The Drive

Sunday, July 4th: On the road and on our way to Kentuckyana (yes, that's actually what they call this area). We took I-70 through Price Canyon because that's what the GPS told us to do. We should have taken I-80 (would have saved us an hour or two), but whatever. So on we go through a part of Utah I don't know that I've ever been to before, and it was very beautiful. We borrowed some books on cassette tape from my dad and listening to them helped break up the monotony. We had to buy a tape player for the truck for Deg, but hey, whatever works to keep ya going, right? Anyway, on we went, through Utah and in to Colorado. I had never been to Colorado before, but my mom grew up just outside of Denver and always speaks very highly of it. Colorado is a beautiful state and it was a lovely drive. Well, until we hit the mountains near Vail. The truck could only go 30 mph up those hills. The speed limit was 75. Translation: remember that scene from Dumb and Dumber where Harry and Lloyd are driving the moped through the mountain with a huge line of cars angrily following their slow descent? Yeah, that was us. Sigh! Oh well. So on we went, and about the time we hit Denver (we'd been driving 9 hours or so by this point) we hit a storm. I don't mind driving in storms and the worst of it seemed to be to the north of us, so whatever. The lightning was beautiful. Well, then, the road curved and we drove into the storm. You know the phrase "when hell freezes over," right? Well, hell froze over. We got caught in a hail storm that you wouldn't believe. The video below doesn't do it justice. The hailstones were the size of bubble gum that you get from vending machines. All traffic pulled over to the side of the road and put their hazards on; it was impossible to drive in. We inched our way slowly to a town called Limon and there we waited it out at a gas station that wouldn't let Deg fill up with gas (it kept declining his version of our credit card, but it'd take mine... weird). All the restaurants were closed, so we couldn't even stop there for dinner. So we went into the gas station and bought some jerky and crackers and ate that. After two hours of being stopped, the storm subsided a bit and we decided to drive some more. This took us to the other end of town... where there were 6 open restaurants and working gas stations. What the heck! On we went, and we drove into a lightning storm. I caught a pretty good video of the storm. Lightning is cool. Anyway, we drove for another hour or two till we hit the border of Colorado and stopped at the grossest, seediest little motel for the night. Day one completed and we were soaking and grumpy. 11 hours on the road, 9 of which were driving.

Monday, July 5: We woke up and went to the motel's continental breakfast: milk, coffee, and bananas. Yum yum! So we loaded up to an overcast day and entered Kansas and a new time zone. Kansas is very very flat. Beautiful and green, but flat. The skyline seemed empty without some kind of mountains. It made me think of all the things I'd ever learned about the dust bowl during the '30's. The rain started again, but at least the drive was flat, and we could go 75 mph. I was a sleepy driver. The overcast sky, the warm car, the lulling voice on the tape... I was not faring well. So we stopped to get me caffeinated gum (yes they make that) and a diet Dr. Pepper, and off we went again. I called my dad a few times during this part of the trip to talk about where we were because in '78-'80, he served his mission in Nebraska, Kansas, and Missouri. Three bazillion hours later, we made it to Missouri. Kansas City is right on the border, and the freeway goes right down the middle of it. It was still raining, but without the lightning or the hail, the storm seemed insignificant. The clouds were very low, though; sometimes, I felt like the top of the Penske would hit them. Anyway, on we went on our journey. We came to the Ozark Mountains, and I was appalled. Being from Utah/Idaho, I've seen hills at community parks larger than the Ozarks. The foliage was amazingly thick, which made my childhood favorite books Where the Red Fern Grows and Summer of the Monkeys make a bit more sense, but I couldn't get over the claim of those being "mountains." Yeah right. Regardless, on we went up towards St. Louis. When we got to St. Louis, we drive right next to the arch, and promptly got lost in the tangle of freeways. Even the GPS couldn't save us! We were toast. So we went back and through the kind of ghetto part of St. Louis and back to the freeway. We'd been told this was the four hour mark, and we started getting antsy. Plus, there was this crazy road construction where the freeway was limited to one lane that was barely wide enough for Deg's truck! Luckily the wind had died down by then! It was dark by this point, and we'd entered a new time zone. I'd love to say the last bit through Missouri and Indiana were beautiful, but it was very dark and I was very sick of staring at the back of the moving truck by then. We pulled in at 2 in the morning, Eastern Standard Time (12 by the clock on my dashboard), and after 15 hours of driving that day, we called it quits. Thank goodness! We literally just flopped onto the bed and passed out.

Tuesday, July 6: We are here! I'll post pics of the corporate apartment we'll be in for the next month or two and tell you all about it tomorrow. In the meantime, today was so hot! I've decided that, for the next few months, I'm just going to have to wear my hair curly (there's no way it'll go strait) and up off of my neck. We went to the storage unit to drop off our stuff, and after 15 minutes of being outside and moving stuff, I had sweat dripping into my eyeballs. We hadn't even moved any of the heavy stuff yet! I swear I've never felt so dirty in my life. I was sweating in places I didn't know I could sweat. Gross! I felt soggy. It was 95 today plus humidity, and being a western girl, I have no idea how to deal with humidity. Regardless, we got moved in to our storage unit, put the few things we needed in the corporate apartment, cleaned up, and I took me a well-deserved nap. We unpacked a bit here tonight, and Deg starts work tomorrow morning. What will I do? No idea. Probably go get a massage and go grocery shopping. All I know is that we're here and I'm feeling sticky and tired but good.

And now... the videos/pictures...

All our belongings, boxed and shoved in the back of the Penske.

Loading the last of the belongings at our place in Orem. Don't I looked thrilled?

The Hail from Hell!

The lightning storm, as seen from the driver's seat of the Corolla.