Crossing the Country 2009

Oh Yeah!

This truck was supposed to be more than enough for all our stuff. The redwood tree is the last to board the truck.

Yeah, it looks full to me. Early morning departure from Exchange Place.

One last look at our house of the past 6 years. Missing that a little bit.

We thought this was really cool, but then we eventually got to Utah...

This was the end of our first day and it was really pretty. Really windy, but I ate a delcious Subway Veggie Delight for dinner and was happy (probably the 30th Veggie Delight I had eaten in the past 2 months). We ended up putting our tent up in a state park just outside the exit to Arches National Park...

The Gimp told us that we had stop at Arches National Park. Period. This is one of the first stops in the park (I think it's called "Broadway" or "Madison Avenue" or something because the rock formations remind you of the skyscrapers in that overwhelming northeastern city.

Feeling a bit soulful or something.

We drove throughout the park and hiked up the really famous arch (the one featured on the Utah license plate).

Not my photo–I used my film camera and don't have any digital photos. This thing is big!

After this really, really beautiful place, we drove north along the Colorado River back to the I-70 freeway, which was amazing. We ate lunch at this place called the Red Cliffs Lodge. I remember taking photos, but they must have been with the film camera 'cause they aren't here. We drove like crazy to get to Tim Chapman's house in Boulder by the end of the day.

Colorado was really difficult driving (at points) because the truck is pretty big and the road was fairly tight (at points). We took a nap in a park along a very nice river and got to Tim's house right before dark. Unfortunately, we ran out of battery power for the digital camera and have no proof that we actually visited Tim, but we truly saw his current abode and he showed us around his town. Despite his previous complaints, we found it to be a very nice town, but lacking in one aspect that Tim and I value most: an ocean with waves to ride. Oh well, he should be done soon enough and we'll all move back to California and live together in a house on Neptune in Leucadia. Tim, Jen, their dog Mattie, their son Chappy Jr., me, Brooke, Jake, and PRafterDotCom Jr.

That would be interesting.

We didn't really want to get on the road again, but we wanted to get to NJ for the Brendan Borek event, so we left Tim's house and I realized that I finally have battery power for the camera. Once outside of the city of Denver, I took the photos that comprise the image at top (the great plains to the east and big ol' mountains to the west).

The air-conditioning was on because (1) it was hot and (2) I was sleepy and didn't want to fall asleep. Unfortunately, Brooke didn't have anything warm to wear, so the pillow case will have to do.

We slept in a rest area in Iowa (or some similar state) before approaching our next waypoint; Chicago.

We were so tired when we got to Chicago, that we pulled up to this large body of water and slept on the beach for a couple of hours. Then we met up with Auggie Moss who showed us where to park the giant moving truck in a safe place and then he drove us downtown. We eventually made it to Ali and Rem's place and here's the view from their deck.

there are three chihuahuas in this apartment and they have a lot of personality.

We had to eat some Chicago pizza while we were there:

And then Remberto gave us the "Batman" tour of Chicago and showed us some strange Chicago sites like the Silver Bean and some strange spitting fountains. I was very surprised to find that I liked Chicago and if it had a water mass with consistent waves nearby, I might have been willing to consider living there. Alas, it is not to be.

The next day we met up with Auggie Moss before he left for work and he drove us up to our monster moving truck.

Yeah, for real. Those Moss guys don't mess around.

No more photos were taken because the rest of the trip was over in one day's ride between Chicago and Philly. We then deopped the crap off in Princeton and went to Avalon for 5 days. Yeah!

Brooke and Ali near the Silver Bean.