Most people didn’t know I was moving to California, mainly because I don’t tell people shit about what’s going on in my life. In order to minimize confusion and maximize my not telling you shit about my life, I offer this brief summary of recent events before regaling you with the tales of my journey across the country.
Danielle and I are no longer engaged, nor are we married. This is regarded by me to be “shitty as hell”. Fortunately we’re still on good terms with each other, and I hope to keep in close contact with her. Well, as close as possible with my being in California and her being in Texas. As mentioned, I’ve moved to California. I’ve never been much of a fan of Massachusetts, and I’ve always wanted to live somewhere else. I applied for a tech job out here, flew out for an interview a few days later, and gave my official notice at the BBB. Danielle is planning to move to Texas at the end of the month and stay with a mutual friend while she finds a job and her own place. Dirty is going with Danielle, because she’s Danielle’s dog. Losing your family fucking blows.
Right then…
Monday morning I set out on a 15 hour drive to Chicago to stay with my friend Chad for the night. I got there around 1:30 in my head, 12:30 for him, and we headed out to get some breakfast. After that, we stopped at the grocery store to purchase the necessary goods to get me drunk. I’ve discovered that White Russians are my weakness, and so that is what Chad sought for me to have. Unfortunately, the liquor section was closed off for the night and we were forced to create makeshift White Russians using Starbucks Frappuchinos instead. 2 of those and a few episodes of Flight of the Conchords later, I was silly walking all over his apartment. I didn’t end up going to sleep until it was already daylight. The perfect start to a trip across the country.
The next morning, or really a few short hours later the same morning, I got up and headed to visit my friends Geoff, Chelle and Mini-G in Minnesota. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen baby G, and this time he was mobile and spoke. He called me “Guy”, which was awesome. Even more-so since he’s never given someone a nickname before. Geoff’s parents made an awesome dinner for us. For an alcoholic, Geoff did a particularly shitty job of getting me drunk, even with 5 or 6 drinks. He did just fine with himself, though. The next morning baby G crawled into my bed to wake me, and we all went out to get Bukakke for breakfast. The best way to start a 13 hour drive through Iowa and Nebraska is in a food coma. Nothing could have prepared me for how boring a drive those two states are, and I’ve watched 2001: A Space Odyssey.
When I got to the hostel, around 11:30 mountain time, I tossed my bag by the bed and headed out to the porch were people were talking. For the most part I sat and enjoyed listening to a Russian (I believe) guy and a cute Swedish girl debating over things. For the sake of driving, I eventually had to call it a night at 3:30 (5:30 in my brains), though I could have gone on listening to that Swedish accent for hours. Hot damn.
I was planning on staying at a hostel in Salt Lake City, but some retardo convention was going on and everything was booked. I took the opportunity to drive as far as I could past SLC to make the next day’s drive a bit easier. Since I had no particular schedule, I stopped at a cool scenic area in Utah that overlooked Echo Reservoir. I started off at about 5000′ elevation, which was bad enough. It was also a steep hike up loose, dusty dirt in the hot sun. That hike kicked my ass.
I stopped at a parking lot just past the Nevada border, calling it an early night and waking up as early as possible to continue. I woke up around 1 (pacific time) and headed out, enjoying a good deal of Nevada at night. I made it to a rest stop in Reno by noon, and had planned to take a little nap before continuing on. There was free WiFi there, however, and so I was too busy catching up on things online, and found that there was a cache there. Getting up and walking around in the sun woke me right up, so I decided to just keep my ass moving. I got to Mountain View around 2:30, and sat in a coffee shop looking for apartments.
I’ve had this all typed and saved for the past few days, and I’m not particularly feeling the drive to clean and humour it up. Suck it.
I leave this list of noteworthy things from my trip.
- My first time ever seeing Amish people was in a convenience store.
- I passed Church Butte Road
- Pictures!