Beginning of Day 3

We're in Little Rock, Arkansas. It has finally gotten a bit colder. All the way through Florida, Alabama, and the corner of Tennessee, it was around 70 degrees, but when we arrived in Little Rock, it was in the 50s.

The trip so far has been really nice. The only upset was when I got pulled over by the Highway Patrol outside of Tallahassee, FL. There were two police cars on the right-side shoulder. One officer was busy giving someone a ticket. When we drove by, the other officer sped onto the highway and up to us with his lights flashing, so we pulled over. Office Swindle (that was actually his name!) informed me that, since 2002, there is a "Move Over" law in Florida (you have to change lanes if there is an emergency vehicle on the shoulder with flashing lights). I had some really bad excuses and forgot to say "I'm sorry, officer" and I didn't think to explain at first that we hadn't lived in Florida since 1999. He took my license and registration and went back to his patrol car. A long time passed and he came back with a clipboard in his hand. I then did my "sorry, officer" bit and explained we hadn't lived here in a long time. He said my license was registered in 2005 and then shoved the clipboard at me. At that point, there wasn't much point in trying to explain why I had that license (I had renewed my license during a visit home from England). The citation was for $136! Annoyingly, I almost did change lanes, but because the person ahead of us didn't, I thought it was OK. I certainly would have done so had I known it was a law!

Anyway, we made it to Troy, Alabama (our first stop) about an hour and a half later. Had dinner at a good little Mexican restaurant. The Hampton Inn we stayed in was really nice. Got a good night's sleep.

Day 2 went by without any problems. It was a nice drive through Alabama, across Mississippi, and through Memphis. We were on a smaller highway most of the way so there was a bit of character. Had some trouble finding a place to eat lunch because we were in a particularly undeveloped section of the country. That lost us some time.

Last night, when we finally reached the I-40 in Arkansas, it started PISSING DOWN! I don't think I have ever driven in such heavy rain. It was incredible. And a welcome rinsing of the car! It had mostly let up by the time we got close to Little Rock.

After checking in at the Holiday Inn in North Little Rock, we drove across the river to downtown Little Rock (really nice, by the way). I had read about a couple of brewpubs that were worth trying. We went to one called Boscos. The parking was a bit pricey in that area ($5), but we had a scrumptious dinner and I sampled a few of their beers.

This morning, we have a 8-9 hour tripped plotted to Amarillo, TX. I need to re-jig some of the stuff in the car so we have a bit more room and then we are going to take a quick drive through Little Rock to see what it's like in the daytime, before getting back on I-40W.

Tonight: The Big Texas Steak Ranch on Route 66 in Amarillo! Not going to try the 72 oz challenge, though!

Fixin' to leave

Kristen has just gone for a 6am run. I cheesed out on the pre- road trip exercise, though. The car is packed to the gills and we still have some more stuff to shove in there, including ourselves, so I might have to jig things around a bit.

The plan is to hit the road at 8am (knowing that it will probably be more like 9) and making it to Troy, AL by 6ish. Why Troy? No reason, really. It's just the first biggest 8-10-hours-away town on our route.

Oregon, here we come!

We've picked our route!

After some research and some advice from AAA, we have settled on our route across the country.  This one combines the relative safety (weather-wise) of the more southern routes with the interest-factor of taking a road other than the oft-travelled I-10.  We plan to do the trip in 6 days, driving 8-10 hours per day and we will leave on Wednesday, December 24th.

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We have made hotel reservations to stop over in Troy, Alabama; Little Rock, Arkansas; Amarillo, Texas; Kingman, Arizona; and Sacramento, California. Then we can hopefully make it through the pass into Oregon during daylight hours.

At this point, we do not know where we are going to go in Oregon. Kristen has yet to hear from the job she interviewed for in Salem and that's the only job lead we have at the moment. I've applied for one so far and there are a couple more I will apply for, most of them in Portland.

Possible trajectories across the country

Google's default:

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This one is interesting because we haven't really driven through any of those middle states, so it would be different scenery.  However, the weather might present a problem.  Hard to say.  Definitely depends on how quickly we need to get there.

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Less chance of snow (without taking the oft-used I-10):

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Not as direct, but still not doing the I-10 thing.  We kind of like this one.  Might be able to drive on Route 66 for part of it.

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Using I-10 going up California:

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This is the route we have usually taken when going from Florida to California.  I've driven it twice.  It goes through the widest part of Texas and, boy, is that sole-destroying.  I did put in a stop-over in Austin though, to make it more interesting.  There are some friends there we could visit.  And there's a stop-over in San Fran.  Friends there, too.  There's also people we could see in Arizona and Los Angeles, but we'd prefer to steer cleer of LA during this trip.

A stream-of-consciousness (free writing) summary of how it feels to be back -- because it's too hard to formulate this into concrete thought

Numb at first.  

Are we really staying for good?  Isn't this just a vacation?  

Warm.  Florida sunshine.  Tropical.  Food.  Unlimited icecubes.  Tumble dryer.  Amenities that we grew up with.  Thanksgiving.  Random people saying Hello.  Taco Bell.  Pollo Tropical.

Authority.  Police presence.  Immigration.  Citizenship.

Space to breathe.  Space to drive.  Opportunity.

Barack Obama.  New America.  Optimism.  Can-do attitude.  New beginning.  Rebirth.  The road ahead.  Civic duty.

Endless television.  Endless television commercials.

Relief.  All our stuff!  Driving on the right side of the road.  No cars parked in the street.  Yellow school buses.  

Going to the gym.  Suburbia.  Neighborhoods.  Yards.  Lawns.

Commerce.  Consumer freedoms.  Malls.  Giant parking lots.  Car dealerships.  

Have a nice day!

Home.