Road Trip

This time, we are driving to California. We have Moxie Crimefighter (the Honda)(named for her plate), we have a tent, we have sleeping bags, we have a cooler, and we will spend on gas less than half of what we would spend on plane tickets and a rental car. Yes, Southwest is FINALLY starting nonstop service between Denver and Oakland for a good price ($79 each way! so cheap! everyone come visit!), but it doesn't start until June. And we have a hot date on May 19 at 3 PM because someone we know is graduating law school.

I'm kind of excited about the idea of a roadtrip; we haven't done one since the trip to move me to Denver back in January of 2003. That time we took 8 days to trek leisurely through California, Arizona, and New Mexico; this time we're just doing a straight shot on I-80 through Wyoming, Utah, and Nevada and getting there as quick as we can. It will be Hulk's third time doing that sort of a trip, though this time he'll have me to help with the driving and share the road rather than doing the entire 18 hour drive alone. And we'll probably break it up into a long day of driving, an overnight stay, and a few hours the next day. I doubt my butt and hips can handle 18 hours of sitting in one stretch.

A lot of the drive will be dry and flat, especially through Utah and Nevada. That's OK; we'll be reading to one another and singing along badly to our collection of mix CDs and playing car games. We'll leave early on Wednesday and get there mid-day on Thursday and have a couple of days to hang out with friends and visit our old haunts and do some wedding-related junk in addition to celebrating QIR's graduation. We haven't been in CA since January, and that only for about two days, so I'm getting really homesick and definitely looking forward to being there. I missed an entire northern Californa spring for the first time in my life this year - no lupines, no daffodils, no camelias blooming in my mom's yard. It's time for a visit.

We have a couple more trips planned out to the Bay Area this year for weddings and other things, and we can definitely take advantage of the new Southwest deal for those trips. But I'm looking forward to testing Moxie's moxie in a long drive, our little cocoon of reliable Japanese automobilery carrying us across the salt flats and desert and the Sierras to dump us out by the Bay. I'm going to eat an entire loaf of sourdough all by myself, shop at H&M, maybe have a honey martini, and cry my fool head off when my friend gets the piece of paper she's worked so hard to earn. I can't hardly wait.