california, here we come....!

well last night, after some awesome driving from willie, i took over along 50w just before we reached fallon, an actual town in nevada with a wal-mart, taco bell, and mcdonalds. it was still one street though. anyway, i've come to realize that highway systems, though pretty basic, are still kinda stupid and confusing, and in the midst of the dark dark dark unlit night, i accidentally took "50-alt-west" instead of "50-west"..... which led us to the grand city of reno. instead of carson city. needless to say, motel rooms in reno are much harder to find at midnight -- and more expensive -- and i don't see how there's much appeal to the city: it's a ghetto-er version of las vegas. nevertheless, since the plan was to go from carson city to reno the next morning anyway, reno was okay. eh, me and stupid "50-alt-west". oh wells.

this morning, after some comfy sleep, we woke up to watch the argentina-germany world cup quarterfinal match. 1-1 all the way till penalty kicks! and germany, the host country, came away with the win. gooooooooaaallllll! twas good :) but i did feel bad for argentina, who have a good teams and long-haired players. they were all sniffly and teary and crying after germany's awesome goalie blocked the shot from the last dude, who's even sadder and prematurely balding. aww. and afterwards, some of the players and coaches and refs and admin people from both teams got into some tiff on the field. that was interesting.

now we're on the final stretch -- off towards napa valley for an afternoon of wine-tasting. but the traffic is horrendous, so i don't know if we'll make it to the wineries in time to actually enjoy the afternoon. we'll see -- we might just end up going directly down to monterey, also known as willie's home. we'll need a bit of time to empty the car, relax, etc before i head up to san jose on saturday afternoon/evening in time for work orientation and whatnot. training for sunday through thursday till 5:30pm every evening, and then a few days off. then, the actual forum/conference from the following sunday till the monday after that. should be fun, i hope!

lake tahoe was in the distance. it's stupendous-looking. and palm trees are welcoming me to california!! :) i'm here. crazy. crazy nuts holy moly. state #11. we're still alive :)

and remember that nasterific ginormous mass layer of crunchy brown thugs lying on the road last night? remember bug guts? YEAH. MY CAR IS COVERED. IT'S DISGUSTING. time for a full car wash!

not-so-lonely bugs

okay. so we've been driving through nevada for the entire afternoon -- like, 8 hours now. instead of taking 80w (like most normal people), we've decided to take US-50, better known as the "loneliest road in america." no joke. it's empty, completely and totally empty. there's some statistic that says that there's not a single supermarket for 250 miles. we've passed through tiny towns, each 50-150 miles from each other and with only one main road and few or no traffic lights. most of the towns, once filled with people and money from the copper and gold mine rushes early in the century, sit along 50, also probably due to the pony express route.

so it's vast emptiness.... but it's been amazingly beautiful. every valley that we drive through is 360 degrees of pure majesty -- looming mountains, sun-spotted farms and desert-ish bushes, single power lines, wispy and puffy clouds that reflect the sunshine, and layers upon layers of differently-hued green, blue, and gray hills. there's also good ole trusty road markers that count down miles by county, and tiny branches of dirt paths that weave off of 50. back in utah, we even noticed some of the salt flats. neato.

we're taking the road to carson city, into the night... which might not be the best idea ever because it's not well-lit (or well, not lit at all), but it's a much more direct route than 80; if we had decided to take 80w, we would've had to travel a few hundred miles northward from moab to salt lake city and then take it all the way to western nevada, where it pretty much meets up with 50 at the edge near reno and carson city. so 50 it is. the peaks are tall; we spotted a deer crossing the road in front of us (no worries, no hitting); we've seen a bunch of bunnies bouncing along the side of the road; and along the way, we even managed to help a nice guy get to the gas station after he ran out of gas (dumbbutt).


okay. but one more thing. somewhere along the way between eureka (yes, that's the name of the town) and austin, my poor car came across some strange-looking stuff scattered across the road -- for miles. me and willie both thought it might be grain.. or poop.. or dirt.. or something like that. maybe some truck spilled out or leaked its contents while driving along the lonely road. or maybe the wind had scattered some stuff across the paved route. it was a thick layer of small brown chunks.. and they would move a little with the wind. it lasted for 3 or 4 miles, and then it thinned out. and i went back to reading the map while willie drove on towards sunset. but then, a few miles later -- 5 or 10 (we're driving fast, so i can't judge distance) -- it reappeared. more brown chunks that move a little. looking a bit closer as we slowed down to avoid hydroplaning off the crap on the ground, we both thought -- bugs? and then, the layer of brown chunks got thicker -- less space between each one -- and with no wind surrounding the road, i began to notice that the chunky craps move -- JUMP -- by themselves. crunch CRUNCH crunch crunch crunch crunch squish smush CRUNNNNNNCH as the car crushes them. and willie suddenly goes -- "oooooh, maybe they're locusts or cicadas!"

his epiphany. sent. me. into. fits of cringing madness. the thick layer of brown crap on the road was a fat spread of cicadas (or locusts). the rather LARGE brown bugs were hopping, jumping, squatting all over the road for miles and miles and miles -- and MILES... and the underside of my poor car was being splattered and covered with bug guts. (it's sorta hard to see in the picture, if you look close enough, there's a layer of thick dots = bugs) EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW. ew ew ew ew ew ew. GROSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. yucccccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk. splat crunch crunch splat squish crunch ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

please let me elaborate -- me and bugs: we actually get along quite well. i don't mind buzzing things, i can deal with mosquitoes, i smush ants (even the fiery red ones at arches); i calmly flick off gnats and flies and little spiders and whatnot. slugs, worms, whatever -- they're usually okay. granted, if it's a big fuzzy black spider with a red belly, i'd probably run screaming in the other direction, but compared to most girls, i'm pretty good. HOWEVER -- massive square feet of large brown bugs, no matter how harmless they may be on their own, are horrifying. HORRIFYING! it's like my worst nightmare -- do you want to be killed by swarming masses of biting bugs that surround and crawl up and around and into every crevice? and even when they die, their guts go KERSPLAT everywhere!!!!!! GROSS GROSS GROSS. gah murderous horrifying CRINGE.

AND!! midway through the miles of thick bug layer, some dude passes us.... on a MOTORCYCLE/SCOOTER! sooooooooooooooooo blegh!! all the bug splatter is being sprayed around his ankles and boots and legs and YUCK!!! oh nasty.

yes nasty. willie just laughs at me hysterically. gee.

attempting to ignore the crunchiness of stupid large bugs interfering with the smooth paved calm and lonely road.....

the sun's setting, and there's only a faint glow of reddish/yellowish color that peeks from behind the mountaintops. right now, 50 is a straight shot, and i can see the little blinks of headlights from the oncoming cars, miles down the road. the moon is a thin sliver -- and it currently sits above a gray-blue cloud in the fading sky. we just passed through austin, another itty-bitty town along the route. imagine an old, kinda deserted mining town. that's austin, nv. as we slowed down to 35mph to drive through, there's a single tennis court on the left side, a few houses crookedly sitting on lopsided hills, two or three dirt paths running upwards for a few hundred yards, some old, dusty, and gray-ish storefronts that once may have held thriving businesses 50 to 100 years ago. there's a motel or two, one named "pony canyon" or something.. and the "vacancy" neon light doesn't glow very brightly. three kids are playing around on their bikes on the side of the road, and we pass by the town saloon (seriously, "saloon"), and a woman and man -- he's got a busy white mustache and long beard and plaid shirt -- are roping. or at least, playing around with coils of rope. the saloon has the stereotypical (but now that i've seen it, maybe "real" after all?) large western-swirly letters that spell out SALOON and BAR... and it's bright with music and beer inside. some old, long sedans sit abandoned (or used?) here and there... and there's a small convenience store with casino signs on the outside, and near the end of town, i saw a tiny laundromat with 3 or 4 machines, open for business. we passed through austin in less than 5 minutes. an old mining town. in a way, it was like a snapshot from life during the mining rushes from way back when. like those photos that you see in history textbooks where guys in strapping boots pose stoic-ly on the porch of a house... but today, it's actually 2006, where the other half of the world has cell phones and computers and carpal tunnel syndrome, and these people live along a 2-lane road in the middle of nevada where there's a roping arena but no grocery or bookstore. interesting, isn't it? kinda cool. in that strange and intriguing way.

hmm...

twas hot

we're currently exiting mormon country (oops, i mean... utah). we actually arrived in grand junction, co at 1:30am on tuesday night (technically, wednesday morning).. and awoke the next morning -- EARLY -- to drive the 1.5 hours to moab, ut where arches national park is located. and wahoo, arriving there at about 10am, we got a campsite in the park (first come, first serve). not too shabby. we set up camp, reorganized the car, and set out on some easy hiking..... which turned out to be rougher-than-expected hiking because it was freaking hot outside in the desert (duh) and we hadn't really eaten a full lunch. smart, smart, i know. so after 2 miles of relatively flat hiking, a few bazillion photos, and 2 very cool arches, we took care of the dear turtle, rehydrated ourselves, and drove our sweaty butts down to moab for lunch and airing-out. muccchhhh better :) around late afternoon/evening, we headed back for the epitome hike to delicate arch -- it was moderate, going uphill, but didn't take too long, and it was REALLY pretty. i like arches, but it's definitely desert climate and conditions, so bottles of ice are totally necessary. after that hike, we ventured back down to the sweet little town of moab and had some good, solid dinner (and a cold beer) at the brewery. yum. then, back to camp to sleep.



moab is a pretty cool place -- very laid-back it seems, all adventure-focused. haha, the women at the brewery/restaurant last night had arms -- ARMS!! as opposed to dinky skinny little limbs that look breakable. hehe. it's also quite the small town, so i'm not sure exactly what happens there besides tourist-y stuff associated with arches and the colorado river expeditions. but nice nonetheless.

in the park, the red ants are freaking evil. one bit my toe while i was peeing in the bathroom earlier in the day, and it hurt like hell. so before we went to sleep, there was a thorough scan of the tent floor to make sure that none of the little red devils had entered and was waiting for hot flesh to chomp into. happily, sleep was un-interrupted. and the stars were so close in black night sky.

this morning, i woke up with the sun (chilly night, warm morning), and we packed up and left... went back to moab for a shower and breakfast, and headed out on the road again. while willie drooled on the passenger side window, i drove all the way west on 70, passing through... mormon country. really. a few dead deer carcasses on the side of the road, lots of signs warning about frequent deer and elk crossing, a lot of farms and latter-day-saints signs, some solidly windy roads, 178 miles -- of which 110 were without exit, rest stop, gas, or food. pretty deserted, huh? but the scenery sure is pretty -- it's cool to watch the the landscape change from desert into mountainous green with more deciduous and evergreen trees instead of red rocks, dirt, and tumbleweeds.


ohhhhh -- and at arches, there were jack rabbits! and desert mice! and lizards and little chipmunks! and on the way back up the 18 miles of windy road from the park entrance to the campgrounds after dinner last night, we saw an itty-bitty baby bunny wabbit on the side of the road, going hop.. hop.. hop. sooooooooo cute :) i guess the animals balance out the fiery ants and the buzzing flies that sent willie into spasms. HAHA :D

okay, heading out of mormon country and planning on spending the day crossing the broad expanse of northern/central nevada -- yet another land of nothing-ness. but gorgeous nothingness at least. let's hope for good weather, solid tires, and safe roads. and no death along the loneliest road in the united states. oh, and there is NO cell phone signal or service out here -- ZILCH!

p.s. nevada is state #10! virginia, tennessee, georgia (albeit briefly), kentucky, illinois, missouri, kansas, colorado, utah, and nevada :)

and the saga begins...

but i have to back-track a little -- so here goes :)

PROLOGUE
i finished work on tuesday, officially, after spending a solid 10 hours in the office. i didn't leave till 6:45 or so 'cause i'd been working furiously on completing this budget project... and still had to clean off my desk and empty out the computer, etc etc etc. my boss, of course, left at 5. "g'bye stephanie! keep working! haha!" funny.

for most of wednesday, after awaking startled and worried that i'd had completely missed my alarm clock, i disassembled furniture all day long. it was lovely -- except for the fact that i discovered some pretty nasty mold growing on my wall, due to our faulty air conditioning system. damn apartment building. i packed.. packed some more, paused to watch some good ole world cup soccer, and ended out the night with a grand adventure: me, vegas, opie and amy, and nelson -- along with our 4 cars -- managed to strap my queen size mattress to the top of vegas' car (go roof rack! go biners! go vegas' mad skills!) and to transport all the pieces of my bedframe to nelson's house. wait no, nelson's swank pad... and swank it is -- huge and awesome and full of possibility, but a bit random and strange. i guess that succinctly describes nelson too. except for the "huge" part. ha.

anyway, thursday brought about the beginning of box lugging. garnering as much sweat, energy, muscle power, and oomph possible, i somehow carried, dragged, drove, pushed, wheeled, and lifted five boxes worth of heavy books and media (total: 250 lbs) to the post office for shipping. the rest of the day was filled with more packing and cleaning and sorting and thoughts of "where the hell did i get this stuff from?"

i woke up on friday to a bedroom and a living room full of large boxes. so i continued to tape and label.. and by mid-afternoon, re-started the damn process of shipping them. LORD. the apt bldg typically has luggage carts that they let residents use to transport luggage and baggage and supplies and lots of grocery bags. but when i went downstairs to politely ask for its use, the grumpy concierge informed me that "hun, we don't got no carts anymore. you people break 'em, and you people overload them with luggage, and kids ride on them, so you can't use them anymore. and we only got one left anyway." i looked at her incredulously, thinking -- "woman, i've got a bajillion big and heavy boxes to ship away to california: gimme the cart." but no, she stared back at me, and i didn't feel that cussing at her would do any good, so i grumbled back upstairs, plopped down on the carpet amidst my boulders of boxes, and grumbled some more. eventually, i just lifted and grunted one box at a time downstairs and left them in the corner of the lobby while i went back upstairs and brought down another one. the irish facilities man, oh-so-sweet (ha), commented to me twice: "you gonna break your back, missy" and "what, does this lobby look like a storage space?" both times, i glared viciously at him and said "well, IF YOU HAD A LUGGAGE CART FOR ME TO USE, I WOULDN'T HAVE TO DO THIS"

so anyway, thursday: 5 boxes shipped. friday: 6 boxes shipped via DHL. saturday, after cursing at us airways for delaying willie's flight from a dc-arrival of 9am to SEVEN PM (that would be 10 hours late, yessirreee): 5 boxes in early afternoon. 4 more boxes after picking willie up. go DHL, go smelly guy at fedex. then, we checked out libby's partaaaaay in columbia heights -- quite nice :)

end of prologue.

actual saga:
the plan? hahahaha, "plan". plan was to leave at 9am sunday morning and begin the drive to chattanooga, tn, better known as my hometown chattanoogie. but after waking up to sheets of rain and the realization that there was more to pack and ship, 9am came and went.... and voila, i was still in northern virginia, frowning at all my stupid possessions and smaller-than-expected-car-trunk. needless to say, packing the car took a while too. so we didn't ship out till 3pm. goodbye dc! 6 hours late. it's okay, 6 hours is better than the 10 hour flight delay, right? we're getting better. but the first 4 hours of virginia were filled with downpouring rain, lightning, and thunder. thank god for rainx, and what a nice goodbye from VA.

we arrived in southeastern tennessee at approx 1:30am, via 66W, 81S, something in-between (i think), 75, and 153, all the way to valleybrook lane. we also passed two ginormous crosses (like, oh, 40 feet high) along the way down, signifying that alas, i was back in the deep south, the dearest buckle of the bible belt.

monday morning was filled with a quick tour around gps, my high school (yay!), and downtown chattanooga, which has flourished a bit since the last time i was there 1.5 years ago. we left around 1:45pm (only 1.75 hours after the "planned" time of noon) and traveled on 24 west through nashville (that's in central tn) to st. louis around dusk to columbia, mo for the night.

the arch in st. louis at dusk

today -- tuesday -- is "the day of driving". we're attempting to make it to western colorado, preferably grand junction. we'll see if that actually happens. so far, we've gotten through the rest of missouri (boring), and it took all afternoon to get through the incredibly flat and monotonous plains of kansas (even more boring) -- miles upon thousands of miles of farmland... aye caramba. i was driving 95mph on cruise control... and just kept on going.. and going.. and going. then again, it was sorta neat seeing a whole different part of the country and lifestyle: the epitome of middle america, full of irrigation systems, cornfields, power lines, miles of road construction, dots of barnhouses, grandiose rays of sunshine, and mcdonalds every 45 miles (seriously). we've been listening to bill bryson's a short history of nearly everything on audiobook, which is pretty amusing and informative, and being the nerds we are, we -- well, willie -- have managed to create a set-up that connects together chargers, ipods, laptops, treo cell phones, and adapters to allow for an internet connection while driving. quite awesome, except that it drains batteries viciously. and we've got mass quantities of food, lots of entertaining reading and audio material, and a cool camera to play with. so thus far, it's been good. my butt gets numb, but that's expected, no? and my worrywart mother has called numerous times to let me know that wildfires in arizona -- no wait, nevada... no wait, arizona -- might cause us delays and eventual death. i saw some smoke earlier in the day... maybe the wildfires had gotten to kansas already. they spread fast.

for 40 miles, kansas advertised the "largest prairie dog in america". awesome.

denver, or rather the beginning of colorado, is absolutely gorgeous at sunset. flatlands transition into rolling hills, and with the clouds playing colorful tricks on the sky, the horizon is super cool-looking. and then suddenly, kinda out of nowhere, the rockies appear in sight. and then, denver comes into view. so awesome. for the past hour-ish, we've been weaving through the treacherous curves of I-70w past denver and golden, etc etc... willie's in charge of this leg since i drove most of the afternoon. it's no small task.... the mountains here are pretty amazing though, and i keep looking around at the rock walls next to the interstate. haha, i can't ever look at rock the same way again -- is that a sloper? ooh, a sidebar! :) the dark silhouette of the tall rock mountain peaks against a navy blue sky is just... mmm.. beautiful.

so goal: grand junction. and then, tomorrow, it's onto southern utah and moab and arches national park. i hope we get there okay.

a few thoughts: my windshield and car, soooo clean last friday, are currently covered with bug splat. every couple miles, you hear a mini thunk or kersplat, and suddenly, more bug guts have been plastered on the window. yuck. cruise control is awesome. the next car i get will have amazing amounts of easily-accessible trunk space. and it's dark, so i should help pay attention to the windy roads through colorado. how could anyone NOT love this state?? i'm torn -- i like both nature and cities -- what a contradiction, sigh.

saturday: oof

packing sucks.

and i'm exhausted from hauling box after box after box downstairs, to the car, into the car, to the shipping people. i might also be broke, but that was sorta expected. at least my credit car still likes me.

some woman, a grown woman in her 40s or so, sitting in her SUV, waiting to turn out of a gas station, STUCK HER TONGUE out at me yesterday because i didn't pause on the main street to let her out. who what whaaaaaaaat?!? i couldn't believe it. who leans forward towards the windshield and sticks their tongue out?!?!?!?! really. honestly. unbelievable. crazy virginians.

it's all a mixture of sadness, happiness, excitement, and insanity....

... and dalton. my prayers..

watch me be corny

whoosh.

it happens all the time -- the wind goes whoosh, cars whiz past with a whoosh, i even whoosh when i run out the door in the mornings. i think i whooshed in december or january. but this whoosh -- whoosh -- is the sound of one year sweeping by.

one whole year.

oh the places you'll go, right?

i think i'll miss this place though. maybe not the weather, maybe not the hoards of sweaty tourists who jabber while i nap on the metro, maybe not the political atmosphere. but i'll miss this unique town of a city. i'll miss the people.

it's really all about the people, isn't it?

but for now, shoving aside heartfelt feelings and soul-stirring thoughts of writing a poetic tribute to the people and landmarks of washington, dc and northern virginia (and southern maryland? hmmm), i'm gonna tackle the ridiculous amount of mess that i've created in my apartment. i'm done with work (wahoo, holy shit), and all that's left are the piles upon piles of semi-organized clothes, random kitchen supplies, and oh. furniture. and miscellaneous stuff. and i have to take these boxes to fedex and dhl and usps or wherever, and i still have to clean and fix my car. and make sure that stuff can fit inside of it (and still have room for me and willie). and job stuff. and holy moly, this is nuts. remind me to STOP moving every year, okay??

oh goodness, whoosh.

looking forward to calmness... ha, who am i kidding.

mmm...

so i have 30 million things going on, including stupid freakin' doctors' offices, challenges with cleaning and packing and moving and shipping and making it across the nation in a week, work stuff, job stuff, insurance stuff, appeasing the friends i'm leaving in dc, trying not to be tempted to take my last remaining weekend and spend it climbing with the bestest, a crazy sister, worried parents, and a future looming.

but hey, it's summer, the weather's nice, my jaw is in place, and i'm still breathing. i'm okay.

and the world cup is uber-awesome.

californiiiiiiia

west siiiiiiiiiiiiiide!

cautious but hopeful. let's see it goes, shall we?

and it's true -- friends do make the world go 'round :)

have you ever...

... dislocated your jaw? while on the metro? waited 2.5 to 3 hours before it got re-located? got jabbed with an IV, had chemicals course through your bloodstream, all on a monday morning?

uh huh. i have.

... been yelled at and almost run over by a homeless woman and her cart of newspapers? on a tuesday morning? and been tempted to throw hot coffee at her?

me me!

... evaluated and paused and hesitated and backtracked and re-evaluated and analyzed and affirmed and doubted and re-affirmed and explained and justified and created hypothetical scenarios for a situation so many times that it'd actually be easier to move to new zealand or fiji or south africa or kyrgyzstan?

yes indeed.

by now, i've written a thesis or two. in my head, on paper, through the keyboard, via phone calls, in face-to-face conversation, in all forms of communication really. i'm becoming quite adept at this whole analysis thing.

so it's high time to actually start the next step.


gulp.


...it's a magical world, hobbes ol' buddy. let's go exploring....!

pie graph: my brain's current thoughts