Wednesday 2/20: Edmond, OK-Amarillo, TX. We left our home in Oklahoma at about 1:30. The morning was full of cleaning, packing, and returning borrowed things. It was very exhausting. I didn't sleep well the night before on the floor, so we decided to go to Amarillo. The weather was cooperative until we hit Amarillo, then the snow started--so we got there just in time. I was tired so I slept a bunch of the way.
Thursday 2/21: Amarillo, TX- Gallup, NM. This day was by far the most boring so far. North Texas and New Mexico are so flat. It's a really boring drive, but at least we got to drive fast. Its amazing how uninhabited much of this area is. And what is left is very dirty and littered with tires and trash. The plants are kinda ugly too. I've lovingly called them Roughage. We got to Gallup and decided to go running. So we dressed up in our winter gear and were ready to face the winter sleet. I didn't want to run too far because I wasn't very inspired. Thats about what ended up happening. We ran along a busy road --in the dirt. I hit a soft spot all of a sudden and was instantly up to my knees in a foul smelling mud. I was sooo pissed. We went back to the hotel and I cleaned off my shoes and pants (took nearly an hour). Matt still wanted to run, so I ran in my walking shoes and we ended up completing a total of 4 miles or so. I'm glad that we finished the run, because the sleet had stopped and it was much more enjoyable.
Friday 2/22: Gallup, NM-Bullhead City, AZ. This part of the trip has been the most beautiful. We continued through the boring part of New Mexico.. Then it got hillier and higher in elevation and it began to snow. At one part, the car was fishtailing so badly that I just wanted to pull over somewhere for awhile. But we slowed down to about 45 mph and kept on going. The snow was beautiful and was exactly the kind I had missed having all winter : the big fluffy flakes . :) We ate lunch at Denny's in Williams (outside of Albuquerque) and watched the winter wonderland. As we moved from there to Bullhead City, we went down through a bunch of valleys and the land turned back into desert. It was kinda sad to leave the snow behind. The mountains here don't really look like mountains, but like gigantic piles of gravel. We got a lot of fantastic pictures of things, but we were sure happy to get to our destination for the night. I was exhausted. We went to dinner with Jason and Andrea. They took us across the border to Nevada and we went to a big casino that was full of other things to do : shop, bowling, arcade, shows, etc. It was like a Vegas casino, but on a smaller scale. Then we went back to the apartment and hung out with Zoey. She's doing well on our trip. The first couple nights she was terrified, but now she's comfortable faster. Andrea really loved Zoey. she wanted me to leave the kitty behind.
Saturday 2/23: Bullhead City, AZ-Irvine, CA. This part was mostly desert, the Mohave Desert. I think this is the only desert in our country, but there was really nothing there as far as people, plants, and anything but sand. This kinda looked like New Mexico...empty! When we got past Apple Valley, CA, it got much hillier. It was soo beautiful. I think most of my pictures from that day were from there. The hills were beautiful and didn't look as rocky. A lot of them were snow-covered too. As we got nearer to Los Angeles, the traffic got heavier. I'm glad that Matt drove! We took a toll road into Irvine and it went right through the area that had all the wildfires last spring. It was sooo green. After not seeing anything green since November in Oklahoma, it looked especially beautiful. We went to the ocean with Rob and Leah. It was beautiful. There was no fog or haze like there usually is (they tell us) and we got to see a bunch of little sea critters that washed up on the shore. I liked hermit crabs the best. Then we went to a different beach and waded in the water. It was really cold, so we didn't go swimming like we had planned. We went to dinner and had lobster ravioli. They were expensive , but delicious! :)
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