A Dozen States in a Dozen Days

The most common question we've heard since we started telling people about the trip is "where all are you going?". I believe Cece did a bang up job answering that question with her last post. The second most frequent query we've received is "when do you leave?". And the answer to that one is a two parter. We had to explain to everyone that we were leaving Atlanta on February 1st and leaving the country February 14th. Even though we live less than fifteen miles from one of the busiest airports in the world we would be driving cross country to fly out of Los Angeles. The reasoning behind this decision had nothing to do with our intense and unrequited love for the Heather Locklear television show LAX (shocking, I know). We actually figured that we could visit quite a few people before leaving on our big adventure.

(Now Cece is taking over the writing of this one!)
We didn't take the most direct route to LA. Instead, we took the route with the most free lodging! ha ha

We left Atlanta on Feb 1 to head to Huntsville. We had to take both cars over to Huntsville, so Matt left a little before me. I spent a lot of time walking around the house and saying good-bye (maybe). We still haven't sold the condo,but it is on the market, so we may or may not ever see it again. This was something that was weighing heavily on me, but apparently not on Matt as he ran out the door to try to make it to Huntsville in time to have lunch with Jeremy. So I took a few extra moments reflecting on my first home purchase, our first home together, and then departed Atlanta thinking about the last four years since I had moved there. Yes, you can tell, I am a hell of a lot more sentimental than my husband.

I digress regarding our journey though. As I said, the first stop was Huntsville to see Matt's family. We got to spend lots of quality family time and they even through us a little gathering so that we could see extended family and friends. Plus, we got to see Anna Grace do the Blossomwood News at school on Friday. All in all in, it was a great few days.

We then headed to Evansville to visit my Mom and Pop. We enjoyed many of the local Evansville restaurant establishments, such as the Stockwell Inn and the Roc-a-Bar for some great food. We got to hook up with some of the SBB's too, some of who drove in town just to see us off! We were honored. I can't talk about those two days without noting that I also got my first bridge lesson from Pop. He was teaching a class and I dropped the average age of the participants by about 30 years! Again, a great and busy time in Indiana.

Next it was on to Kansas City, to visit my sister, Kady, and her family. We had a great time hanging out with the family and the nephews and niece are always entertaining. We got to go to their schools and even see one of the winning inventions by Jay for his science fair project. On to the city competition for him! Go Jay! Also got to see Aunt Judy, Uncle Tim, Connie, Cassie, and Amanda. Bonus in Kansas City with the extended family. And I can't forget getting to see Reggie, who Jared lovingly renamed, the Reginator!

After that was the beautiful drive through west Kansas to Denver. Oops, did I saw beautiful...I meant to say boring drive. No offense to Kansas folks and all, but I am pretty sure they know that their state is flat....and boring to drive through. Matt drove the whole way too. I asked him if he was getting tired, but he said keeping the car pointed straight wasn't all that hard.

Denver with Dad and Rheta was really fun. We got to see my cousin, Tony P. too. We even took a day trip to Rocky Mtn National Park and Estes Park. All very pretty and also the last day that we are going to use our winter coats for over 6 months! Yeah!

Then we were off on the longest part of our journey. The Saturday that we left Longmont, CO, we were in the car for 13 hours. We went south through CO into NM. Very pretty to see the different terrain of New Mexico. Neither of us had ever been there before. However, there were a couple of times that we thought we were going to run out of gas before the next service station. After doing that a couple of times, we decided if we were under half a tank and saw a gas station...we stopped!

We made it all the way to Williams, Arizona after that 13 hours in the car. We ate at a local restaurant and headed straight for bed. The next day, we took a little detour from the road to go up and see the Grand Canyon. Again, a first for both and it was incredible. Although, Matt thinks that we saw more Chinese people at the Grand Canyon then we are going to see in all of China. We were behind a couple of giant tour busses, but somehow I think there will still be more in China.

After that, we had the last push into LA. Another 9 hours in the car. Lucky for us Stacey and Sam Chambliss hosted us and Stacey made us her famous Chicken a la King. Matt thought the drive across country was worth it just for that. We also got to see Allison and Jason for some good Italian dinner. Very fun two days there.

And dare I forget that we sold our precious car once we got to LA. I must admit I wasn't too sad to sell it after spending so much time in it over those two weeks in the US. However, when the day came and it was my last time driving my "first" car, I was a little sad. Again, me sentimental...Matt, not so much. I was using every feature of the car on the last drive, the sunroof, the stereo, the windows, anything that I could get my hands on. Then we got to Carmax and they gave us a great deal on the car...so I sold it in an instant and we were outta there. So much for me being sentimental.

So, without a car and no more room to drive farther west, Matt and I hopped on the plane for the Southern Hemisphere. I will let him fill you all in on that though.

It is harder than we thought to keep up with the blog. So much to do in the first few days...all so exciting though.