QOTD: too hard to find one while traveling, so think of something clever yourself
Reading: J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Listening to: nothing
Decluttering accomplishments: I'm moving way too much stuff.
I'm not sure when I'll actually be able to post this, but one of the advantages of having my iBook in the car with me is that I can write about moving cross country as it happens. I'm used to travel journals scrawled in spiral notebooks, so this is a bit strange, but we'll see how it works.
I spent Monday (29 July) finishing up packing my office. I got everything down to two boxes that were worth shipping, though I did leave other stuff that might be useful for whoever takes over my previous job. I also sat in with Milo while he talked with someone who would be a very strong candidate, should he decide he's interested.
The movers packed up on Tuesday (30 July). It's always enjoyable watching muscular men at work, and it is particularly enjoyable when they do something in hours that would take me weeks, if not months. They asked if they could crate my mattress and I said that I was still staying in the apartment that night. So, not only did they leave the mattress and bedding for the next day, but they left my teddy bear. I thought that was just incredibly cute.
Wednesday (31 July) was my actual moving day. It took the movers just a couple of hours to load everything from my apartment into the truck. That was helped by my having pointed out that when I moved in, most of the stuff had been handed up over the balcony railing, avoiding an awkward staircase. The storage space took about another hour or so. That left me with time to stop by the picnic that my former subdivision was having and say goodbye to people.
Then it was drive drive drive. Since the picnic had been in Torrance, I headed out Artesia Boulevard, which turns into the 91. I took that to the 15 north, stopping for gas in Fontana. Then it was north again to Barstow. While I was driving through Victorville, I thought of Angela, who lives on a ranch there. The official directions to her home include the phrase, "you are now on the ranch. Sing the theme song from Bonanza." It's a pity to be pressed for time, since I would have liked to have detoured to Baker to see the world's largest thermometer - which would have been particularly impressive in the 106 degree heat. The drive through the Mojave wasn't really very exciting, particularly since I've driven that route before, albeit in the other direction. I did notice several signs for OHV areas, and still haven't figured out what on earth OHV could possibly stand for. About 7:30 p.m., I needed to stop again for gas and decided to call it a night. I ended up staying at a Comfort Inn in Kingman, Arizona. It was adequate but a bit on the noisy side. I had dinner at an anonymous family restaurant down the street, watched baseball on ESPN (Red Sox beat the A's, putting them 4 games back from the Source of All Evil in the Universe), read for a while and went to bed. My day's mileage was 363 - not too bad, given I didn't leave Los Angeles until about 2 in the afternoon.
Flagstaff is about 140 miles east of Kingman, and my first stop on Tuesday (1 August) was another 35 or so miles east. I'd driven past the signs for the Meteor Crater before, and this was about the right point for a stop. I'm not convinced that it's worth $12, but it was good to stretch my legs. My major conclusion was that I just don't really like craters much. The ones I've been bored with in the past were all volcanic, but meteor craters aren't any more exciting. The museum here did do a fair job on discussing meteors, asteroids and comets, though. And it was definitely good to walk around for 45 minutes or so.
Continuing east, I drove past the large number of dinosaur statues advertising a dinosaur related attraction in Holbrook, stopped in Navajo for gas and had a fast food lunch in Gallup, New Mexico. On a vacation drive, I'd have stopped for the dinosaurs, tacky as they may be. And I'd definitely have stopped for the Painted Desert and the Petrified Forest. Continuing into New Mexico, I also skipped various attractions, notably Acoma Sky City, which claims to be the oldest continuously inhabited site in the U.S.. Nowadays, the Acoma tribe advertises their casino more than their history, though. By the way, Arizona has a large number of billboards (and radio ads) telling people not to touch power lines. I'd think that was common sense, so it was noticeable that they felt they had to tell people that. Also, the city of Winslow, Arizona is incredibly evil for putting up a billboard that says "Stand on the corner in Winslow, Arizona" on the highway. That bloody song was stuck in my head for hours. I was not inclined to take it easy. Indeed, I think The Eagles have a lot to answer for.
Anyway, my only other stops for the day were for gas and a stroll in the tacky tourist shop in Clines Corner, New Mexico (where I bought a bottle of water) and for the night in Tucumcari. I stopped about sevenish, even though I could have kept going for a while, because I wasn't sure whether there was anywhere reasonable to stop before Amarillo (another 113 miles). I was probably up for that distance, but I realized that Texas is in the Central time zone and was afraid it might be too late to find a decent hotel room by the time I got there with it being an hour later. I checked into the Hampton Inn and had a decent dinner by looking for the restaurant with the fullest parking lot. That turned out to be a place called Del's, which does a good mixture of American and Mexican fare. Sopapillas with honey - yum. The day's mileage was 659.
One problem with heading east is that you get to later time zones, so I was annoyed with myself for a latish start on Friday morning. Not that 7:15 a.m. is all that late, but that meant it was already after eight Central time. I didn't notice the Texas border, possibly because of road work. I just glanced at the famous Cadillac Ranch (outside Amarillo). It would be pretty hard not to notice a bunch of Cadillacs planted in the ground. What I hadn't known until I stopped for gas in Conway (maybe a half hour east) is that there's also a Bug Ranch. Somebody at the gas station / store there has planted some VW Beetles to match the Cadillacs.
My other stops during the day were to satisfy necessities - food, bathrooms, gasoline. I did meander along a stretch of Route 66, mostly for a change of pace. Alas, I managed to make a wrong turn and go twenty miles out of my way trying to get back to I-40. As a result, I saw all of Piedmont, Oklahoma. The bad news is that there is absolutely nothing to see in Piedmont. Oklahoma tourist attractions that I might have stopped at had I been on vacation include the Roger Miller Museum (do they have rooms to let for fifty cents?) and the Four String Banjo Hall of Fame. Now that I think of it, I have no idea how many strings a banjo is supposed to have, but four sounds like too few. I wonder if they also have a 66 Key Piano Hall of Fame.
I'll also note that the state of Oklahoma matches Winslow, Arizona for the annoying song reference in a highway sign prize. I admire the anti-littering sentiment, but the effect of seeing "Keep Our Land Grand" every fifty feet for over 300 miles is to make me wish that Oscar Hammerstein II had written lyrics about Alaska instead. As I headed eastward, I feared getting "I'm Just a Little Girl From Little Rock" stuck in my head.
Speaking of Little Rock, I didn't make it quite that far, but ended up in Russellville, Arkansas for the night. The Hampton Inn there has free internet access, but there was quite a line, so I confined my usage to checking my email and deleting the mountains of spam. I'd have liked to have gotten further, but I-40 in Arkansas is a massive construction zone. The signs say "Whole Lotta Paving Going On." Despite which, my day's mileage was 663, which isn't too shabby given the late start and several stretches of road work.
Saturday's hallmark was road work. There are roughly 350 miles of I-40 in Arkansas. There are roughly 3 of those miles that are not under construction. At one point, the highway was even closed and we were detoured onto one of those rural roads that just needed a good thunderstorm to complete the horror movie effect. It was not actually a bad road. But I felt like I was in the middle of nowhere, with little idea of how to get back to civilization. And I was not about to take shelter in any of the ramshackle farmhouses I passed.
But I did get back to I-40 eventually. Arkansas and its construction zones stretched on and on, so I was relieved to cross the Mississippi and enter Tennessee. Unfortunately, Memphis was also a massive and confusing construction zone. I would have liked to have stopped there and checked out the pyramid I saw from the highway and gone to Graceland, but all the road work had slowed me down and I wanted to make up time. Once I got out of Memphis, the roads improved a lot. One nice thing in Tennessee is that the slower speed limit in construction zones only applies if there are workers present and they have signs to indicate whether or not that's the case. Since it was Saturday, I didn't really get slowed down much at all. Until Nashville, that is, where the traffic came to a screeching halt. Once I got to a radial that circles the city, it was okay, but it was definitely annoying.
I did stop for something touristy, by the way. Namely, I had lunch at Loretta Lynn's Kitchen. It's not much of a tourist attraction, really. There's just a shop and restaurant and a bunch of photos of the country singer. I don't care for country music, but I figured it was a better bet than the fast food chains and, indeed, the food was decent. My only other stop of the day was at an outlet mall somewhere between Nashville and Knoxville, where I took advantage of needing a bathroom break to stretch my legs and browse a few stores. Knoxville was surprisingly sprawling and somewhat trafficky. The area of the Smoky Mountains just east of it is prime tourist trap territory and I really do have to get out that way and explore it some day. The tourist attractions get more seriously historic as you head northeast on I-81 (e.g. sites associated with Andrew Jackson). I stopped for the night in Kingsport, which is just north of Johnson City and, more significantly to storytellers, right by Jonesborough, the headquarters of the National Storytelling Network and site of the annual National Storytelling Festival. Mileage for the day was 688.
Sunday (8/4) was the shortest driving day - a little more of Tennessee, followed by crossing most of Virginia. The Shenandoah region looks worth some exploration, particularly as I like tacky tourist attractions like caves. I got to the D.C. subrbs in the early afternoon and managed to get a room for one night at a very good price (I'm being reimbursed but no need to be profligate with the company's money). I rested a bit, then bought books at a nearby Borders and had dinner at a Chinese restaurant. On the way back, the oil light on my car came on. The timing was remarkable as anywhere in the previous 2700 odd miles would have created major inconvenience. I checked the oil, found it very low, added a quart and looked up the nearest Saturn dealer.
Since then I've been mostly busy with work. I did sign my lease and get my keys on Monday. The car needed a bit of work - the biggest pieces being getting the piston rings cleaned and getting a power steering fluid leak fixed. I also got my Virginia inspection and my Fairfax County emissions inspection done. I called up my insurance company and am amazed how much cheaper Virginia auto insurance is, though a big factor is that I'll be commuting by metro, rather than driving to work.
My household goods arrived Friday (8/9) as promised but I am about to leave on vacation so I will be unable to unpack until September. Not something to look forward to, but it's done.
Copyright 2002 Miriam H. Nadel