The Post You've All...er... I Have Been Waiting For!

Fingers uncrossed. I have a job! It's a hefty 1.5 hour commute to Beaverton, OR, but a job is a job! I'm going to be working in a call center in the sales retention center. Basically, I'm going to be trying to convince people not to drop their service with our clients all day. And our clients are video gamers. Pretty cool! It might be a rough job, but I'm up for the challenge. I'm up for anything after a two week + job search. The workplace is pretty nice, too! There's a pool table and video game systems/computers everywhere to use during break. It kinda reminds me of that movie Grandma's Boy with Nick Swardson. I really need this job to work out well!

In celebration, Arlo and I went to St. Johns Theater and Pub for dinner. They have a cool deal on Tuesdays that includes a beer, a burger, and a movie for $10 per person. There are so many privately owned gems like this here! It's definitely not like this back in Jersey where just about everything is corporate owned. I had a beer made by McMenamin's called Ruby, which is a delicious raspberry ale. It makes we wish I had the chance to try Weyerbacher's raspberry ale while I was still on the East Coast. Hopefully, they'll still be making it when I come back sometime!

I'm still missing Dunkin Donuts.... they were drinking it in the movie we saw tonight (Fair Game).

Now that the weight of not having a job has been lifted off my shoulders, I plan on cruising through town tomorrow on my bike for a while. I'm excited to finally get to know the town without speeding through it to get to an interview or somewhere important. I'm going to spend my time paging through books at Powell's City of Books and the Central Library. I'm going to stare into windows without want, but with simple appreciation. I'm going to savor a pastry or two from Voodoo Doughnuts, and then rest in the park along the Williamette River. Maybe I'll pedal through Chinatown or peek in a thrift store. Whatever it is, I'm going to take it slow, and enjoy.


=)

Goodbye

The car that carried me, Arlo, Damascus, and all of our stuff from one side of the country to the other is now gone. $300 and 20 seconds later, it was driven away to be pulled apart and sold in hundreds of smaller pieces. It was a short relationship of about 4 months, but she did a lot for us. This is the first time since early high school that I haven't had a car, and my feelings are pretty mixed.

It was definitely the right time to sell it. Even if the car was in perfect condition, it would have cost several hundred dollars just to get it registered in Oregon, and possibly get it smog-free. Riding a bike every day is definitely good for the travel gut (All that restaurant and fast food we consumed on the trip certainly left it's mark).

The amount of money we're saving right now by not having a car is great. Not having a car is the way to go if you can manage without one, and a city is definitely the right place to try. However, it has caused us to narrow our job search quite a bit. Arlo is especially hindered by not having a car, because construction employers usually require employees to have their own car for transporting materials.

The goal here is to get a job. Really any job would be welcome at this point so we can drop the shovel and stop digging ourselves into a debt-hole. I would love to not have to fill out another job application for a looooonggggg, long time. It's not even that the employers are telling me I'm not qualified for positions I've applied for, it's that they don't even respond. I've called the few that have phone numbers listed, and they've all told me they have gotten 50-100 applicants for a single position. I've always had confidence that if I can get an interview, I can get the job. But I can barely get an interview for most of these places. I hope this all changes soon...

Yesterday, I was riding my bike and saw a quick lube place. I immediately thought, "Oh! I haven't gotten my oil changed in a while. I better do that soon!" And I then realized I don't have a car. Haaaa..... My days are filled with many moments like this one.

Reaaaally though, it's not bad biking everywhere or taking the occasional bus. It feels good in a way. Saving money and saving the planet... pretty good deal.

But I'm still not giving up my plastic bags!

Crossing Fingers

No job yet, but I could possibly have one by the middle of next week (I hope!). I had an interview for one job a week ago, and he said he would let me know by the middle of next week if they want to hire me. And I just got an in-person interview for another job, which is on Tuesday. I had a half-hour phone interview today, and passed to the final round of their recruitment process. Woohoo! They said if they decide they want me at the conclusion of my interview on Tuesday, that they will hire me on the spot. I have a few other job prospects, but it seems most employers are taking their time with the hiring process. Gaadjhfdhsjd! So close...maybe..

We got Damascus a crate today. Hopefully, we'll be able to start leaving him in the house by himself without him throwing a hissy fit. He loves his new house!

Yesterday, I went into downtown Portland on the bus and brought my bike. Arlo always used to go into NYC and zoom around on his road bike going in between two lanes of opposite traffic. I never thought I would ride my bike in a city, but it's really not so bad. Then again, this is a West Coast city where everyone is nice and loves trees. I guess that makes the atmosphere for biking a bit more tolerable.

If there's one thing I've learned about Portland in my week and a half of living here, it's that there is good food everywhere! I miss my reliable Dunkin Donuts, Quick Chek, WaWa, and Turkey Hill, but there's just nothing like these mom and pop shops. There aren't as many chain stores on the West Coast (at least that I've been able to identify). The community here is much more supportive of the unique, family owned joints. BUT WE STILL HAVE 7-ELEVEN! Mmmm there's nothing like a good high fructose corn syrup slurpee!

There are these cool little food shack towns sprinkled around the Portland metro that have absolutely fantastic food! I went to one called Potato Champion yesterday, and it was heaven! They sell Belgian-style fries (frites) and you get to chose from a variety of dipping sauces. I had horseradish ketchup with mine. YUM!

 

They also sell Poutine (look it up) and a few other delectables. I need to visit Belgium someday. Great frites, great beer, sounds like a good place to me! My next food target is the ever-famous Voodoo Doughnuts. Arlo and I tried to go there our second night here in Portland, but they were crazy busy. We asked some people in line, "Hey! Uhhh what's going on here???" Some girls replied, "Just doughnuts.....              and a chapel, too. If you need that." Silly little hipsters! I'm looking forward to my first taste of yummy pastry!

Something else that's a little different here is the push to be the first state to ban plastic bags. They have people walking around door-to-door asking for donations and signatures. Fred Meyer (our supermarket/superstore [no, I won't compare it to Wal-Mart]) only has recyclable brown paper bags for groceries. My biggest dilemma in all of this is: What am I supposed to pick up dog poop with? The big brown paper bag just doesn't do the job. And I'm not going to recycle dog shit anyway. So what am I to do with the poo?

My biggest concerns in life are when/where I'm getting my next paycheck, stretching the money we have left, and where I'm going to put all this doggie doodoo.

Ay Caramba!

2 Year Anniversary!

Yayyy 2 yearsss!! This day two years ago, Arlo and I were sitting in his car in the parking lot of Best Buy when he asked me to be his girlfriend. We've done a bit of squabbling about when the official date actually is (we had been hanging out a lot over the previous week), but we've come to agree on the 16th, as that is when he actually asked me to take up the gf status. He thinks it should be the day we met, but this makes absolutely no sense in girl world. The boy must ask! Are you taking notes, boys?

We celebrated today by playing computer games for hours on our desk top computers that we set up on a tiny, tiny desk last night. It's amazing we were able to fit them into such a small space when they took up the majority of our trunk for the whole trip.

Later, we ventured out into Portland on our bikes to rest our bloodshot eyes and exercise our flabby bodies. St. John's is a quaint little part of Portland in which we live. It's a great fix for those wanting to live in the city, but without all the hustle and bustle. It fits me.

Out of all the cutsie, hipster places we could have stopped at for a drink or bite to eat, we somehow decided on 7 Eleven. Slurpee's and hotdogs! How nutritious! Damascus couldn't wait for his share.

I canceled my car insurance, and we cleaned out all of our stuff. Now it's just an empty shell that was once stuffed to the gills with computers and blankets and bodies. I don't know what's in the future for this car, but I do know that we aren't. We're going to list it on craigslist for a bit. Hopefully someone can get some more use out of her.

Still looking for jobs! The hopes for getting called for an interview are postponed by a holiday. JUST GIVE ME A JOB ALREADY!

New Life in Portland

Ok. No more daily updates. My coast to coast adventure is over (at least for this particular trip). Now it's time to get acquainted with this green town called Portland. There are many places to explore, and I can't think of any greater city to land in (and we've seen many cities and towns). I like it more here everyday. But my heart is still up in the air with not having a job yet. Oh, and to make matter's worse, my car just lost another life (it has lost several so far). The transmission is toast, and completely unrepairable. We certainly don't have enough to fix it, and I'm not entirely sure we want to anyway. It's a bit of a money pit, and I think we can do just fine here with our two bikes and the city's transportation system. Having a car is great, but having somewhere to live is more important.

So here I sit in our small room typing away on my laptop, reminiscing in my head about the places visited, food eaten, and friends made over the past.. how many weeks? I haven't even counted it out yet...ok, it was 2.5 weeks (18 days). I'm actually already missing life on the road, but it also feels really good to be sleeping in the same place every night, and not having to worry about packing everything up. It was the right time and place to drop our packs and make camp.

Every now and then I remember something about the trip that I forgot to write down. One of my favorite experiences was when we visited the Antique Arcade on Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco. We put money in a player piano (the kind that play on their own), and then Arlo grabbed my hands and proceeded to dance with me. We danced and danced, right there in the aisle, until the song was over. It was an elating 40 seconds! We were smiling and twirling, and life was good. It was like something from a fairytale or a romantic comedy. It's one of my fondest memories. =)

This trip has been a big lesson for me about planning. Some things work best planned out, while others are better when done spontaneously. I tend to over-plan things, whereas Arlo tends to under-plan. Neither are terrible qualities, but they both have drawbacks. We have slowly been working on learning from the other. It's a process, and I feel I have made several big steps in a good direction.

Here's another arcade experience I forgot to mention: we went to this nickel arcade called Wunderland in Beaverton, OR (right next to Portland), and it was soooooooooo coooooooooollll!!!! It's the arcade-goers dream! 5 cents per play? YES PLEASE! Some of the better games cost 20 cents, but that's still less than a quarter!!! Some of you know that I'm a sucker for those games where you drop coins down into this bed of many other coins, and they're slowly pushed until you add enough to make them fall over the edge. I once spent $10 in quarters at an arcade in Cape May, NJ in about 60 seconds on one of these machines. And now look! I can support my addiction for much less! Nickle arcades are the best things ever. EVER! It's a good thing we don't have any within biking distance from our place, because we wouldn't have a place very long...

Poor Arlo is still sick. =( His ears are clogged and he can't hear well because of it. Plus, his body feels poopie. It's hard to be aggressive about getting a job when your body just needs to rest. I have two potential jobs, and I super-triple-doggie hope I get one of them!

I hope my next update is about my new job... that would be nice. Very nice.

01/09/11-01/10/11 Portland, OR

I'm combining yesterday and today's blog entry because they were filled with a lot of the same thing.

Long story short, Arlo and I are moving into our new place tomorrow! We're renting out a room in a house in North Portland. Portland is such a beautiful city! And I'm so excited! I get a new place for my birthday!!! =D

We've spent much of the last two days searching for a place. The room we're renting out is on a month by month basis, which is awesome for us. It's time to settle down and work again. Time to make money for the next adventure!

We would not have been able to do this without the support of our friends, family, and total strangers who let us stay in their home for a night. We're forever grateful to everyone!!!

I think I'll probably continue to update here every now and then. And I'll definitely do day-by-day updates on our next adventure (whenever that may be).

I'm so happy to have a place to call home, and a bed to call my own. It'll be nice to be able to leave my stuff somewhere everyday that isn't my car.

We're now very aggressively looking for jobs. A million different things are going through my head right now. Just look at how this blog is laid out! I have 1-2 sentence paragraphs everywhere!

In the middle of all this exciting newness in my life, I really miss my doggie Tiffany back at my parent's house. I really miss her unique way of saying "welcome home!". I would walk in the door, my arms usually full of stuff. She would be laying down on her blue recliner in the front room, and suddenly, her big radar ears would perk all the way up in excitement. She wouldn't get down from her spot yet. "Hey Tiff Miff!" I would call to her as I unloaded the contents of my arms onto the coffee table. Her ears would immediately flatten to her head, and she would respond with a welcoming coo/growl that anyone else would think was some threat to stay away. I would do the same back to her. At this time, she would jump down and either run up to me, or run to the back of the house, depending on if anyone else was home. If my dad was home, she would run out to him and bark a lot, letting him know I was here. She did this anytime someone came home. After her fanfare of barks, she would run back to me and I would scrunch up her little cheeks in my hands, scratch behind her big ears, and then down her back. She would only take about 10 seconds of this before she backed out of it, making another coo/growl. After refusing further petting, she would run away, and come back with a toy, usually a ball, and drop it in front of me. She would nudge it toward me with her nose, and make a noise between a growl and a bark, as if to say, "Let's play!". Corgi's are very vocal. I'd throw her toy, and she would repeat the dropping, nudging, and growling. I don't think we've ever reached a point where she didn't want to play anymore. I'm pretty sure she could play herself to death if someone was willing to sit there and throw the ball long enough. I know that if I came home right now, this is exactly what would happen. And it's one of the only things that kills me to be anywhere else but there in the front room, playing with my girl.

I miss my family. I miss my friends. And I really miss my Tiffany.

01/08/11 Grants Pass, OR - Portland, OR

Staying at the Super 8 in Grants Pass was quite lovely. We enjoyed Belgian waffles for breakfast, and followed that up with a dip in the hot tub. It was a nice relaxing start to our day!

Arlo is sick with a cold. =( I've been doing my best to play nurse and make sure he takes his medicine. He's still walking, talking, and eating, so I think he'll make it.

Something I meant to mention about yesterday, was when we were at McDonald's using their wi-fi for about 2 hours. There were these two cute little kids playing on the stools and chairs. They were making up their childish games about how one could do something cooler, faster, or better than the other. I remember being that young, and viewing the whole world as a playground. Anything I could climb on was something to play on. My brother and I played games like this all the time when we were younger. One of the kids started playing peek-a-boo with me, and I played along. He giggled his little head off and got his little sister into it, too. They were so happy and careless. Ahh, the good ole' days.

Oregon is a pretty cool place. I drove the 4.5 hours today and got to experience intermittent rain showers. I'm a fan of the mid-section of the state. Instead of mountains being right on top of one another, they're separated by vast, green fields full of sheep and cute little farm houses. I wouldn't want to live there, but it was just an adorable section of land. Take I-5 up from California, and you'll know what I'm talking about.

Portland is big! I didn't get to experience too much of it yet, but I think I really like it here. With no luck (yet again) on couchsurfing, we decided to stay another night at a hotel. With Arlo being sick, it was really the only reasonable option.

This quite possibly could be our new home. We've started looking for apartments and jobs. Tomorrow starts the big search. Anyone have experience with getting a place and a job at the same time? It kind of seems to me that you need one to have the other, but I don't know how to get both at the same time! I mean, I know it happens everyday, but I really don't know how. I guess this is where the unlimited knowledge source called the internet comes in handy.

Don't buy your plane tickets yet, friends! I'll be sure to update with more info as the days go by.

Is this the possible end to our cross-country adventure? It's almost as weird to think about as not living on the East Coast anymore. All of these feelings are strange and exciting! I'm not quite sure how things go from here, but I do know it's still an adventure, even if we might not be moving from town to town.

What fun!

01/07/11 - Arcata, CA - Grants Pass, OR

I was eager to get out of that gas station parking lot. I turned on the car, and started driving at 6:15AM. It was still very dark, and I was still very tired. The reason we didn't just drive farther than Arcata was because we wanted to see the Redwoods in daylight. I pulled off twice, once at a beach, and once at a gas station, to pass the time waiting for the sun to come up. We drove up this cliffside, and decided to descend the side of it to get down to the ocean. It was one of those scary tide-could-come-in-at-anytime-and-kill-us places. It was probably a stupid idea, but also a very cool one. There was a small cave in a giant boulder that was even with the tide when we got there. I wanted to explore it, but I also didn't want to die. We left about a half hour later, and it was just in time. When we got back up to the top, we could see where we had been walking was now covered with ocean. Cool!

OH! OH! WE SAW SOME ELK!

Hungry bellies lead us to a small town called Klamath for breakfast. It was yummy and decently priced. I love love love the fresh seafood! I can't get enough.

Along the way, Arlo and I went off on a hiking trail near a giant statue of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, Babe. Very pretty and Jurassic-like. I was waiting with my camera for giant velociraptors to jump out in front of me.

We stopped again at another beach, and had fun running from the tide as it crashed in. The waves here are huge! Love it.

A couple thrift stores and towns later, we ended up here in Grants Pass, OR. Oregon has been rainy and a bit colder than California. This town is nice and clean, just like our hotel room. It's such a treat now - hotels are. Going without makes you appreciate things so much more when you have them, no matter if it's by choice or necessity.

The rest of the night is to be filled with updating pictures, blogging, and enjoying the amenities of the hotel. Yesssssss

01/06/11 Fort Bragg, CA - Arcata, CA

I think I slept for a good 11 hours. Lovely!

We had a light breakfast and set off to do laundry. Clean clothes are one of the best things in the world! We sat in the cafe next door using their wi-fi and eating a little more breakfast while we simultaneously washed and dried our clothes. It was a handsome, warm morning, and I was in love.

We checked out a sea glass museum and some thrift stores before heading out of town. Rt 101 along the coast of CA is such a beautiful drive. We stopped and explored one of the beaches for a long time. Soo pretty!

We did a decent amount of driving today. Most of our hours were spent stopping off at the gorgeous sights and exploring. We watched the sunset from a rocky peninsula. It was a great, peaceful day.

The night however, was a little tedious. We planned on staying in a hotel somewhere in Eureka, CA. We had temporarily given up on couchsurfing because we weren't sure if our car could get us where we needed to go. Anyway, Eureka is a dump. There was really no nice part to the town, and I didn't feel safe at all. We opted to see if we could find something in a nearby town, even a campground or something. After following a few dead leads, we wearily drove around looking for anywhere to just turn off the car and sleep. We found a gas station off the freeway in Arcata, CA, and did just that.

I have issues with sleeping in the car, and it really has nothing to do with the car itself. I sleep pretty well sitting upright. It's not terribly uncomfortable to me, and it's a cheap, simple fix for not being able to find a decent place to stay. Where we park the car, however, is what freaks me out. In the middle of the woods? In a scary town? Behind a gas station in the dark? I'm constantly in fear of the worst case scenario. I suppose I'd feel better if I had a gun or something to defend myself with, but until then, I'm afraid Big Foot will bash in my window and eat my brains.

The whole night at the gas station, I thought the cops were going to come and throw us in jail or something. I woke up every two hours to turn the car on and look around for axe murderers. It was pretty restless.

01/04-01/05

01/04/11 San Francisco, CA - Bolinas, CA

Today turned out to be quite frustrating. We started off by exploring the Golden Gate Bridge. Very fun, and very necessary to visit if you're ever in town! As a tip to anyone who might use the bridge: it is only free if you are leaving San Fran. If you are going there via the bridge, you have to pay the big toll!

We continued to explore the national park area on the opposite side of SF. It was pretty, and gorgeous just as everything else in the area. But this is when the frustration began. As we were walking around, Damascus started limping and favoring his right, front paw. When we tried to see if he got glass in it or something, he would collapse and begin to howl and scream. Extremely worried, we rushed him off to the nearest veterinary clinic. We were very lucky to find one in the next town over. They were closed, but the secretary who happened to be there called the vet in. He looked him over, and to our surprise, Damascus was beginning to act a lot better. A few hours later, you would have never know he was hurt. Next time, we'll save the $40 and wait another hour or so before we bring him in. I mean, I'm really happy there was nothing wrong with him, but $40 on a strict budget is a rough plunge. I'm glad we had the peace of mind from it. Now we know he's just a cry baby, and we'll wait a bit longer next time.

Right after the vet's office, we went to the gas station, only to find the contents of our transmission spilling out all over the ground. By some stroke of luck, there were 4 different mechanics within a ¼ mile of each other right there in town. We found out the front seal on our transmission was wearing out, and was the culprit for the continuous stream of fluid we were leaving behind on the road like a trail of breadcrumbs. Enraged and hungry, we quickly had a bite to eat at Dip Sea. We split a pulled pork quesadilla, and it was sooooooooooo yummyyyy!!! It was a nice break from the mess we had to figure out.

I don't know how we thought this would be the best idea, but we got in our car and drove to the last hippie town in the world, Bolinas, CA. They took all the road signs down to prevent many travelers from coming in. We were tipped off about this place from Gina, Steven's girlfriend who we ate breakfast with the prior morning. It certainly was a gem! The bar, Smiley's, was really cool. The town had a really different feel to it. The community was really the best example of the term. Everyone was willing to go out of their way to help the other. We learned this after sharing about our car troubles. Some locals hooked us up with the local mechanic, who ended up looking at our car, confirming that it was the problematic front seal, and giving us a bunch of really good advice. For Free. It really is a wonderful community!

We spent the night in a park in our car. It was cold, and I was petrified the whole night. Scenarios of horrific content flashed through my head. I watched in the third person as the door I was leaning on was ripped open, and some ravenous creature pulled me by my hair off into the woods to eat me slowly and painfully. It was something like a scene from the movie Paranormal Activity. I know it sounds silly, but you try sleeping in a creepy corner of a parking lot in unfamiliar woods.

*shivers*

01/05/11 Bolinas, CA - Fort Bragg, CA

Knock Knock Knock

“Park Ranger! Open up!”

Ugggggggggggggghhhhhhhh. Not good. It was 7:30AM, and the park ranger was knocking at our windows. Turns out, we were illegally camping (in a car?) in the parking lot of a national park. The fee? $120. By another stroke of amazing luck (and probably some brownie points for cooperating with the ranger), he told us that if we could be packed up and off the lot in 10 mins, that he would let us go. WOOOOOOOOO! We were out of there almost immediately. No night in the car is worth paying $120 for.

We later ended up in the very quaint, very rich Petaluma, CA. We walked around town a bit, and visited a Seed Bank and McNear's for lunch. The Seed Bank was in an actual bank building, which was really, really cool! We stayed quite a while in McNear's using their wi-fi and admiring the decorations. Lunch was tasty, and the weather was warm.

The drive thereafter lead us through wine country. And, of course, I had to stop for a tasting! Roederer Estate was one of many fancy wineries with a room open for tasting. $6 got me samples of about 8 different wines, and all were delicious! They specialized in sparkling wines, which I have not had much experience in tasting. It was a special treat!

We crashed at a hotel in the coastal town of Fort Bragg that night. That is, after we enjoyed some gourmet pizza. So, the pizzeria pizza here is no good, but these people had it right for this gourmet stuff! And the draft root beer, a weakness of mine, was also scrumptious! Yum, yum, yum!

I tried really hard to blog and update pics when we got back to the hotel, but I was too tired to care about anything but sleeping – in a bed – . Hotels are oh-so-lovely and appreciated after sleeping in a car.

And something for you about sleeping in cars: It was not because we're dirty poor. We're simply saving money to prolong our amazing trip, and allow for more amazing meals. A hotel is a hotel just about anywhere. But the food and many other conscious experiences? I really don't mind a night in a car so I can have them. It's a pain, but it's worth it!

01/03/11 - San Francisco, CA

When we got into San Francisco, we went straight for the Twin Peaks for the best view of the city. If you ever visit, you MUST check this spot out! You can see e v e r y t h i n g !! After that, Arlo and I found this really nice dog park for Damascus. It was probably the most beautiful dog park ever, minus the fact that it was pretty muddy. Later, we hit Fisherman's Wharf for some seafood (delicious!), the Antique Arcade, and China Town. All were very cool, very unique places. This city is so alive and exciting! Do not let your life pass by without experiencing the West Coast (if you live in the East).

Visiting Abby was so good for the soul! It had been many years since I had last seen her, but she still feels like my best friend!!! It's amazing how many years can pass by, but we still have so much to talk about. I challenge the few of you that might read this blog to reconnect with an old friend. Have some drinks. Have dinner. Talk on the phone. Reminisce! It's so refreshing.

That night, we had some tacos and Corona's at this great Mexican place. The West Coast can't make pizza, but it can make one hell of a taco! Good friends, good food, good drinks, and all in a great city. Who could ask for more?

01/03/11 Sacramento, CA – San Francisco, CA

I'm feeling a little less tired today, but still not quite up to speed. Arlo and I went to breakfast with Arlo's internet friend, Steven, and his gf Gina. They were so funny and nice! Steven is someone that Arlo talks to/plays games with on the internet a lot. The Granite Rock Grill was delicious and had huge portions. It was a very pleasant breakfast!

Now we're on our way to San Francisco. We have a lot of great stuff planned for the day, and then we're spending the night at my friend Abby's place! I haven't seen her since I was like, 14. It's going to be awesome!

GREEN. EVERYTHING IS GREEN! I love it!

01/01-01/02

01/01/11 Moab, UT – Salt Lake City, UT

Happy New Year Everyone!

The Lazy Lizard Hostel was pretty cool. As far as hostels go, Arlo said this was the cheapest and best quality hostel he has seen. And he has seen his fair share along the Appalachian Trail. We got a cabin for $26, and although it was pretty cold, it was clean and quaint. While making breakfast in the kitchen the next morning, I met a very nice man named Cameron. We chatted about music, mandolins, snowboarding, ski lodges, education, and other things. He was visiting from Salt Lake City with his kids, and gave us some advice on the area, as that's where we were going (but actually just passed through). I wish we had been staying at more hostels so we could meet more down-to-earth people like him.

As of right now, we are in transit to Salt Lake City, and 7,400 feet above sea level. It seems I could point my camera almost anywhere and end up seeing something amazing and majestic through my lens. Today, we drove through Arches National Park. I took many, many pictures on three different cameras. It'll take me a few days to get them organized and uploaded. I reaallllyyyyy wanted to see a big horned sheep, but it didn't happen. =( The whole park was another world. I don't think I've seen many things more beautiful. We spent most of the day there, and set off for Salt Lake at about 5:30pm. The road has been cold, mountainous, and eerie. The mountains in this range (I'm not sure which it is) are different from others I've seen so far. Instead of having a big base with a gradual slope, they have almost a vertical face, and I'm pretty sure it's natural. What makes them eerie is that we're driving at night. We'll be put-putting along, and see an unknown figure that looks like a cloud. And then the realization came that it was actually a mountain, and we were almost right at the base of it. They were almost intimidating, creeping up on us like that! I kind of wish I had been able to see them in daylight, but it was kind of a cool experience at night.

We're getting very antsy on this trip. We love traveling, but we really want a place to call home... at least for a little while. It's difficult to ration out our money per day to make sure we have enough at the end of this to get an apartment. Each town has it's own way of enticing us to reach into our pockets and indulge. It's hard to choose which experiences to follow through with and which to pass by, especially when they all look so amazing. We can only hope we get the chance to come back again to experience all the things we missed out on.

Good life.

01/02/11 Moab, UT – Sacramento, CA

I'm going to preface this entry with a warning. I have a lot to write for today, as I only slept for about 2.5 hours of it. I t I s L o n g .

Yes, we made the 880 mile trek straight through the night instead of going to Salt Lake City. We left Moab, UT at 5:30pm, and it took us about 16 hours of straight driving to get to Sacramento. We weren't getting much love from the Utah or Colorado couchsurfing crowd. I think it was because of the holidays. Several potential hosts responded, saying they were out of town. We decided the best way to offset the money spent on hotels and hostels was to skip the rest of the westward travel chunk up until Sacramento, CA.

Ok, so the drive was long and tiresome. Somewhere along the way in Utah, we stopped at a Target to get a gallon of water. When I walked in, it was the strangest feeling of de-jah-vu. This store was set up exactly like the one in Phillipsburg. I walked down the isles feeling as if I was back on the East Coast. Weeeeiirddd! I quickly bought the water and walked out.

I slept for an hour or two very lightly. I started driving about halfway through Utah. Arlo was telling me he saw oceans on either side of the car while he was driving, and I thought he must have been going crazy from the driving. But we looked at our atlas, and there's some sort of very shallow water basin in the winter that surrounds I-80. It was pretty cool.

As soon as we passed the Nevada border, we were blinded by casino lights. If there's the slightest excuse to have a casino anywhere in Nevada, there will be one there. We saw at least one (there were usually 2 or more) at every truck stop and every town, both large and small. We knew we were coming up on a casino miles before we got there from the glow that loomed over each one. And they were especially noticeable in the rear view.

The desert is a lonely place to drive through. The towns, and more scary, the gas stations, are few and far between. I did a lot of thinking, and listed to NPR pod casts from This American Life. It's always really interesting, and a great way to reduce the monotony of a long car ride.

Living in the NJ-PA area all my life, I rarely got to experience the stars like someone in the country might. The relative closeness of bright, major cities drowns out a lot of star-light, making it somewhat less of an amazing phenomenon to look at. The Nevada desert, with very few inhabited areas, was perfect for stargazing. I even saw a shooting star! I was tempted to stop the car and lay on the hood for a while, but I was also committed to putting in miles. I'm sure it won't be the last time I'm in an area remote enough to get a similar experience.

I know it was in the middle of the night, but I really wanted to see some wildlife. For the whole 5 hours of driving, the only animal I saw was a little mouse scurrying across the road. At one time, I saw something big and white fly kind of close to the car overhead. But I have no idea what it was. Perhaps a UFO? Who knows?

Arlo took over driving again at 4:00am, and I conked out in the passenger seat inside a sleeping bag. I woke up a few hours later in California. The snow was the deepest I had seen yet! It was taller than our car. On the way up, we found the PCT (Pacific Crest Trail)! Arlo was stoked, as he wants to tackle this trail next. We had to go into something called a Sno-Park. If you ever happen to see one of these signs, YOU MUST GO! It lead us to a winter wonderland with snow 8ft high on both sides of the road. I think we spent about an hour there playing and taking pictures. I've never seen so much snow in my life!

Before leaving the mountains, we stopped in a quaint town called Dutch Flat for breakfast. It was absolutely adorable! The food was great, too. There is so much history in that town. And everyone was very friendly!

I slept the rest of the way to Sacramento. We spent lots of time admiring the lush, green grass, and researching prices for hotels and hostels. Hostels are usually much cheaper than hotels, but here in the Sacramento - San Francisco area, the only difference between the two words is the addition of the letter “s”.

We ate dinner at a buffet, and went to a hotel afterward. While we were in the parking lot, Arlo got a call from one of the couchsurfing ambassadors for the area, and he said that he found someone to host us for the night. Aawwwwweeesomeeee! We got there at about 8:30pm, and we got to meet a few of our host's (Jeff and Lindsey) friends. Damascus disappeared for 2 seconds, and then we found him peeing on their Christmas tree. O. m. g. I can't believe he did that! Amazingly, Lindsey and everyone else thought it was funny. We truly had fantastic hosts! The drinking started a little later, and Arlo and I were in bed before they started playing Edward-40-Hands.

So Tired.