"Los Angeles, I'm Yours"

It's been a couple of days due to move-in distraction (aka blowing my budget at Bed Bath and Beyond and getting horrifying calls from UPS about a damaged box). But the last leg of the trip went a little bit like this:

We left Arizona asap and jumped back on I-10. As it turns out, I-10 west runs all the way to Santa Monica, which is exactly where we intended to go. My new place is just 3 miles east of the ocean and because I started from Gloucester, which sits quite literally on the Atlantic, just ten days earlier, I made it a point to touch the Pacific Ocean. Make it count.

The road from Arizona into California is as beautiful as the rest has been. No shortage of things to look at from any angle. We passed a huge plot of wind turbines. I've seen them before, but not in this quantity, I don't think. They're actually quite graceful. It's funny to try to juxtapose them from the oil pumping jacks we saw in Texas. As I've said about the jacks- they are isolated from each other in no particular pattern, and they slowly and repetitively bow to the ground like they're shackled. The wind turbines stand tall. They're not depressing to look at, in fact they're kind of inspiring. Could this be foreshadowing the future of energy? I hope so.

Also, I kissed a Cactus and we've labeled the photo "Forbidden Love."
Those things are seriously tall.

Full Circle: you will NEVER believe it. But as we were just over the city limits into Los Angeles we caught a glimpse of the WEINERMOBILE!! It was headed East, the opposite direction, and at high speeds so we couldn't get a shot of it. But we all kind of sat in silent shock after noting it. It was strange to see it entering Los Angeles, since we first saw it as we were leaving Chicago - our first leg as a collective group. Anyway. Weinermobile TWICE in one road trip? That's got to be some kind of record.

We hit Santa Monica just as the sun was setting. After the inevitable traffic, we found a parking spot and headed to the ocean. Talk about the perfect welcome. Touching the Pacific was like crossing the finish line at a marathon. I had been traveling for 10 days, 7 with Jeff and Melissa. Our coast to coast mission was complete. And none of us really knew what to think about it. So we just kind of enjoyed the sunset. And Jeff, who had silently been dreading Los Angeles, actually seemed to like it.


I'll be writing more posts, but as far as the road trip is concerned, it was probably the most fun any of the three of us has had in a very, very long time. This country is huge, and nothing can depict that as clearly as driving through it. I was so lucky to have the people on board that I had. We really enjoyed the ride, and how many times in our lives do we actually enjoy the ride?

The end is just the beginning. Not just for me, but for Jeff and Melissa, too. They dropped everything to jump into a car and help me move cross-country. And it seems like the trip was exactly what they needed to re-evaluate their own day-to-day pursuits. And how could they not start thinking about the big picture when they're staring at the sunset over the white sands national monument, or Mt. Picacho, or the Santa Monica pier? I think this trip could spark new beginnings for all of us. And that's freaking amazing.