Texas or Bust

Day One: It Begins
My friend and I are headed for Texas: the car is completely full to the brim including the pet rat by our side.

I was really surprised we managed to fit everything into the car including my long legs. It was pretty tight, and we had filled it so much, the seats were completely upright and I had my bag in between my feet.

No major hiccups at all until we were in the middle of nowhere and the rat fell over into Melissa’s lap! The cage was full of poop and wood chips. It was so gross. I was driving luckily and pulled over to the side of the road. I considered for a minute just letting the rat run free, but I knew Melissa wouldn’t be too happy. After we started on our way again, I told her that if that rat had fallen on me, I would have opened the door and pushed the rat out. It was pretty funny to think about!
We made it to Fort Collins Colorado by about 8:30-ish where we were staying with Melissa’s brother and sister-in-law. Her sister-in-law works for a photographer that had a gallery showing that night so we met her there. So as we get into town, I automatically fell in love with this place. It has such a charming feel to it and when we parked there were about a hundred bikes parked along the sidewalk. The weird thing was that every single one of these bikes was an old style road bike. All of them were rusted and had really old bike seats.

I felt like I was in a whole different world. We got out and walked around and the weather was beautiful and the people were all sitting outside in the bars…It was beautiful. There was music coming from everywhere and people had their dogs sitting at the tables beside them outside. It was perfectly my kind of town. I fell completely in love instantly. I felt like if there ever was a town made for me to move into, it was this one. We went to the gallery and their photography was completely unique and amazing. They did some really cool things, and I couldn’t stop smiling and staring at them in awe. I wish I could be a photographer and do cool things like they did. They are a husband and wife team that her sister-in-law works for and they met in a photography class. The wife is also a makeup artist so these pictures are really dolled up and cool. You should check out their website here.

Day Two: The Windy Cities
Her brother wanted to make us breakfast so we ended up not leaving until 11 when I figured we would be leaving by 9. But it’s cool. We would be in the car all day anyway. The weird thing that happened twice to us, once today and once yesterday is that every time we ran out of gas, suddenly there was a gas station. This place is barren. I mean, completely void of human life, and we realize we are out of gas and look up to see a gas station. We were so lucky! It was either luck, or it was probably just planned it that way-that there would be a gas station every couple of hundred miles.
Today I also decided to wear my “I love 311” shirt, because I just love 311. We stopped at a Safeway in Colorado to eat at the deli so we didn’t have to eat fast food. I was walking around, and this hot guy, stopped and said, “I LOVE your shirt.” Rock on buddy, rock on. He’s going to the July 1st show. Not sure where they are playing, but I just think it is so awesome that 311 is such an awesome band and all about unity, that 311 fans are united together no matter where you are, or who you are.

Yesterday I decided to start knitting Melissa a hat for her little baby that is going to be born in a couple of months. I didn’t really think about it until once I started knitting that they are moving to TEXAS. Does anyone need a hat in Texas? Hmm. Luckily they are going to be going back to Idaho this winter for Melissa to finish up school, so they will get some use out of it. I didn’t think I would be done with it so quickly, but I guess sitting in a car for 17+ hours can help that along. I finished about an hour or so before the sun went down. So here it is:

So I feel like I need to mention that everywhere we stop for gas, it is REDICULOUSLY windy. I thought it was only in Utah that it was windy. Nope. Every single place we have stopped, it has been windy. And it gets worse the closer we get to our destination. WHEN does it end? The wind is so strong that we can’t even hear each other talk anymore. We actually have to yell over to each other to talk. It’s getting really annoying. It has been like this the WHOLE time we have been in the car. I am going to blame Honda if I go deaf. I actually think the main reason is that we have tie downs wrapped around the ceiling of the car to hold a bag on top of the car so the seal isn’t too tight. It’s a little annoying. Just a little.



Day 3: The Longest Day of my Life.

I started the day at 7:30 in the morning with a headache from the lack of sleep. We were trying to make it to Dallas by about 1 so we could hang out with her husband/my friend Beau. It was supposed to be a 5 hour drive which turned into a 7 hour drive. The rat fell over two more times today. I felt kind of bad this time. The last time it fell over, Melissa and I had gone into the gas station and when we came back, the rat’s box was upside down in the drivers seat. I was driving today, so I got really nervous when I saw that the rat wasn’t anywhere near the box! The rat was lost somewhere in the car and there was no way to go looking for it-the car was so packed, we couldn’t just unpack everything to find him. We started calling out his name and I knew that there was no way I was getting back into that car not knowing where the rat was. It gave me the creeps! As we called his name, his little nose came peeking up from between the drivers seat and console. It was kind of cute.
When we finally got into Dallas, we noticed there was a restaurant there called “On the Border”. This place is the BEST Mexican restaurant in the world. Promise. It rocks. I discovered it in Vegas right before I left to Utah, and went there as much as possible and I even went back to Vegas for On the Border as much as I possibly could. So we were really excited when we saw that there was an On The Border at EVERY offramp we passed in Dallas. We ended up taking the wrong way I guess and I got off of the highway so we could call Beau and figure out what to do. I pulled into a parking lot, and there was an On the Border right in front of us! We decided to just stay there and eat instead of finding our way home. After eating, they took me straight to the airport. Awesome. Really. I have spent all day traveling and now I have a flight home with a layover in Denver and my first flight is late. It just never ends. So as I am getting back on the flight to Salt Lake, I start to see all of these hot men walking onto the plane. These men are HOT. They are all dressed up and I assumed they were probably on some sport team, maybe college. I heard a lady talking to them and it turns out, they are the sexy men of the SLC Bees Baseball team! My seat was all the way in the back, but I totally lucked out!!! I got to sit by all of them. I wish I could have had the courage to talk with them, but I felt way too tired, and way too hideous to think I am worthy of flirting with them. I have been in a car ALL day for crying out loud. Oh well, I can dream. I’m just glad I’m home and out of a car.