars on the ground" and the Hollywood sign.  We'll have to hit up the Venice Beach boardwalk and the Santa Monica pier (magical at night!)  And, of course, we're seeing my favorite roommate, Courtney, before I head out of the state... but it will be a quick one before we hit ...

VEGAS!

Does anyone have any LA suggestions?  Any must sees?

Victoria

It's the map!

Of course, I sang the title of this blog like I was on Dora the Explorer.  The pitfalls of being a pre-school teacher!

Anyway, I'd like to welcome our first official follower, Jessica!  I'd like to note that Jessica was one of my very first best Oakland friends who I suffered through Oakland Teaching Fellows with (we will have some retro blogs to demonstrate what summer that was!) So welcome Jessica!  The rest of you can join our trip anonymously, if you want to continue to be creepy.  I kid, I kid!

So, back to business...

Our official route is google mapped here

Okay, I have got to figure out if that actually worked, but I'm sure I'll work out the kinks at some point.  My next posts will give more detailed ideas about what we are going to do at each stop, but please feel free to post suggestions!

Victoria

Here's what we're dealing with...

First of all, I stole this picture off of google images, so sorry dude who takes pictures of his car, I do not (also, nice wheels... I am missing a hub cap, so picture that, blog readers!)

Okay, so we will be fitting 4 people plus 4 people's stuff in this itty bitty car whose interior shrinks every time I tell how many people will be joining us on the trip.  Now, before you get all "you'll never fit!" on me, let me remind you that I've been mailing my personal possessions--including one Pixie cat--to NJ for almost exactly one year.  Therefore there is significantly less stuff on this coast than I had previously, but I still have a fair amount of loved objects that will not be left out west. 

Anyone else worried?

Add some of this action:

the Coleman Premium 28 QT cooler (bought on sale of course; thank you picnic friendly 4th of July sales!)  and the trunk gets a bit smaller!  I have to say that this specific cooler took a lot of time finding... I'm either becoming very grown up OR I'm a Pisces through and through because who can't make a decision about a cooler?  We had some specifications to keep in mind: it couldn't be too big, we have to be able to open it from the back seat, and it has to keep stuff cold while we're driving through the desert in August.

My ultimate goal is to be able to close the trunk flap at night, which means even less space for worldly possessions.  Exciting, no?  Just a little look into the process of our road trip!

Victoria

We're online!

This is the inaugural blog post for the great trip out east!

(More actual content to follow later!)