21 September 2009 – 6:39 pm
Ok so life is good in the apartment. However just so everyone knows my mothers wonderful directions for cooking lasagna leave something to be desired. Heather “how do you make lasagna?” Mom “you put pasta, sauce, mozz, riccota, sausage, and parm in the pan.” ”and what it cooks itself?!?” mom “well no you layer it and bake! it’s easy.” that was it. Those were her wonderful directions. So what do I do, layer each of the ingrediants in a pan and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Why only 30 you ask? Well no one mentioned to me that the layers should be thin and there should be a lot of sauce!!!!!
So my infamous lasagna was two layers….had minimal sauce….and way to much cheese. But we ate it and it wasn’t horrible. But we learned a very important lesson. Never ask my mother for cooking directions…..the best she’ll give you is “when it looks done, eat it.”
And on another note today I had to drive to the bank, on my own to deposit a check and come home….that was it. I got to the bank fine and then took a 45 minute detour around the city as I got lost on the way home. Frame of reference: our address off Montgomery Blvd, the bank…..on Montgomery Blvd. Ponder this.
Till next time.
Heather
18 September 2009 – 4:41 pm
So I know it’s been a long time since a lot of people haven’t heard from us in a while but we’re finally finished cleaning and now it’s time to update people. (it’s Heather by the way) Everyone arrived safely in ABQ and the apartment is beautiful. All the rooms are set up and there have only been a few bumps in the road. Main bump = home sickness, but thanks to a rediculous amount of cell minutes and the joys of Skype we get to talk to our families and I get to see me puppies back in CT!! The apartment complex is in the middle of some rather large renovations (probably why rent is low). When they’re done there will be an indoor pool, sauna, tanning beds, and a better gym. As well as a conference/everything style ball room. Unfotrunatly in the middle of these renovations an apartment in a different building from us had a fire and they had to do a lot of work on it and the hallway, but I’ve been reassured by Gordon our amazing handyman that it should be done in no time and then they’ll finish up. Gordon’s really nice and has been helping us out with things like blown outlets and a dead outdoor bulb. It’s strange calling someone else to even change light bulbs, but here they insist. So during his time visiting us he has helped out a lot giving me a heads up about the area and places to go ect. I know the best grocery stores and oh yea the fact that it’s been raining since we moved here…is not NORMAL!!!! Yes we ‘brought the rain’ hehehe I can’t help it (transformers reference) The draught is officially over. The rain is still only a drizzle so it’s nothing to us. Even raining this place is amazing. Every place I look there is beautiful scenery with the mountain right next door and a gorgeous view of the valley next to us. I can’t believe I live here.
30 August 2009 – 11:10 pm
Waking up at about 7:30a, Tyler and I took our time a bit before hitting the road today. We ended up starting out at about 930a after a quick fuel stop. We quickly left Shawnee behind us and ventured forth toward Oklahoma City.
On the whole, Oklahoma can be a beautiful place, but I-40 had so much construction that it was hard to appreciate the natural beauty. Granted, a good portion of the road we took on the western side of the Mississippi was under construction, but only Oklahoma runs you through a slalom course before shuttling you to the opposite side of the highway in a single lane with a low shoulder. Yeah. Didn’t like that one bit.
On our way out of Oklahoma we stopped at Erick, OK, to top up the fuel, partly because of the name of the town and partly because we didn’t want to chance getting stranded because we weren’t cautious about our gas. Sadly, there wasn’t a souvenir to be found in the truck stop that said Erick on it.
Next came Texas, which consisted of wide open flatland on either side of us. It was boring, to say the least, but the monotony was broken up by a couple of wind farms and the largest cross in the Western Hemisphere. Yeah. The wind farms were cool; just watching the windmills rotating and creating a pattern was hypnotizing. But, like I said, other than that, there really wasn’t much else in Texas. Unless you count the food challenge that neither Tyler or I would dare try: a 72 ounce steak in under an hour and it’s free. For those who don’t want to do the math, that’s 4.5 pounds of beef. Not freaking happening.
As we approached the border of Texas into New Mexico, the landscape began to change. At first, I noticed small crevices in the earth which looked like really small canyons. Then, suddenly, we were overlooking mesas and buttes and canyons. Absolutely beautiful. I was very content looking out over the landscape until we got to Exit 0.
Exit 0 came and went and we found ourselves actually in New Mexico. And the Mountain Time Zone. We decided at this point to stop at the information center and find more out about the state I had decided to move to. The woman working there loaded me up with so much stuff she needed to give me a plastic bag just to carry it. We went back out to the truck after that and headed back out to the road.
New Mexico consisted mostly of long stretches of road with no civilization around, interspersed with small communities centered on the truck stops. The landscape was amazing, however. New Mexico is called “The Land of Enchantment” and today I found out that it’s aptly named.
After a few more hours of driving we got to Albuquerque and promptly drove through it to get down to Socorro, NM, so that we could stay with her. After some finagling, we stopped in Las Lunas for some Sonic Drive-In. Not the best burger I’ve had but I can understand why people rave about it. And are annoyed at the ads teasing the New Englanders. We took a little bit more time than we wanted to at Sonic, so we didn’t arrive in Socorro until after dark. But, we’re safe in Socorro now so I’m going to bed.
30 August 2009 – 12:11 am
After waking up bright and early at 7:30a, Tyler and I hit the road at about 9:15a into a Tennessee fog. Thankfully, it wasn’t thick enough to obscure our view of the road. Just all the Tennessee mountains.
About 20 minutes or so after we began driving, we passed a sign indicating that we had just entered the Central Time Zone. So, in effect, we had just traveled back in time exactly one hour. After making sure our phones and the clock in the cab displayed the correct time, we winded our way down out of the mountains and hills into the flatter parts of Tennessee.
Sadly, we were unable to make it to the Jack Daniels distillery as we didn’t really need a 2 hour detour today. But, that’s just fine as it gives me an excuse to return to Tennessee someday. Nor did we stop for barbecue in Memphis but that was mostly because there would have been no way for us to easily navigate Memphis.
Memphis held two points of interest for us: the crossing of the Mississippi River and the Mud Island Pyramid. After we’ve reached New Mexico, I’ll be uploading some of the pictures we took on the trip with an actual camera (because the iPhone is only so good (i.e. the camera isn’t the greatest)) so you will be able to see both the Pyramid and the Mississippi.
Then, into Arkansas we ventured. Arkansas, the Natural State, was so abysmally dull that I don’t even want to think about it. At one point when I had been complaining to Tyler about how sucky it was in Arkansas, he pointed out some clouds that looked like we were being flipped off by Arkansas.
We pressed through Arkansas to get to Oklahoma, where we stopped to eat before we began the final leg of the journey for today. As the sun began setting in Oklahoma, we were able to take in some of the natural beauty of the state. But, once night fell, it was as though Oklahoma became a sadist, throwing stretches of road construction areas in excess of 8 miles in length that featured the eastbound and westbound traffic being on the same side of the highway each having only one lane. It was like navigating the trench on the Death Star, except no Porkins died tonight.
Now, we find ourselves in a Motel 6 about 35 miles outside of Oklahoma City, the capital of every state, preparing for tomorrow, when we should get to Albuquerque. As we will be arriving earlier than expected, we will be heading down to Socorro to spend some time with Anna, a friend I’ve known since 2001. I bid you all a good night from Shawnee, OK, home of the Sac and Fox Casino (featuring battles of the bands, apparently).
We woke up at 8:30a to get our complimentary continental breakfast. Oh, and to get an early start on the day. But, mostly breakfast. We got on the road at about 10:30, after some planning and showers.
The fog that lay over everything kept the visibility to pretty much the road ahead. After approximately 11 miles of Maryland, we entered West Virginia, home to the Mothman and Pyramidhead. We had hoped the fog would clear up by this point, but the drive through WV was kept nice and creepy.
Virginia welcomed us warmly with a severe decrease in fog and some sun poking through. We quickly found ourselves in a very rural area with cows at every turn. As we began climbing the Appalachians again, we found some absolutely gorgeous vistas. While beautiful, Virginia along I-81 is quite repetitive. Shame, really.
Hours later, we entered Tennessee, home to Jack Daniels and Andrew Johnson. Tennessee is amazingly beautiful and not repetitive or boring at all. Well, at least not the part we’ve seen so far. The green of rural Tennessee (with cows, horses, sheep and donkeys) soon gave way to the urban landscape of Knoxville, which was gone in what felt like a flash. Shortly after that, the sun began setting causing us to start looking for a place to eat and crash. And, that brings us to Harriman, where we ate our first truly Southern food: Krystal Burger. And, I just noticed that we’re just about 8 miles away from the time zone border, so we’ll quickly gain an hour in the morning. I’ll update again tomorrow night, so until then good night or good morning, depending on when you read this.
27 August 2009 – 10:35 pm
After a tearful goodbye to Heather et al. in West Haven, Tyler and I hit the road at approximately 2:15p. By 3p, we were nearly out of Connecticut and into New York. Following I-287 over the Tappan Zee Bridge was the optimal route to avoid New York City area traffic, but the construction leading up to the bridge and the narrowness of it did not make for a fun length of road to be navigating a 16-foot truck towing a car through.
Upon reaching I-80, we began heading westward for a bit through New Jersey and Pennsylvania. There were some spots of bad traffic in New Jersey, which came as no surprise to us. I-80 took us through the Poconos where we found ourselves over 1500 feet above sea level.
Up in the Appalachian Mountains, we found our next highway, I-81. That took us through the beautiful, but very repetitive state of Pennsylvania from near Hazleton to the border with Maryland. After a brief respite in Ravine, PA, we continued on our way south Along the way, we each saw lights in the sky as it darkened. UFOs? Perhaps. They certainly were flying objects that were unidentifiable.
We decided to stop in Maryland so that we would not be spending the night in West Virginia, the state featured in way too many horror/slasher stories. Even though we will be only traversing a sliver of that state, we decided it would be better to make that trip in the daylight. No chance of running into Mothman that way.
Well, it’s been a long day so it’s about time to turn in. With any luck tomorrow I will be writing this from a different time zone.
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Around 3:30 this afternoon, we picked up the truck. After about 2 hours of packing it at the storage unit, it was approximately one-third full. Tyler and I headed back to the house with the truck to get the last bit of stuff. After about half an hour, we were finished thanks to Heather’s brother and several of his friends.
Knowing that all the stuff is in the truck is definitely relieving. Tomorrow, Tyler and I will be heading out on the road. Heather will wait here until 1 September when she will be flying down to meet us. Here’s to a good trip.
