Road trip

It is nearly incomprehensible how much has taken place in the last few weeks, so I'm going to take the catch up process nice and slow. Tonight: The road trip.

By some miracle (and a cool trick K knows about packing clothes), I was able to fit all my belongings in a very full Subaru for my drive from Palo Alto to Durham (approximately 2,792 miles, which google maps estimates to be 40 hours of driving). K and I departed on a Wednesday morning, headed for the East coast. The first day was pretty seamless - listened to World War Z on Audible, ate some Subway, and detoured to the Grand Canyon before spending the night in Flagstaff. Though we had carefully selected the tastiest looking restaurant at each of our nightly stops, we were too late to make it to the mouth-watering Pizzicletta, and instead shared some less gourmet but ever delicious Chick-Fil-A. The highlight of Flagstaff was, of course, that there is a Maverik there. $1 cone = win.

Arizona in August - so hot.

We barely made it to the Grand Canyon before the sun set!

Day 2 went even more smoothly than the first - listened to some This American Life, ate some more Subway, and got all the answers right on the Sunday Puzzle podcast. As we entered Oklahoma City that night, our exhaustion and the late hour again prevented us from trying the highly-acclaimed sushi restaurant we had picked out. We settled for Wendy's, where we discovered the pretzel bun to be satisfactory.

(No pictures of Day 2 - the cross-section of New Mexico and northern stretch of Texas did not offer much beauty, but instead plenty of trade posts and Navajo tacos. I spent the entire day wondering how there can be so many trade posts. It remains very perplexing.)

Now Day 3 is where it gets exciting. It started out much the same - podcasts, books on tape, and Subway. But around 6 pm things took a little turn. See, my clutch had been giving us some problems the whole way. Minimal acceleration, higher than average RPMs... we should have seen the signs. As we drove through the-middle-of-nowhere, Tennessee, we noticed that the acceleration was acting worse than usual. The RMPs slowly exceeded 4, then 5, and within seconds we had lost all acceleration completely. Thank our lucky stars there was an exit right where we needed it, and a downhill exit ramp to get us to a deserted parking lot. The rest is your typical stranded-in-Tennessee fairy tale: AAA got us towed 60 miles to a repair shop, and we spent the next 24 hours in Madison, TN. 

Despite the inconvenience, I think K and I would agree this was the highlight of the trip for several reasons: First, we met Sam. Sam was the repair shop owner and, without a doubt, the nicest person I have ever met. He went so far out of his way to help K and I - he met us at the shop after hours so we could put our car in the garage, discouraged us from staying at the prostitution and drug motel across the street, and drove us across town to a safe and clean Quality Inn (we had declined his offer to stay at his apartment). The next day, he sent his repairman to pick us up and bring us to the shop, where he gave us his own car for the day. After spending an entire Saturday on the Subaru, he gave us a cooler/heater that plugs into the car lighter for power (think mini-mini-fridge), some decorations for my new house, and sent us on our way. I will display the very outdated decorations in my house so I never forget his kindness.

Second, we did an outstanding job of making the most of our day in Madison. We finally tried out Waffle House (very tasty), smelled every scent in the Yankee Candles store, played as much Skeeball as we were willing to spend money on, saw the new movie The Butler, and played Phase 10 in a McDonald's. Oh, and of course we ate some Subway (4 times in 4 days - a record even for me). And I will say, you have never TRULY seen a movie with Oprah Winfrey in it until you have seen it in a theater full of black women and only black women. The commentary was priceless.

We finally hit the road, Durham-bound, around 6 PM. With an ETA of 4 AM, we settled into our seats for the night. Upon finishing World War Z, we concluded that the movie bears little resemblance to the book, in that the book doesn't even have a main character and the movie has Brad Pitt. We trekked through the Great Smoky Mountains, which were completely invisible due to the pitch darkness and alarming fog. Finally arriving in Durham, we got the key to my house and found it to be absolutely wonderful but devoid of electricity. Not caring, we pumped up an air mattress by the light of the Flashlight app and crashed, just happy to be "home".

My Durham adventures continue in subsequent posts. I will close with important lessons learned:

1. Don't ignore major car problems before a cross country trip. You may pay less $ to get it repaired in TN than you would have in CA, but you will make up the difference in time spent playing cards at the McDonald's in Madison.

2. Subway has regional differences in its restaurants. It is really fascinating. The Arizona store had jalapeno cheddar bread and a Crunchy Chicken Enchilada Melt, which has Fritos in it. New Mexico had green chilies. Arkansas only had American cheese. And my hometown Durham has spicy red pepper jelly and mushrooms (yes to mushrooms, no to jelly).

3. Carefully select your company for any road trip, but especially those spanning 92 hours. I selected very well :)