Little Rock: not worth it

April 23

On the road again, but this time to Little Rock, AR. Another fun-filled eight hour drive through middle America. Luckily for us we avoided all the fires that were ravaging Texas, but there were crazy tornado and storm warnings in Arkansas. Roomie and I were both running on about three hours of sleep so when we weren’t driving we tried to take a nap. It turns out though that when your car is so full of stuff, you can’t lean the seat back even a little bit, it’s hard to sleep, so neither of us were really rested. The scenery was beautiful; lots of lush trees and shrubbery in varying shades of green. We were staying with a friend from college and he lives in Conway which is a tiny town outside Little Rock. As we were getting ready to go out in the oh-so thrilling city of Little Rock, I started to not feel so well. I figured I just had a headache from all the driving and lack of sleep, but then on the way to the city I started to feel nauseous. I realized that I had a migraine. For anyone who has never had a migraine, you are so lucky because they are horrible, awful things. So instead of hanging out with the delightful people of Little Rock, I spent the night lying in the back of our friend’s car while everyone else had fun. We finally went back to the house and I fell asleep without talking to or meeting anyone. Roomie informed me the next day that Little Rock is pretty boring so I took comfort in the fact that I didn’t really miss anything.

Austin is awesome!

April 21-22

Finally we left early for a drive, Austin bound! A long day of driving across west Texas, but we were no longer in the desert, now we were in a plains-state. The scenery was beautiful and there were tons of cows grazing. We stopped once to take our obligatory picture by the Texas state sign, got lost trying to find the hotel, but we finally arrived. We were super tired, but we pushed ourselves to go out and we were so happy that we did! The hotel had a shuttle service that dropped us off on 6^th Street which is where all the night life is. It was so amazing! The city blocks off the street so cars can’t drive down it and people just walk in and out of bars and down the street. There are food carts and other places to eat, everything a drunk person could want!

There are promoters all around like Vegas and we got wrangled into the first bar by the offer of a free drink. We quickly learned why this bar had a promoter; it was empty. We had our drink and left. The second bar we went in to was called The Library and it was pretty cool and way more populated than the first. There was an enormous faux book case behind the bar and an upstairs area with lots of places to sit. We had a couple drinks there and migrated to the next bar that had a deck area outside upstairs. We had a pretty awesome view of all the drunk people stumbling around below. They were mostly college kids but we couldn’t believe all the guys in polos/button downs, khaki shorts and boat shoes. Rommie was upset that there were no cowboys in sight. We hung out there for awhile, talked to some guys, then left because we were really hungry. We stopped at one of the pizza stands on the street and had the best pizza of my life! We then had to find a cab. We wandered around for about half an hour and FINALLY found one. We had to beat some guys out of it, but we finally got a ride back to the hotel.

The next day we slept until 11am, which felt amazing!! We spent the day exploring the city. We had some amazingly delicious bbq at a restaurant called Stubbs. I had a delicious pulled pork bbq sandwich and Roomie had the ribs; both were finger licking good! We asked the waiter what there was to do in Austin, but he wasn’t much help. We did find out that south Congress Street was pretty cool, so we drove down there; it was so hot and humid, we couldn’t bear to walk. It turns out that south Congress is a lot like Berkley in California. There were hipsters walking around everywhere and lots of cute little shops on the streets. Roomie and I got some cold beverages at Jo’s and sat on the patio and people watched.

After a lengthy nap at the hotel we went out again, this time we drove. Our first stop was to get another piece of delicious pizza. The first bar we tried to get into wouldn’t let us in because of our CA ID’s. apparently it’s their “policy” that they don’t allow people with out of state licenses into their “fine” establishment without another piece of ID. Too bad for them because we were ready to give them our money. Instead we went to a place called Maggie Mae’s which had an upper level which was like a regular club with hip hop, but the downstairs had a live band playing. Roomie and I sat down there for most of the night enjoying the music.

We were pretty sad to leave Austin because the city had a really cool vibe. It was really clean and downtown was incredibly easy to navigate. The night life was great and even though there wasn’t much to do in the day, we considered just staying there rather than moving all the way to the East Coast. Responsibility eventually got the better of us and we packed up the car to go. In Dallas, we met one of Roomie’s friends whom she had grown up with. We had a nice lunch in Downtown Dallas (not as awesome as Austin) and I almost got run over by a man in a wheelchair; one of the many “colorful” locals in Dallas. What a way to end our stay in the lively state of Texas!

We're being invaded!

April 20

We started our drive again this time to Roswell. We left late again which was probably a mistake. Driving through the desert is always an enjoyable experience for me. It’s so nostalgic and comforting in a way; most likely because we’d drive through it to get to Grandma and Grandpa’s and to get to El Centro.

As we’re driving, we see all these signs for “The Thing?” (question mark included) and of course we have to stop. So we pull over to this combination gas station/Dairy Queen/desert souvenir shop/The Thing? Exhibit. After buying some gas and post cards, we pay our $1 admission to The Thing? After walking through several rooms of old things (old horse drawn carriages, books, cars, etc) we finally get to the third and final room. Then we exit the third and final room. Nowhere in any of the rooms is there a sign that says “Here is The Thing?” Our only conclusion is that it was an old mummy-looking thing in a plexi-glass case. We’re still not sure though…..

We got to the New Mexico border and took a picture with the “Welcome to New Mexico” sign. As we were standing there, we realized that we didn’t get one with the Arizona sign. Then we turned to go back to the car and we see the Arizona welcome sign on the opposite side of the highway, gleaming in the sunset. Then we get the bright idea to run across all four lanes of the 10 freeway to get a picture with that sign. And we do. And we got our pictures. Mission accomplished. Probably not the brightest thing we’ve done, but it was necessary.

Again I drove the second half of the trip and unfortunately we drove through Ruidoso in the dead of night which is sad because I’ve heard it’s a gorgeous area. Our GPS, Gypsy, took us some screwy route and after getting lost a few times, we finally pulled in to our hotel in Roswell. It was very blustery and pretty cold. Again we were tired and we go into the room and just fell asleep. The next morning at the complimentary breakfast downstairs, the news informed us that there were fire warnings all over Texas, the next leg of our trip, and tornado warnings all over Arkansas. Oh goody!

We packed up the car and drove down the street to the International UFO Museum. Now, Roomie and weren’t quite sure why it was the “International” UFO Museum because we’re not sure who, outside of children on field trips from neighboring cities and tourist who just happen to be in new Mexico, would come to this museum. Most likely idiots like Roomie and I. So we paid our $5 to enter this museum and it was a total waste. It mostly consisted of the same news article over and over again, pictures of people who dug at the site, paintings by people who weren’t even there for the alleged landing, and replicas of the substance that the Roswellian farmer found on his land. Our favorite items though was the “Checklist of Ways to Tell if You’ve Survived an Abduction” and the VHS box of the movie they made about Roswell. Pure gems.

We bought some post cards and Starbucks and got the hell out of Roswell.  

Let the trip begin!

April 19

After an amazingly long day of packing on Monday and a hectic day on Tuesday, we finally left in the evening at 5:30pm; only 7.5 hours late. The car was so packed that we could barely see out the back window. We went to go get our farewell burritos and we got on the freeway. Roomie did the first half of the driving and I did the second. She has a stick shift and she taught me how to drive it only a few days before. I think I did pretty well, I only stalled about five times in one intersection. Apparently I’m a clutch popper.

It was such a relief to get to Grandma and Grandpa’s house in Tucson and sleep in comfy beds. They were so nice to wait up for us because we rolled in at around 1am. We slept in pretty late and went to brunch. I told Roomie that they were really funny people, but she was still surprised at how feisty Grandma was and how silly Grandpa was. It was pretty funny to watch Grandpa, who’s about 6’5”, climb in and out of the back seat of Roomie’s two-door Honda. We did a few other errands with them, but unfortunately had to get on the road. We really wish that we could have stayed two nights with them to relax and enjoy their company, but we had reservations in Roswell to get to. Another eight hour day ahead of us!

The Beginning

I decided in July of 2009 that I wanted to move to the East coast. My parents and I visited there after I graduated college, and I fell in love; particularly with Boston. After getting laid off from the magazine job I loved last May (I majored in Journalism in college) I decided that it was time to put my plan into action. My roommate decided that she needed a life adventure as well and we started planning. It took us a little less than a year, but we finally saved up enough money, grew the courage and started the move.

The first obstacle we had to overcome was how to get all our worldly possessions there. We first considered taking both of our cars and towing our stuff on the back. Well, after we took a look at my Chevy Aveo and her Honda Civic, we decided against it. We then thought of driving a Uhaul truck and towing her car on the back. For awhile, this was the actual plan. We knew it was going to use up all our savings on gas money alone, but we were determined. Roomie then stumbled across a company called ABF that rents out relocation cubes. All you do is jam all your stuff in a tiny cube and they move it for you. It was way cheaper that the Uhaul truck and once we decided to just drive one car, it was going to be way easier.

If you’ve never moved across country before, let me give you some tips:

1)      It is going to take WAY longer than you anticipate. We wanted to leave our apartment at 10am at the latest on Tuesday April 19. However, because we didn’t get all our stuff packed on Monday, we left at 5:30pm.

2)      Have multiple yard sales beforehand. This will help you get rid of all the stuff you don’t need and give you a little extra money.

3)      Get rid of all the stuff you can bear to part with! It will make everything so much easier. Due to lack of space, Roomie and I abandoned our vacuum, toaster, cleaning supplies, and various other seemingly important items in the apartment complex’s laundry room.