Road Trip to Mississippi: Days Six and Seven

Day Six: Stayed an extra day in Dallas

Day Seven: drove from Dallas, TX to Shreveport, LA

The extra day in Dallas was wonderful. It was great not having to wake up early (although I did anyway) and we could just chill without having to worry about getting on the road. And I bet Lenny liked it, too. We left the air conditioning off in the hotel and plugged his heater in, so he got nice and toasty. It's great having an animal that can stay in a parked car without having to worry about the heat. I might not like the heat, but Lenny likes it enough for the both of us!

Dallas is a GIGANTIC city. Instead of it being like Seattle, where everything is condensed into downtown and then there are suburbs, Dallas is really spread out. There is a distinct downtown, but there are numerous business complexes that are as far away as even 10 miles. It is very confusing for newcomers, who don't understand the layout, to navigate.

Anyways, we went to downtown Dallas and walked around Dealey Plaza. I'm sure all of you know this, but that is the spot in Texas where President Kennedy was assassinated as he drove down Elm Street. They even have an "X" in the middle of the lane where his car was located at the time of the shooting. On our way out of the city, we even drove over it. It's very humbling, driving over the very spot that would be the last place JFK ever saw. The Old Red Museum, which is the old courthouse, is pretty cool to look at, too. And Dallas' answer to the Space Needle? Pretty freaking ugly.

After the trip downtown, we drove to Fort Worth. Everyone talks about Dallas and Fort Worth as being the same city: they are not. At all. First off, they are about 30 miles apart, with multiple little towns in between. Second, the culture is completely different. Dallas is a lot like Seattle: Starbucks everywhere and "yuppies" (this word coming from an actual Texan). Fort Worth is much smaller, where the businessmen where jeans, a sport coat, a Stetson, and cowboy boots to work as their business attire. And everyone has pickup trucks. In my opinion, Fort Worth is much more like what you picture Texas to be like. They also have the Stockyards, a very old part of town that they have built up for tourists. There is a daily cattle drive through the Stockyards, too. Granted, this is staged, but there are cowboys in this state that actual still partake in real cattle drives, so it's kind of cool to watch them do this. It looks straight out of a John Wayne movie. If you are familiar with Leavenworth, WA, picture that, but about 3 times as big, and everything Western instead of Bavarian.

The heat was not cool, however. It was ninety seven degrees and I do not do well with heat. I drank about 3 bottles of water within 2 hours, and if you know me at all, you know I only drink coffee that fast. Anyways, I was exhausted by the day's end, but fortunately was only slightly sunburned and did not have a migraine. I'm sure one is coming, though. Matt felt fine until we got to the car, then got an extreme headache. We ate lunch at around 12 and didn't feel like eating until 9 that night. This heat will take some getting used to.

Today (Sunday), we left Dallas behind and arrived in Louisiana. Texas gets "purdier and purdier" the farther east you go. If I could get used to the heat, I don't think I would mind living in this area. So far, everyone is really nice, albeit sometimes extremely hard to understand, but I'm sure I will get used to it. I experienced my first time at a Cracker Barrel. The food was delicious southern comfort food, but I'm not used to fried food AT ALL, so hopefully I get used to it really fast.

Matt and I will be in our new town tomorrow! We can't move into the house until the next day, but on base hotels have a kitchen, so I think we'll eat in. We are both getting rather sick of eating out. Once we get into our new home and my dishes and cookware get in, we won't eat out for a VERY long time.

Tomorrow's travels: Shreveport, LA to Columbus, MS, the last day!

Road Trip to Mississippi: Day Five

Day Five: Amarillo, TX to Dallas, TX

Finally got to some interesting scenery again! Driving out of Amarillo is still ridiculously boring, but about halfway to Dallas you start seeing trees. TREES! So in honor of this, I have made a list for your enjoyment:

You know you are a Pacific Northwesterner in Texas when:

-The sight of trees excites you. It doesn't matter how tall the thing is, IT'S A TREE! The excitement increases even more when there is a cluster (3+) of trees in the same area. FOREST!

-The above statement also goes for rivers, ponds, lakes, and hills. ALMOST A MOUNTAIN! WATER!

-You take a picture of the first oil rod pump you see.

-The above statement also goes for cotton fields and Texas longhorn.

-You wonder how many more signs could possibly either say "Texas" somewhere on it, or have a picture of the state on it.

-Pullman and Moscow are no longer considered "in the middle of nowhere."

-Locals thank you for your service in the military. It's awesome!

-People talk funny. But you love listening to it!

-Everyone around you is nice! And it surprises you!

-You haven't had a Starbucks in five days and you can't wait to finally walk into one and breathe deeply.

-Instead of every other car being a Prius or Subaru, every other vehicle is a pickup truck. Either a Ford or a Chevy. And every other semi-truck is for cattle.

-You start seeing road signs that say "Don't Mess With Texas" and it scares you at first, but then you think "WTF?"

-At the rest area, you get concerned when you see, in between the men and women's bathrooms, a door that is titled "Tornado Shelter." (Your first time ever seeing that).

-Instead of seeing Deer signs, you see Rattlesnake signs.

Road Trip to Mississippi: Day Four

Day Four: Golden, CO to Amarillo, TX via New Mexico

Not much to say. The scenery was pretty cool until we couldn't see the mountains anymore... then it got really boring. Granted, I'm judging just from the highway, but still, it's pretty boring. I was rather productive, though, I finished a scarf, then started and finished a scarf in a few hours! I'm in denial that I won't need them down here, but I'm still going to make them since I can't make anything else.

Our hotel in downtown Amarillo was super nice! Definitely catered towards businessmen, but I'm not complaining! Also of note: Texans are super nice people. While I was moving all the luggage to the car, every person I passed said "hi." I know that's not that far fetched, but it's rather unusual to get greeted by EVERYONE that passes you.

Long story short, the scenery might suck, but the people almost make up for it! I look forward to continued Southern hospitality.

Tomorrow: Amarillo, TX to Dallas, TX where we will hang out for an extra day with my dad, who is there on business for a half year.

Road Trip to Mississippi: Day Three

Day Three: Murray, UT to Golden, CO

Since we had a long day ahead of us, Matt and I woke up at 6 and were on the road by 7. There was about 580 miles to put behind us! We both loved Northern Utah, but we loved Southern Utah even more. From I-84 and I-70, the highway travels through some gorgeous mountains. The red rocks and Price Canyon were definitely pretty! While it's pretty much in the middle of nowhere, the scenery definitely makes up for that.

I'm getting a lot of knitting done in the car, since there isn't much else to do, but the beautiful mountains certainly made me not as productive. Tomorrow's trip through Southern Colorado, New Mexico, and East Texas will probably see me finishing off the scarf and starting another one.

Watching out for Red-winged Blackbirds is also still entertaining me, but their habitat is getting harder and harder to find. It's getting drier, so ponds are fewer and farther between.

Vail is a GORGEOUS ski resort town. For those of you who have been to Leavenworth, imagine that, but about three or four times the size, and constructed to look like highly-expensive buildings (which they are). And if you love skiing, you literally drive off the freeway, park you car, walk a block into the town, and voila, you are at the ski lift! Even if you don't ski, there is plenty of shops to hang out in, so I highly recommend anyone visiting this town.

An interesting aspect of this drive was the altitude. Even though Salt Lake City looks flat, it's at about 4000 feet about sea level. As you drive to Denver, that gets even higher. Since there's less oxygen in the air, car engines have to work harder. Even though the Jeep is an SUV and has a V-6, it struggles when it's going up... and up.... and up. The highest pass we drove over was actually Vail Pass, which is at 10,666 feet above sea level. Dude, that's how high I hiked up to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainer, and here I was driving that high. It was sad, though, the Jeep got passed by a Prius going up the pass... sigh. Although if you think about it, the Prius cheats, since it can switch just to battery and thus would not be affected by the lower oxygen levels anymore.

I am learning to tolerate trucker's coffee. Call me a coffee snob, but coffee you buy at gas stations is so weak it's just coffee-flavored water, and it's disgusting. I don't even like Maxwell House or Folgers- it's all gross. But I'm drinking it anyway, because I know if I don't a headache will be soon to follow, then possibly a migraine. And that would make everything miserable. Fortunately, my sunt and uncle donated some powdered CoffeeMate Almond Creme (or something like that) to the cause so I guess I'll just dump about a cup of that in the coffee and that should do the trick. I have seen some Starbucks' out here, so there's hope!

And guys, never underestimate the awesomeness of homecooked meals. I know going out to eat is always exciting and you can get just about everything, but I've been eating out for almost a week straight and after awhile it just gets old. Menus all start looking the same. I cannot wait until my dishes get delivered to our house in Columbus and I can make my food, control what's in it, and never have to go into a restaurant (this excludes coffee and ice cream shops) again for a long, long time.

Tomorrow's travels: Golden, CO to Amarillo, TX via New Mexico (two of these states I've never been too! Four Corners doesn't really count for New Mexico)

Road Trip to Mississippi: Day Two

Day Two: Nampa, ID to Murray, Utah (basically Salt Lake City)

First off, I need to thank my Aunt Andrea and Uncle Jeff for inviting us to their home to stay the night! It was fantastic to see them again and visit a house I haven't been to for 17 years. Aunt Andrea also happens to work for a hotel chain, so we have been getting family discounts at the hotel, which brings the cost down from $100 for about $60. We will probably end up making money off this trip, awesome!

Here are some things I learned on our Day Two trip:

-Southern Idaho sucks. A lot. The only saving grace is that there are occasionally A-10s at the Boise airport. But we didn't see them.

-There is a lot of just plain dirt in southern Southern Idaho.

-Southern Idaho sucks.

-Utah is absolutely gorgeous! I even loved the valleys, because you could at least see some awesome mountains. You can see mountains from Boise, but you aren't in them, and it was really hazy so you couldn't see them well anyway. And along I-84, you can see the Lake AND are right next to the mountains. Yay!

-I really want Matt to be stationed in Ogden, Utah. It is about 20 miles north of Salt Lake. That town is gorgeous and in the winter time, lots of skiing! And since Hill Air Force Base is where they do scheduled maintenance on the entire F-16 and F-22 fleets, there are jets flying in and out of the base all the time. Matt and I stopped for lunch there, for a half hour most, and we saw at least 6 F-16s come in. While I could really care less about the difference between airplanes- airplanes are airplanes, I can't help but love the sound of a fighter jet flying overhead. We would both LOVE living there.

-I hate the Steeler's even more now that Hines Ward won Dancing with the Stars. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

-Southern Idaho sucks.

Day 3's travels: Murray, UT to Denver, CO

Road Trip to Mississippi: Day One

Day One: Portland, OR to Nampa, ID (basically Boise)

Moving Day dawned grey and drizzly (gee, what a surprise). We said good-bye to our friend Yak (aka Kyle) and headed out. I didn't cry too much, most of the tears were because I was worried about Lenny being cold and I don't want him to die, so we made a side trip to Fred Meyer to pick up some hand warmers for him. (On the cold days in the car, I'm putting a hand warmer in one of Matt's socks and keeping that in Lenny's carrier. It's not ideal, but it's better than nothing). We also picked up some Starbucks, which we were going to do anyway, so I guess walking into the Fred Meyer wasn't so much out of the way ;) And on we went.

The drive out on 1-84 through the Columbia Gorge is GORGEOUS. I didn't even do anything except look out the window. Once you get to The Dalles, though, it starts to get boring. And let's not even mention how expensive gas is out there. The Jeep is doing pretty good on gas mileage, though, at about 22 mpg. With an 18 gallon gas tank, we needed to fill up twice.

Matt has been complaining about the lack of classic rock stations. He finally had to settle for a country station. I'm not complaining too much ;) I am kicking myself in the pants that I did not pack my Bird Guide. I've been seeing a lot of birds, hawks especially, that I wish I could look at. However, I have found someway to entertain myself, since I'm not really good at reading with the radio on. Red-winged Blackbirds (RWBL) are one of my favorite birds, I love their song/call and they're just plain cool looking. I'm also really good at picking out possible RWBL habitat. They love cattails (that's where the females make their nests) and a few medium sized trees surrounding the cattails and water source where they can mark their territories and call out to the females. From The Dalles all the way to Nampa I was trying to see how many RWBL I could find in the habitats that I thought RWBL would like. As it turned out, I was usually able to find one. I know this is not what most of you would find really fun, but it was something to do.

Nampa isn't all that interesting, but they have a Best Buy, Target, Kohl's, a World Market (YAY!), and a Costco, so I guess that makes them somewhat classy ;) Kind of glad we're just staying here the night, I'm not so impressed. Especially since the Target only carried Boise State stuff and no Idaho stuff. BOOOOOOOOO! At least my car has a UI sticker.

Tomorrow's travels: Nampa, ID to Murray, UT (suburb of Salt Lake City)

Sipping Starbucks: An Exploratory Session featuring Rayla and Brittany: Brittany's Spring Outfit Challenge

Well, this isn't a Wednesday, but since my sisters and I have been extremely busy with school and moving, we haven't had much time to write anything. But I'm finally just chillin' around awaiting departure, so here's a new column!

Brittany's challenge: To find me the perfect spring/summer outfit for the hot weather in Miss'ippi.

The shirt Brittany picked for me is from my favorite designer, Ann Taylor, but you can't copy and paste pictures from their website (LAME!). It was pretty straight forward, though, a white sleeveless cotton blouse with some ruffles on the front, perfect for dressing up or down. I loved it. And since it was white, it would go with anything I own. Super yay!

Here is the headband that Brittany chose (from ShopRuche.com). I don't own any headbands, and I have no idea how to style my hair with a headband, but I would love to learn! This is a great little accessory, I think.
Here are the ADORABLE little sandals from Nine West. These are great! And I like how Brittany gave me some flats :) I love the color, and the heart-know detail on the sandals. They would go perfectly with the skirt that is pictured below and I could easily where these with jeans or dress pants as well.

I love the style of this skirt (ShopRuche.com), even the bow detail in the front. I'm not completely sold on the print yet, but I love the color scheme. I might like it better if the print was slightly bigger, but I would definitely wear this.

Thanks, Brittany, for the awesome wardrobe suggestion!

Moving is Stressful

Holy cow. That's all I have to say about moving with the military. So here are some things I'm quickly learning, even though it technically hasn't started yet:

-Be adaptable. Thank God I had a childhood that required me to adapt to numerous stressful situations, or I would be a lot worse off right now.

-Take on the stress and show it who's boss. I guess this goes along with being adaptable, but stress will happen with moves, so I just have to know that it will eventually get better.

-There isn't much I have control over right now. So just breathe and keep on going.

-Don't get too attached to any one thing. Bring your most treasured possessions with you, but you can't bring everything, so don't get too attached to it. The moving companies are notorious for breaking things, but things can be replaced, especially when they have to pay for it. People and pets can't be replaced, but they're coming with you!

-Happiness in the military will only come if I make it happen, so I can either mope around and complain how annoying this whole situation is, or I can take it with a grain of salt and look forward to all the new adventures to come my way. I take the second one!

Good-Bye Jerry and Smeagol

As the move to Mississippi looms over us, I had to do something I hoped I never would need to do: give away my pets. It's a sad day indeed. Last week I had to give up the Betta, Jerry. He went to a very good home, my best friend's sister, Amanda. I know she will take excellent care of him. I absolutely love Betta fish. They are gorgeous and make the perfect home decor while still being something I can take care of. They are also easy to clean and maintain so they make the perfect pet for even the laziest of people (which I'm not, by the way). I hope Jerry doesn't miss me too much.

Today I had to give Smeagol the goldfish to my wonderful co-worker Emma. I've had Smeagol for 4 years and survived many trips from Seattle and Moscow. And he never complained. He was always excited to see me walk past his tank, although that might just have been because he was trying to smooch some food off of me :)

Giving my fish away is making me sad. I know they're just fish, but I love having fish; they're so relaxing. I don't know if I'll be able to have more, since fish count as a pet when you live on an Air Force base. I'll eventually be able to get more, but until then, I'm content with knowing that my fish have found good homes and in a few months we will have not only a Bearded Dragon, but a new puppy as well!

Recent Updates

Dearest Readers, I must apologize for the lack of posts in the recent days (ok, weeks, but who’s counting?). Between Matt’s commissioning and graduation, our trip up north, our friends’ visit down here, and our days busy packing and organizing for a move, I haven’t had much time to reflect on the days’ happenings. But I have found a few minutes, so here is a basic overview of the past few weeks:

-Most importantly, Matt and I are now on the waiting list for an adorable little golden retriever puppy! He is not born yet, but his due date is June 5^th (is this date familiar at all? YES!). We will be able to take him home around July 31^st. Hopefully everything goes as planned! We are having trouble coming up with names, though. So far we can only agree on Arrow. I might be persuaded to agree on Bauer, but that’s only if we can’t agree on anything else.

-Matt is now both a 2^nd Lieutenant and a college graduate! He commissioned on May 7^th, and graduated the next day with a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering. It was a great weekend, our families both came out and we were able to say good-bye to my sister and my dad. L

-We went up to Seattle the day after graduation and stayed for four days, to say good-bye to family and get some shopping in (for me, anyways). We had dinner with my grandparents: Nana and Grandpa John, and Poppa, and had meals with our parents and Matt’s sister Brittany. It was sad to say good-bye to everyone, but we had a great time.

-Right now we’re not so patiently waiting for the military to set up our move. PAIN IN THE ASS. I do not wish this on anybody. At this point, we are fully prepared, and half expecting, to rent a U-Hual at the last minute and move ourselves. I REALLY hope it does not come down to this, but that’s the military for you.

-On a positive note, we both got our updated military ID’s. We will have to update them again once Matt gets processed at Columbus AFB, but at least it should make it easier for us at the moment to get anything we need. It also works as Matt’s medical insurance card, so he has insurance now!

-On an even more positive note, we have a confirmed house at Columbus AFB! An official address! YAY! We will have some place to live- and it’s a 3 bedroom house, complete with a yard for our puppy, a dishwasher, laundry hook-ups, a storage room, and 1100 square feet! Whoot! Cannot wait to move in! And since it’s on base, I will be closer to the other wives and the action. And with 3 bedrooms, I will have a dedicated scrapbook room. SUPER YAY!

-I am busy reading The Idiot’s Guide to Positive Dog Training. Learning lots! I’ve never had a dog before, thus never trained one, so I’m trying to cram all that information in my head before we get the puppy. Too bad I don’t have a week in the car or anything to continue reading it.

-As of right now, these are the biggest tidbits of interesting updates I can think of. I will probably be on the next few days, ranting about moving companies and the like, but we’ll see how it goes. The next week is bound to be stressful, but there’s not much I can do about it, so I will just have to be patient and go with the flow. Fortunately I’m an adaptable human being.