March 8th, 2012 (Road trip) in "Waiting for my Petrichor"

Well we left early morning February 28th and drove straight to my Aunt Louise's in Phoenix, AZ. It was so nice to see her because I had not seen her since I was 15 years old. Her husband, Uncle Wes had passed away a few years ago and I was unable to attend his funeral. It was weird being there and him not being around. They were such a great couple. We picked oranges in the front yard and she got a kick out of Jasper and kept saying she was going to keep him there with her. She was so funny and was cracking up Dave and I over little things. Like she was telling us about this wonderful Chinese restaurant down the street that she loved and how they had this special chicken that was called Orange chicken and we just had to try it. I just pretended I had never heard of it and told her we would go get it for her. She looked up the name and she was like it is called "Panda Express" haha so we went over and got food for all of us and brought some back for her because she can't really leave the house since she gets so dizzy all the time. We were talking about stories of me, Kyle and Jennifer growing up and she kept getting teary eyed and I wanted to cry because she would talk about how she missed the old times and how fast time went by and how much she missed Wes. Around 5 we headed out because we had a long drive north to the Grand Canyon. It was a beautiful drive and it was actually freezing cold! There was snow on the ground in Grand Canyon and we stayed at a cute inn. The next morning we woke up and it was 16 degrees! The Grand Canyon was so amazing!! Pictures do not do justice at all. We had a fun time and I am glad Jappy got to explore it as well! Then we were off to New Mexico. We were going to go to Roswell, but it was so far off our route we decided to skip it. We ate dinner at Sonic, it was my first time having it and it was actually pretty good. We ended up eating that quite often because they are everywhere and we couldn't go inside a sit-down restaurant since we had Jasper. Albuquerque was so UGLY and ghetto. I would never want to live there. Or even go there again. We drove all the way to Amarillo TX which was a shithole of course, but we stayed at a cheap motel and left early the next morning. Finally we were in Oklahoma, which wasn't the most awesome place, but a whole lot better than Texas. I got a bunch of postcards from different places and have been sending a lot of them to PC people and friends. Next we were in Arkansas and I really liked it there. I read about this place called Fort Smith and it seemed like a really nice quaint place so I was excited to get there. Once we got there, there was like NO place that had outdoor seating, so we couldn't go have food and a beer since we had Jasper so that was annoying. We ended up buying over-priced beer at a liquor store and not even drinking it because it tasted really weird like it was stale or something. We just went to bed early and decided to do our exploring the next day. We headed downtown which was this historical area which attracts a lot of tourists, but the place was practically deserted. I know it is "off-season", but still. Most things advertised year-round. This one area was so weird. It had like an old carousel, a bus full of dummies that apparently sold snow-cones and popcorn at one point, and a dinner that was converted from an old train or something. There was this spiral staircase leading to nowhere with a sign that said employees only, yet there were no employees around. The only thing that made it seem "open" was the fact they were playing really loud contemporary music like the Fray or something. It was just odd. We explored a lot of antique shops and saw a lot of old civil war memorabilia. There were so many old houses with beautiful architecture and it was definitely a big change from the west coast! Next we headed over to Memphis, TN! Our original plan was to visit Johnny Boy in Alabama, especially since we didn't get to do much visiting with him while he was down which really sucks because he is my all time favorite uncle and I really never get to see him. And of course we couldn't make it down to AL because of all the stupid tornadoes! We even were stuck in Memphis for a night, unplanned, because their were really weird storms in Nashville. The next day the storm had lifted so we drove straight through TN (which feels like the longest state ever) and we entered Virginia! We stayed in Harrisonburg at this REALLY nice hotel. I really liked that town because everyone was really nice and we met a lot of helpful people. I visited the downtown area and saw these weird fraternity/sorority houses which were a part of James Madison University, a really huge beautiful college. Then we headed to DC! DC was really crazy. I liked the Arlington National Cemetery, and it was really neat to see the JFK eternal flame and the unknown soldier's tomb! We walked around the back lawn of the white house and all these cops and security people were waving at everyone to get off the sidewalk and move to the other side. Then these fancy all black cars came through and everyone was like omg the president is coming out. All of a sudden we look over towards the white house and we see the whole Obama family running around outside playing with their dog Bo! It was so awesome! They went inside, so we all dispersed and Dave and I headed to the mall area and saw the Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial, and WW2 Memorial, which I didn't realize Bush had commissioned back in 04! It was really nice to finally see all of that stuff, but I don't think I would visit again. Too hectic for me! After that we headed through Maryland and then arrived in Pennsylvania! It was a vast different and I immediately felt "at home" there with the rolling hills, farmland and beautiful skies! It was so nice! We went to "amish land" Lancaster County! We arrived when it was dark so we were kind of confused at where the Amish part was. To us it was just a bunch of hotels and fast food joints. We searched everywhere for a frikin place that would allow dogs without a ridiculous pet fee. One place wanted 75 bucks JUST for the pet fee. It took us two hours and we were ready to just say fuck it and Dave was going to drive through the night until we got to Massachusetts, but finally I found a place that was cheap and only a 15 pet fee. Of course the place was seriously disgusting. The water would not drain in the shower so the dude at the front desk gave me a plunger to fix it. It didn't work and I just felt like I was getting germs from the plunger into the water that wouldn't drain. We were really happy to wake up and leave that place! But we were also glad we stayed in Lancaster because day time brought us a better glimpse of the town! It was really cool. We went on an Amish tour and learned a lot about the culture and way of life. It was pretty interesting! During the tour, we looked out the window at Target next door and saw a group of them heading inside. I never knew they shopped at corporations, but apparently they are a lot more modern than I had thought, even the Old Order. The Old Order is just different than the Mennonites because of their stricter rules inside the house, way of dress, etc. When we headed out of the main town we drove down a really long road and there were just farms everywhere and you could tell they were all Amish because they had their clothes hanging out on a line and a buggy in the driveway! It was so awesome to be so close to a culture I have been fond of for so long! Before I knew it we were in New Jersey on the turnpike and it was really ugly. The whole turnpike I guess is gross and don't think about pulling off to buy food or anything because it is so expensive. Oh, and just driving through NJ and NY cost us 22 bucks because of all the stupid toll fees! It was ridiculous! When we got to NY you can look out over the fields and see the entire NYC landscape. It was so long! I never knew NY was seriously that huge. It was nice to see from a distance, but I am glad we didn't actually go into the city because that would have been way too intense. Maybe one day on a train, but I would never want to drive through that. Then we entered the Bronx and it was pretty ghetto. There are apartments right on the overpasses and when you look up you just see barred windows on like 20 story buildings. I can't believe how many apartment buildings are in that area. So many people live there it is insane. I was happy when we entered Connecticut and then Rhode Island. It was a much prettier drive. The sun was starting to set and finally we entered Massachusetts! We passed Boston, but you drive underneath it so I didn't actually get to see much of it besides the tall buildings and cool bridge at the end. It made me claustrophobic going through that long tunnels, and it is another city I would not want to bring a car into. I am excited to explore the area by train during the day! Then we got on this highway called HWY 1 and it was seriously scary. It would be like if foothill was a highway and people were just pulling in and out of places and straight onto the highway without on/off ramps and people DO NOT slow down for merging cars so it was crazy. You have to pull off super fast and hope your car gets to 60 before the car behind you rams into you. Then we got into Salem and the streets are so curvy and nothing seems in order. Cars will come out of nowhere and I was getting so carsick not knowing where I was. FINALLY we got to his moms house and it was a nice area. The house is cute, but really old when it comes to things like hot water and heat. For instance, they use a stove to heat the house so when you wake up it is about 30 degrees. I went to take a shower and there was no hot water left so you can imagine how cold that shower was. My toes and lips were purple! I need to plan when to take a shower better from now on. Anyway, so far I am just trying to adjust to this area because it is A LOT different from Washington and it just doesn't feel "like home" the way WA does. . .