FLASHBACK! East Coast Girl Heads West, Vol 3, The Final Chapter

 Here is the last update from the road from my trip out on the road:

Well.  I've made it! 

I put the pedal to the metal (not really, Mom!) and hit up the final leg of the trip in a mere 19 hours.  The last leg of my trip went through Wyoming, Utah, Nevada, and California. 

I just couldn't do another day in the car!  I had to get through it!  Luckily, I had my fantastic friend Erin load me up with some books on tape, so I listened to Dan Brown's Angels and Demons and then a James Patterson murder mystery, which I promptly stopped listening to once I was past the midnite hour in Nevada.  I was never alone on the road; I called Erin before I stopped for gas the last time, since it was almost dark and then talked to Bryan once I was in California for the last few hours, telling them what
mile marker I was passing!  It was the safest trip across the desert, ever. 

Anyhow, now that my journey's are over, I am settling in to West Coast life.  I have unpacked the essentials out of the car so that I can actually see out the back
window and have made the initial contact and processing with the Oakland Teaching Fellows.  The summer institute starts on Monday, and school starts on August 29.  We'll see how learning to be a teacher works out!

There will be updates!  ("So the kids locked me in the closet again... the bulletproof vest looks fabulous with my new shoes... at least it wasn't a gun..." etc. etc.)  Ahh.  Wait and see.

I wish I had more amusing stories to detail.  Scratch that, I'm just glad I made it through the country WITHOUT having any of those it's-not-funny-now-but-will-be-later stories.  Except for that dang 4x4.  Ugh!  Stupid Kansas.  Er, Missouri.  Eh... most of the midwest and I don't get along... Wyoming wasn't the action-packed adventure it could have been either  :)

OH! I totally saw the houses from "Full House" last night!!  It was AWESOME!  Bryan and I were lost... okay, we just hadn't found our way to the concert venue... when we stumbled across the painted ladies!!!  It was soo cool!  Sing it with me: "Whatever happened to predicatibility.  The milkman, the paperboy, the evening tv.  You miss your old familiar friends, waiting just around the bend...."

Now that was symbolic. 

I'll start individually responding soon!  I'm off to read a 400 page booklet on basic teaching strategies.
Super. 

Love you all!  Thanks for the thoughts and prayers!

Much love from the left coast!
Torrey