Road Trip Experience In Words

I am the type of person that is always up for an adventure. (yeah right) So when Jared told me we had the chance to drive across the country, boy did I jump at that! Not really. I like things planned out. I hate adventures. I hate the unknown. And boy do I hate when things don't work out the way they were planned. Driving across the country didn't sound fun in the first place and it wasn't fun actually doing it! Sure we saw cool things, however the most fun I had on the trip was seeing friends from Pensacola and catching up. For all of your who haven't heard the whole story... in full... no small detail left out... HERE IT IS! :)

Jared and I packed up the cars, cleaned the house, and drove out of Jacksonville last Saturday. Day 1 was a breeze! Really it was. We stopped in Meridian MS to see Siobhan and Jeff. What a great time we had! First things first, Izzy did so very well with Matilda and Makayla. She played with them like they were old friends - well, not old friends. More like the 2 sisters played and Izzy was the referee. But who cares! They had fun. Jeff and Siobhan were so gracious to have us stay at their house for the night. Siobhan is so crafty and handy at decorating, I wish I had her house style. After oo-ing and ah-ing at how nice their house is, we all went out and enjoyed (cough cough cough) Sushi. Mmmmm it was delicious. Okay Okay, I am not telling the truth at all. It was horrible. I was being adventurous (see one of the first sentences above) and it was horrible. I gagged the whole time and almost didn't get the sushi piece down. Everyone else enjoyed the sushi, but I will stick with chicken and cheese. :) After dinner we played Guitar Hero and found out Jared and I do not have hand eye coordination. At least we know we are meant for each other!

Day 2 was quite a long day! GPS Jill said it would take 11 hours, but we thought no way... we can cut a few hours off of that. Nope, it was almost 12 hours. That is way way way too long for me. When we arrived at Shannon's (Kyle is on a secret mission) she was so wonderful to have dinner ready for us! Shannon really made our day to have a nice home cooked meal for us. It was delicious - chicken, cheese, potatoes! Yummmy! We didn't expect Shannon to go through the trouble to make us dinner considering that she is pregnant :) :) :)! It was awesome. Jared and I made sure we had a day to rest after 2 long days of driving. We slept in as much as we could and got ready very slowly. Seeing Shannon and Kyle's house in the daytime was better than at night. Their house is amazing - they have a large backyard and a great recliner :)! After taking our time getting ready for the day, we ventured out to the Oklahoma City Memorial. What a place! I remember hearing on the news about it when I was younger, but seeing the photos and hearing the stories was heartwrenching. We then stopped at an Oklahoma treasure, Braum's for some cheap and delicious ice cream. From there we headed to Erika's (Todd is also on a super hero mission) house to visit with her and Hunter, their one year old son. Their house is so cute! Erika and Todd have added color to their house - which is a big change from builder white - and Erika made curtains for the windows. She is so very talented! Erika has also fallen into motherhood and it seems so natural for her. After a long day or sightseeing amd visiting, the 3 of us returned to Shannon's for the Bachelor finale. How disappointing!

Day 3 of driving is when all the FUN! started. The plan was to drive from Oklahoma to Albuquerque NM from a 9 hour day - that didn't happen! 4 hours from Oklahoma we stopped to get gas and lunch. Jared and I pull out of the gas station and are sitting at a stop light when it turns green. Jared is in front of me and I am thinking... HELLO! It's greeeeen. Goooo! And he doesn't move. Finally he moves to a parking lot, but it was slow going. After a few choice words, Jared tells me his car is broken. At this point I want to cry. He tries his car a few more times, but it doesn't go above 10 mph. I look down the street (2 buildings over) and notice a La Quinta. This has been our hotel of choice because of the no additional fee for pets. Jared calls up GPS Jill and finds out a Chevy dealership is .10 miles away. This must be fate. Jared and I gimp the Trailblazer to the dealership and leave it there for them to look at. If they can find something wrong with it, it is too late to order the part - just our luck. We are stuck in Amarillo TX! Finally we hear from the dealership and they say they couldn't replicate the problem but this is what they think happened - Jared had very little gas in his tank when he filled up and put cold gas into the tank. Because of the cold gas, his fuel pump seized up. Once the gas warmed up there wasn't a problem anymore. The service technician didn't charge us anything for his work, told Jared thank you for what he was doing by serving in the Navy and good luck making it to San Diego. Boy did that come back to bite us.

We finally make it out of Amarillo TX and revamp our next travel plans. We decided to skip Albuquerque since now it was only 3 hours away, and stop in Flagstaff AZ after a full day of driving. There was really nothing to see between OKlahoma and Flagstaff AZ, so it was a boring drive. Oh! We did stop in at the Petrified Forest gift shop and Jared got some petrified wood. FUN! Day 4 of driving was long, but okay... until Jared calls me while driving to inform me that his SERVICE ENGINE SOON light was on. Oh joy! So what do we do I ask? We are now in the middle of podunk. Drive on Jared says, Drive on! We can make it! Jared tells me the problem is related to yesterday and that it was just now throwing the code. Okay. Whatever that means. We FINALLY make it to Flagstaff without any other incident besides the light. Our first stop is to an Autozone to have them read the code so Jared knows exactly what his little car needs now. (If it ain't broke, don't fix it. If it is broke, let the professionals fix it! Can you tell I am a little bitter about Jared's car breaking?? I mean it also broke a month before we left Jacksonville... I say scrap that sucker! I will pay YOu $5 to take it from us!) The Autozone people tell Jared what the code is and now it is the engine thermostat. Oh brother! Jared bought a thermostat JUST IN CASE and cleared the code out so the light disappeared.

Day 5 of driving... we are on day five, correct?! I've lost track. We are headed to Las Vegas!! WOOO HOOO!! Driving...Driving... nothing happening... Driving... Driving... HOOVER DAM! Woo. Something interesting to look at. We stop at the Hoover Dam overlook to take some pictures and admire the work on the new bridge. Everything is going fantastic. We hop back in the car and drive down, then up the very windy 2 lane road. We reach the end of the dam and the road starts to split into 4 lanes... but wait! Jared abruptly stops on the side of the road. I think he really had to go, since that was last conversation we had before driving out - Where is the closest potty!?! We gotta go!! But nope, a few more choice words and then I hear... it won't turn on. Luckily... I say this like it is a good thing... we are stopped right next to Lake Mead visitor center. It has potties, water for Izzy, a parking lot, and a gift shop! Everything we need. (hear the sarcasm yet?) I pull into the parking lot and park next to gimpy. This is it, we need to call a tow truck. Jared, Izzy, and myself are all piled into the front of my car waiting for the tow truck to come. Sad to say, but when Jared calls USAA to get some help he knows the whole process by heart. Finally Big John's tow truck comes and takes Jared's car a dealership in Las Vegas. Hey! We made it to Las Vegas didn't we? And in style none the less! We are at the dealers mercy... no matter what he says is wrong with it, we have to have it fixed. Jared and I head to Vegas in my car to win some money to pay for the repairs. (Okay, not really to pay for the repairs because those went on the credit card. But I like to tell the story that way because it sounds much funnier than the way it actually was.)

Las Vegas! I have to say that I am a winner. Not only in life :) but also at playing the slots. We took it easy at first and started with the penny slots, then we moved on to the quarter slots. Jared and I were on different slot machines and Jared decided to switch to another one. I took his old machine and he moved to a new one. 3 pulls later and I hit the jackpot - on the machine Jared just left. I came away with $330 for that day. With my winnings (which indeed were not enough to cover the repairs) I bought souvenirs! Woo Hoo! I had to get a Las Vegas t-shirt, Jared got one as well. We stayed up late, we walked around, we played a few more slots, and then went to bed. Slots on the second day of Vegas weren't as nice... we lost the remainder of my winnings. We left Vegas with everything with came with and nothing more (except my souvenirs). The dealership called while we were having fun to let us know the car would be ready for us and that it was a bad fuel pump along with a bad engine thermostat. Oh good! I thought, Jared bought one of those at Autozone just in case!! Everything gets fixed and we... are... finally... going... to... make it to San Diego!!

Day... oh, hell! I don't know what stinking day of driving it was. I was tired and we were going to be sleeping in San Diego! Can you tell the mood became cranky? Yep, I was cranky. We drove in to San Diego at night... I hate driving in the dark when I don't know where I am going and when I am in an unfamiliar place. But we did it anyway. We get there. We check in to the hotel. We made it! Then Jared DROPS my bag of Las Vegas souvenirs and breaks my mug. The smoke starts shooting out of my ears, the fire is blasting from my mouth... THAT IS IT! I HAVE HAD IT! The wrath of Megan is now upon poor Jared who accidently pulled the souvenir bag out with his bag and it dropped. Poor Jared. So our night does not go smoothly and I go to bed early, or as early as I can considering we got here in the dark. Maybe the next will be better?!

Awaking to a fresh day and a fresh start, Jared and I head to the San Diego Zoo for some fun! Woo Hoo! We did have lots of fun at the zoo, got ice cream, shared a Koala cup full of Coke, and took lots of pictures of us.

But all good things must come to an end... hahaha no I didn't get moody again. Jared had to check in today and started his first day of SERE class. Izzy and I are hanging out in the hotel now, I went grocery shopping this morning. I am so tired of eating out for every meal. It is really taking a toll on me and my stomach (no other details will be shared, I promise)...

That is all I have for now. I hope you have enjoyed this very detailed roadtrip blog. Don't you wish you could come along for the ride next time?!?

Love Megan