Back track: The big move
Mood:  spacey
So, this may be long overdue, but some people enjoy the mild saga of our move from Michigan to Arizona. It took all of three and a half days, with two cars a u-haul trailer, two cats, two rats, two terrariums, and four buckets of live fish. Some of my family called it an Ark. there were no animal losses, except for two little fishies, and a small coral that succumbed to the stress. Out of all we had going on, and the length and heat of the trip, its not too bad.
The drive itself was *relatively* uneventful. We left as early as we could manage (about 10am?) and drove as far as we could stand without stopping. The first night we ended up sleeping in the cars at a rest stop. We drove a bit too late into the night to get a campsite, so we were going to get a cheap hotel room. But we were in St. Louis at the time and all were ridiculously priced. So we drove a bit out of town and still too expensive because a six flags was nearby. So we keep driving and run into the worst construstion delay. The 3-lane highway went down to ONE lane. Lots of semi's and vacationers on the road. It took us 45minute to get by this annoying 3-miles of construction. So now its even later, and Brett's really tired so we gave up before finding an affordable "good" nights rest. We wake up the next morning to a rain storm and continue on. Missouri looks nice and lush. Hilly and green. A pleasant state. but too many jesus billboards. Almost as bad as illinois where we saw the biggest cross in western hemishpere... I can only assume since we later saw the very same big cross in texas, which made the claim. It was creepy anyway. I took a couple pictures just to remember.

I have come to the conclusion that oklahoma is THE worst state in the US. It was weird.. but the entire state just seemed contrived and out of place. The borders were strangely conspicuous as the vegetation changes IMMEDIATELY upon crossing. The few people we met were creepy, tolls are ridiculous ($10 all up for my car, $20 for brett witht the trailer! not going that way again!) and the land is bland boring and flat. Still, we did camp out that night about two hours before the texas border. we pitched the tent, washed up and then foley snuck out of the car. She took refuge under a pine tree with ugly spiders in big webs all over it, so crawling in to retrieve her was not a pleasant option. But we caught her eventually a had a decent nights rest.

Bright and early we continue our voyage. Texas was slightly more interesting than oklahoma... an interesting transition to the western desert states anyway. New mexico was really cool. a lot of the land features reminded me of pictures from mars and other barren planets. of course it rained through most of the drive in NM...... (of course... desert... rain... that's usual right?) But it wasn't heavy rain except for when we hit alburquerque, which is in the middle of a mountain. I nearly had a heart attack when brett with the jimmy and trailer broke suddenly and swerved into the emergency lane to avoid hitting someone. But we made it out in one piece and continued our *relatively* uneventful drive until Flagstaff, AZ.... where brett got pulled over. See, the trailer lights worked for braking and signaling, but did not turn on at night with his lights. But his charming aussie accent got U-haul out of a ticket. We think they should pay US for doing them this service.....

So, we got a cheap hotel in Flagstaff, and got to our new apartment by noon the next day. Arizona was beautiful to drive through. it was really neat how the vegetation changed too. The north is all alpine around flagstaff. Then you go through some mountains and come out in sage-brush shrubby desert-ness. Then the next mountains take you to true desert like scenery with cacti! the rain followed us all the way here, and it was amusing to see all these cars off the side of the road because of it. It wasn't raining that hard, but people just don't know how to drive in it out here. It reminded me of the first days of snow in Michigan, when people go off the road in less than an inch because they forget!
And that is the saga of our trip.

                         
AZ Move