Better Late Than Never...

So, I'm sure that many have figured out, Mom and I made it home safely on our last day. We've both been so busy since last Tuesday, that we never had time to finish our blog! But our last day was an easy one. We got up early and hit the road around 7:00 am to make our final trip. Carmen said we'd be home at 1:50 p.m. Mom and I knew it would be a little later because we make frequent stops. Nothing exciting happened while we were traveling. We made one of our last stops around Bakersfield and decided to haul ass to Los Banos. We drove for over three hours without a stop! haha That's big deal for us! ;) We stopped in Banos for some stuff for dinner and then made the 20 min drive back home. We got home around 3. It was FABULOUS weather...95 and NOT humid! HAHA Sure is good to be back. :)

The long haul...

Mom and I left Shamrock, TX yesterday at 8:00 a.m., with high hopes of driving in four different states (TX, NM, AZ, and CA) and traveling just under 910 miles. Can I just say, I was LOVING the weather in Texas. It was wonderful, sunny, warm, with a slight breeze, and DRY! Just the thing us to California girls love. :)

We were making excellent time and thinking it was going to happen until we reached a po-dunk town called Laguna, NM. We pulled into a gas station for a fill up and a driver switch when two big white boys came up to us and said that there is a problem with the right rear tire on the trailer...it was wobbly and not touching the ground...GREAT! They were driving behind us on the freeway and noticed it and were even worried about passing us because they were afraid the tire would blow out. Mom and one of the dudes looked at the tire in question and we discovered that there were some areas where the tread was starting to come apart. So much for our good time, right? Well, then the guy said to his friend, "get the jack!" and he then proceeded to change our tire for us! It was very nice of them. When Mom offered to buy them lunch, he said, 'no, I'm just doing it because it's the right thing to do.' :) Nice knowing there are people like that still out there. So, considering the stop entailed fuel, bathroom breaks for us and the dogs, and the changing of a tire, it was rather quick. We got back on the road. And drove through the rest of New Mexico with out another problem.

As we drove through Arizona, we were starting to get hungry and decided that we wanted pizza. So, I looked into the Garmin and found a place called Alpine Pizza. We called in an order to go, that way we wouldn't have to leave the dogs in the truck for long and so we could keep making good time. Well, I must have been reading cross-eyed because I THOUGHT it was right off the interstate. Turns out, Alpine Pizza was in down-town Flagstaff. Ever notice how narrow roads are in down town areas? Well, you sure do when you're driving a big truck and hauling at 22 foot trailer! Mom was driving and I jumped out at a red light to pick up our food...there is no where to park a truck and trailer in down town Flagstaff. When I came out, Mom had found a small parking lot right next to an alley, so she pulled it and hoped that she could get the truck to the alley without hitting anything (like cars, trash bins, light posts, you get the idea). Mom did a GREAT job, but it was tricky! For a few mins, we were afraid our pizza was going to cause us to get stuck in an alley! We got out of the alley and parked in-front of a Burger King to eat. The pizza wasn't bad, thank goodness. As we were eating, we saw a rock that Mom wanted, so we picked it up before we got back on the road.

The rest of Arizona was not a problem. We crossed into California, and had to go through a check point. How funny, we have crossed into 16 different states and the ONLY one we had to go through a check point was CA?! What a goofy state. When we told the man we only had luggage he told us to enjoy the rest of our trip. Thank goodness, because who knows if they would have let us bring the rocks in...

Wanna know another annoying thing about CA? Trucks have to do 55 mph on the road. For the last three weeks, we've been driving on interstates where the quality of the road is equal to or worse than CA and we were able to do 70 or 75 mph. May not seem like a big deal, but it is when you want to get home!

We pulled into the Best Western around ten. I got some experience backing up the truck and trailer...very frustrating. Makes me think Mom was a champ for getting out of the parking lot/alley in Flagstaff! We got to the room and I crashed, mom watched a little TV. So, the total for that day: over 900 miles and about 16 hours of being on the road (because of time changes, we gained two hours)! We decided we were going to get up earlier so we could get home sooner. We were looking forward to a short day of traveling. We'll be doing just under 460 miles today. :) Homeward Bound!

We've got an even longer way to go and a shorter time to get there...W

Yesterday, Mom and I left Kingston Springs, TN at 8:00. We've been getting up and ready much faster now there there is only two and not five animals to take care of! We did a lot of traveling yesterday, over 820 miles.

We've been making good time. Stopping to break and switch every two hours. Oh, and pick up rocks! When we were headed east, I wanted to stop and buy magnets, now that the trailer is empty, Mom wants rocks. haha So, we found some on Saturday in TN and we found one yesterday in AK.

There isn't much to report because we've been hammering down trying to get home. We did have dinner at the Cracker Barrel last night. It was my first time there, and it was fantastic! While we were waiting for food, Mom waited outside with the dogs. put us back about an hour, but it was worth it!

We stopped in Shamrock, TX last night. We stopped and a Best Western and they wanted over $100 bucks for the room...that's ridiculous for a Sunday night in a po-dunk town, so we drove 1/2 mile down the road to the Western Motel. After our experience at the Super 8 I was VERY nervous, but it ended up being ok.

So our night ended around 11:20 last night. We crashed. We hope to make it through TX, NM, and AZ in to stop on the other side of CA.

West bound and down, ten wheels are rollin'

Mom and I sadly left Krystal and Andrew's place about 10:30 yesterday. It was hard for us to leave Krystal in VA, but we turned on Carmen the Garmin and started driving. Of course, she took us the long way out. As we were driving, Mom and I were saying how Andrew had drove us over to this same area, and that he went a different way, and that it didn't take him as long as it took us to get there! haha Stupid Garmin.

As we were driving through Orange, Va, we saw a Harley Davidson store and decided to stop. Nothing makes the blues feel better than shopping, right?! After our 30 min stop, we drove on. We got to the area where Krystal had taken the wrong turn on the way into Va and laughed because the wrong turn she took was definitely the much longer way!

Our drive was pretty uneventful until we had to drive through the rain..once again, it was sunny when we left Krystal's and then later on, it's pouring rain!

We made it to Tennessee and decided that when we reached Knoxville, we were going to stop for dinner. We decided we wanted KFC for dinner, so Mom was looking in the Garmin for KFC's close by. At the last min Mom found a KFC and said, 'Take this exit!' and so I did. We thought it was pretty cool that we had found one so soon and close, until we got to the KFC. It was in the ghetto of Knoxville. We should have just kept driving, but we decided it didn't look TOO bad, so we stayed. Well, we had to wait about five mins for our corn, and 15 mins for our biscuts. But because we waited so patiently, two free biscuts were thrown in and were walked out to the truck where we were eating. As we were eating our food, we were watching the house directly in front of the truck. There were a handful of people sitting on the porch and people kept coming and going into the house. We laughed, we were probably sitting in front of a drug house! haha we REALLY should have not stopped in Knoxville!

We were about thirty miles east of Nashville when traffic slowed. This was a bummer to us because we were so close to our destination. We wanted to stop about 15 miles west of Nashville. The traffic was due to a really bad accident. Two lanes of the three lane interstate were blocked. We were stuck in that but as soon as we passed the accident, all three lanes were open and we were moving nicely but only for about a minuet. Two lanes were again blocked for construction. Mind you, it was after 10:00 p.m. on a Saturday night, and we didn't see anyone outside working...so, WTF?! And when the interstate became four lanes, there was three lanes blocked! We were stuck in this no-construction-construction-zone for about thirty mins when we finally started seeing people working...looked like they were painting lines on the road. Awesome.

We reached Kingston Springs, TN at almost 11:30 p.m. We snuck the dogs into the room and crashed with hopes of making it to Texas.

THURS, JULY 29, 2010

We decided that we were going to cook breakfast that morning. Eggs, bacon, toast, and tatar tots (Andrew kept calling them hash browns ;) ). Everything was taken care of, we just needed some milk and orange juice. So, Alicia stuffed her ID and debit card into her shoe and walked down to the WaWa. (That's the big gas station right down the road from Krystal and Andrew's place. When Alicia got there, she realized that her cards had fallen out! So, she had to walk about halfway home before she found them, and then back to the WaWa to by the milk and OJ. When Alicia walked out of the WaWa Andrew was there to pick her up! haha Took too long!

After our breakfast and showers, we drove up to Springfield to visit with the Gilbert family. When we left Fredericksburg, it was a hot and humid day. We found out there was a bad accident on the interstate and were able to take a different way up, thanks to Carmen the Garmin! As we were driving down the road, it began pouring rain...The weather over here is nuts! We got to Springfield and visited with Uncle Steven and then we all went out to dinner. We ate at Austin Grill and Aunt Brenda met up with us. After our fantastic dinner, we made our 45 min drive back to Fredericksburng.

We got back home and decided we were going to watch The Departed. Krystal started falling asleep and so she went bed. Andrew came home from work and finished watching the movie with us. Mom stayed up past 11:00 two nights in a row to watch a movie! It was a historic night indeed! ;)

FRI, JULY 30, 2010

Staying up late on Thursday wasn't such a good idea becuase we were all moving slow that morning! Andrew had the day off, so he was going to trip around some more of the battlefields with us. We finally left the house sometime after noon and went to a place called the Greene Turtle. Besides the fact that our meal took about 30 mins to get out to us, it was good food!

After lunch, Andrew ran into a store to buy bullets so that we could do some shooting later in the day. He made the mistake of leaving Mom, Krystal, and Alicia in the car with it running. When Andrew got into the store, Krystal jumped into the driver seat and moved the car. We all had a good laugh as we watched Andrew trying to find the car for a min!! haha We left that area and headed towards the Wilderness Battleground where we learned a little more about the Civil War and headed back to Krystal and Andrew's to grab a the truck. We loaded up into the truck and headed to Josh and Lanie's for good company and food, guns, and our trailer.

While we were waiting for our food to BBQ, Andrew and Josh took our their guns and they and Alicia fired off some rounds. Alicia shot an AR-15, which is illegal in CA. After dinner, we headed back home to visit with Amanda and her boyfriend Taylor.

Mom and Alicia did some laundry and packing to get ready for the next morning. They were headed back to Stevinson, Ca

Back in Virginia

TUES, JULY 27, 2010

Tuesday was a day with not much going on but driving. We hit the road at 8:30 and made our way to Bensalem, PA to drop Dad off. Once again, we hit traffic right before the G.W. Bridge. It took us over an hour to get through it. This time, there was a car broken down in the left lane with a police car behind it! We couldn't figure out why the cop didn't just push the car off the road to get traffic moving, but we were on our way after that.

In Bensalem, we had lunch at Dad's favorite dinner, Michael's, and then dropped him off at his truck. We then made our way back to Krystal's place with out any trouble.

WED, JULY 28, 2010

After our magnificent breakfast of cinnamon rolls and our showers, we headed out to tour some of the civil war battle fields. We tripped around found Chancellorsville Battlefield.

We started at the Visitors Center and decided we were going to take the car tour. We thought that was a good idea because it was a 'car' tour, we wouldn't have to get out and walk around in the heat, right? Wrong. Car tour meant that you drove around to different areas where one of the more famous battles of the Civil War occurred and then got out of the car to read about it and see the ditches and 'lunettes' that were dug into the ground and still standing, almost 150 years later. It was interesting stuff, but we felt it was too hot to be doing that kind of stuff. The weather in VA just isn't like the weather in CA!!

We had a good laugh when we were hiking and a bug flew into Krystal's armpit and she freaked out. And when Mom and Krystal tried to hide behind two trees to scare Alicia, but they were so visible, it was hilarious! Another time we were checking out a family cemetery and a jogger came running around the corner behind us and scared Alicia. Mom and Krystal thought that was really funny!

We ended our trip at the spot where Stonewall Jackson was shot in the arm and decided to go back home. It was about 7:30. We got home and decided to go to Wal-Mart for breakfast food and a movie.

We watched our movie and then hit the hay. :)

On the road again...

WED, JULY 21, 2010

Mom, Krystal, and Alicia piled into the Jetta and left fredericksburg, Va at 8:30 a.m. We stopped for gas and hung out at the gas station for a few extra minuets while we played the scratchers haha Alicia ended up winning $11! The funny this is that it payed the tolls up till Pennsylvania.

When we got to Bensalem, Pa and picked up Dad. We ate lunch at Dad's favorite diner in Bensalem, Michael's, and then hit the road...we were heading to Jen's house in Providence, RI.

Things were going great until we reached the George Washington Bridge in New York. Traffic stopped moving. As we were listening to the radio, and NOT moving, we learned that there was a multiple vehicle accident on the upper level of the bridge and it was closed! The upper level is exactly where we were trying to go. So we sat in traffic for three hours and crawled about 10 feet every five mins! We also later found out that it took so long to clean up because there was a vegetable spill that needed to be cleaned up! Lame! But we were eventually moving again, only to hit another obsticle....a storm! The rain was coming down so hard, we could barely see the lines on the road! Krystal did a FABULOUS job driving in the rain :)

We got to Jen's around midnight. That was the worst day we had had on the road so far! We did a little bit of visiting and then hit the hay.



THURS, JULY 22, 2010

While Jen was at work, we all decided we were going to pay Uncle Donald a visit and then take the train into Boston. We piled into the car a little before 12:30 and drove to Quincy, Ma. We visited with Uncle Donald for about an hour and then walked to the T. It was about a twenty min ride into the city.

We got off the T and started walking along the Freedom Trail. We walked into an old cemetery where famous people like, Paul Revere, John Hancock, Benjamin Franklin, and victims of the Boston Massacre, etc. were buried. It was cool seeing old historic buildings. Freedom Trail led us to Quincy Market where Cheer's was located and we stopped to have lunch at Cheer's. For a tourist-y place, Cheer's had some good food!

After lunch, we took the trail back to the T and made our way back to Jen's. Jen's friend, Rebeca, came to visit us. We had a few drinks and some take out Chinese food (yum!) and went to bed.

FRI, JULY 23, 2010

Was a nice lazy day...not much happened. Alicia, Krystal and Jen went to get pedis in the afternoon. Then to the Cheesecake factory for Dinner and then to the ghetto movie theaters to watch Eclipse. While we were watching the movie a handful of teenagers kept talking through the movie. First Krystal tried shh-ing them. They ignored her and kept talking. Then she finally got sick of it and said "Seriously, could you stop talking. Please!" It was pretty funny and they got up and left! After the movie, we went home and to sleep.

SAT, JULY 24, 2010

Mom, Dad, and Jen got up in the morning and took a drive to Quincy, Ma to pick up Uncle Donald. Krystal and Alicia decided they were going to stay at Jen's. When the three left to Quincy, Alicia decided she was going to go for a walk to the post office, she grabber her purse and left. When she got outside, she decided that taking the purse wasn't such a good idea, so she rang the doorbell for Krystal to let her in. (Jen lives on the third floor and the doors automatically lock behind you) Krystal forgot this and when she came downstairs to get Alicia, she closed the doors! So, they stood outside, Krystal barefoot and desperately needing coffee and Alicia ready to go. Alicia walked to the drugstore, bought Krystal a pair of flip flops, and then to the coffee shop to buy Krystal a coffee. We started walking through the real nice, old, and expensive houses in Providence, RI. While we were walking, we discovered a cemetery, and decided to walk through the cemetery, and it was the biggest, nicest cemetery we've ever been in. It was also very old, there were headstones from the early 1800's in there. Kinda neat. When Jen got home, she drove to the cemetery to pick us up.

We spent the afternoon just hanging out and visiting. It was a sunny, hot day. Then we decided it was time to start our 'cook out' (east coast term for a bbq) and of course a storm rolled through and it was pouring!! Jen and Mom were beasts bbq-ing in the rain!

After our fantastic dinner, we spent so much time deciding if we were going to watch Smokey and the Bandit or the Departed that we ended up watching neither of them and went to sleep! haha

SUN, JULY 25, 2010

We got up early thinking we would be hitting the road early. We didn't leave RI until about 12:30! haha We headed to Quincy to drop off Uncle Donald and then drove up to New Hampshire for Victoria's wedding.

The ceremony was beautiful and as soon as it was over, it started raining! Talk about perfect timing! We all had a great time at the reception. The food and music were great. It was also the first time there was that much of the Almeida family together. Five of the six cousins were there!! Some of the cousins had never even met before. haha

After the reception, we went back to the hotel to start the after party. If first started in the bar next to the hotel, where there was a really creepy dude. Alicia walked back up to the hotel room to grab her pepper spray in case creepy dude got out of control. We learned that night that pepper spray is illegal in NH and MA! Crazy!

We went back up to the rooms and had a few more drinks and then went to bed.

MON, JULY, 26, 2010

We woke up WAY too early! We showered, went down stairs for breakfast and then said our goodbyes to the family. We hit the road and stopped in Quincy to say hi to Donald. We hung around to tell him about the wedding, watch a mouse run in the street, and play a few races. Jen, Alicia, and Krystal left to get some food to make dinner, and Mom and Dad stayed to hang out a bit longer.

We picked up some steaks and took them back home to marinate. Mom and Dad showed up around five and we started making dinner. After our bomb ass dinner, we watched Smokey and the Bandit. It's 9:00 p.m. right now. Mom and Dad are sleeping, Jen, Alicia, and Krystal aren't far behind! We're all so tired from yesterday haha

We're getting up early tomorrow and are headed back to Virginia. Goodnight!

Lazy day...

Lazy day indeed! Mom and Alicia slept in, Krystal and Andrew picked up the truck and trailer and took the trailer to their friend's, Josh and Lanie, house. We started to unpack the kitchen so we could eat our gourmet cereal breakfast.

After a little more of unpacking, Krystal started to get ready for her first Virginian job interview. While she was gone, Mom and Alicia took much deserved naps, and Andrew left for work.

Krystal got home from her interview about 5:15, and then we headed out for dinner. We don't know what's here, so we just just drove around Fredericksburg. We found a BBQ place called Famous Daves. The food was good, especially the ribs! And because it was our first time, we were given a free order of fries and a free bottle of BBQ sauce! Sweet!

So now, we're all packed and ready to get up early tomorrow. We're picking Dad up in Pennsylvania and headed to Rhode Island! We're all very excited to visit family :) The blogs might not come every day now, maybe every other day or so, so hang tight!

Let it all hang out 'cause we got a run to make

We didn't write the blog yesterday because we were so tired, so here is Monday, July 19th.

We left Cookville, TN a little before eight. Krystal drove to Starbucks to get us coffee and breakfast. She was so excited to see a Starbucks, we hadn't seen one is so long!

We were having a nice drive through Tennessee, and when we crossed into Virginia, Krystal was supposed to take the 'welcome' sign for the state. This time it was not missed because Alicia's camera has a 'burst' feature where it will continuously take pictures as long as you hold down the button. Which means, that if Krystal had missed this shot, she was a bonehead! Thankfully, she is not. :)

When we were in Virginia, Krystal just started to fall asleep for her nap when she woke up to Alicia saying, "sh!t, sh!t, sh!t!!!" A tire (which was attached to a rim!) was rolling across our lane of traffic! We were driving on a two lane interstate, and with a semi on the right, and a ditch on the left, Alicia hit the breaks. Thankfully, the car behind us wasn't tail gating! Though it did give Mom a nice little panic attack when she saw the truck with her two daughters hit the brakes and then a tire roll into the ditch, she wasn't sure if it came from another vehicle or ours! Thankfully, the tire was missed and nothing real bad came out of the situation. :)

As we continued on through Virginia, Krystal took a wrong turn, but Carmin the Garmin told us how to get back on track. We ended up driving through the country in Virginia, it was beautiful: two lane roads with huge trees on either side that touched above and completely shaded the road. It also had a very slow speed limit which Krystal (who was driving the the truck) strictly followed! The vehicles behind her didn't like it too much though, she had the longest train of cars that we have ever seen!! haha At some points we couldn't even see the end of the train! As we continued on through the country, the cars began turning and we no longer had a train. We drove by cool sites like James Madison's Montpelier, and historic Civil War battle grounds.

We arrived at Krystal's new town house about 8:30. Originally we were just going to unload the mattresses so we could shower and go to bed, but realized there was no where to park the truck and trailer. We didn't want to leave the trailer loaded in a parking lot, so we began unloading her stuff. Andrew showed up about an hour and a half into the unloading...it was the first time they had seen each other in four months! Two hours later, we were done and looked like hell, can't you tell in our picture?!

We were looking forward to being lazy the next day. :)

Keep your foot on the pedal, never mind them brakes

That was one of the skankiest rooms we have stayed in. We noticed the cheap cologne smell and the wet carpet last night, but this morning, it all hit the fan. Mom found a tick in the dog's water, the toilet clogged, and then so did the bathroom sink (we think it was back flow from the shower). Gross. As if the skanky hotel wasn't bad enough, the cats kept Mom and Krystal up all night (Alicia sleeps through pretty much anything and didn't hear the cats). So, we woke up cranky, AGAIN! After Krystal got her McCafe, and Alicia her Red Bull, we were good to go. We left Van Buren, AR around 7:30.

We traveled through Arkansas without any problems. Dad told us that you could find armadillos walking along the side of the road in Arkansas, but we weren't so lucky. The only thing we saw were armadillo pancakes.

We did make it to Memphis to have lunch with Krystal's friend, Jesse, and his girlfriend, Tiffany. As we crossed the Mississippi River, we crossed the Tennessee-Arkansas state line (Alicia didn't miss the welcome sign picture haha). We parked the truck by the river and crammed three adults, all five animals, and two animal carriers into the little Jetta and made our way to Jesse's apartment. We looked like a traveling circus! We left the animals at Jesse's apartment, and went to downtown Memphis to eat at Blues Cafe. After lunch, we took a VERY short walk down Beale Street and listened to live music. Alicia still doesn't like the humidity and we needed to get back on the road! Before we left, we took a picture in front of the Mississippi River.

We finished the day by driving to Cookeville, TN. Very uneventful, as we hauled ass to our room. It was nice ending the day at 8 o'clock! Next door was a mexican food restaurant, so we ordered food to go and ate in the room. It was amazing to be able to eat two meals in one day and not have to do it sitting in a vehicle so the animals didn't die of heat stroke! This is one of the nicer rooms we've had...the kitties have a little more room in the bathroom :) Tomorrow we're going to finish the last leg of our trip to the east coast. We'll be in Virginia in the evening.

We've got a long way to go and a short time to get there

July 17, 2010

It ended up not being the dogs that were loud and kept us awake, it was Krystal. Apparently 15 hours on the road will start to mess with your head a little bit. : So we ended up getting about four and a half hours of sleep, which meant we were all pretty crabby when we woke up!

Before Mom left the room to check out of the hotel, we told her to ask the employee where the nearest Starbucks was. Mom came back and said that when she asked the lady where there was a Starbucks, she was given a "Stupid-City-Slicker" look haha We left Santa Rosa, NM at 8:00 a.m. and planned on ending the day in Van Buren, AR.

Right after we crossed the Texas border, we stopped at a picnic area to take a picture. The truck was left running and it was a VERY good thing that Alicia rolled down a truck window because the doors automatically locked when we closed them...of course, we didn't realize this until we tried opening the truck doors! haha We almost locked the dogs inside the running truck!

Right before we reached Amarillo, TX, Krystal was driving her Jetta, Mom was driving the truck, and Alicia was napping in the passenger seat. Alicia was woken up from the nap to: "Alicia, wake up, I'm being pulled over!" When the officer asked what we were hauling, my mom told him, "Personal items to Virginia, we're moving my daughter." The officer told us that they pull over trailers like ours to make sure that people aren't hauling things for money and to have a nice day. Even though nothing came out of it, it was still a nerve racking experience!

As we drove into Oklahoma, it was Krystal's turn to take a picture of the welcome sign and she missed it just like mom did the day before! Alicia thought Oklahoma would be a dust bowl, but it was beautiful, until we were about an hour away from the Oklahoma-Arakansas border...we had our first experience with humidity. Alicia said it was horrible and Mom said it was only going to get worse as we got further east!

It was Mom's turn to take the welcome sign picture when we crossed into Arkansas and she missed that too! haha But she swears that this time, it was Krystal's fault! About fifteen miles into Arkansas, we stopped for the night...or so we thought. We pulled into the hotel, were Krystal did a magnificent job parking the truck and trailer, only to realized that there were not any 'pet rooms'left! We drove down the road to another place, were Krystal did another amazing job of backing up and maneuvering the trailer, and got a room (Mom conveniently forgot to tell the man...who look like a she...that we had pets. Oops).

And now here we are, at 9:30 p.m., in Van Buren, AR: in a Super 8 Motel, that smells like cheap cologne and has a wet carpet. Gross. We're going to get MUCH more sleep than we did last night and head for Knoxville, TN. In Memphis, we're going to stop and have lunch with one of Krystal and Andrew's friends for a nice, southern lunch. Can't wait!

A'we gonna do what they say can't be done

We figured out early this morning how to keep Thelma and Louise from hearing the cats meow in the bathroom...turn the TV on, and have the fan on high! ha ha, crazy, but it worked! Getting up wasn't as bad as we though it would be, we got our "free" continental breakfast and headed out at 7 a.m. and mom successfully got out of her first tight parking lot! Yay! We couldn't believe at 8:30 in the morning it was 100 degrees outside! Thank goodness we were in air conditioned vehicles! We were so glad to get out of California where trucks hauling trailers are only allowed to go 55 mph (like that stopped us! ha ha) As soon as we got into Arizona 75 mph for all vehicles, and the roads got better! Going through the desert we came upon a very SLOW moving old man in his old car, but forgave him when reading his license plate...SLOPOKE.

Didn't think that stopping for gas would involve needing a band aid...while standing in line a dirty old trucker accidnetly scratched Krystal's arm with his long nasty fingernail! Eww! It was washed and sanitized immediately!!!

We stopped for lunch at the "Food Court" (building in the middle of nowhere) and had some Subway, it was pretty damn good considering the lady we saw cleaning the bathrooms was the cashier when we paid for our food...it made us a little nervous but our sandwiches were pretty awesome! They were probably disgusting but we were so delierious from the 110 degree weather and we were starving!

Finally, for the first time Alicia drove!!! No more breaks for her! She drove the truck and trailer for the first time and did a kick ass job! She even went through a pretty nice storm through Flagstaff. It was 59 degrees at this point, the weather is giving us whiplash today. To our surprise Arizona wasn't all desert, there was a pretty nice region of forest that was beautiful! Just like California isn't all beaches and sunchine like many think! Surprisingly, we made it through Arizona without getting a ticket...we couldn't even count how many cops we saw!

New Mexico...mom had one job as the passenger, to take a picture of the "Welcome to New Mexico" sign as we crossed the border, and she missed it!...yeah, she messed that up! oops! ha ha. Not much in New Mexico...lots of red rocks and a 75 mph speed limit for everyone. ha ha. We stopped in Albuquerque (just learned how to spell that today!) because Alicia just HAD to have Panda Express! But it was good, and we were able to sit outside with the doggies. We drove for another two hours and made it to our scheduled destination: Santa Rosa, New Mexico. When we pulled into the hotel, we didn't realize it was party night, but as we were putting all of our stuff into the room, we noticed people hanging out in the parking lot, drinking! Hopefully, they're quiet and we can get some sleep. But considering that Thelma and Louise have realized the cats are locked in the bathroom, that might not happen...haha. And now we are all VERY tired and VERY crabby from a VERY long day, if you can't tell from the picture we posted ha ha.

Tomorrow we're hoping to travel in four different states, we'll see how it goes!

East bound and down, loaded up and truckin'

We officially started our trip for the east coast today with 3 dogs, 2 cats, one car, and one truck hauling a loaded trailer. We left at 9:30 and of course before we even pulled out onto the road...we had a problem...no brake lights! We realized a fuse was blown, so we replaced it. After that quick fix we were on our way...for 45 minutes...another blown fuse. That one lasted a total of 5 minutes! After replacing it with a bigger fuse that lasted another 45 minutes but replacing fuses every 45 minutes for 4 days of driving wasn't in the plan (even though we bought 50 fuses at Autozone). We ended up driving to a ford dealership in the lively town of Shafter, CA where we sat for 3 hours (luckily in the air conditioning where all of the animals were also welcome to stay). Our 3 hours was nothing compared to the people we met that had been there from 8:30 in the morning until 3:30 in the afternoon! They also had a nice dog named Lucy, it looked like a Vetranerian's office in there! But the wait time was well worth it, considering we didn't have to be changing fuses the entire trip! :) So we were back on the road, and made it through the awesome rain and lighting in the Mohave Desert! We wanted to be 300 miles from here in Flagstaff, AZ, but we ended the day in the AWESOME town of Barstow, CA ha ha. And we are now prepared to eat our delicimoush (mom's funny made up word) dinner, Fiber One Bars, and water! Sweetness! ha ha We plan on eating breakfast at 6:00 a.m. and head out to make up for the many miles we lost today! Keep checking in! I am sure we will have lots of exciting stories! :)