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So. I am in and safe.
Wednesday, we were going to leave early. I got up at 7, only to see a thick fog and snow outside, and a nasty weather report. I eventually got up for real at eleven, and it looked like today would be the only clear day in Arizona for three days either direction. It was then decided to take off and get as far as we could, and we were on the road by noon. Topping off the tank in Castle Rock, we headed on; miraculously, the roads and sky were clear except a fog on the CO/NM border. Dinner was a Pizza Hut in Las Vegas (the crappy one) while it got dark; shortly thereafter on the road it started to snow. Stressed, I decided Santa Fe would be the stopping point, and we got horribly lost looking for a place to stay.
We finally got one that catered to the lost-and-desperate demographic, with not a single convenient power outlet for laptops in bed. Exhausted though not bodily tired enough to sleep, we watched some weather channel and some comedy central, catching a couple Daily Shows and a stupid-yet-hypnotically-funny parody reality show called Drawn Together, featuring a bunch of cartoon characters put in a house, Real World style. I think the highlight of the episode was trying to make the princess miscarry by pushing her down the stairs - in the Escher Room.
We left the hotel (reccomendation: never, ever stay at the Pecos Trail Inn) by 7 the next morning (MST), the basic plan being to keep our eye on the roadside through Santa Fe and Albequeque for a Denny's. MacKenzie promptly fell asleep, and if there was a Denny's off 25 or 40 in Albequerque, it failed to advertise itself, and I finally settled on a truck stop in western New Mexico, only to be told there was a Denny's only 15-20 miles on. So, breakfasted, we fueled up in Gallup and gunned in for the long run. My originaly thought was to stop next in Kingman, AZ; as the end of the tank approached, though, I decided I wouldn't trust my car to go 340 miles on a tank and refueled at 322.3 - still by far the longest nonstop drive I've ever done. Kingman got honorable mention for lunch, though, with another Pizza Hut.
From there it was into California, across the Mojave (far too bloody much desert), and down into the greater LA area. We made it in at about 6:30 PST, at a total of 12 hour 30 minutes travelling. I'd been expecting a longer day than that actually, but left to my own devices on a wide-open freeway, I drive anywhere between 80 and 90 mph. Since the roads were entirely dry, and those massive stretches don't get crowded, I had pretty much ideal conditions.
Once back, we (now with Robin) headed to dinner, then resumed our quest for DDR which had failed in Denver. With no PS2s in stock at Gamestop in the mall, Gamestop outside the mall, or Best Buy, we settled for Nickel-Nickel, with the added bonus of various other ridiculous games.
So - much to do tomorrow. First, clean out the car, both of trash and useful stuff. Then, it whatever order works: update my resume, find a fourth class and contact the prof thereof, take my car into the shop, set up my desktop, catch up on webcomics (the only ones I'd been following from home were S*P, QoW (ending soon wahhhhhh!), Sluggy, Ozy and Millie, and some of GPF), and probably some other stuff. Won't be bored at least.
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Wednesday, we were going to leave early. I got up at 7, only to see a thick fog and snow outside, and a nasty weather report. I eventually got up for real at eleven, and it looked like today would be the only clear day in Arizona for three days either direction. It was then decided to take off and get as far as we could, and we were on the road by noon. Topping off the tank in Castle Rock, we headed on; miraculously, the roads and sky were clear except a fog on the CO/NM border. Dinner was a Pizza Hut in Las Vegas (the crappy one) while it got dark; shortly thereafter on the road it started to snow. Stressed, I decided Santa Fe would be the stopping point, and we got horribly lost looking for a place to stay.
We finally got one that catered to the lost-and-desperate demographic, with not a single convenient power outlet for laptops in bed. Exhausted though not bodily tired enough to sleep, we watched some weather channel and some comedy central, catching a couple Daily Shows and a stupid-yet-hypnotically-funny parody reality show called Drawn Together, featuring a bunch of cartoon characters put in a house, Real World style. I think the highlight of the episode was trying to make the princess miscarry by pushing her down the stairs - in the Escher Room.
We left the hotel (reccomendation: never, ever stay at the Pecos Trail Inn) by 7 the next morning (MST), the basic plan being to keep our eye on the roadside through Santa Fe and Albequeque for a Denny's. MacKenzie promptly fell asleep, and if there was a Denny's off 25 or 40 in Albequerque, it failed to advertise itself, and I finally settled on a truck stop in western New Mexico, only to be told there was a Denny's only 15-20 miles on. So, breakfasted, we fueled up in Gallup and gunned in for the long run. My originaly thought was to stop next in Kingman, AZ; as the end of the tank approached, though, I decided I wouldn't trust my car to go 340 miles on a tank and refueled at 322.3 - still by far the longest nonstop drive I've ever done. Kingman got honorable mention for lunch, though, with another Pizza Hut.
From there it was into California, across the Mojave (far too bloody much desert), and down into the greater LA area. We made it in at about 6:30 PST, at a total of 12 hour 30 minutes travelling. I'd been expecting a longer day than that actually, but left to my own devices on a wide-open freeway, I drive anywhere between 80 and 90 mph. Since the roads were entirely dry, and those massive stretches don't get crowded, I had pretty much ideal conditions.
Once back, we (now with Robin) headed to dinner, then resumed our quest for DDR which had failed in Denver. With no PS2s in stock at Gamestop in the mall, Gamestop outside the mall, or Best Buy, we settled for Nickel-Nickel, with the added bonus of various other ridiculous games.
So - much to do tomorrow. First, clean out the car, both of trash and useful stuff. Then, it whatever order works: update my resume, find a fourth class and contact the prof thereof, take my car into the shop, set up my desktop, catch up on webcomics (the only ones I'd been following from home were S*P, QoW (ending soon wahhhhhh!), Sluggy, Ozy and Millie, and some of GPF), and probably some other stuff. Won't be bored at least.
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