Sanity, you're a madman!

And so, Arthur, we learned that gambling is bad and yet in a certain sense, isn't life itself a gamble? You can never be sure of anything. Like who would have thought that dolphins could go bad and that fish were magnetic? Not me, no sir, not me. -The Tick

Thus begins Part II of our Coast to Coast Journey:

The first day we drove, it was from northern VA to Johnson City, Tennessee. It was an amazingly beautiful drive, and we enjoyed the magnificent colors featured in the late autumn in Virginia and Tennessee. During the drive, the kids were little angels (of course). We didn’t drive super far any of the days during the trip, and the kids and I got plenty of, uh, “quality” time together. Kidding. It was real quality time. They didn’t really get it when I said, “Hey, enjoy this! Next time we do it, one of YOU will be driving!” I think their response was something along the lines of, “Oh mom, we don’t care what you are saying right now.”

We jammed to music, mostly Incubus and Avenged Sevenfold, checked out the scenery, and planned our “State Line Celebration Song” for each time we crossed into a new state (the one we chose can be found HERE). 

When we arrived at hotel #1, we were essentially the only people there. Not much to report for this hotel, and the attached pic says it all. The kids each slept with a parent, and we alternated during the entire trip.

Johnson City

Of note: we learned that Rachel snores like a grown man, and Naomi has full on, legit conversations in her sleep.

Also of note: Naomi is a wild sleeper. I will never forget being asleep the first night during the trip, and feeling her hand go down the back of my shorts. Literally, inside my shorts. I almost had a heart attack.

Church in Clarksville

Day two was a great day. We stayed out on Clarksville, TN, alongside the Cumberland River. It was an awesome college town and we hit up a microbrew and got some great beer and pizza. I did a dusk run with the dog, and then he and I also did an early morning run so we could watch the sunrise over the River. Those were some peaceful moments during what felt like a tornado of life coming right at me!

Sunset

Sunrise

 
Day three was the second best of the entire trip. We stayed at the world famous Peabody Hotel in Little Rock. The experience was SO fun, and included the duck walk in the lobby, delicious food, city parks, the River Market, and more running with the dog.

Great Food

City Park

Mini Grizes take Little Rock

        

And the ducks...

  

It’s a good thing we ended Arkansas on a high note, because next up was OOOOOOklahoma! No offense to Oklahoma, but, WOW. Wow. I didn’t enjoy it there, to put it nicely. We stayed in OK City, with the sole purpose of going to the Memorial while we were in town. The hotel where we stayed had laundry facilities, so I was able to catch up on that. There would be no epic runs with my dog, however. When I walked outside, there was a real tumbleweed on my car. Oklahoma lived up to its reputation! (Why do people live there? No one has been able to explain this to me)

Breathtaking memorial

Outside where the Alfred P. Murrah building once stood

The Children's Memorial

  We had found our road stride and were enjoying talking to people from all over the world. There is an almost instant bond between people who are driving coast to coast. It’s pretty righteous. 

JJ Dynamite and I had perfected the fine art of driving in tandem and dividing up who bought the meals and who bought the booze, which are both critical for any road trip. Thanks to modern technology, kids aren’t nearly as annoying on road trips these days, as compared to the 1980s. Now, they have movies and Nintendo DS, and ipods. I spaced out their car activities with pretty impressive pacing, and was even able to listen to my own educational podcasts while they played video games. There were very few “mommy is about to throw your sorry ass out of the car” moments. 

This is how he recovers from runs

And my dog was made for road trips. That dog didn’t do anything unless I was taking him running. He slept in his bed in the front seat of JJ’s car every single day, for 8 days, and didn’t make a peep. We even realized that we could go into restaurants and eat, leaving him in the car, and he would just wait patiently in the driver’s seat until we returned.

Typical Lincoln

Next up, the absolute highlight of the trip: Tucumcari, New Mexico. 

Honk if you love Justice!

I have been following Sarah Z. Wexler’s blog from Cosmo (NO, I do not read Cosmo) about her journey from NYC to Portland. It got me thinking that maybe I should write a little about my journey from DC to CA. Let me tell you… it’s been an adventure. 

 It all begins with the wise words of The Tick: It’s your destiny, Arthur! HUG IT!

That's me on the right.

 

I had to choose a new place to live from a list of specified locations around the country. I already knew well before the list came out that I was going to put Los Angeles as my #1 choice. I wanted to go where the work would be the best and, trust me, if I could have gone overseas right away, I would have. BUT, as it stood, LA was on the list and there was only a couple of slots for it. I put in for LA, San Fran, and Oakland, respectively. Luckily, I got my my #1. 

(for those of you who don't know what I do, I am a very important admin assistant for a waste management company) 

My first time  ever in California was when I came out here to look for a place to live. I wasn’t looking for just any house either, my friends. I needed one big enough to accommodate me, my girls, my almost ex husband, my bestie (ST), and the dog. Yep, we had come up with this hair-brained idea that, since none of us had ever been here before, we’d all shack up for at least the first year while we got settled and learned the area. The primary requirements were that the house be big and on the beach. Keep in mind that it had been well over a year since the almost ex (henceforth, I’ll call him JJ Dynamite) and I had even lived together.

In the 10 days I was out here, I looked at about 20 houses and made a few offers, only to return to VA with nothing but a bit of culture shock and an overall state of confusion. Maybe the most accurate way to capture my feeling upon returning to VA, knowing I was only weeks from heading back to CA permanently, is the attached photo:

Yes, apparently I was both stressed as hell and going insane.

Meanwhile, all my belongings were being shipped out of my Virginia house to storage in California. I watched them pack up, load the truck, and take off. Then, I sat in my empty house, with no sign of any renters yet, and wondered how in the hell I was going to pull this off. 

My girls and I were living in a hotel for about 10 days. This was… interesting. JJ Dynamite was awesome, of course. I cooked meals and did laundry at his apartment. My hotel room was equipped with a kitchen and all, but it was about the size of my pinky toe.

Moving Day: October 24

Finally, moving day arrived. We took two cars: the girls and I in one (the Girl car), and JJ Dynamite and the dog in the other (the Boy car). We would be driving for 8 days in tandem, on a route I painstaking planned, all the way across the USA.

Oh, and by the way… we didn’t have a place to live in CA yet, as I had not yet acquired the perfect home for our unique family situation. So, we were headed for a hotel in CA, and we’d figure out the whole “house deal” once we got here. Should I post the “stress/insanity” photo again? I’ll skip it, but you get the point.

This concludes Entry 1: Jasko leaves Virginia.

 

Stay tuned for Entry 2, which will feature such amazing places as… “uh, we’re still in Virginia,” Tennessee, Arizona, and Ooooooooklahoma! (that was me singing, like in the musical).

In the interim, all I have to say is: 

Mighty Blue Justice!