A Million and One Things

I realized I really hadn't mentioned much about my road trip when I wrote in my last post that I told the lady who sold me my sweatshirt all about it. So, I guess it's your turn to hear the short version!

You can already find this story online with the same pictures (probably more of them, actually, but I have the link to the Facebook album here, so enjoy) but...I'm going to write all about it anyway.

Saturday, May 31st. I attended my brother's high school graduation in the afternoon in Sarasota. Meanwhile, Ody waits patiently in the parking lot of Robarts Arena, fully stocked with all my material possessions. After my brother's graduation (congrats!) Ody and I trek to Applebee's for dinner out with the family and an emotional goodbye-I'm-leaving-for-Denver-now-who-ever-thunk-it.

And I'm off to Tampa to pick up my partner in crime at the airport! It is already apparent that, while I obviously don't own that much stuff, it's heavy. Ody's 4-cylinders were chugging along on the flat Florida landscape. The Skyway almost did him in. Maybe the mountains are not such a good idea. But I read stories about people in Japan driving these little xD's everywhere on the mountains. Ody perseveres. (He's a fighter)

I get to Tampa and meet Jeremy like clockwork, as he had just made it to arrivals and I literally did a drive-by pickup. Switching over from my "SRQ to TPA" playlist to my "TPA to GVL" playlist, we were ready to rock!

Tentative plans to hang out with some of my friends from undergrad work out perfectly and I have the chance to share Maude's with Jeremy. Bonus points for having Fiorela as our waitress. It felt like it'd been so long since I had been back in Gainesville! We stay out later than was planned but it was totally worth it. Hotel. Sleep.

Sunday, June 1st. And we're up before the sun! Jeremy took this shot as we drove westbound on I-10, with the sun chasing us in the side mirrors (note that the rearview mirror was worthless this entire trip):
We continue into Georgia and stop at a local diner there. (One goal of the trip was to eat completely at local places, but this hope later became dashed as some diners in Little Rock just don't like to be open when you need breakfast!) Alabama was pretty uneventful, too, as far as I can remember. Oh, we were lost for an insignificant amount of time. However, in case you're wondering, Mississippi has the best rest stop known to mankind with beautiful grass and hot coffee:
For the evening, Jeremy had arranged for us to stay at his friend's (Adam's) place in Memphis. We went out for BBQ and walked Memphis, where we ended up catching a band. The band was asking for people to come on up and say where they were from so Jeremy and I walked up and had him announce that we were from Colorado! A lady later walked up and told us she was from Colorado Springs. Awesome.

Memphis at sunset.

Monday, June 2nd. One long day of driving down, one long day to go. We start our day by getting lost in Memphis, when all we really needed to do was head over the HUGE BRIDGE spanning the Mississippi River, but who knew? Somewhat scary early-morning direction issues aside, crossing the Mississippi from Memphis, TN to West Memphis, AR was a beautiful way to start the day. Side note: rest stops in Arkansas are not as nice as rest stops in Mississippi. Our first break of the day will come soon in Little Rock, where we will meet Jeremy's friend, Dan, for breakfast. Since the diner that was found online turned out not to be open for breakfast...ever...Jeremy and I meet Dan at iHop out of convenience, thus breaking out pact to eat only at local, non-chain restaurants. It didn't matter, Dan was a hoot and we were full! Time to brave the Arkansas-Oklahoma-Kansas stretch. Did you just yawn? Actually it wasn't that bad.

Besides, when you want to mix it up just drive through Tulsa, the city that has the worst highway signs EVER, resulting in the third and last time Jeremy and I found ourselves lost. I challenge you to try to get out of Tulsa alive.

If getting lost in Tulsa isn't exciting enough to break up the Arkansas-Oklahoma-Kansas boredom, drive a fully packed Scion xD down a country road in Kansas. On cruise control. Most preferably down a hill. In Ford County.

Anyway, Jeremy and I made it to Dodge City! Yeeha/yahoo! Dinner. Sleep.

Monday, June 3rd. We awake in DODGE CITY!

The Boot Hill Bed & Breakfast. Run by the sweetest couple (and they have massive international travel experience with more in the works!), occupied by a diverse population of transient residents, and in possession of one of the best, most filling breakfasts ever.Bonus points if you can find Jeremy in the above picture.

OK, you can't tell me that you dislike that hat on him. ;)Headstone located in a recreation of Boot Hill Cemetery.A Dodge City one-room schoolhouse.

Shoot out!

Still full from breakfast, we ate sandwiches and then went to the Longbranch Saloon for Sarsaparilla, a cream soda meets root beer type drink. At this point, my stomach was probably saying "Lady, do you remember what you had for breakfast? I'll tell you: coffee, orange juice, fresh fruit, homemade eggs, homemade herbed potatoes, four different types of homemade pastries. OK, you didn't finish your bacon, but it doesn't make this right!"
I was done eating for the rest of my life after that drink.

The Santa Fe Trail Tracks. Historical Marker #23242435423 that we passed. But the coolest. And you can see Ody in the background!

Besides more uneventfulness, and another breaking of the pact at a Sonic in Pueblo, CO, our journey took us through Colorado Springs where Jeremy and I decided to take in a minor league baseball game (and nachos, oh, more food) with his friends Tim and Jo. We also went to Tim and Jo's and ate ice cream (oh, even more food) and watched some good comedy.

Minor League Baseball in Colorado Springs.

And then we continued on to Denver, picked up Drake (Jeremy's Subaru) picked up my keys (which was pointless since I left them in Golden when I needed them most) and continued on to Golden to catch some shut-eye before moving day, culminating in the end of the road trip.

That's about all I'm going to write for now, and a rather good summary, but the thing about road trips is that you really just had to be there. :)

-Tami

I love it here!

Alright, before I get to what I've been doing since I arrived in Denver (I promise you don't care to know, but you asked), I'll begin with the road trip Jeremy and I took. It went like this:

5/31 Gainesville, FL
6/1 Memphis, TN
6/2 Dodge City, KS
6/3 Denver, CO

...and with plenty of adventure in between! We met up with Jeremy's friends in Little Rock (for breakfast) and Colorado Springs (minor league baseball game and ice cream!) and were lost for a brief amount three times if I recall correctly. However, Jeremy has a GPS/map function on his phone so it wasn't for long. But out of all the places to which we traveled, Dodge City was actually sharing a co-starring role with Denver as one of the real destinations of the trip and it was well worth it. This is a link to the facebook album so that you can see all the pictures there and most are from Dodge City.


While that's a good album, you're still missing out on all the goofy stories that are just as much fun as BBQ in Memphis or swanky rest stops in Mississippi...like the reasons as to why there's popcorn chicken still on the driver's seat (a long Sonic pit-stop) or how I am a horrible navigator through Tulsa (they don't use exit numbers to my liking, at all). I also learned how to eat sunflower seeds. I know, it's sad that I'm 22 and this is a skill I'd not yet acquired, but we had a lot of time on our hands in Oklahoma and it took 30 seconds to learn and two minutes to practice, so it killed some time.

Due to a late arrival in Denver on Tuesday night, Wednesday was move-in day. The actual moving in took place after much misadventure, especially involving keys and the forgetting of them. However, once those were obtained, I was set within a matter of an hour (and once again I'm going to refer to Jeremy as being a huge help). :) Then came the unpacking, mattress arrival, and the grocery shopping. I'll skip this part because, frankly, it's boring.

While I'm aware that today is Thursday, for the last four hours I've been accidentally calling it Friday - I've done so much: Changed my driver's license, took Ody to have a VIN inspection and emissions test, acquired his (two!) plates, and drove to Toyota/Scion looking for a way to hold up the front plate without drilling into the bumper. But we drilled into the bumper in the end anyway, and it looks fine. Not that big of a deal.

I switched over my AAA membership - as some people know I'm a gung-ho AAA fan. I also figured out how to bank remotely, which includes banking by mail, as there is not one single Bank of America in Colorado. And I really like Bank of America.

I also bought and assembled a very heavy desk and a nice gentleman from my apartment helped me carry that up two flights of stairs. That was how I met one of my building-mates. My favorite story so far is my kitchen table story. I went on craigslist, of which I am now a devotee, and I found a gorgeous five-piece set in Wash Park. I emailed the owner and she emailed me back with her number. When I called her it turns out she lives in my building and teaches in the DTC - that's the Denver Tech Center if you're wondering. I had that table and a new friend in less than an hour! Small world. And she's a recreational runner who utilizes Wash Park, for which my neighborhood is named, as her usual path.

Whew.

So that takes me to tomorrow and since I was so productive with today I'll probably just hang up a few pictures and sort through my desk items and my clothes because they are still bagged and packed. Right now it's all pretty administrative stuff, and just about all the things one would expect to hear from someone who just moved across the country with only the back of a small Scion loaded to capacity. Aren't you all now wishing you hadn't asked for a way to keep in touch with me? :P

As for the not boring news, there's more of that to come now that I'm getting all these other frivolities out of the way. :P Soon enough, maybe even this weekend, I am off to do some outdoorsy things because the weather here is gorgeous! A run or walk around Wash Park at the very least since now I have a running partner in the building. This reminds me that I have a list of things I really wish I had, one is a vacuum and the other is a bike. And I can totally handle a dirty floor for now if it means I have a bike. ;) There's also a trip to FIBArk planned for next weekend and if it's at all possible I want to go to that, too, but we'll see. Here's the site. Now tell me that doesn't look like a blast. I dare you. :D



-Tami