Road Trip

So as anyone reading this knows, Mark and I drove about as far as one can drive across this expansive nation last week. It was a blast. I wanted to leave at 7am on Aug 27th...haha on me. That wasn't happening. But we got to eat at our favorite breakfast joint Brenda's on the Causeway before we left. It was the first day they were open after being closed for a month. Good way to say "See ya!" to Florida.
We drove like we meant business. I should say...Mark drove like we meant business because he drove the whole way. God bless him. We suffed that Ford Ranger to the gills and rode out. After about 2000 miles we started to see more elevation changes. Knowing what we know about 4 cylinder engines and moutains, we decided to dump 250lbs of clothes on the nice lady at the UPS store in Rapid City, SD. As you can imagine, the cost of shipping 250lbs of anything is substantial. But the peace of mind and the ability to drive through the Rockies without a transmission on the side of the road was well worth it.
We made about an hour later than I predicted to beautiful Wenatchee, WA. I love planning long road trips. We saw many people and sights along the way. And we drove 3100 miles in a single cab pickup without even a hint of an argument. I swear the cab got bigger as we drove. And we were amazed at how comfortable we were.

I'd like to give thanks to a few people/things:
Droid smartphones for the free Google navigation
Pandora for all the fun music
Carl Granger for the GARMIN and for checking in on us
Costa Del Mar sunglasses for not letting Mark go blind as he drove into the Montana sunset
The Ford Ranger for running like a top the whole way
Dad for the food, fun and shelter
Stacy Greene for the laughs and the advice, shelter and tomatos
Ryan and Susanna Heaslip for the shelter and good conversation
Butte, MT Best Western for having a room available to weary travellers

One last thing about a cross country road trip...it's essential to know when to talk and when it's ok to be quiet...because I don't care how much you love someone or miss someone or whatever, if you're in a car with them for 54 hours and you talk the whole time, it would be justifiable homicide if they killed you.