So I am going to start by saying I have some of the best friends in the entire world. I knew that moving across country was going to be hard but I never knew it would be this hard. The women I have been so lucky to befriend in my last 5 years in Long Beach are the most amazing friends a girl could ask for. The Friday after I arrived home from my initial trip to PA, my old roomies, Katie and Kelso threw me a congratulations bar crawl! We had so much fun! Getting all these amazing women under one roof became a very memorable night. The only one who I was missing was my best friend Marge :(.
Thank you to Kelso, Katie, Heather, Courtney, Zwack, Toni, Laura, and Margaret for making my last week in California the best week ever!
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| Friday October 21st, Bar Crawl |
And before I knew it, the day had come. I woke up at 6 am this morning with my Mother by my side to start one of the biggest journeys of my life. Even my boyfriend rolled out of bed to see me off! I don't think it has hit us yet that after 6 years of dating, we are, yet again, going to be long distance :(. Hopefully not for long!
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| Adam and Me this morning :) |
One of my biggest fears of this trip was the preparation! Fitting everything I owned in to the trunk, back seat and roof of my car, to then drive across country was an extremely daunting task! With my mother's help and my boyfriend's strong muscles :), we space bagged, shoved, layered and squeezed everything in with no room to spare!
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| The car and me at the first gas fill up! |
My mom and I decided to switch off driving every 2 hours to eliminate either of us getting too tired. This made our first leg of the trip really easy and painless. We passed beautiful scenery, flat terrain, random rock piles and the historic Route 66! (At our first gas station stop we purchased the signature Route 66 t-shirts! Us shopping girls just couldn't resist :) Look for them on Day 2 or 3!)
After about 4 hours (give or take) we passed our first State Line! Arizona!!!!!! Land of the Grand Canyon, extremely boring scenery, Havasu and a leg of the Colorado River. It may not seem that exciting to you but we were excited to see something new for the small town Benicia natives :)
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Pulled over at the side of the freeway to take picture :) Not too safe but definitely necessary!
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After about 7 hours of driving, we finally were able to take an exit off I-40, and to our surprise, we ended up in Bearizona! Bearizona is a "drive through, natural, wild life park." We didn't go through (to excited to get to our final destination) but we had to take a photo at the unique entrance!
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| Myself at the entrance of Bearizona! |
After 55 miles of driving north of I-40, we arrived at the most spectacular, stunning national landmark that I have ever seen! It went for miles, the textures of the exposed rock formations were spectacular, the colors of the natural sediment at sunset were unreal! This took us an hour off our route but was completely worth it. **Please note that the pictures do not do the Grand Canyon justice!
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| My Mom and I at the Grand Canyon |
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| Letting the view soak in |
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This view went for days!
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Day 1 was a great start to this road trip. My Mom said it best when she first saw the Grand Canyon, she exclaimed "This is living proof that there is a higher power". All I can believe is that this journey is fate. This new opportunity is allowing me to see the world in a way I could have never imagined. I cannot wait to see what new marvels we will uncover!
XO, KB
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