Off to See the Wizard (of Oz)!

This will be my final posting here in the United States. Brian and I keep discussing how it doesn't really seem real that we are actually going to be living in Australia. Rather it seems we're just headed off on another part of our vacation. I don't know how long it will take until we actually realize we're living there and not just visiting. Maybe never. . .maybe what they say is true and the Aussies are on a perpetual vacation with a little work in between. We leave out of LAX tonight at 11:43 pm and arrive in Sydney on Thursday morning at 9:15. 14 hours and 35 minutes on a plane. Brian keeps threatening not to talk to me the entire time--he bought himself a Nintendo DS (a glorified gameboy I think--sorry to those I've just offended with that!) to keep busy with. So far it seems to be doing the trick (and we're not even on the plane yet!)

Last time I wrote we were in Cheyenne, WY with Brian's parents. We moved on to Colorado Springs for 3 days, where we visited my brother & sister-in-law and my two nephews, as well as Brian's uncle & his wife and his cousins.

We had a great time with both families. My brother decided that Bastet is demon posessed and needs to be exorcised and/or she needs a visit from the Dog Whisperer (he tried to impersonate him, but surprise, it didn't work!) Of course he made this accusation after he chased Bastet around RV, patted her belly and cradled her like a baby (none of which she is particularly fond of and certainly not by a stranger she's terrified of because he's been chasing her for 10 minutes!)



After Colorado Springs, Brian and I had 2 days to ourselves for travel. We headed south and west in Colorado to the Royal Gorge. I'm not usually afraid of heights, but it took a lot for Brian to get this picture of me standing next to the edge of the bridge (think wood bridge suspended over deep hole in ground, built too many years ago. . . cars still driving over it) I was much happier in the middle of it!



We kept going and headed to Mesa Verde National Park. Unfortunately, it was raining that day so we didn't get to do much climbing around (they have discovered 'ancient civilizations' that exsisted from 600 A.D. up to approximately 1300 A.D.)--especially since I slid down the stairs (not on purpose!) and gave myself a large black and blue tattoo that has made it uncomfortable to sit, stand or walk (which made for an interesting ride in the RV!) All in all, I think we spent about an hour and a half driving into the park and about 10 minutes looking around. Either way, it didn't matter. The park is breathtaking and it was even more amazing in the early morning as the fog was lifting.



Here's one of the cities they found (I think it looks fake in the picture--like it's some sort of model, but it's really quite amazing!):


Onto the Four Corners. This is the only place in the United States where you can be in 4 states at one time. Looks exciting doesn't it?



Gotta keep moving! Next stop: Grand Canyon. Once again, we were in and out of the car in about 10 minutes. For one, it was FREEZING! Isn't it supposed to be warm in Arizona? Apparently not since we hit an hour long sleet storm outside of Flagstaff. We also didn't stay out too long at the Grand Canyon because the sun was setting and you know, there's not much to see in the Grand Canyon when it's dark. But I've never seen the Grand Canyon before so I was happy to see any of it I could. Sadly, my Brady Bunch fantasies of riding a mule down the canyon will have to wait.




Next we headed to Mesa, AZ (a Phoenix suburb) to spend 2 days with my grandparents and their next door neighbor Pete (we've kind of adopted him as another grandpa). Our highlights of the time in Mesa were playing dominoes (although we lost terribly) and going to the Organ Stop Pizza. There's no other way to explain it but to say it's Chuck E Cheese for old people (Grandma & Grandpa, we like it, it's just the easiest way to explain!)


We made it LA on Saturday night and spent the day Sunday cleaning the RV and taking it to a dealer who's going to sell it for us. It's been pretty unexciting since then--we've been running errands and packing since we arrived. (We did take a few hours out to have dinner with Van & Sara--where Matt, you'll be pleased to know the conversation turned to Book 22).

Today, we're finishing packing, tranquilizing the cats, mailing boxes and going to the airport. Not much time for fun in the sun here in LA, but we'll have plenty of that when we hit the land of Oz.

G'day Mates!

More Stories from the Road

Hello again!

We have made it to Cheyenne, WY where we will spend the next 3 days with Brian's parents. We're excited to be in one spot for a few days!

After a VERY late start to Tulsa on Friday night (we arrived at 3:30am) we had a very quick, but well worth it visit with my friend Kristen before hitting the road again, making our way to Lubbock. Remember how I said we hadn't seen too many interesting things? Well, that certainly changed driving Route 66 through Oklahoma and Texas!



We stopped in a 1 stoplight town called Erick, OK, complete with tumbleweeds and stray dog getting blown in the wind across Main Street. As we walked up the sidewalk, we realized the meaning of Ghost Town--nothing was open (and they weren't just closed for the day) except the Sandhills Curiosity Shop. After stopping here, we kind of realized why maybe nothing else was open in the town. WOW! That's really all I can say--it was creepy, an interesting piece of history, but very creepy! They had just finished a performance when we arrived, so we didn't have the 'pleasure' of that experience, so until we saw this video we really had no idea what we missed. Again, WOW!

We got back in the RV and headed down the road again, this time stopping just a bit over the Texas border in Groom, TX where we saw this pretty amazing sight. I have to say that when you're driving up the interstate and see this off in the distance it's really quite awesome. And if we hadn't been aware of it and already planning to pull over and visit, we would have been forced to by our awe of what we saw. What joy it brought to see it off in the distance and up close!




We spent the weekend in Lubbock with Brian's brother and sister & brother-in-law. We had a great time and loved getting to celebrate our 2nd anniversary with an ice cream cake made by Jenny (Brian's sister). We even had the pleasure of Mark (Brian's brother) riding with us as we travelled from Lubbock to Denver on Monday before we put him on a plane back to Bozeman, MT where he's in school. Along the way, we found 2 giant legs wearing tube socks in the middle of the a pasture. Kinda makes you wonder, doesn't it?




Today we made it to Cheyenne and well, this is why we're moving to Australia:




BRRRRRRRR!!!!!

Greetings from the highways of America!

Last Thursday, Brian & I set out for the first leg of our trip (Iowa) to visit my parents, grandmother and watch the Iowa Hawkeyes win their Homecoming game against Purdue (which they did! It was Brian's first live football game and I think he's finally realized I really do love football!)

We spent our first night at the Gaslight Campground somewhere near the Ohio/Pennsylvania border. It was uneventful and rather short. It was the first time we saw the cats since starting our journey--Lily sits under my chair and Bastet sits under the couch while we travel, only coming out when the RV is parked.

Friday night we slept in the RV in the parking lot of the Heartland Inn in Cedar Rapids, IA (my parents were staying in the hotel--we offered to let them stay in the RV with us, but they surprisingly weren't too excited about the idea!)

Saturday was the game--it turned out to be a beautiful fall day and a great game (thankfully, Iowa didn't give it away in the 4th quarter, despite trying!) It was pretty exciting right at the end when one of the freshman intercepted the ball on the 2 yard line and ran it all the way back for a touchdown, setting a new U of I record--college football doesn't get much better than that!




Sunday was my Grandma Rachel's 91st birthday. We celebrated with her by having Godfather's taco pizza (this is our favorite pizza outside of New York, by the way) and birthday cake. She's a pretty amazing little lady--at 91 she still drives (though Mom has convinced her maybe that's not such a good idea and she's getting rid of her car now--it's a little scary when all you see coming at you is this giant blue car and a puff of white hair up over the steering wheel!)

On Monday, however, our trip took a minor setback when Brian had to fly back to New York to tie up some loose ends at work. I stayed in Iowa with the cats and my parents. I really enjoyed my time with them--my dad had Monday off so we spent the day together and saw a great movie on Monday night (Facing the Giants) which I'll tell you about in another post--it deserves an entire post to itself (but go see it if you have the chance)

I've pretty much spent the week doing mundane errands (the RV is getting fixed--we ran out of time in NJ to get it all finished before we left) and repacking. Yes, repacking. About 2 weeks ago, I went to a jewelry making class and when I came home Brian had opened up all the suitcases, unzipped all of our shrink bags and pulled random things out of the suitcase stating "We don't need this" (note: "we" meant me--they were all my clothes!)

Once I got over my extreme anger and frustration, I told him I would be willin to go through everything and take some things out--but next time ask first! (I had spent the 3 previous days folding & packing our entire lives ALL day long.) So now, I have everything repacked (I didn't have enough time to unpack, go through and repack before we left NY) and I am rather impressed with myself. Not only do I have weight restrictions for luggage (as one would expect when flying) we also have luggage size to worry about.

Today, we start the next leg of our trip--the South. We'll be headed to Tulsa, OK this afternoon and onto Lubbock, TX tomorrow to visit Brian's sister, Jenny, and her husband, Tory. Brian's brother, Mark, is flying in from Bozeman, MT to spend the weekend with us as well and he'll travel with us from Lubbock back to Denver in the RV.

So that's where we are for now. Sorry, no exciting travel stories yet. The only interesting thing we've seen so far is the "Live Fish" truck (a flat bed semi with 4 giant fish tanks). Maybe after this weekend we'll have more!

Have a great day!