Wednesday, June 30, 2010

And we're off!

Yesterday Brian, Vida and I left the Atlanta area around 10 in the morning. We had a wonderful breakfast with Brian's parents and took our leisurely time getting ready! Finally, it was time to go...we said our good-byes, loaded the dog in the car, and slowly drove away. It was kind of a shock as we drove away and the reality set in that we were really on our way! Ahead of us, we had about 500 miles of driving to do! Don't worry though, we were completely prepared - we packed 4 books on tape...I wasn't sure how that was going to go but we figured we might as well be kind of productive and read instead of just staring at the road for 8-10 hours a day!

Anyway, we drove through Alabama without a hitch. While driving through Alabama, I realized what a pretty city Birmingham was. Although, we didn't get to see the pretty parts because we trustingly followed our GPS, instead of using a map, and ended up in the ghetto!! This won't be the last time we end up in the ghetto on our journey I'm sure!

Next, we made our way through Mississippi...a state that I personally have never visited but Brian has many times. We made a few stops in Mississippi including visiting the birth place of Elvis Presley and a rest stop to let the dog run around! We also made a pit stop at Brian's grandmother's house - we visited with her for about an hour and a half and then continued our journey to Little Rock, Arkansas.

After spending some quality time with Brian's grandmother, we drove through Memphis, and again, our GPS, aka Bitchin' Betty, took us through the ghetto! We're 2 for 2! We drove over the Mississippi River - another first for me and continued on into Arkansas. Finally we were in our destination state for the day! Once we crossed over the Mississippi River (which is huge by the way), we started to notice all flat land and crops around us! Eventually, after about 12 hours of traveling, we finally made it to Little Rock - another city that neither of us has visited. Little Rock surprised me! There is a gorgeous river here, the Arkansas River, and there are beautiful mountains/rolling hills that surround the city...who knew Little Rock was so pretty! The sunset was unbelievable last night...I'll post pictures as soon as I can! Don't be fooled though...we found the ghetto here last night as we tried to find a park to walk the dog. Needless to say, that didn't happen!

Although we spent about 12 hours traveling yesterday, it really didn't seem like it was that long! Brian drove the whole way...that's his personal goal for the trip - to single handedly drive the car across the country, and I, shockingly, stayed awake the entire time. We listened to a book on tape, which I full heartedly recommend to anyone who is taking a long trip. We listened to "Tuesday's With Morrie," and we both loved it! Everyone should read this book! We also amused ourselves by looking at all our surroundings. We saw two hilarious billboards along the way...I wish I was quicker with my camera but I couldn't get it out in time so I'll quickly explain and then be done with this post for the day:)

The first one said: "Where's the Birth Certificate?"
The second one said: "Our kids can't read!" and then it spelled the word Mississippi but all of the "s" letters and "p" letters were written backwards. Looks like they can't write either!

Anyway, we're getting ready to journey to Amarillo, TX! I'll update this tonight with pictures! Have a wonderful day!


Sunset in Little Rock over the Arkansas River



Brian and his Grandmother


Elvis Presley's childhood home


Vida's ready to go!!


So much for packing lightly!

Family Dinner


The night before we left, we went out to eat with Brian's family to celebrate our move to California. We went to a steakhouse in Alpharetta called Pampas which was absolutely delicious...the surf and turf was incredible! When we showed up, Brian's mom had decorated the table with American flags and red, white and blue in honor of the Air Force. It was such a treat! At the end of dinner, Brian got a dessert and when the plate came out, it had "California bound" written in chocolate...a bitter sweet ending to a wonderful dinner!








Get ready California cause here we come!

I can't believe the time has really come for Brian, Vida and me to pack up the car and drive all the way out to California! As many of you know, Brian graduated from dental school in May and was stationed at Travis Air Force Base in California. We have been super excited about moving out there but we still can't believe that we're actually doing it! For the next week or so, Brian and I are going to update our blog so that anyone who is interested can follow along with us....so from now on you can just call us Louis and Clarke...and Vida can be Sacajawea I guess! We are going to travel from the East Coast to the West Coast in our over packed car with an 80lb dog and a Garmin GPS that we are blindly following! So let's get started....