Saturday September 1st:
After our plans changed on Friday, we decided that the best thing for both of us was to sleep until we woke up. We thought that being well-rested for the days of driving ahead was better than being on a strict schedule. Being we stayed at the Embassy Suites in Temecula the first night, we had a great made-to-order breakfast the next morning to fill us up. We had omelettes, bacon, eggs, sausage, muffins and fruit to load up on. I must say, it was a hearty breakfast! We packed up tour stuff in the hotel, and were on the road at 8:03 am, PST. Robbie drove the first portion, from Temecula to Phoenix. We also stopped in between in a city called Blythe, which is right on the border of California and Arizona. We stopped to fill up on the cheap Arizona gas! In Phoenix is where we ate lunch (at Culver's) and switched drivers. I drove the second shift of the day, from Phoenix, up to Flagstaff, and across to New Mexico. We knew at this point we weren't going to make it all the way to Albuquerque by nightfall. Just into New Mexico is a town called Gallup, and we decided to stop there for the night.
On the road at 8:03 am PST!!
Leaving Southern California in our rear-view mirror!
Good-bye California and Hello Arizona!
The river into Arizona!
Robbie's portion of the drive from CA to AZ was nothing new to us, as we had driven that several times before, but everything after Phoenix was brand new to us. The first of the few interesting things we saw along our drive was in Phoenix. Alongside the freeway was an old abandoned amusement park, and llamas were out roaming free in it. I almost had to do a double-take! After I took over, the drive Phoenix to Flagstaff was beautiful! The landscape completely changed from arid desert to lush greenery and hills. The drive from Phoenix to Flagstaff is also where we ran into our first traffic of the roadtrip. When we stopped for lunch, it was about 1:30 pm PST, so people were still on their way to their Labor Day Weekend fun, and anyone in their right mind would want to head up north to beautiful and much cooler Flagstaff. The traffic lasted for about 15 miles, and during that 15 miles we were probably averaging a speed of 10mph. It was slightly frustrating being I just wanted fly on that freeway! It was also on this stretch that we received a call from 1-800-PACKRAT. They advised that they were getting calls from our HOA because one of our neighbors was complaining about how our container was breaking the pavers in our shared driveway/court in Temecula. First of all, we didn't stress about this at all because 1) the container was on the street, and 2), we knew exactly who this neighbor was, and he complained about EVERYTHING! We were both sure he was just pissed that the labor movers were noisy a bit after our HOA Quiet Hours the night before and he wanted to make it known. We assured 1-800-PACKRAT that everything was up to code and to ignore the complaints. About an hour later we got confirmation that the container had been picked up without an issue! Yay! After Flagstaff, we started on I-40 east, and we were going to be on that for a long time, until Oklahoma City! Driving through the eastern part of AZ was much like driving through the western part, flat and boring. But, at least traffic was free-flowing! In fact, traffic on the I-40 was almost non-existant at this time. I set my cruise and went on my merry way. At some point in Eastern Arizona, I looked in my rear-view mirror and saw a bunch of wispy clouds behind me, and one took form of an angel. I couldn't help but think that my dad was watching over us on our big move across the county! Thank you for keeping us safe! We could definitely tell when we crossed the border into New Mexico. The landscape changed from flat and boring to 'plateau city!' It was very pretty, specially with the setting sun bouncing off the sides of the plateaus! Western New Mexico also started the train brigade! On this night only, we had to have seen 4 different trains, and that was only for 20 miles! I was worried that New Mexico was going to be boring, but it started out just the opposite. When we knew we would be stopping in Gallup for the night, Robbie made a reservation at the Hilton Garden Inn just off the freeway. We checked in around 8:00 pm MST, and we realized we hadn't eaten yet! Luckily this hotel had room service, so we ordered, and it was some of the best room service meals we had ever eaten! We were definitely full after eating our feast! We pretty much just tried to relax and get to sleep early for much of the same tomorrow.
Driving north in Arizona, much prettier landscape!
Flagstaff!
The wispy clouds where I saw the guardian angel (not these specific formations, but much like it)!
Crossing into Mountain Time Officially! Hello New Mexico!
The start of "Plateau City!"
The trains had a beautiful backdrop!
Sunday September 2nd:
After our wonderful room service on Saturday night in Gallup, we were hoping they did a breakfast, but alas, no luck. They did have a restaurant on property that served breakfast, but it was ridiculously over-priced for the type of food that was on the menu. We decided to hit up a gas station for some breakfast donuts and apple fritters! I took the first shift of driving for the day, which meant I was going to be driving all the way through New Mexico! Cool! Shortly into our drive on Sunday, we crossed the Continental Divide, too! Later, we stopped in Albuquerque to a McDonald's in hopes to get an early lunch. We pulled in right at 10:30am MST, right when they would be starting to serve burgers. Come to find out, they don't start serving lunch items until 12:30 pm! I've never heard of a McDonald's starting their burger service so late! Bummer! So, we went across the street and tried our hand at a brand new fast food place called Church's Chicken. We went through the drive-thru, and all they had on their menu was chicken. Let me just say, I would drive back to Albuquerque for another one of those chicken sandwiches I ate! It was so delicious, and it satisfied my cravings for sure! The gal working the window, though, was another story. I swear they found her that morning off the street and had no one teaching her the ropes. Robbie ordered a meal deal, which normally comes with a drink and fries. When we got to the window to pick up our food, the lady only gave him the entree without the fries or drink. When Robbie asked for the other items, she was like, "oh, you didn't specify if you wanted fries and a drink." Haha, he ordered a meal deal! Oh man! Other than that, Albuquerque was a beautiful city to drive through, and super clean! As we curved through the roads of downtown, there was pretty architecture all over the place. Eastern New Mexico unfortunately wasn't as pretty as the western part of the state. If any of you have seen the show "Breaking Bad," now I understand how they could die in the NM desert without anyone finding them! There was a whole lot of nothing! One takeaway, though, from NM, they loved their Indian Art, and they made sure everyone on the I-40 East knew about it. The same billboards flashed every 5 miles advertising for the same store selling the same jewelry/art! We knew for sure that we were in Navajo country! We ended up stopping in a city called Tucumcari, NM to get gas and switch drivers. Robbie drove from just west of the Texas border all the way to Tulsa!
The Continental Divide!
I know the Dixie Chicks sang about Wide Open Spaces. Eastern New Mexico must've been their inspiration!
Adios New Mexico!
It was during this day that we made up for lost time on Friday. As we were driving through the panhandle of Texas, there is a restaurant called "The Big Texan" right along I-40 that we were going to stop and eat at for lunch on Sunday. When I was on a 4-H Exchange Trip to Kansas, we went there to eat, and that is where I had Rocky Mountain Oysters for the first time, except, I had no idea what I was actually eating! Not a funny joke! But, being our plans were altered at the beginning of our road-trip, we decided against stopping there, and instead to make up for lost time. With this decision, we were now back on track! After Amarillo, we came across the Leaning Tower of Texas. It was only a water tower, but it was leaning to one side. It was even verified by Google. Very weird. Also in Texas, there was a huge cross next to a church. We are talking probably 100 ft. tall, and we could see it for a few miles. We came across the same thing in Indiana, too! We made it through Texas in record time, and entered into Oklahoma! Oklahoma is where we got our first drops of rain, and it was only a light sprinkle. But, off in the distance we could see a big storm cloud, and a rainbow, too! Oklahoma is what you would expect. A lot of farm land, hay bales, flat land, and cattle! When we were about an hour west of Oklahoma City, I found a place to eat, a Wendy's just off the freeway and just west of OKC in a city called Yukon. What I didn't know when I found that Wendy's however, was that it was on a road called Garth Brooks Blvd! It was kismet! Garth Brooks is my favorite Country music singer, so it was perfect that we found this road in the middle of our cross-country trek! When we stopped at Wendy's, we wanted to get our food to go from inside, so we could wash up and use the bathroom. The service was super slow at this establishment! We were the 2nd one's in line to order, and we didn't get our food for 20 minutes! And there was only 1 other person behind us as well! In the middle of waiting, all of us were kind of looking at each other like, "what the heck." The gal behind the register then said, "it's a lot harder than it looks." We all just chuckled after that! Haha! After dinner, I found a place to rest our heads for the night, the Embassy Suites in Tulsa, just off the freeway. The drive between OKC and Tulsa was tricky. It had gotten dark and there was roadwork on the freeway for about 10 miles, and there were cement barricades on either side of the car. I'm glad I was in good hands and Robbie was behind the wheel. I would not have been comfortable driving through that. That evening, we got settled into our room around 9:15 pm CST and hit the hay!
Hello Texas! And Hello Central Time Zone!
The Leaning Tower of Texas. No joke!
The big giant cross. Everything IS bigger in Texas!
Hello Oklahoma!
We saw lots of cattle!
Monday September 3rd:
Today was the day we get to Cincinnati! On this day I remember it feeling more real! We again had a great made-to-order breakfast, and we were on the road by 8:45am. I again took the first driving shift of the day, taking us through the rest of Oklahoma and to St. Louis, MO. The drive through the rest of Oklahoma was super easy! When we crossed into Missouri is when we ran into traffic, most likely people going home from their Labor Day Weekends in the Ozarks is what we assumed. Not only was there a lot of traffic, the freeway through Missouri was super windy. There would be pockets of traffic, then it would start flowing again, and that happened around 3 or 4 different times. By the time we stopped for lunch and gas in St. Louis, I was exhausted. One interesting thing to note on this portion of the drive was that we finally finished the Alphabet Game! We started playing the Alphabet game just outside of Temecula, and it took us until Missouri to get that elusive letter X. There wasn't much in the way of billboards through the California desert, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma. I was driving and all the sudden Robbie was like, "an X, right there!" He eventually won that game, but we played the best of 3, and I ended up winning the series. Also during that portion of the drive, we played "Countries of the World Alphabet Game." This version took it to the next level where we had to think of different countries that started with letters in alphabetical order. That required more thought. We also played a geography game where one person would say a country, and the other person would have to think of a country that starts with the last letter of what the first person listed. For example, I would start with the country of Spain, and Robbie would have to think of a country that starts with the letter N. This went on for a good amount of time and it was really fun! Eventually I had to stop playing and focus on all the traffic.
Hello Missouri! My least favorite state!
The Mississippi River
St. Louis marked the last time we stopped before our final destination of Cincinnati! Robbie drove this last portion of the trip. As we crossed over into Illinois, the landscape started to look more familiar to midwestern living! We saw lots of farms and cornfields! It was also in Illinois that we watched the Brewers beat their nemesis, the Chicago Cubs. It was a thrilling come-from-behind 4-3 win, as the Brewers walked it off! Fitting that this happened as we were driving through Illinois! It was very exciting when we reached Indianapolis and we started seeing signs for the Cincinnati freeway exits! I was very emotional at this time because I just thought about all we did to make this happen! All the packing, all the logistics, all the driving, and now finally we were close! It was just an hour and a half drive from Indianapolis to Cincinnati, but it felt like a longer stretch. Both of us just wanted to get there! Just north of Cincinnati we ran into a bit of roadwork that lasted about 13 miles, and it was much like the same as the roadwork in Oklahoma, except this time it was still light outside!
Hello Illinois!
We saw cornfields for the first time in Illinois. I'm sure not a lot of people in CA knew what the phrase "knee high by the 4th of July" meant!
Hello Indiana! And Hello to our newly adopted Eastern Time Zone!
Definitely keeping right!
Throughout our road-trip, I had taken a picture of each State Welcome Sign when we entered a new state, as I'm sure you've noticed above. The Welcome To Ohio sign was the most important one for obvious reasons. When we were approaching the Ohio border, it had turned dark, which made it harder to get a picture, plus I didn't know where the sign would be (on the side of the road, above the road, etc). The Welcome to Ohio sign literally came out of nowhere all the sudden. I ended up getting a picture but it turned out really blurry. At first I was a little mad that it didn't turn out clear, but then I actually enjoyed the fact that it turned out blurry, because that is how the past 2-3 weeks have felt to us, including this cross-country drive. I was going to go back and take a clear picture, but then decided against it. The blurry picture will always be the original, and I'm just fine with that!
The city if Cincinnati is right on the border of both Indiana and Kentucky, so after we crossed the border into Ohio, we were pretty much here, we just had to navigate our way to our hotel, the Drury Inn, where it all began. We ended up staying at the Drury Inn on our first trip to visit Cincinnati to tour the city. We loved everything from the food they offered (a hot breakfast each morning and a full dinner every night), to the staff (we had a faulty air conditioner in our first room, so the GM himself upgraded us and moved us to a different room), and to the facilities (the hotel had an indoor/outdoor pool and hot tub)! We ended up becoming Drury Inn and Suites members, and plus, they have many locations across the midwest! So, when we stayed there the first time, we made a reservation right then and there for this date, when we rolled into town as residents! When we checked in, the gal at the front desk recognized us, and the next morning when we were eating breakfast, the GM even recognized us! Also, the gal who made our reservation knew us, too! Great hospitality all around!
We got into our room shortly after 9pm EST, and we had enough time for a few minutes to relax in the hot tub, since the pool didn't close until 10pm. After the hot tub, we ordered a pizza and happily went to bed in our new city! It was so nice to sleep in on Tuesday morning and not have to drive 10 hours that day! All we had to do was drive to our apartment sometime that day! We actually got a call that morning from the car transport company saying they were ready to deliver our car that day. So we ended up leaving the hotel for our apartment at around 10am, and that was it! We had made it to our destination with minimal hiccups along the way!
Making a big move from CA to OH puts a lot on your plate, but actually getting there is a whole other animal. We were both looking forward to the drive because that meant all the packing was done and all we needed to do was drive there! This drive was a whole day longer than what our move from Minneapolis to Las Vegas was 7 years ago! It turned out to be a great road-trip, though. We even brought some 90's nostalgia with us! We listened to the whole N'SYNC and Justin Timberlake catalog at Robbie's request on Saturday, and the full Backstreet Boys catalog on Sunday at my request! The long drive didn't seem so long at the end of it!
Below are some driving statistics we kept track of:
-Days of driving: 3
-Time Zones: 4
-States crossed: 9
-Hours driven: 32
-Counties crossed: 65
-Miles driven: 2,127
-Counties crossed in each state: OK with 13, IN with 12, MO with 11, NM with 7, TX with 7, IL with 7, AZ with 6, CA with 1, and OH with 1
-Our route from Temecula, CA to the Drury Inn and Suites in Cincinnati: I-15 North, I-215 North, CA-60 East, I-10 East into Arizona, AZ-303 North, Lake Pleasant Pkwy/New River Rd (to avoid traffic in Phoenix), I-17 North, I-40 East into New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma, I-44 East to Tulsa, then into Missouri, I-55 North into Illinois and crossing the Mississippi River, I-70 East and crossing into Indiana, I-465 loop in Indianapolis, I-74 East towards Cincinnati and crossing into Ohio, I-275 North, I-75 South
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