Random Thoughts on Moving...

...From one coast to another.

By car.

Over 5 days.

These past few days are probably one of the most amazing feats I will have ever accomplished.

I have seen it. I have seen this great land of ours. And I have stayed in a few hotels. And filled up with many expensive tanks of gas.

There is a lot to write. But not so much time.

Now that I'm on eastern standard time everything is later. I am watching an interesting Celtics vs. Hawks game right now at almost 11 pm. Where as on the West coast I would've just been settling in after dinner - I'm assuming I'll be struggling to keep my eyes open to watch Atlanta pull off what should've been a "sure thing" for Boston.

We left on Thursday afternoon.

We forgot stuff.

Our vacuum.

Her makeup.

My toothbrush and shampoo.

And I'm sure a few other things we won't realize that we forgot until we actually move in to a place.

She picked me up from work on Thursday. What a terrible day to go out on. Semi-sunny. On the verge of what I love best about the Northwest: The summers.

The plan was to go to Spokane that night. About 50 miles in to the trip we were out past Issaquah when I realized that we only had another 3,000 miles to go. The task seemed very daunting at that point. Almost impossible.

(They are showing the preview for the lakers/nuggets game right now on TV. I won't be able to watch because it's going to start at 11 pm out here).

But Spokane was fine. Looking back on it 250 miles in an afternoon is almost laughable now.

Friday was the hardest day. Well, it got harder as the days wore on. I honestly never want to make that drive again. We drove from Spokane, WA to Rapid City, SD on Friday. All of more than 900 miles. More than 12 hours in the car. 3 full tanks of gas at an average of 320 miles per tank.

Idaho was short. A bit of a climb, but other than that, no biggie.

Montana was terrible. There is nothing there. Nothing to look at. Not even cars. And rolling storm systems. That you can see as you approach. Giant dark, gray clouds hovering on the horizon. The gusts of wind pushing us all over I-90. Big climbs to some nice elevation and snow and hail raining down all over us. If there is one place in this country I will never live, it would probably be out in the boonies of Montana. How people do it is beyond me.

It's only bright spot? The Testicle Festival. I'll let those interested in it look that up.

Wyoming wasn't much better. In fact, for those of you in Seattle ever thinking of making this wild trek out East - there is a section between Montana and Wyoming where there is not ONE gas station for about 120 miles. We finally arrived at a gas station with less than .8 of a gallon in our tank left. About 24 miles. Fumes. I have no idea how travelers can make that every time - I consider us lucky (and there were a lot of other people at that gas station who looked pretty scared too).

And South Dakota? Well at least we were finally stopping for the night. I was feeling a bit stir-crazy by the time we pulled in to the La Quinta in Rapid City. The wind had been whipping us pretty hard and I remember saying that it felt like I had lived through 4 days in the span of one after seeing all of that weather - and all of that road...

And you know how you could tell I was getting crazy?

Because I thought we could pull 2 more 900 mile days over the weekend and be in Charleston on Sunday night. No way the wife was having it. And really it wouldn't have made any difference anyway. So we decided to take it a bit slower.

Saturday things started picking up a bit.

The plan was to drive from Rapid City to Kansas City or possibly Saint Louis. After the ridiculous drive on Friday we ended up heading to Kansas City.

The drive became more interesting. Suddenly things started getting greener. And with the green came the cities and towns. People! Cars on the road! It was all very exciting. Iowa was our first touch of green. Missouri was probably one of the most beautiful (overall) states we drove to and through.

We stopped for the night in Kansas City at the Westin. Balling at the 4 diamond resort. We were completely underwhelmed.

On Sunday morning we left for either Nashville or Knoxville.

But unfortunately the directions we got from the hotel staff (again - Westin in Kansas City completely not worth the money) were wrong. So we ended up driving south for a bit too long and had to turn around. That hour of being lost would end up being a huge frustration for us throughout the day.

Still in Missouri for most of the day we were enjoying the area when we came along a ridiculous detour. Regretfully the maps that were provided to us don't include all the changes to certain roads (and interstates especially!) and it being spring there was a big closure on the 64 East running to Saint Louis from Kansas City.

The detour had me taking at least 3 different interstates to get where I was going. And there were signs everywhere pointing us in every direction. I am amazed we didn't get lost again at that point. If there had been heavier traffic, watch out.

To the residents of Seattle: Go check out Saint Louis. I think they copied us! They've got something that looks like the Viaduct, and then they've got their baseball stadium right next to their "viaduct" too! Biters.

We pulled over after downtown Saint Louis at an exit - "Kingshighway". Note to self: Anything with the name of "King" (which I soon realized was named after MLK - I think) is automatically going to be the ghetto. We were waiting in a popeye's drive through and I've never had so many people staring at me before.

I hate to admit it, but I was scared (in the daylight too).

We hauled ass out of there (and ate our Popeye's on the road).

We stopped for the night in Nashville. Or so we thought. We couldn't find a place that would take dogs, or that would be cheap enough for us. (The company is covering our hotel costs and wants the nightly charges to be "reasonable")

I was irritated because I had a feeling that something like this would happen...and I had wanted to go to Knoxville that night (another 170 miles up the road). We ended up in Cookesville, which really wasn't that bad. Except for the fact that I could now feel the humidity beating down on me. I could feel it stuffing up my lungs and my nose. I can feel it on my neck.

It's been tough (after all of the 2 days we've been down here in the South) getting used to the accents. I hate having to ask people to repeat themselves, but there are just times (like out at dinner tonight) where I have no idea what is being said to me.

Tennessee is gorgeous. Where I thought Missouri had a lot of green to offer, I think I was just a little bit biased after driving through the bad lands.

All the trees and all the green grass on the sides of the freeway really makes for some relaxing driving. At least as relaxing as it can be when you're trying to make it cross country in less than a week.

North Carolina (what little I saw of it) was amazing. The path you take to get to South Carolina drives you right through a national forest. Lots of winding roads a few tunnels - and we arrived at probably the 2nd best time (spring instead of fall) as a lot of the leaves and flowers were just starting to bloom.

Well done on my allergies on that note.

And throughout the entire trip, we brought the Seattle weather with us. Gray clouds, rain, hail and snow followed us everywhere we went. I honestly believe that it was sunny on us - meaning the sun peaked through the clouds at us, for about 3-4 hours during our 50 hour drive. It was terrible.

I shook my head this morning in Tennessee when I saw a weather report that said, "Unseasonably cold and wet" in the South. Which means this is abnormal for this time of year.

Sorry guys. We brought the crappy weather with us from up North. I hope things turn around soon though.

So here I sit, writing on my bed in the Sheraton about 5 miles outside of downtown Charleston. We'll be looking at our condo tomorrow (and hopefully we like it - we don't really have a choice at this point) and we should be signing a lease to keep us here at least until Halloween.

I've got a lot about this area I've got to learn. And of course there's tons of new things to experience. Hopefully there won't be any time left for me to miss home.