Our Cross Country Move

I think every American has "take a cross country road trip" somewhere on their bucket list. Personally, I've always wanted to drive across the country in a convertible stopping at all those crazy World's Largest _______ sites, eating bad food, and listening to the throw back songs.

We're lucky enough to have been forced into such a trip as we relocated to California a week ago. While it wasn't my comfy convertible trip it was interesting to fit a 45 lb German Shepherd puppy, 8 lb dachshund who hates car trips, Nic and I all in the cab on a Penske truck for five days. 

And we're off

Our first day started off with a bang as we left later than we intended. The Speed Limit of 55 with our tow had us starting out driving conservatively, but when we couldn't go faster than 35 without feeling like we were going to die we knew something was up. Cue a late night gas stop in the middle of nowhere Maryland and we discovered that the straps that were supposed to keep my car on this partial tow were off -- one had completely snapped. We definitely had a guardian angel watching over us in the fact that we have no idea how long they were snapped off and we should have lost my car. A visit from a Penske rep that couldn't do anything to help us, an hour and a half of sleep in my car, and a 45 minute drive in two separate vehicles later we were finally in Storybrooke's real life sister town (cue Once Upon A Time reference) and at a pet friendly hotel. Like ninnies we didn't check the new tow when we got it that night and the next morning we came to find out that my car wasn't compatible with the tow they brought. Another 45 minutes coffee-less in two separate vehicle drive we were looking at a full car tow and finally on our way. We didn't get out of Maryland until a whole days worth of traveling. It was awful.

Our first attempt. I didn't even take a picture of the second tow disaster. I was too peeved to do anything but eat some cookies to calm down (how I wish I was kidding. .) 

Our final working tow and truck, thank goodness

Stella trying to get comfy in the backseat while we were trying to find a hotel

Other than that little big hiccup the trip went smoothly. If anyone ever has to travel long trips in tight quarters with a hyper puppy, or just a dog that hates traveling I have an amazing all natural calming treat that I completely and whole heartedly recommend. Eevah has a bad habit of reeking like fish when stressing (cue long rides in the car) and these worked wonders for her!

On a happy note, we were able to visit the World's Largest Wind chime which is located in the cutest little town in the world. It was actually smaller (!) than I expected it to be. But still really cool! You could ring it which was pretty snazzy, but our little wind chime outside our dining room door has a much better song. We tried to find the World's Largest Golf Tee, which is located in the same little town, but somehow couldn't. Oh well.

World's Largest Windchime!

As far as the states go Texas has to have been my least favorite. We got hit with a terribly frightening hail the size of golf ball storm in the middle of a sunny afternoon, only saw tan sand and cows everywhere, and it didn't smell that great. They did have a lot of wind turbines though which was actually really cool!

The wind turbines of Texas

My all time favorite stop was the Grand Canyon.  I've wanted to go on a camping trip to the canyon since senior year of high school but it just hasn't been in the cards so being able to go see it was such a dream.  We got there right before sunset and on the way in we saw three elk!!! I had been searching since we saw the first sign to no avail and it was so incredibly exciting! I think I scared poor Nic with how loudly I shrieked.

We did a little research before we left to make sure we were able to bring the dogs into the park with us since most National Parks aren't really pet friendly. You're allowed to walk your dogs along the South Rim trails which is actually where most people go anyways. It's the main visitor center and while the Northern Rim supposedly offers better views (I'm not sure how) it's harder to get to.  We were surprised by how many dogs we saw! We ran into another medium sized dogs and three little pooches which was kind of fun. It's definitely worth stopping at even if you have the pooches. They're not allowed below the rim so they're going to have stay home when we do my promised camping trip.

Our happy little family

Lion King rerun

While we were driving through the desert I thought I saw writing in the sand and started to worry that I hadn't had enough water. I wasn't drinking as much as I should have been and genuinely thought it was a possibility, so I calmly turned to Nic and asked him if he was seeing them too -- and he was. It seems that people were stopping along Route 66, picking rocks and forming fun messages in the sand. After much convincing and checking to make sure it wasn't too hot (the high for that day was 120!!!! - irjirotjr) he pulled over and we got to form our own little note. He wrote down the mile and we're going to try and go back next time we're driving to add a new year, and paint the rocks.

Searching for rocks

I promise it says N + K with 13 underneath

The trip was so much fun and I can't wait to take another road trip, maybe this time without the Penske truck and tow? We had such a good time and realized (like we didn't already know) we worked together really well.

Until next time.

xoxo