The math

I count the driving as being from the moment we left my home in Alameda, until the moment I returned to my new place in Toronto without Beth, who was on the plane back to Louisville.

So from California across the U.S., with detours to the Grand Canyon, London Bridge, the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest, up to Toronto, over to Montreal, back to Toronto, back to Buffalo to get my own car back and all my boxes, handling Customs on the way back, and then returning to Buffalo the next day to the airport.

The math says we did 4,634 miles.

For the Canadians among us, that is 7, 458 km.

Yikes.

(I was going to do one total map of everything, but Google maps is saying it can't calculate those directions.)

Day 9 - Customs

Understand, please, the "day 9" took place about three days after day 8. We took Tuesday and Wednesday off at the 'rents and recovered from the trip; Thursday we drove to Toronto, and then Friday morning, hit the road for Buffalo. We had a full day planned, and of course life's little curveballs made it just that bit more interesting.

The plan was, hit the road at 8, hit the border by 10:30ish (I expected some traffic but figured we were going mostly counter-commute, as we were leaving Toronto), stop by my PO box on the way down to pick up my keys, return the rental car, hit Kinko's (had to re-print some paperwork for the border), then UPS to pick up my boxes, then hit the border for U.S. and Canadian Customs. In a happy world, we'd have done it in enough time to get back to Mugino's, drop off the boxes, then run downtown to Joe's to pick up the suitcases left behind on Monday and even maybe hit the CN tower, which isn't too far from him. OK, even we knew that wasn't realistic, but it would have been nice.

Yeah. Best laid plans, mice, men, all that. Hit the road late. Traffic was worse than I'd thought. We missed the place where the 403 and the QEW split near Burlington and went in the wrong direction for about 20km. Hit a 30-minute wait at the border. Etc. By the time we crossed the border, we were almost two hours behind schedule.  

First the adventure at the post office. The first person we got had no idea what I was talking about, but quickly passed me on to someone who did - unfortunately, she needed the postmaster. Who was out. But wait! There he comes, seconds after the words "he's out" cross her lips. OK, post office handled, in and out in about 15 minutes.

Rental car return. Stop to fill up and clean it out, receive a complement from the nice lady, Yolanda, at Alamo, for returning it so clean. No mention of the fact we're a day late.

No, not that Alamo, silly.

UPS. They couldn't be sweeter. Since I had set up the boxes to take up the entire car with me alone in it, we're not 100 per cent sure they'll all fit with Beth, but the guys at UPS say "no problem, we'll hold anything that doesn't fit." We manage to make it work by emptying the one with the exercise ball and Spot the Zebra, who flies free in the trunk all the way back to Canada.

Yeah. That Alamo.

Kinko's. I keep printing legal documents on 8.5x11 and vice versa, but they agree to give me 50 per cent credit back for 'em. They also demand to know what on earth possessed me to move back to this climate at this time of year?!

At this point we realize it's about 2:55 and we're 20 minutes from the Lewiston border and running low on gas. U.S. Customs Vehicle Export closes at 4pm. It's Friday. Monday they are closed for MLK day. I go into panic overdrive; you didn't want to hear me when a ... lady in a mini-van cuts me off getting onto the I-190, forcing me off onto the 290.  Then the GPS sends us to the back of the land of freakin' Oz to get back onto the road we want.... we end up making it to the border (where there is, thank g/d, no line!) at 3:45. I run in (thankfully, we'd asked the agent that morning where the office was), and discover I'm fourth in line - and right behind a guy registering five vehicles.

Customs people are not happy he waited until almost closing time to show up, and when I half-seriously say "Wanna take single-car girl first?" they do. A few taps on a keyboard, an agent accompanies me back to my car to check the VIN, and tah-dah - legal for export, with six minutes to spare.

We found the sign.

Then we hit Canadian Customs. A much longer process, declaring the car and all my worldly possessions (turns out I prepped the paperwork incorrectly; I broke it out precisely as to what was arriving when, including multiple shipments, and they just needed to know what was with me and coming afterwards. They didn't even care about the stuff that had come in with me four days earlier.). The third agent I was handed off to was really nice, though, and she and I chatted a while. Total time spent - 56 minutes. 

Another pretty Toronto-area
sunset, shot through a dirty
windshield.

Then we headed back to Toronto for one final evening, and the next day I got to come back to deliver Beth to the airport in Buffalo. For the third time in a week, we are driving into Toronto during the Sunset. I'd love to see what some of these roads look like in daylight...

And just going to Buffalo and back, I did another 300+ miles. Did I mention I'm starting to get just a wee bit sick of driving? Next post will reveal how many miles we drove between Alameda and me settling in.

Day 8.5 - Montreal to Toronto

We'd planned to spend lots of time, a full day at least, with me showing Beth around town. Yeah. Didn't happen. We hung out with the folks, and took just an hour before we left for Toronto to do a quick spin over the Mountain, through the Plateau, downtown, and then back out. She wanted to see views and old buildings, she got to see views and old buildings. :)

She wanted old. Or old-looking.

I told Beth we don't call it
"Kentucky Friend Chicken" in
Quebec. Welcome to PFK - "Poulet
Frites Kentucky."

Clan Diamond. Clan Diamond's kitchen.

I had forgotten to tell Beth that it
would feel like every second building
was a church... 

Us on the mountain. Not the best
angle, but that's Montreal
spread out behind us.

Better angle of Montreal. With
"Big O(we)" (stadium we were still
paying for 30+ years after the
Olympics) in the background.

The big apple. Always
my landmark that I'm
"almost to Toronto."

Day 8 - Columbus, OH to Montreal

785 freakin' miles. We passed through Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Ontario and Quebec. By the time we hit Montreal, at 2am, after leaving Columbus at 9:30am, we were numb. And did I mention I'd been fighting a fever since Ohio? I was dosing heavily on aspirin to suppress the fever, wanting nothing more than to get to my mommy's for a little R&R and TLC.

As mentioned on earlier blogs, we found a border crossing - conveniently, the small one closest to Toronto - that would be helpful with the exporting of the car. We relaxed at that point, and then realized we had a very narrow window during which to meet my housemate at the house if we wanted to drop off the big heavy bags that we'd been lugging around the country. So we started rushing again; we were fortunate at the Canadian border that because I wasn't in my own car (we're in a rental), they didn't make me do the "moving back to Canada" full Customs declaration, we're going to do that in full on Friday.

We didn't make the window to meet the housemate, so Joe took the bags and they are sitting in his office, bless his big fuzzy heart. We did not want to pack that jigsaw puzzle even one more time.

The backseat of my car

I will say we got really good at that packing - the emergency road kit on the floor behind the driver's seat, the two big purple suitcases (one of which weighs nearly what I do!) on the seat, on their sides, above that. The overnight suitcases that we were living out of, behind the passenger seat, with the PC on the floor, wrapped in a big thick coat. Move the top overnight bag forward slightly, tuck my backpack in behind it. Beth's backpack fit into the empty space between the suitcases and the door. My shoulder bag fit between the two purple bags, and her shoulder bag slid in above them, on its side so it didn't block my view. On the floor between the seats, the Cd bag, and in the well between all the above, the bag of food/drink.

After we dropped the bags, we hit the road for Montreal. At that point, I kinda went onto auto-pilot. Now, granted, it's been 14 years since I've done the trip, but I used to do it so often that I know that road. And yet, every 20 minutes, I saw new things (when the heck did they get so many multi-story hotels off the highway? And when did the Big Apple get so small?). I knew it was one of the busiest highway routes, but didn't know it until I saw how much darned traffic there was on it at 1am! And the fact that every 50km we passed 24-hour truck stops with couches and showers for truck drivers said a lot to me - we didn't recall seeing those anywhere else on the trip.

But. Earlier in the day. I was just reviewing the photos with Beth and we realized we took a "Pennsylvania welcomes you" photo, and then the next one on the camera is the "Welcome to New York" photo. We literally took not a one photo in PA. Ok, fine, the route we were on, we weren't in PA for more than a few hours, but... Even boring Oklahoma got more attention from us. :)

There really isn't much to say about the trip. It got colder, and we determined that not enough of the windshield wiper fluid in the tank was of the "rated to -20" variety to be of use (prior to purchasing that, I'd had the California summer-weight stuff in the tank, which I very helpfully filled to the brim just before we left!). I need to find an indoor parking lot and leave the car in there for an hour or two for it to melt, so I can get the bad stuff out of the tank!

Fanciest welcome sign we
saw the entire trip. I think
Quebec is compensating
for something.

We spent a lot of it going "wow. Yesterday morning we were three miles from Arkansas. Tonight we're all the way in Quebec. Wow."

We couldn't manage to find the "welcome to Canada" or even "welcome to Ontario" sign at the Lewiston border crossing, so no sign for the biggest, most monumental part of the trip!

But we have to cross it again on Friday once my car is cleared for export, so we'll look again. And in the meantime, rest on this thought: We've been very, very, very sparing in what photos we've shared. I just noticed that Beth's camera has taken more than 600 photos in the last eight days, plus another few hundred on my camera. Of that, we've shared under 30 photos.

I swore when I started this blog I would not be the annoying neighbour/friend/cousin who expects you to spend an entire evening looking 700 trip photos. I succeeded! Yay! :)

Post-script - bags

I am so blessed with good people in my life. Yesterday I posted my phone number on FB with that plea for Torontonians to take the bags from my car.

Within three minutes, the phone started to ring. They are now sitting in a friend's office off Spadina. Thank you all for being such wonderful people!

I'm in bed, and sick, at my mommy's. We will report on yesterday when I wake from my next nap.

We're in Montreal

We arrived at the 'rents in Montreal at 2am.

We left Columbus, OH, at 9:30am.

785 miles. Three states, two provinces. We tired. We post more tomorrow. Bye.

New plans! Help needed from Torontonians ASAP!

OK, g/d bless the Customs and Border Patrol office at Lewiston, NY. They don't require two certified copies of the original title (plus original title), they don't require original bill of sale, they don't require a lien release letter or a recall clearance letter... and they don't require anything to be presented in person.

I love Lewiston, NY. :)

All they required was the VIN to be submitted by email. Stanley (my father, for those unfamiliar) logged in to my email and sent it for me approximately 1.5 hours ago, and we heard back a few minutes later starting the clock on my 72-hour window after which I can bring the car into Canada.

At this point we're about halfway between Columbus and Cleveland, OH, heading north.

The rough plan is stop somewhere near Lewiston, rent a car, and leave this one (which cannot leave the U.S. during the 72-hour window). We're going to drive up to Toronto just long enough to drop off the contents (I swear if we have to re-load this car one more time, one of us is going to explode), and then head to Montreal to be cosseted by my folks and to let me show off my hometown while we wait for the window to end.

That means I need somewhere in Toronto to leave said boxes/suitcases today, until I return on Thursday. My new roomie is going to be out of the house until 10pm tonight, by which point we were planning to be much of the way to Montreal. If we can't find anywhere else to leave them, we'll wait around until she gets home, unload the car there, crash and head to Montreal tomorrow.

If you have space in your home for a few boxes & suitcases, please contact me ASAP. My phone number was posted on FB; I can't access email or the blog from the road (we stopped at McD's in Medina, OH to use their WiFi), I still have an old phone/plan.

Day 7 - Memphis, TN to Columbus, OH

Today was our first full-tank day; we've got a bit left, but we drove from Memphis to Nashville on yesterday's tank and were done with the new one by the time we hit Columbus this evening.  That's 591 miles on about 1.5 tanks of gas. I love my hybrid. :)

It was also our second time clearing entire states in one day - first time was Oklahoma, that we entered and left on the same day. Since TeKay's home is only about three miles inside the TN state line from AR, it's safe to say we covered all of Tennessee, Kentucky and a goodly chunk of Ohio today.

So after experiencing them all today, we have both agreed that in our survey of the nation's roadside rest stops, all three of those states' are mostly forgettable. Points to KY for having airdryers so powerful it took under 15 seconds to dry our hands. :)

We hit the road a little after 8am, planning to do a full day, and pulled into Columbus after 9pm local time (we lost one hour in hitting EST). It was bizarre driving through the end of sunrise as well as well after sunset, but if all goes well we'll be able to hit the Canadian border before the Customs office closes at 5pm tomorrow, so we can start the 72-hour hold on my car by end of day Monday. Fingers crossed!

All along, it's been up in the air whether we'd get to visit with her family or mine along the way. I really wanted to head up the coast and see my family in New England, spend the last night of the trip in Montreal with my folks, and then hit Toronto at the end of this week, but with yesterday's "ack" moment decided to shoot straight north from Tennessee - which took us within two miles of Beth's mom, and not that much farther away from her boyfriend and one of her six brothers (I have been offering Beth to do the blog, but she prefers to edit over my shoulder, so the above phrasing is Beth-approved).

Me, Carol Brumleve (AKA "Mom"), Beth, Dan and brother
Ron. 

So we stopped to meet them at a restaurant less than half a mile from the highway, and enjoyed a fun 1.5 hours over food. After much hugging and unloading of some of Beth's extraneous items, we ran for the car, and Beth gave me a bit of a tour of her past (pointed out the highway exits to her house and her childhood home, and the hotel at which the Junior Achievement conference she and her late husband met at when they were 16 took place, etc).

We're now in a beautiful and romantic hotel suite in Columbus, both wishing we were with other people. [grin] The room's a little drafty and having someone to snuggle with would improve the situation. :) I'm letting Beth take the bed, I'm taking the pull-out in front of the drafty fireplace.

Tomorrow's another 8am day; no idea what city, state or country we'll be posting from tomorrow!

Oh - funniest sign so far of the trip: Bucksnort Trout Ranch. Dunno why, it just tickled my funny bone.

Not actually taken by us. There was
no sign on the highway when we
passed; probably taken down to
put the new governor's name on it.

Day 6 - Fort Smith, AR to Memphis, TN

Day 6 was an adventure of a different sort. We had to start the day by going to the post office to re-submit my application for a PO box (in the shuffle, I managed to misplace the one already stamped by the post office in Alameda).  The process is fill out the application, have any USPS office check my ID and stamp it, and then fax it to the post office in Lewiston, NY, where the box will be.  When I did this in Alameda last week, it took four minutes.

In Fort Smith, I kept being told "no, you have to go online to do that." I couldn't get them to understand I already have done the online portion, and paid for it, but that they needed to look at my ID (for security reasons, the PO box number can't be assigned until a postal employee acknowledges that I am a human being with valid US-issued ID). They insisted that only the post office in Lewiston could approve the ID. Finally, I gave up and we ran to a major post office in Little Rock, where they were happy to help me and understood what needed to be done, and we were in and out in under five minutes, including time spent waiting in line. (In all fairness, Beth did volunteer that she "speaks Southern" and offered to translate for me at Fort Smith, but I decided a major city post office rather than a rural one would be preferable.)

Then, we headed to Memphis to meet up with TeKay, a mere 286 miles in one day. We knew it was going to be a shorter day because we planned to break in Memphis no matter what time we got there - he's the only person we knew for sure we were going to visit on the road, the three of us worked together for too long to pass up the chance.

Since he was in rehearsal, we took that time to go to Kinko's, fax the signed application to the NY post office, call the border of choice to confirm their fax number to start the process on the car, and hit the tear-inducing episode that was the sum total of the blog I put up last night.

Watching the cats climb was a hoot. :)

We met up with TeKay, went for a lovely dinner and chatted for hours. The three of us were the editors of the Contemporary A cappella News together (Beth was Editor, I was Managing Editor and TeKay was Assistant Editor) for a number of years, but it's been about eight years since we've all been in the same room, and it was just like old times.

We retired to TeKay's adorable apartment, I bonded with his cats (in preparation for my new home in Toronto, which also has multiple cats), and then we went to sleep early because Day 7 was going to begin our madcap run to the border, and was going to involve many long hours of driving.

We have finally decided on what our route north will be - the shortest possible, straight up through Kentucky and Ohio, to get to the border to present the paperwork in person as fast as possible. Once there, the three-day window for getting approval on the car starts, and we have other plans for those three days that will be posted once we know more.

Major snag hit in move

So, two months ago I called US Customs and Border Patrol for information about how to export my car. Te information they gave me is now being directly contradicted by the two border crossings I have spoken to tonight (one says they don't accept export paperwork by fax, the other wants the original bill of sale of the car, not just title). Also, both are saying that the 72 hours they need to process the paperwork is three business days - I was told 72 hours. Period. I specifically made sure it was 72 hours, period, because I knew there was a chance I'd hit the border on a Tuesday.

Looks like I may be stuck in the U.S., near the border, for at least three days once I GET there, which throws my plans completely out of the water. DAMN.

Random bits

I have a bunch of things that don't really fit anywhere else, so I'm throwing them in here.

- Did you know that contrary to the laws of physics, when you are putting the same stuff into the same car every day, it actually shrinks? We aren't gaining a LOT more space every day, but there's definite more holes in which to squeeze things.

- Thank heavens for hybrids. We're spending about $30 a day on gas driving across the continent.

Beth got to meet or re-meet many of
my friends in a final round of
goodbyes before I left...
Audrey and Danielle from Children's
were joined by Paul from my
a cappella life. Worlds collide!

Neigbour Joseph, my big brother,
and his partner Dave, took us out for
a goodbye.

Two men who'd heard all about each
other got to meet over Linguini's
pizza - Sam and Kurt joined me and
Beth for a post-cleaning relaxing
dinner. 

Seen at a gas station in the middle
of nowhere, where gas was $4.61
a gallon. We were in the dessert and
I wanted to be on the safe side so
grabbed a few gallons to be sure we
got through to the other side, but
...yowtch!

At our hotel in Barstow. This occurred
when one of us just brushed against
the bed. Glad neither of us brought
anyone along with whom we'd do
anything more energetic!

We always follow instructions....

Don't we?

I got an 8x10 storage unit, which isn't

near full. For those who've been in 

my house and know how I have 

accumulated in the last 20 years, this 

should be a shocking moment. That's

how much I divested.

Day 5 - Amarillo, TX to Fort Smith, AR

I apologize to anyone who is a fan of Oklahoma but lord that was a boring state to drive through... The most exciting thing to discover was that the rest areas there are the nicest we've seen so far. (TX was slightly ahead because theirs have WiFi, but OK's were clean, the people working in them were really nice and friendly, and they were beautifully decorated.)

We've been having an unofficial count of these rest areas through the drive and so far the count is:

California: -5 Unheated? In areas where there is snow on the ground? Clearly, decisions made by people who don't usually sit to use the facilities! One of them said "Tourist information" on the sign and when we stopped (looking for hotel coupon books), all we found for "tourist information" was a map pinned to the wall behind glass.

Arizona: 0 Pretty to look at. Essentially average. Good selection of vending machines.

New Mexico: -10 Heated by a 30-year-old space heater hung on the wall, dirty, one step above chemical toilets, and no vending machines. They had little voting charts on the door that said "We approve this stop Y/N" but we didn't vote.

Texas: +5 for really, really clean even when unmanned, fun decor, good selection of vending machines and had WiFi.

Oklahoma: +10 for everything TX had (ok, the first one didn't have WiFi, but the one in Oklahoma City did), plus free coffee & tea for visitors (one of the staff gave me a tea bag from his own personal stash, not the kind usually available to visitors). Also the only one where almost every stop had people working in them.

Today was the first day we made it all the way through a state; 441 miles from Amarillo to Fort Smith. We also finished listening to Arrows of the Queen, which I had to listen to while in Oklahoma, since that's where Mercedes Lackey lives.

Not taken by us. We went by it
quickly at night so our picture
came out blurry. Also, since Beth
is asleep and it's on her camera,
I cheated and grabbed one off
Google.

Arkansas is the third state we've driven in that I'd never been to before, not even so much as an airport. New Mexico and Oklahoma were the other two. Tomorrow, we hit Tennessee, where we're stopping early and visiting with a gentleman who used to work for both of us when we were editors of the a cappella magazine, and was one of my regional assistants when I ran the a cappella competition.

Speaking of: I had a small world moment tonight when I was downstairs at the front desk. Chatting with a guest checking in, it came up that I'd moved to the U.S. "to run a college music competition." He asked which one. I told him. Turns out he was at the show at Southwest Missouri State that I produced eight years ago, and even vaguely remembered me announcing the winners at the end of the night. Another moment of "I really can't get away from that life." :)

Interlude

Since we've been following it for days, and Beth (and now other people) keep singing it, it seems only fair to proffer a nod...

(Get Your Kicks on) Route 66.

Day 4 - Gallup, NM to Amarillo, TX

Well, we got to explore the finer side of rural car repair today. We hit an ice boulder outside of Albuquerque and by the time we got about 50 miles away, to Clines Corners, discovered that a plate on the underside of the car was now dragging.


We called AAA, who sent a flatbed to bring us back to Edgewood (near Albuquerque) to Rich Ford of Edgewood, a Ford dealership who tacked the piece up and sent us on our way without charging us (yes, we tipped the mechanic). We lost a few hours, so drove much later into the evening than I'd wanted to (got off the road about 8:30pm), and finally hit Amarillo, 464 miles from our 9:30am departure site. 


Didn't plan to do much sight-seeing in New Mexico, so we weren't let down by our inability to do so. Each of the roadside stops we went to (pee/walk breaks) had historic markers, so we got to read a little about pre-colonialization New Mexico. And we saw a beautiful sunset. Now we're going to see the beautiful inside of our eyelids. 


Two interesting things today:


1) Beth is really digging the book on CD I brought, Arrows of the Queen by Mercedes Lackey. Phew. I love it and it really helps me focus when driving, by listening to a book I know well. 


2) We're staying at a Fifth Season hotel in Amarillo whose security is so bad that not only is the guest WiFi not password protected, but gives guests access to their internal network! I took a quick glance and their ACT files, business presentations and reports are all open for anyone to access. Yes, we'll warn them before we go.


We've been discussing re-organizing the way the car is packed (right now, the boxes are in the trunk and all the suitcases, daily-use as well as the ones full of clothing in space bags and weighing a ton, are in the passenger compartment), but it's been too cold outside each morning to want to stand out there and unpack everything. Amarillo is warm enough that we'll give it a try tomorrow before we go, because I have a stitch in my side that is getting worse each day. If we can leave the heavy stuff in the trunk (even just the biggest and most unbearable suitcase) and move the lighter boxes into the room (I don't want to leave things visibly in the car each night), it'll make things much easier for us.

 

Day 3 - Grand Canyon to Gallup, NM

As you can see, today was even less productive than yesterday (a whole 266 miles), but fun for other reasons. It started off with a sunrise tour at the Grand Canyon. Beautiful. Simply freakin' amazing. We were part of a group of seven (five of whom had started their travels in the Bay Area - one Cal student and a couple from El Sobrante, plus us), with a cheery tour guide who, because we were a small group and all dressed warmly, took us to the best viewing area - apparently one of the colder ones - and we remained there for about 30 minutes, until the sun was fully up. Then we hit another lookout, one that let us see more of the Northern Rim (we were on the Southern Rim), and the crags and valleys below. 

After that was done, we visited with Beth's cousin who works there (amazing lady, she also got us into the park as her guests without having to pay the $25 entry fee), and then up to Hopi House, where I spent a few more dollars than intended on some pottery. I've always had a weakness for First Nations art, and while my preferences are for Pacific Northwestern designs (says the lady who lives in a hoodie with a Tsimshian Four Clans pattern, carries a tote with a Haida sun design, and has a car decorated with a Tsimshian raven dancer...), I couldn't resist these three little pieces. I was drooling over some Navajo sand paintings, but couldn't afford the ones I wanted. :) The three pieces I bought were Pueblo from the Santa Clara region (the black), etched Navajo pottery (the brown one), and handcoiled from the Acoma Pueblo of New Mexico (the white one).  


We finally checked out of the hotel and finished loading the car at 11:30am, and then hit the road. My goal was to at least clear the New Mexico state line. On the way, we passed Meteor Crater, which I unfortunately didn't realize until after we passed it (since Beth woke up moments later) was part of Beth's favourite movie and she would have wanted to stop there. Sorry, Beth! 


We made one more stop before leaving Arizona - at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert. Beth was unfamiliar with them before the stop, but enjoyed it as much as I did. We got to see some incredible scenery, walk through a partially excavated Pueblo settlement from the 12th Century AD, and got within 15 feet of some centuries-old petroglyphs. Suffice to say, the archaeology geek buried fairly close to the surface in me was in happy pig heaven. :)

Tomorrow, we go back to serious driving!

Day 2 - Barstow, CA to Grand Canyon Village, AZ

Today was not as productive a day towards the actual road journey as we'd intended; as you can see by the accompanying map, we only made it from Barstow, CA to the Grand Canyon (416 miles plus detour), but the latter not until after dark (so this'll be a shorter blog as the alarm goes off at 5:30am for a sunrise tour!). But we did pass the first landmark - welcoming us to Arizona. We were very disappointed that there was no corresponding sign kicking us out of California.


We did get to see some wonderful things along the way anyway, including:


- We saw Mater! We passed Newbury Springs, CA, driving through the Mojave region, and we could swear it was Radiator Springs. Kudos to Pixar for the realism. The last little fillip to the realism was the rusty tow truck sitting on the outskirts of town. I think he winked at us as we went by. :)
- The Hand of G/d. A rather eerie rock formation along the 95 down to Lake Havasu, which is where we visited the next item:

- The London Bridge. We couldn't resist, just inside the Arizona state line, a sign that said "London Bridge, 20 miles." It was a much-enjoyed hour+ detour from the chosen road. We'd both forgotten that the 1860 bridge had been purchased by a U.S. town and moved over, brick by brick. We had to go visit, take pictures, and revel in small-town American interpretation of old-towne London. 
- Beth's first In and Out Burger. The musical kitchen staff added just the right edge to the secret sauce.
- Spectacular scenery. There was just enough fog near the mountains in the Mojave area for the mountains themselves to appear every shade of greyish-blue imaginable. Beautiful. I know some people like their mountains large and vivid, but that shading on the horizon is what always stirs my imagination.
- The tumbleweeds and rolling scrub-covered desert. We were imagining scenes from Blazing Saddles and other Westerns (I could swear I saw the dust trails of the marauding cowboys, honest!), and feeling much, much pity for the poor shlubs who walked across on their way out West.
- We had to visit Snoopy's brother, Spike. Did you know he lives in Needles, CA? We stopped there briefly to check out the tourist information center in the Department of the Interior; we had to appreciate their bathroom decor while we were at it. I'm sure you can see why.
- Watching my hybrid struggle up to 6,000 feet of elevation. I've never seen the hybrid battery go that low (when the engine is being used to struggle uphill, the battery supports it. Pressing on the brake charges the battery. It went nearly flat 2x on the way up to the Grand Canyon!).
- We may never get the tune out of our heads, but Kicks have been got on Route 66. We've been on and off of it for the last 300 miles, at least.
- And most amusing - to me at least - is trying to figure out how, when I managed to put MORE in the trunk today with the new space bags, the backseat looks even more full! I don't get it!


Post-script: I forgot one of the nicest surprises of the day. We'd asked at a tourist center down the road about staying near the Grand Canyon and were resoundingly advised to stay in Williams (55 miles away) because there was no way we were going to find anything affordable closer.  We decided we'd splurge just once along the way and made tracks to stay in the area anyway. Long story short, we came across the Red Feather Lodge in Tusayan, five minutes away from the park. With AAA discount, $70.34. And quite conceivably the cleanest, best-maintained, nicest hotel below the executive level that I've stayed at in years. Highly recommended!


OK. Six hours to o-g/d-hundred and the tour. More tomorrow! 


Note: I'm going to start including additional photos at the bottom. That way I am only one of those annoying people who bore you with trip photos if you choose to look at them. And since Beth took more than 200 photos on Day 2 alone, there will be many, many to choose from. :)

We're making note of the named cities from the tune as we
approach or pass through them.

Look! Kilometers!