O.K. I know I haven't really posted too much in the last week since we left for California, so let me get back on track.



So we're all set to go Monday, the 15th of March, that's good. I'm supposed to pick up the truck at 9:00 a.m., but they call and tell me they don't have it yet. So I finish getting my things together, which it turns out is WAY too much crap. Chuck comes over ready to move...doesn't happen. The truck place finally calls. The truck I was supposed to have needs some work done. I have to take a 20 ft one in it's stead. So now I went from a 10ft. box truck to a 15ft and now a 20ft. truck plus a car dolly. So, now I'm going to be going down the road measuring about 38ft. long. That should be easy enough to get around in. My friend Keith takes me to get the truck. It's huge! He laughs at my situation as only Keith can (friends are funny that way). My first little drive home with the truck...not so good, but I got better. My roommate and I get some things loaded up, but for some reason, the pleasant we had been experiencing had begun to turn piercingly cold, so that was good. I decide finish loading Tuesday during the day, when it warms up.

I get up Tuesday to find out that Michigan has decided it was time for a little snow...ALL DAY! We get a little bit done, but not much. I'm starting to get a reservation or twelve about the move. It's not good. Chuck decides to give me some space for a day. What a guy.

So, we finally leave Wednesday afternoon. We are on the road. It's all down hill from here, right? Thhhhppt! We stop by Target on the way out to clean out my desk and I say some last goodbyes, then we ran to Meijer for some last minute provisions. There I saw Mary, a girl from work. She was the last person I saw on the way out of town. Bye bye, Michigan.

6:15p.m.-We leave Target
7:47p.m.-We leave Michigan and hit Indiana. We stop to fill up just before the border and it costs 60 freakin' dollars! That was not a good sign. By Terre Haute, I was out of it. I hadn't gotten much sleep that week and it was catching up with me. We stopped at a cheap hotel and slept. It was nice. In the morning, the lady at the front desk talked to me about the trip. She actually asked for my autograph, just in case. I obliged her and then wrote the Caliblog address on the back. That was pretty cool.
-THURSDAY-
12:08p.m.-Welcome to Illinois!
12:45p.m.-The time zones changed. It was cool Chuck was looking at his phone and it jumped back an hour. I guess that means we're making better time now. We just gained an hour on the trip. We had to make unscheduled stop around 2:00 p.m. because Chuck had to tinkle-winkle.



3:15p.m.-Hey! The St. Louis Arch! I've never actually seen it. It's pretty sweet, actually. There are some big riverboats along the river below. Chuck risked his life to get a picture for you all, in case you haven't seen it. We actually circled all around it, so we got a pretty good view.
3:17p.m.-Welcome to Missouri! Just for the record, St. Louis has lot of freakin' brick buildings, Mama!
4:23p.m.-Chuck and I were curious about Route 66, so asked a girl at a gas station across from Six Flags and followed her directions to a road that didn't look all that 'magical'. Apparently 'Business 44' and 'Route 66' are the same. That's why we couldn't find it on the map. Ten minutes of sucky traffic was long enough if not too long. There were no hookers or anything! Back to the highway, where it's a little more interesting. Side note: Don't ever stop in Rolla, Missouri. Trust me.
5:00p.m.-Oklahoma, quite possilbly the worst state in the entire country for more reasons than I care to list. Oh, if you ever go to Oklahoma City, DO NOT stay at the Regency Inn. You'll wish you hadn't. We ended up getting a handicap suite, apparently. The bathroom was about 18 ft. wide and the shower was about 3 1/2 ft. tall and no wake up calls, just an alarm clock that doesn't work anyway. I was awoken half-naked by the cleaning lady. I invited her to jump in and catch an extra 15 minutes of sleep, but she declined...or did she? Rock on!
-FRIDAY-
12:35p.m.-Shake it, baby! Shake it!



3:15p.m.-Welcome to Texas, good riddance Oklahoma! Soon after the border we pass the second of two gaint crosses. The first one was way back in Missouri, I believe. Chuck snapped a picture of the first one. This one, though, has a platform at the bottom encircled with men, possibly Jesus, carrying the cross in a partial circle. At the top of some stairs are Jesus and the two criminals crucified on the cross. No church around or anything, just like the last one. Does anyone know who did these? I'd like to know, myself.
6:58p.m.-We are now in Mountain Time. It feels a lot like the last two time zones, actually. One minute later, we enter New Mexico. Now this is more like it-very beautiful! The desert, the brush, the mountains-very peaceful. As we drive into the mountains the sun starts to set, which is nice, but since we're driving directly west, guess where it's going to be.



The sun falls right on the highway to the point where I can't even tell where Chuck is in front of me. I'm getting a bit nervous. For about an hour, we burn out our retinas to the point that we can't even see anymore, plus we have horrible headaches now. I can make out, just barely, the first sign to get to Vegas at about 9:18, but by this time we just want to get to California. Hey, apparently today (March 19) is Bruce Willis' 49th birthday. My original inspiration to break out of my extreme introvertness when I was younger. Man, I LOVED 'Moonlighting'.
-SATURDAY-
4:20a.m.-We made pretty good time this stretch. We are now in Arizona. A lot like New Mexico. Of course, it's pretty dark right now, so maybe I'm wrong. We pull in to Target to take a quick nap just before we hit the last highway switch before Cali. We wake up to the amazing sight of this huge snow-capped mountain directly in front of us. It was breathtaking, to say the least. Well, time to get back on the road.
1:55p.m.-California, here we are! San Bernadino and the beginning of the Mojave Desert, God's big ol' ashtray. This thing is fierce, man. Neither Chuck or myself would be surprised if we died out here. I thought the deserts in NM and AZ were desolate, but this is ridiculous. It just doesn't stop, for crying out loud! Well, we DO eventually make it out of the desert, but Mike and Amanda are going to be gone when we get there, so decide to stop and eat at one of my favorite eateries, KFC. Not very impressed with it. Everything tastes completely different! This sucks so bad. But not as bad as when we get back to the parking lot and find out there's no through route in the lot. I CAN"T GET THE TRUCK OUT! After a short while of being guided by couple of different by standards, I wiggle it out, but only by inches, if that. Back on the road, as much as I wanted to avoid driving straight through L.A., we are directed differently. It took an hour, a half of a tank of gas, and a lot of control to get that truck down the L.A. freeway. All I could think about was tearing off Mike's legs and beating him with them. That was my driving force. We did, obviously, finally make it. After a short time being stuck in the driveway for lack of other places to put the truck, we were welcomed home as seen in Mike's video clip. That part was pretty nice. We are finally here! WooHoo! Now comes the hard part...
Well, that should cover me for a few days. I'm sure that most of you will skim through this instead of read it. I just wanted to have a small account of our trip in here. Trust me, it's small. I cut out a few things here and there, but you get the idea. IT SUCKED!!!
...but I'm feeling much better now.