Tuesday, June 10, 2008

A Long Time Ago...

In a galaxy far, far away - called California...
You've missed me, haven't you? Come on, just admit it!

I guess I should give a quick rundown of what happened in the last almost 2 months for the ones I haven't gotten a chance to tell...

-Left San Francisco Friday night to stay at Bethro's. The plan was to leave early AM on Saturday the 10th but considering we didn't get to her house until 11:30pm...
-Left Bethro's house at 1pm Saturday.
-Drove through Nevada: quick story -- pulled up to a gas station in Elko, NV to take a quick bathroom break and when I come out, Nick is talking to a mechanic.... turns out our back shocks are busted from throwing so much crap in the trunk, then when they have the car up in the air, they notice the tires are about to blow. So there you go Elko, NV - have fun with my 1200 bucks!
-Made it safe to the hotel, and drove and slept for the next 4 days. Our stops were in NV, WY, IA and OH
Let me tell you a few things about driving across the country. You may think it is fun. You are sadly mistaken. Hey, if I had an RV and places to see, maybe that would be a different story. But driving without getting off the highway too far because you don't have time or the money for more gas... yeah. BORING. The scenery is pretty for the first 30 minutes in a new state... then you are in the state for 4 more hours usually, at least. Thank God Bethro graciously gifted me with a new set of needles, 1 ball of white and 1 ball of blue yarn and instructions on making a cool little dishcloth.

How about I say a few nice things about our country...
Northeast CA - beautiful snow-capped mountains and lots of treesNevada - beautiful snow-capped mountains with almost a desert in between
Utah - saw the salt flats, pretty cool, saw the mountains that I really want to go skiing inWyoming - um, is it bad that I thought this was a plains state? Western part was very mountainous and you could see the Rockies off to the south. Then the Eastern part was very cowboyish and more like the plains you might imagine there.
Nebraska - oh what can I say about Nebraska besides I wanted it to disappear. The wind was horrific - and I mean BAD, we could barely drive because I have a pretty boxy car. The wheel was constantly kept at an angle.
Iowa - still freaking windy, please go away! Very green and lots of plains - saw/crossed the Missouri RiverIllinois - saw/crossed the Mississippi, still WINDY. Almost looks like Central Jersey with farms and trees. Unfortunately we couldn't see Chicago though I don't think we were more than 2 miles away from it on 80. I'll just have to go back and visit my friends there :)

Indiana - more like Illinois... I think... we weren't in it for very long. There was a toll though. Illinois had the first toll of a whopping 60 cents. I'm not sure how they were paying for all that construction we came across.Ohio - some nice tree-filled views, it has been a while. Hit up a delicious Applebees (2nd one) thanks to Bethro and Phil - love you guys!
Pennsylvania - FINALLY, yet we still had 6 hours to go in that state. Nick and I tried to figure
out where Jon and Kate Gosselin lived the whole time. Then last week we saw the original hour long special and they said the original town they lived in before they moved, silly us. I love them and that show. They are hilarous together and the kids are adorable. They make me think I can make it - hopefully I won't be having 8 kids though!
Philadelphia! We arrived on the 14th, late in the afternoon. Nick's best friends were really happy to see him and we unloaded most of our stuff at their house. Then we headed over to my friend's where we would be staying. I believe the apartment we are living in was the 3rd one we looked at, and we knew it would fit perfectly, gave our application and there ya go! Once we signed the lease we headed down to my parents in South Carolina (where they basically retired - though they still do work to keep a good income). We stayed there and ate a lot of delicious food and got a lot of love, and a little beach time until June 1st where we (parents, Nick and me) headed up in a U-Haul to Philadelphia and moved our stuff in. Thank God for one of my best friends Jill and her boyfriend Mike. They brought water and much needed extra energy. Mike was a workhorse. We couldn't believe how much time he saved us; he just kept lifting huge amounts of heavy boxes. We owe them a super nice dinner...or two!

That was a quick recap - good thing I didn't do a longer one, right? I'll talk more about the apartment in the next post!