Friday, September 3, 2010

California is Right Where I Left It

53 hours.

2 days and 5 hours of virtually non-stop driving.

Think of what you accomplished starting Monday at about 3pm straight through to Wednesday around 10pm. Went to work...made dinner...shopping...sleeping?  Now imagine having sat in a truck and driving across country for that amount of time instead. But it was for a good cause, so I'm not complaining (much).  However, I think the next time a radio station has one of those contests where you live in the car to win it, I'm going to try and qualify.  I already know I can do two days standing on my head (or, sitting on my butt, as the case may be)....  I may even offer to raise the stakes and offer to drive the thing and scare my fellow competitors out of it.

53 hours, 8 states, 2 5-hour energy shots, 10 cups of coffee and 5 Red Bulls later, the truck finally rolled into San Diego.  Ooooohhhhh, wait.  Did I forget to mention this little gem?



Yes, that's what it looks like...a completely blown tire on the moving trailer.  The fact that the tire exploded isn't the nifty part.  What is interesting is that we navigated the mountains between El Centro and San Diego not knowing we were nearly riding the rim the whole time.  You know how windy it gets up in those mountains--you're at an altitude of 4000 feet for Pete's sake--so it just seemed to me that the trailer was swaying uncontrollably because of the wind and winding road (for those of you who have taken the drive between San Diego and Tucson, you know what I'm talking about).  But no...finally stopped in the city, trip done and hopped out only to find that the entire tire was missing.  And I kid you not--in watching the trailer sway behind the truck in the rear view mirrors, never once did I see a spark kick up, never heard the pop of the tire, never saw the rubber flying out behind the truck...nothing.  Good thing it happened in San Diego, right?  Guess it was just time to stop driving.

I have yet to figure out which is worse...packing or unpacking.  Next time, I'm thinking I'm just going leave everything behind and start from scratch.  Except for maybe my purses.  And my shoes.  I should probably bring some clothes.  And I do have some lovely dishes.  Oh, and there is my collection of rubber duckies I can't be without....

It is lovely to be back in California.  I forgot how wonderful it is to be surrounded by people that drive better than me.  And faster.  One thing I didn't miss...price of gas.  WHOOOOO-EEEE!  $3 dollars and "I can't believe you're going to pay this amount" cents.  $70 to fill up the truck.  Well I guess I didn't need to eat this week.  I wonder if I can borrow a page from Starbucks and make my blend of fuel...??  Kinda like a Cafe Americano, where you get one shot espresso and the rest water....would that work with gas?  One gallon fuel, the rest water?    Petrol Americano?  I wonder....

The weather is beautiful...sunny and 70-something.  Ahhhhh.  Although I am kinda bummed I'm missing out on the Earl hurricane parties.  OK...so never mind that I was nowhere near the coast while living in Virginia...wouldn't stopped me from throwing or going to a party.  Or making up a batch of Hurricanes in the blender....yuuuuummmm!!!  Drinks that celebrate torrential weather patterns.  How can that be bad?

So now it's back to "real life".  Gotta find a job.  I should probably get off my butt here and do that today, right?  Oh....wait.  It's 3pm on the Friday going into a 3-day holiday weekend.  Bummer.  Looks like I'll just have to wait until Tuesday.  Guess I'll just go to the beach instead.

Ahhhh....it's good to be home.