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! :)