How did I get here?

I told you I moved. What I haven't told you yet is how I got here...

I left Boston with my boyfriend, Tim, on July 19th and drove across the country in my brand new car, Norbert. We planned our (ambitious) route covering 6 days and more than 3,000 miles- stopping at some well known, other more obscure tourist attractions along the way. It was a ridiculous amount of driving and there were times when I was pretty sure I was hallucinating (really- how can there be that many corn and cow fields in 1 state?!)- but it was an amazing experience and I greatly encourage all of you to do it. Right now. Just go!

The days leading up to the trip were probably the hardest. I kept envisioning packing my car with all of my belongings, then getting into some kind of freak accident involving a booze crazed truck driver, winding cliff lined mountain roads, thousands of feather covered chicken cages and, most certainly, a tragic fiery death. Luckily for me (and the chickens) none of these highly unlikely, irrational, neurotic & fantastical situations occurred... and if there were any booze crazed truck drivers, we didn't happen to cross paths.

Our first stop was Niagra Falls.

Tim was reluctant to stop so close to home for fear of seeming like a tourist- but I whined so we went :) Naturally, the falls were gorgeous! It's hard to deny the awesomeness of something so massive, and it's probably safe to say "I told you so" to Tim... but I won't. We managed to take plenty of good pics before the strangers started offering to take them of us together (why is that so awkward?), and we even got some super hott ponchos so we could walk down next to the falls. My favorite part was the squishy sound from the sweet foam sandals they gave us!

The next leg of our trip was less exciting as far as terrain (corn & cows...), but we did happen upon some of the biggest (read: scariest) thunderstorms I've even seen in my life. You could see the rain coming for you... I mean towards you, and that felt pretty cool and we did get some pretty pictures. A quick drive through St. Louis, stop at the Meramac Caverns, and we were well on our way to Texas. I'll spare you the details of Oklahoma. (Cows... oh, and corn).

 I have to say, Texas and New Mexico were pretty great, as far as states are concerned. But my absolute favorite of this trip was Arizona. It was kind of cool watching the landscape change throughout the day, but you can't really put into words how big and overwhelming Arizona terrain can be. It was so vivid and alive with color everywhere and in very different ways. We drove through forests, mountains, and the desert all in one day, stopping at the Petrified National Forest and the Grand Canyon. If you ever want to feel humbled, go to the Grand Canyon. Tim kept telling me to imagine I was riding a horse up the mountain on the way there, like I had wandered off the Oregon trail on my way west or something. (I do have a pretty lame sense of direction... I could have wandered that far!) Just try and picture what it was like to be the first one to see it. I assumed whoever it was would be pretty pissed off...

"Son of a... you've got to be kidding me!! I just rode Gertrude (that's the horse) for 3 days to get up this bitch of a hill! Now I have to go ALLLLL the way around?!"

Anyway- I was in awe, to say the least, and mostly we just sat quietly to soak it all in.

We knew we were close when we passed the first In n' Out Burger and really just wanted to push on. Six days of being in a car will make you excited to get anywhere as long as you were done driving! We set up our tent one last time, this night on the edge of the Mojave desert. With an early start, we made it to route 1 near Atascadero, CA after lunch (at In n' Out, woo!) and drove one of the most beautiful, dangerous, fun roads I've seen. It was slow going, but so worth it. When we finally got to my new home, I was far too exhausted and overwhelmed to really take anything in... but this neighborhood is certainly worth it's very own blog entry! So, with that, I'll leave you with some pics from route 1 and get back to my studies!