The PCS Diary: Part Five

 Day 2:

I don't know how I did it but Day two is full of somewhat spontaneous detours and amazing adventures. The second day of our trip is by far my favorite day of the whole trip.

Waking up on Tuesday, June 28 was the last thing I wanted to do that morning. I was still so tired from getting in late and I had a hard sleep but got no rest. Breakfast was short and sweet at the motel before we were back on the road. It felt good to start our second day on the Historic Route 66, I bought my first magnet of the trip here. Through out the rest of the day we continue to drive on or along side Route 66. It felt more real and important to be traveling along side History.

Now that we are back on the road and have a better understanding our gas mileage we decided that we would take today a little slower by adding in a few extra stops along the way.

I convinced Christopher that I would die if I wasn't able to see the Grand Canyon, since we were so close and it wouldn't be that far out our are way. So we rerouted our navigation for the Grand Canyon. Along the way we ran into some of the crazy wind I have ever felt. Christopher was clearly stressing out over the way the wind was pushing us off the road and it was taking all of Christopher's strength to keep us safe. “His butt hole was clenched really tight” as he said. The crazy wind did bring one cool think with it though and that was the random Dust tornadoes I Kept seeing. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that. Oh and the only radio station we could pick up was the Travel station. Talk about boring information I don't care about!

Apart from the dust storms and the crazy wind, most of the trip up to the Grand Canyon was uneventful and boring with the vast nothingness that was the desert we were driving through. We did stop in a cute little town for lunch and to change in to nicer clothes. The town was full of cute little stores and you could tell that they used the tourism from the Grand Canyon to their advantage. Once we got to the Grand Canyon National park, I was ready to jump out of my seat.

We parked at the south rim of the Grand Canyon and got out. The heat was incredible the wind was even hot, I was surprisingly comfortably for being in a sleeved T-shirt and a pair of jeans. I was excited to finally see one of the seven natural wonders of the world and it was going to be a first for both Christopher and I (that made it even more special to me). Its a little bit of a walk to the rim of canyon, but it was all worth it. The view of this Natural Wonder took my breath away. I loved the pureness of it all and the was the colors and shadows painted a beautiful landscape. Christopher just said “Yep, its still a big ass whole in the ground.” I love him and his sarcasm sometimes. I wasn't allowed to stay very long, “We were on a schedule” as Christopher put it and in out rush to leave I completely forgot to go to the visitor center and get a Grand Canyon Magnet. (So if anyone ever goes to the Grand Canyon can you please pick me up one?)

So its back to the Uhaul. Once we back on the road we got to endure more crazy wind and dust storms but this time we get to add steep uphill grades that Christopher already hates to the core. We drove on HWY180 to head towards Flaggstaff, Arizona. As we went we started to notice that the orange and yellows of the landscape was slowing becoming many shades of green and brown. And that is when we passed through two national forests and the San Francisco Peaks. We trekked up this slowly rising mountain as we passed 6,000ft in elevation to 7,000ft. As we came to a slightly flat and open portion of road we drove right by Kendrick peak, it was a beautiful site to see nature's true beauty untouched and unharmed. As we continued on down the road, we noticed that we were still climbing higher in to the mountains (the Uhaul was not making the trip easy) and for the first time in my life I was above 8,000 ft above sea level, 8,046 ft to be exact. We also passed through Snow Bowl, Arizona which apparently has amazing skiing in the winter. And then we hit Flaggstaff, which claims to be first “Dark” city in America. It was a quite little town that appeared to have a different pace than the rest of the world bustling through to who knows where.

Kendrick Peak

Highest Elevation point I have ever been

Flaggstaff was the last town we hit before we drove through the Open Cattle Ranches, which just a nice way of saying a really boring stretch of road.

Christopher decided that we could not take anymore detours after the Grand Canyon but then we started to see the billboards for a Meteor Creator. Since we were not going to make anymore stops today, I brushed off stopping and started a conversation about the nothingness of the drive at our current location. But Christopher decided that it would be okay to stop once more since we were already behind schedule. If you are military and are passing through Arizona on I?? you need to stop to see the creator. This is a nice stop for Military members and their families because if you have your official orders on hand you can get in to see the Creator for free. Its a small stop with a nice gift shop (where I bought another magnet) and a chance to see a part of the random history that shapes our great Nation.

The Cool Lizard we saw at the Crater 

Once we were back on the road, Christopher would not stop bringing up that we were passing several casinos. And with every one we passed he would give me the same puppy dog eyes that I got when I refused to detour to Vegas. And during all this I got in trouble for passing a gas station with gas for $3.07 a gallon, let's just say I watched the signs more closely after that. When we finally did stop for gas it was another Truck stop that did not have the ability to print receipts, but it was at a Pilot Truck stop so it was easily forgiven.

Random TP on a Hill

Our final stop of the night was Albuquerque, New Mexico. I have Spelled this city's name wrong so many times that it started to even annoy me. But I will never for get how to spell A-L-B-U-Q-U-E-R-Q-U-E again. We were trying do decide on where we wanted to crash for the night, it was to be clean but close to the road so we could get on the road early to get to San Angelo, TX before nightfall. Well a plan is only good if you follow through, and this is one of those times we did not follow through...

All it took was one Billboard and I was looking up directions to Albuquerque's Hard Rock Hotel & Casino (Yes, you read that right.) After all my arguing we still ended up going to a Casino. The Hard Rock Hotel is a wonderful site to see. The lobby itself is magnificent with glass windows and high ceilings. Since we got there so late we thought that it would not be hard to get a room; we were wrong. Actually, they were all full because of the New Mexico Fires. We got lucky though, the receptionist who was working said that if we stuck around he would be able to get us into a room because he had a few no shows; ten minutes later we were heading up to our room and changing to go get a celebratory drink, (right before last call).

It's a Jim Jones (AKA Papa Orr)

After our one drink, Christopher convinced me to gamble for the first time in my life. I agree since I wouldn't be able to sleep till he got to the room anyways. We played it safe and when to the penny slot machines. At first I could not figure out how to play and I was getting so frustrated that I just wanted to quit. But the I won $20 talk about an exciting experience. But is must have messed with my ju-ju because I did not win another penny. That night we won $50 dollars and called it a night.

Overall the second day was a constant change in scenery with wonderful company. We traveled to 8,046ft above sea level, saw the Grand Canyon and the Meteor Creator, and traveled through deserts and national forests. As I laid my head down to fall asleep I decided that the second day of the trip was indeed going to be my Favorite.

The PCS Diary: Part Four

Day One:

I lay in bed Monday, June 27, running through the many check lists that I have created for our very first PCS move. This will be the first time that I have traveled more than 8 hours in a vehicle in a very long time and to make me more nervous it will be the first “Big” trip Christopher and I will take together.

We got a slow start getting out of Monterey since we had a few last minute errands to run around town (dropping off Comcast cable box, getting gas, turning in our apartment keys, and picking up extra uniform items at the NEX). I am actually surprised at how easy I was able to let got of the place I called home for just under two years, but then I started to think of the people we were leaving behind I did tear up a little. I guess all that preparation I was doing kind of payed off in the end.

Good Bye, Monterey, California

When we finally get on the road it was almost noon (Chris got hungry before we even got to Seaside) and our big plan was to cover 400 miles to Barstow, California for our first stop for gas. I guess we think we are tough and can go long periods of time without going to the bathroom even though we are drinking water by the gallon. So only 100 miles into our trip we stopped at a beautiful rest stop. We actually pulled up next to the Semi carrying the Traveling Wall for the Vietnam Memorial, I though that was kind of cool and fate. After that we continued to stop at about every other Rest Stop. After awhile of being in the Uhaul, Christopher noticed that we were not going to be getting the the gas millage we had predicted from the Financial plan. I noticed that my original formula still worked I just need to account for the fact that the truck had gained a few pounds and the information on the Uhaul website did not account for a truck carrying stuff and pulling a Dodge Truck. So back to the gas millage, we orginally thought we would get 400 mile per a tank and in actual reality we were only getting about half that. Which put us stopping in Bakersfield, California.

That information only put a slight damper on our financial budget and it actually worked out for the best since Christopher and I were need a few extra breaks to stretch and move around, Chris especially. ( I do not envy him in anyway for driving the Uhaul, he was stressed out for a good bit getting use to the feel of the truck).

I think my favorite part of the entire first day of our trip was driving through Bakersfield, California. Randomly, Christopher asked me to look up the closest Fives Guys or Chick-Fil-A and conveniently there was a Chick-Fil-A just down the road in the direction we where headed. Talk about making A Hungry Georgia Girl very, very happy. I got so excited to eat a chicken club and have a Icedream Cone.

When we got into Tehachapi, I started to notice the big wind mills that people use to collect energy. WIND POWER!!!! It was beautiful to drive through the farm and see all the different sizes and locations of all the wind mills spinning at all speeds.

The Tehachapi Wind Farm, with around 5,000 wind turbines,
is the second largest collection of wind generators in the world.

After we got further down the road the landscape continued to get more and more beautiful by the minute. The mountains turned in to deserts as we passed through Mojave Desert, Not as boring a I thought it would be, it was quite breath taking to see the long stretches of nothing. It was also getting dark and I was able to see more stars than I have seen in my life time and I am pretty sure that I was seeing the Milky Way, that or my eyes were playing really mean tricks on me. The only thing that could have made this portion of the trip any better would have been being able to see a shooting star or two.

While we were in the Mojave Desert, Christopher and I barely paid attention to landscape after awhile, since it all looked the same. But for some reason something could my eye and when I looked up I noticed a red and gold sign. Apparently we were passing Twenty-nine Palms and were going to completely miss it.

My Last California Sunset for a while.

When we got to the state line I was so excite and mad. I am a person who sees the world through photographs and I wasn't even able to get a picture of the “Welcome to Arizona” sign. Actually, I completely missed it and got two pictures of the darkness. We ended up getting into Kingmen, Arizona a little after midnight and stayed in a cute motel just off Historic Route 66. The room we were in also had a little history attached to it as well, Miss Shayne Mason, 1987s Miss Coors Rodeo had also stayed in the room.

I have to laugh at most of the first day of our trip, it consisted of a lot of Sing-A-Longs with the radio or Ipod and every time we saw a Las Vegas exit sign I got these big puppy eyes from pathetic Christopher begging to make a detour to do a little gambling. We sent most of the first day changing the radio station since we were on the outskirts of most civilization and I listened to Christopher complain about the steep grades that was killing our gas mileage and the one truck stop that could not give us a receipt.