Day 4: Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee

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On Missouri: Steve is convinced that they are running a state sponsored Scrabble game that is run from the roadside signs. See how well you can do.

On Illinois: I think it is quite possible that there wasn’t a single interesting thing that occurred in this state.

On Kentucky: While stopping at a roadside truck stop Brian overheard the following statement: “This right here is sonar. It will totally blow up radar.” Also from this truck stop: I purchased a cup of coffee that I swear was laced with amphetamines.

On Tennessee: The continental breakfast at our hotel is served in the Minnie Pearl room.

arch

Day 3: So long I80, It’s been real.

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Greetings from Missouri. We rolled in to St. Joseph, Missouri after another 12-hour travel day, and all I can say is Nebraska? Are you kidding me? Maybe it was because we had just gotten done enduring two days of barren moonscape scenery, but driving from the Western to Eastern edge of Nebraska was what one refers to when talking about straws and the backs of camels. About the time I was ready to fall into a driving coma, we made a sharp right hand turn in Lincoln City. Then, in the most amazing miracle of nature, we started to see green. Lots and lots of green. Oh Northeastern Iowa, you lush little manx, where have you been all my life?

As you can see from the photos, I my attention span only lasted so long before I resorted to taking shots of the sky and my feet.

Day 2: Eastbound 80

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I think this picture about sums it up:

roadsign

We looked at various iterations of this sign for 740 miles today. We moved into Mountain Time, and crossed the Continental Divide and spent 12 hours in the car. Oh, and we saw pronghorn antelope. Which, according to our two nerdy scientist travel companions, are actually specific to this region and this region only. Exciting to see, one might say. Who’da thunk it? I thought they were elk.

pronghorn antelope

Continental Divide

Wyomin''

Day 1: Humboldt to Humboldt

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Well, we spent about ten and a half hours on the road today, and as it turns out the one thing we forgot to pack was our extra set of lungs. The California wild fires rode shotgun during pretty much our entire journey today, and it is only now, in Winnemucca, Nevada that we are actually starting to see something resembling normal sky colors.

Overall, I’d say it was a pretty good first day, and tomorrow looks to be equally long, however there will be an added bonus in that tomorrow’s trip won’t both begin and end in Humboldt County.

andrea and natalie
(click photo to see the set)

Road Trip!

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There are probably quite a few of you who don’t yet know of our upcoming summer plans. And if you are wondering why our summer plans may have any relevance to your life, it’s because you will soon notice a whole lot of photos posted over on Flickr that you will think look like they were taken from a car window whilst going 75 miles an hour. And that will be because they were.

As I have mentioned (mostly in passing) our very good friends Andrea and Brian are moving back East. As the reality of the situation began to set in, and the discussions about them moving became more real, we began batting around the discussion of driving back with them. One thing led to another, and tomorrow at 7:00 am the four of us will be packing up two cars, two dogs and a cat and heading for North Carolina.

My sister and mom arrived today to begin their leg of the child care rotation that will unfold over the next 11 days. It will be the longest I have spent away from my children, and although I know they will be indulged on every level possible, it won’t change the fact that I will miss them terribly.

In the meantime, we are going to be hightailing it to parts unknown, blogging whenever possible, and keeping you updated on whatever ridiculous exploits Brian and Steve convince us are necessary for “bettering our moral selves”.