Chapter 1 The Roadtrip
These last months have been Hell incredibly rough. Almost got evicted ON my birthday, almost had 2 warrants for my arrest, my license is probably suspended either from an unpaid ticket in Lehi or not getting my doctor to sign off on my mental health check (so they know I won't ram my car into people).
My biggest fear is being homeless. Global warming is a very close second, but being homeless is something that is immediately pressing all the time. I feel a lot better and function better when I'm working, but my mental health is so unstable that I can't always do that, and my relationships are all strained so I don't always have someone to fall back on.
To top it off, our special demon-kitty died so abruptly and randomly. I spent days (and some phonecalls) trying to blame myself and figure out exactly what I could've done and what even happened. In the end, Bubbles had an enlarged heart, and eventually developed congestive heart failure. Cats compensate so well for it that the only warning sign is sometimes they'll have a murmur. There was nothing that could've been done.
So I'm a hugely miserable wreck :)
We finally got evicted in January, and so we set off a bit sooner than planned. My brilliant idea was to depart at 3am, so we could drive in the night with fewer cars.
Not smart.
If no one is around, it's fine, but the glare from oncoming cars will make you feel very tired very fast.
UTAH: That night/morning, we drove through this unfamiliar canyon to exit Spanish Fork. All was well until we realised it was getting incredibly snowy. But it was not just snowy, it was a blizzard. High up in the mountains with little light and no lane lines in sight. My car is garbage in the snow. A little slush on the road makes the gears grind and lock. So guaranteed some of that passage was purely skating around with zero control. But I made everything look fine. 😎
We eventually found a very slow-moving caravan of giant trucks and got in line. There wasn't much choice in the matter anyway. We went down through Price, where the snow finally let up.
COLORADO: I think we were in Colorado. The Colorado river was there, and there were beautiful red mountains topped with snow. It was seriously one of those moments where you're just happy you were alive to see it.
We made a stop to walk around and take some pics. I've always been a "why go to a place when pictures exist?" Kind of person, but these don't do it justice. You had to be there. I get it now.
UTAH Again???: I don't know where we were for awhile, just following the beautiful Colorado river for about 2 hours, and we end up in Moab. They have giant ravens there, and we saw a United States Geological Survey employee with the neato emblem on his car!
NEW MEXICO: Should be called NO Mexico. We had been warned by my brother and mom that the drive through NM was brutal, but it is worse than brutal, it's BORING. Other than the poor natives and their rezes, there was actually nothing going on. Even the dirt stayed the same color. There was no wildlife, not many trees, barely grass...on and on with no variation. It is officially the worst state to drive through.
Admittedly, I missed a lot of it since I kept falling asleep at the wheel. I'm shocked we didn't die, honestly. I kept stopping to sleep, but never got enough. Finally, we got a room in Roswell.
Roswell has an amazing Motel 6. The best. And I wish we made time to look at alien things, but we were ready to get the actual eff out of No Mexico.
TEXAS: I never thought I'd be happy to see Texas. People actually wear cowboy hats. There's Chik-fil-a everywhere. What was cool though? Cotton plants. Actual cotton farms. I pulled over to pick some up for a keepsake. It's actually so soft, and it's everywhere in western Texas.
LOUISIANA: You know you're close when you can feel the air get wet. I love it. Dennys started turning into Waffle House. Popeyes and Canes chicken popped up too! It was FOGGY. I loved it, but it was definitely the foggiest I've ever seen. By far. Juan kept messing with me because being on the causeway freaks me out, so he'd keep saying we're almost to it when we weren't at all.
Suddenly and randomly, I see numerous ghostly lights in rows, piercing through the fog and reflecting off black water. It's a ship. Literally right next to us. We weren't on *the* causeway, but we were on the older, shorter one - much closer to the water. That was too spooky.
We finally made it to Juan's dad's house and got to our room and crashed on the floor.
My biggest fear is being homeless. Global warming is a very close second, but being homeless is something that is immediately pressing all the time. I feel a lot better and function better when I'm working, but my mental health is so unstable that I can't always do that, and my relationships are all strained so I don't always have someone to fall back on.
To top it off, our special demon-kitty died so abruptly and randomly. I spent days (and some phonecalls) trying to blame myself and figure out exactly what I could've done and what even happened. In the end, Bubbles had an enlarged heart, and eventually developed congestive heart failure. Cats compensate so well for it that the only warning sign is sometimes they'll have a murmur. There was nothing that could've been done.
So I'm a hugely miserable wreck :)
We finally got evicted in January, and so we set off a bit sooner than planned. My brilliant idea was to depart at 3am, so we could drive in the night with fewer cars.
Not smart.
If no one is around, it's fine, but the glare from oncoming cars will make you feel very tired very fast.
UTAH: That night/morning, we drove through this unfamiliar canyon to exit Spanish Fork. All was well until we realised it was getting incredibly snowy. But it was not just snowy, it was a blizzard. High up in the mountains with little light and no lane lines in sight. My car is garbage in the snow. A little slush on the road makes the gears grind and lock. So guaranteed some of that passage was purely skating around with zero control. But I made everything look fine. 😎
We eventually found a very slow-moving caravan of giant trucks and got in line. There wasn't much choice in the matter anyway. We went down through Price, where the snow finally let up.
COLORADO: I think we were in Colorado. The Colorado river was there, and there were beautiful red mountains topped with snow. It was seriously one of those moments where you're just happy you were alive to see it.
 |
| Ice circles in the river!! |
UTAH Again???: I don't know where we were for awhile, just following the beautiful Colorado river for about 2 hours, and we end up in Moab. They have giant ravens there, and we saw a United States Geological Survey employee with the neato emblem on his car!
NEW MEXICO: Should be called NO Mexico. We had been warned by my brother and mom that the drive through NM was brutal, but it is worse than brutal, it's BORING. Other than the poor natives and their rezes, there was actually nothing going on. Even the dirt stayed the same color. There was no wildlife, not many trees, barely grass...on and on with no variation. It is officially the worst state to drive through.
 |
| The entirety of No Mexico |
Admittedly, I missed a lot of it since I kept falling asleep at the wheel. I'm shocked we didn't die, honestly. I kept stopping to sleep, but never got enough. Finally, we got a room in Roswell.
Roswell has an amazing Motel 6. The best. And I wish we made time to look at alien things, but we were ready to get the actual eff out of No Mexico.
TEXAS: I never thought I'd be happy to see Texas. People actually wear cowboy hats. There's Chik-fil-a everywhere. What was cool though? Cotton plants. Actual cotton farms. I pulled over to pick some up for a keepsake. It's actually so soft, and it's everywhere in western Texas.
LOUISIANA: You know you're close when you can feel the air get wet. I love it. Dennys started turning into Waffle House. Popeyes and Canes chicken popped up too! It was FOGGY. I loved it, but it was definitely the foggiest I've ever seen. By far. Juan kept messing with me because being on the causeway freaks me out, so he'd keep saying we're almost to it when we weren't at all.
Suddenly and randomly, I see numerous ghostly lights in rows, piercing through the fog and reflecting off black water. It's a ship. Literally right next to us. We weren't on *the* causeway, but we were on the older, shorter one - much closer to the water. That was too spooky.
 |
| *The* causeway during the day |
 |
| Still higher off the water than the Spookway |
We finally made it to Juan's dad's house and got to our room and crashed on the floor.
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