We Made It -- Une

After driving 2,844 miles, {it kills me to write that, it really does} we made it all the way from Southern California to Long Island.

We started out early in the morning in California. The Bean was not so pleased. She didn't want us to take her bed and protested by sitting in it before we could take it out to the car. Once we put it in the car, she was quite happy. Until she realized that we were dead serious about those 12 hour long car rides we'd been telling her about for the past three weeks. As you can see, she was NOT amused. Not even a little. At one point, she was so mad she faced her back to us and refused to turn around. Confusingly, when we stopped the car at gas stations and hotels, she didn't want to get out.

The ending of the first leg of the journey found us in my home state to visit my family. We started off with a delicious meal at Cafe Rio and then headed up north. We had a great time visiting with everyone. We packed a lot into two days! My parents took B and I go-kart racing with my youngest sister and her boyfriend Kyle {whom I call Keeeel in my head like Cartman from South Park}. Not surprisingly, B won and I lost. I had to race in my maxi dress and my helmet kept trying to slide over my eyes. It was a dangerous race. The Bean's favorite part was swimming in my grandma's pool and eating the pot roast my mom fed her. She misses having her morning, afternoon and evening swims that she had in California and now doesn't want to eat her dog food. Next thing we knew, it was time to say goodbye. We were one crockpot heavier, one hour long dog chase tired-er and headed off towards the great Midwest.

I, in charge of Being Bad with Directions, directed us towards the slower route {only by 15 min!!} and we drove painstakingly through Evanston, WY. Which is a great state filled with pyromaniacs that sell fireworks to the folks back home who cross the state border to buy illegal fireworks and explode them with wild abandon for Pioneer Day and the 4th of July celebrations. The state is filled with strange formations, fireworks and very bad radio reception. We stopped in Cheyenne to eat at a Sonic and Moka wouldn't even eat a whole hot dog that's how bad the food was. We were not sad to say goodbye to Wyoming.

Once we entered Nebraska, we were shocked. The land is so. flat. The sky seemed to stretch on for miles and miles. I loved driving through Nebraska -- all 13 hours. I really did. I went on and on to B about how I would love to have a ranch and run barefoot in corn fields and go fishing and climb trees. Basically, I wanted to be a small, slightly feral Laura Ingalls Wilder/Huck Finn/Scout. And then we came across some incredibly smelly cows {on a ranch} that smelled like 50,000 used diapers. Okay, I will pass on a ranch but Nebraska is beautiful. The fields reminded me of the ocean and if there is anything I like more than complaining about bad radio reception, bad food and poop stench, it's the ocean. We stopped in Omaha for the night, Moka had a mild panic attack about leaving the car and we went to sleep. For about four hours.

B woke me up and I wanted to murder him. If there is anything I like more than the ocean, it's getting my eight hours of slumber. Preferably uninterrupted by dreams of endless roads and wheels spinning.

ETA: Pictures!


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