Road Trip Across The Country

Hello friends and family! While writing my last post I realized how much I enjoy writing. Plus it is a good way to keep ya'll in the loop about my adventures and such since I live on the other side of the country now. Oh, right, for those of you who may not be aware, I moved from my lovely home in Wisconsin to California. You may be wondering why. Well, I was ready for more adventure and a chance to say that I lived somewhere away from Wisconsin. It was a chance for me to prove to myself that I can survive on my own, find a job myself, and manage my life without completely relying on my parents (grant it I still need some advising from my dear mother). And it just so happened that I had a good friend, Amy, who was going to grad school out there. So, off the two of us went, packing whatever we could into our two cars, ready for a new chapter in our lives to begin.

Our journey began on a rainy September day from the Caribou in Hudson. I enjoyed a lovely breakfast with my beautiful cousin whom I miss dearly. After our goodbyes we hit the road! Heading down through Minnesota to our first stop in Kansas City, yes you read correctly, I said Kansas City. Why the heck would one go south instead of heading straight west? Amy has relatives in Kansas City and we decided to pay a visit. -Prepare yourselves, there is more craziness to our route, so stay tuned!- Thankfully my dad let me take the walkie talkies on this adventure, which allowed Amy and I to chat without having to drain our cellular devices. During the mind  numbing drive through Iowa I caught up on Amy's life and her summer in Chicago. Iowa is very much like Wisconsin in the respect of fields, but after a couple hours of constant corn fields we were ready for a change in scenery. After six and a half/seven hours we made it to Amy's uncle's home and settled in for the night. Him and his wife were very nice and accommodating. We stayed up chatting with a glass of wine before heading off to bed.

We woke up early and spent the entire day driving through Kansas and into Colorado. Amy had her mind set on obtaining a shirt with Colorado written on it. Once we crossed into Colorado we kept our eyes pealed for any sort of gas station that may have a gift shop. We soon found one and were not disappointed. This place had everything imaginable.The best way to describe it is if a gift shop and thrift shop got together and had a baby. It was fantastic and I was very tempted to buy a moose figurine for our apartment, that we did not have. (Did I mention that we didn't have a place to live? It's true we had no home and we were just going for it). After chatting with the friendly check out lady we continued on our way to my aunt's house north of Denver. We had a lovely evening and time to relax before starting the last leg of our trip. After talking it over we decided to head north and go through Wyoming, because this was the time when there was flooding and closed roads by Vegas. I told you there was more madness to our route.


Heading off early the next day, we stopped at McDonalds to  utilize the free WiFi and fill out an apartment application. See, the reason we were booking it across the country was to make an apartment showing. We were a bit concerned about not having a place to live once we got out there and were keeping a close eye on apartment showing/openings on Craig's List. Off we went towards Wyoming, getting a glimpse of snow before heading to the land of perpetual summer. I was beyond surprised at the beauty of Wyoming. Driving through the mountain pass to emerge out into open prairie was spectacular. Movie clips of cowboys riding across the barren plains flashed before my eyes. I was taken aback by the absolute peace I felt looking at the land as far as the eye could see. I understand why Grandpa stayed out here and ranched (though he was in Montana, in my mind they have similar landscapes). It was both empowering and humbling to be in a place where you could see for miles without objects obscuring your view. I thought Wisconsin was thinly dotted with homes, but Wyoming even more so. It was breath taking. It is definitely a place I want to see more of. So, we continued on, driving up through the mountains until we hit Little America, the biggest truck stop I have ever seen! Seriously, it is like it's very own town. We got ourselves some corn dogs, had a nice conversation with a lady on the same walkie channel as us, and continued on to Salt Lake City, Utah.

I also thoroughly enjoyed Utah. Salt Lake City was much larger than I had anticipated as was the lake. We drove by the salt flats, which were beautiful and super interesting. I had no idea that is where salt came from. I mean, it's not something I necessarily thought about often, but when you drive through them it is quite mind blowing. What was also super neat is that it was a straight shot through the flats and you could see the mountains in the distance, which marks where Nevada begins. And so, we drove on. Our hopes high, being confident that we would find a place once we got there, and the level of excitement increasing as we got closer to our destination. The sense of adventure was at it's peak, making us feel invincible, like nothing was going to stop us or crush our optimism. We were feeling quite good at this point and as the sun was setting over the salt flats we stopped at the Bonneville flats to appreciate the beauty set before us.

Moving on we drove through Nevada, our lease favorite state, full of sketchy gas stations and rest areas (when you could find one). I feel like we didn't give it a fair chance, especially since we drove through it entirely in the dark. All the same we stopped at a couple sketchy gas stations and one creepy rest stop. We made our way through Reno in the dead of night (incredibly beautiful btws) and began the exciting, roller coaster-esque drive through the Sierra Nevada's. Amy is not a fan of driving down the mountains, but I thought it was a blast! We drove on through the night until we made it to a rest stop in Donner Pass around 3a.m. A nice two hour nap later we were on our way again (remember we were trying to make it to an apartment showing). And on we went through the mountains. I love driving through the mountains! Winding your way up and down the passes, only being able to see drop offs, trees, and of course mountain, only to come around the last corner to complete openness. The excitement and rush of maneuvering the bends and turns, not knowing when it will end. Then BOOM! Your mind goes to complete and utter stillness. You relax into a peaceful mellow with the open road ahead of you and miles of country on either side of you. It is similar, I think, in the way one goes through life. All the excitement and energy of new adventures and occasions that come up just to suddenly end. Hopefully you're left with the sense of satisfaction and peace for just making it through or for being productive and experiencing what life has to offer. Hopefully taking time to enjoy life and it's journey instead of suddenly realizing you were too busy trying to get somewhere you forgot to enjoy the ride. It was such an intense feeling. One I usually get when going on an adventure.

So, finally making it to California we had yet a couple hours driving south to our destination. My first impression of California was sunny, brown, yet beautiful. They are not joking around when they say they are in severe drought out here. Yet, even with everything looking rather dead, the plants are still hanging on, allowing for some green to brighten up the landscape. Northern California is beautiful. I had imagined it to be rather flat and uninteresting, but it is hilly and fills you with awe. Amy and I call everything and anything mountains, but were informed that they are "foot hills". If these are mere foot hills then the lovely rolling hills of Wisconsin are only ant hills in comparison. So, I will continue to call them mountains and hopefully be able to climb them all! Anyway, we eventually made it to our destination and viewed the apartment, but did not get it. We were without a home and lost (in more ways than just location) in a new place, but I will leave that tale for next time. With that I hope you enjoyed our road trip across America. I'll see you when I see you! Sending my love