Well, it's been a few days since I last posted... I've really got to work on my blogging skills. But things have been kind of busy and a tad bit stressful. I've been battling with financial aid for the last week, but found out today that everything should be okay and now I don't have to stop going to school. That would have been a real buzz-kill in the whole me-getting-my-BFA department so I'm pretty relieved. (and for that I'm paying homage with a little toothpastefordinner.com humor! Love them!) www.toothpastefordinner.com I promise to get back to work on our adventures soon. It's fun reliving the trip; and a little sad! This weekend we're preparing for our friends Josh and Kim's annual "Thanksgiving in July" party, which will be tons of fun. Every year they call in the masses to have a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner... Granted it is in July, by far one of the hottest (and usually most humid) times of the year; It makes me a little grateful that Scott doesn't cook the turkey at our house as he does in Novemeber (although I don't eat turkey :) Scott is planning on making some stuffed shells and I'm going to attempt to recreate the deviled eggs that I made with Scott's mom during our visit... I hope it turns out half as successful! I'll keep you posted.
Well, on with the trip... Friday, June 19th was The BIG DAY. A two week vacation. Nothing felt better earned or more deserved. Scott had been working like a mad man at work for the last few months and the semester was finally over for me, so we both felt like the best medicine for all the stress was to get going on the road. The morning was spent cleaning the house and making our final preparations for the trip.
Our friend Brooke agreed to stay at the house while we were gone- which was such a relief because this was the longest trip we've ever taken and had some "quirky" things around the house that needed to be overseen... Mainly Sly, the pool, my little vegetable garden and my worm compost that I have set up in the kitchen... That is an entirely separate post, but I'm so proud of my Vermicompost! Those little guys have helped to make my little garden 100% organic!!! Anyway, Brooke was fantastic and agreed to feed the worms our scraps periodically and to ensure their bedding in the tub was moist. Phew! We left in the late morning after all was taken care of; loaded up our own Family Truckster, monster dogs (which I lovingly like to call the pooches!)and headed on our way. Our trip led us through familiar highways and byways... we had made this tip before to visit Scott's parents in Indiana, but never during the summer.
Here's a quick run through of the first 36 hours or so of the trip (because the fun doesn't start till we get to Indiana!!) New Mexico: Don't get me wrong. New Mexico is an absolutely beautiful state with lots of majestic desert landscape. In fact it's somewhere I'd like to explore more than I have (I've only been to Albuquerque and Santa Fe). However. Being the early part of the trip combined with our excitement to get on the road and to Indiana to see Scott's family it TOOK FOREVER. One thing I've learned from this whole experience is that whoever got together to plan out the Interstate system never really gave much thought to how scenic they were. I know for sure that it has to be the lesser traveled roads that meander through the good stuff! The most notable part was driving through Las Cruces. It's a city built near White Sands during the height of the Atomic Age. All of the buildings in the city seem stuck in a time warp from that era, with some wonderful examples of Jetson-esque architecture. The strange thing was that much of it was deserted, testimony to times past. It was really a trip to drive through the heart of that city! Texas:
Ugh. Again. I was driving when we made it to Texas. And it was dark. And raining.
Oklahoma:
We finally stopped to sleep once we made it to Oklahoma. I like Oklahoma. With it's rolling hills, picturesque farmland, and genuinely nice people, it's really pretty this time of year. And Oklahoma City seems like a pretty interesting place to explore (mental note!) By this point the dogs had pretty much settled into their new life on the road. Brea passed out in her usually spot, vicariously perched on the back seat (that cannot be comfortable, but that's always where she lays!) and Milo periodically perched on the cooler so he can inspect the landscape and comment on Scott's driving abilities (always the backseat driver!).
Missouri:
I'm conflicted about Missouri. The terraine is beautiful, and wonderfully green in the summer. But humid. Oh so very humid. And we've noticed something also very peculiar the last few times we drove through the state. It's littered with a ridiculous amount of "Adult Shops." Which are usually either across the street from, or (even more peculiar) right next door to churches. It's very strange. Oh well. They must go hand-in-hand. Interstate 44 runs diagonal through the state from Oklahoma City, through Springfield, and up to St Louis. The Mississippi River flows through the center of the city, and it's really something to see (and luckily we get to cross it again later, but in a different state!)
Again, I was driving when we hit St. Louis. I'm usually a pretty good driver when it comes to traffic, however at this point I'm still not used to driving the tank that is Scott's van. It's just so big- my little car could totally fit inside of his van, with room left over for the dog's to catch a Frisbee. I get nervous, especially passing big semi's because it's hard to judge the width of the van, especially when I'm so used to being in a compact car that hugs the road... And it was hot. And oh so humid. And a number of other things. But somehow I missed our exit for I70. And ended up lost.
St Louis is such a strange city. From the highway you can see glimmers of it's once grandeur... with it's victorian houses, brownstones and factories. But once deeper into the city it's apparant that so much of the once beautiful city is dilapidated and abandoned. So making a wrong turn kinda sucks.
Also notable is that it was Scott that finally got us back to the highway, but only after some exploring of the city...After driving past many, many abandoned buildings with barely a person to be found, we came to a roadblock in a little neighborhood where there appeared to be some sort of Biker's BBQ... we saw hundreds of motorcycles and their leather-clad riders eating, drinking, etc... I think Scott wanted to stay and hang out. :)
Illinois:
Due to me missing our exit for I70 (which would have brought us up through Indiana via Indianapolis) we decided to opt for I55 through Illinois up to Chicago. Illinois is beautiful. Lots of rolling fields of corn. The oppressive heat and humidity in St Louis carried up into Illinois, and as we hit the interstate we could see a gurgling, churning storm to the west of us. Only then the highway shifted and the storm was in front of us and we were driving right into the epicenter. I have always heard of "Tornado Alley." But mild excitement and curiosity at seeing one and actually driving through one are two totally different things. Before we actually hit the brunt of the storm, we saw the clouds ahead, and noticed 3 little funnel clouds forming. Then we hit a crazy storm. The rain was so heavy that it was almost like a white out during a snow storm. All of the cars on the highway slowed and moved into the right lane to fallow each other out of the storm. One strike of lighting was so close Scott felt the vibrations through the gas pedal. It was pretty hairy. (And boy am I glad he was driving- even if he got a good laugh out of my overly cautious freak out!) Eventually we muddled through and it cleared up almost as quickly as it had appeared.From there it was smooth sailing through Springfield, Illinois (birthplace of Lincolin). We stopped at an absolutely beautiful reststop so that the dogs could run out some of their stress from the storm (They HATE thunder and lighting- almost more than fireworks!) and we had a nice little picnic. I really like Illinois. It's really beautiful!
It was funny because one of the other titles we had given our trip was the "Great American Baby Tour." This was in part because it seemed like each of our destinations led us to another baby of a family member or friend... so half of our total trip photos were of one of us holding someone else's kids! (Thanks Christie, Shannon and Ema!!) So it is in that spirit that I wanted to share some helpful advise that I happened upon: Hey, I do what I can!
One other thing- for those of you with blogs already and really neat-o layouts... How do I go about getting myself one of those?
The best place to start is with Scott's 40th birthday party, which was the week before we left.
Our original plan for the trip was to leave after Scott's birthday for Goshen, Indiana. We thought about having a party on Saturday, June 20th and leaving the next day, which would put us in Goshen on Tuesday June 22. However, that Sunday was Father's Day, and Scott thought it would be fun to leave earlier and surprise his dad. So the deception began! Scott's sister and mom knew about our little plan and were wonderful about not letting his dad in on it so it would be a big surprise! (more of that later!)
So, the party was held a week earlier. We had a very nice BBQ and pool party for most of the day and well into the evening.
My big contribution was the birthday cake. I was totally excited. I'm the first to admit that I'm not the greatest cook... or a cook at all, really. But I wanted to make him something special for his birthday. So I set out a week before the party planning and testing this- ehem- marvelous double layer cake I was to make. The flare was to be in the decoration- I wanted to stencil a vintage Gil Elvgren 1940s pinup (Scott's favorite) onto the cake. I started days before making the stencils- I made two total- believing I'd make it easy on myself. I figured that I use stencils all the time in my artwork- granted it's usually with ink or paint, but how different could icing really be??
Ugh.
I did a practice run that actually came out okay on a piece of tinfoil coated with the chocolate icing I was going to use. I wish I took a picture so Scott would believe me. Confident that it would go smoothly the day of the party, I took to banishing Scott to the backyard so he wouldn't see the cake until that evening and began decorating. And swearing.
And starting over.
And almost crying.
It just wouldn't work. I couldn't get the icing on the cake to harden enough so that the stencil wouldn't pull it up. Finally I had to throw in the towel and admit that it just wasn't going to happen.
Which is how I decided the easiest thing to do: Do what you know. Which is how Scott's 40th birthday cake came out like this:
Nothing says 40 year old man like unicorns and rainbows. But I still think he liked it! The party was really a lot of fun and we had some very wonderful friends over to celebrate. Good times, indeed!
Well, that's a working title... But in our discussion about what to title our little homage to our two-week-road-trip-exploration of the Greater Western U.S. Scott and I decided that it most closely resembled one of THE GREATEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME, National Lampoon's Vacation. Granted Scott's not as goofy as Clark, and I'm certainly not as hot as Ellen... and instead of Rusty and Audrey we had Milo and Brea... but still.
And there wasn't a single stinking Wally World!
This has to be one of my favorite movies that carried on from my childhood. I loved it then, and even now it's a guilty pleasure I could watch over and over. And it somehow just seems fitting...
Our trip took us from our home in dusty Tucson, Arizona, north to Goshen, Indiana to visit Scott's family and to meet his new niece, Regan. From there we headed West through the Heartland to Oregon to see my family, and then south to San Diego for the Fourth of July. And we decided to drive the some 5,000 miles total because, well... getting there is half the fun!
