Journey to California, Part 1

As everyone knows, we are on our way to California! Yay! Here are some updates on what has been going on thus far.

Day One

I left Columbus AFB at 11:30, after a marathon morning of finishing cleaning up the house and throwing away A LOT of food. Thankfully I have wonderful friends and neighbors who helped me clear everything out, watch Jack, and took all my cleaning supplies off my hands so I didn't have to dump them. Everything went well, we are only getting charged $14 dollars for damaged blinds (thanks, Huey).

Jack and Huey are wonderful travelers. I did the first leg (Columbus to St. Louis, MO, 450 miles) by myself because Matt couldn't leave Atlanta until that morning. The drive could have been more stressful if I had wanted it to be, but I just brushed all those feelings aside and charged on. I let the dog and the cat out multiple times and they did great. Thankfully the cone didn't make things any harder, I was still able to get Jack in and out of the Jeep easily.

When we finally got to St. Louis, I was reunited with Matt! Jack was SUPER excited to see his daddy! Matt immediately took the cone off, to my chagrin, but because I had cut off his bandage earlier that morning to make it less irritating, Jack did really well! He didn't even really try to go for his wound, he was much more interested in cleaning himself. So no more cone!

Day Two, Three

St. Louis, MO to Kansas City, KS. I still had to drive by myself, since Matt needed to drive the Mustang, but it was much easier knowing he was out there somewhere, and the trip was only about 250 miles, so only a few hours' drive. This drive, though, was more stressful for me because of the winds. I was getting blown around pretty good in 20 mph winds, especially since we have a cargo carrier on the Jeep for the trip. That was no fun, but I just tried to ignore how uncomfortable that was and focus on driving. We got into Kansas City around 1 and met up with our good friend Kyle. We later picked up Matt's dad and sister at the airport, handed over the Mustang to them, and waved good bye and they drove off onto the Kansas prairie.

We stayed at Kyle's house, and hung out there the next day too. Kyle and Matt went flying, I stayed at the apartment and read and walked the dog. Kyle then took us to Jack's first dog park. He had a blast! This dog park is gigantic, built into a hill with trails in the woods, a lake, and a big open field. We still kept him on a least most of the time so he wouldn't harass other owners by jumping on them, but in the trails he was able to run around ahead of us and he LOVED the lake. At first he was afraid of the slight waves, but once he realized those were just an extension of the water, he ran right in and just ran up and down the shoreline.

The next day, we headed out late morning. It was sad to say good bye to Kyle, but we had such a great time. And Kansas City is a beautiful city.

Day Four

We traveled only about 150 miles from Kansas City to Manhattan, KS where Kansas State is, and our friends Trent and Brandy! We met up with them and hung out for a little bit, then went to dinner. We left Jack in the car for all of this, but he did really well. After dinner, I walked him around the neighborhood, fed him, then left him in the car again when I went back inside. We watched the Seahawks game while playing with their adorable baby Jayson. We said good bye soon after Jayson went to sleep and headed back to our hotel.

Thanks for such a great time, Trent and Brandy!

Day Five

Yesterday we drove about 500 miles from Manhattan, KS all the way to Denver. BORING.

Eastern Kansas is really pretty, there are WAY more trees than I thought, and gentle rolling hills. Western Kansas, however, once you get past Salina, is one of the most boring drives you will ever witness in your life. Wheat field after wheat field. It's not as flat as people say it is, but it's still really boring. So is Eastern Colorado, all the way to Denver, even.

BUT I SEE MOUNTAINS FINALLY! SCORE!

Today we're driving about 300 miles from Denver to Grand Junction, CO, over the Rocky Mountains. It would normally only take about 5 hours, but it will probably take longer, since over the pass the Jeep will only be able to go about 45 mph. It really doesn't like the altitude. We're hoping there will be some snow at Vail, so we can let Jack out and he can witness his first snow.

At least today's drive will be classified as anything BUT boring. Yay for pretty mountains!