I am not going to lie and say that leaving Indiana was an easy thing to do. Well, maybe leaving the actual state was easy but leaving the people certainly was a bit more difficult. We miss our neighbors, friends and family more than I could begin to describe on this blog. We are lucky that technology has advanced so much that we can text, email and video chat easily! Seeing the house empty was bitter sweet...I was super happy because that meant all the packing was done!
Mable was pretty bummed too!
This is the reason I will miss our actual house.
An original Tommy McLaughlin we had to leave behind.
Finishing up cleaning...high and low!
Then off to California we go!
This little speed limit sign was a beautiful sight! Just in case you can't read it, it says "75"...legally, which of course means you are okay doing 80! WAHOO
This is pretty much what we saw for the majority of the ride. You will not find me complaining about this though. I grew up in Kansas, flat, see for miles land is my home and I think it is beautiful! Other people don't seem to share my love of treeless land.
Thomas was a TROOPER the entire ride. We pushed it and made the whole trip in about 36hours. The birthday toys I hid were a huge help on the trip and so was Dumbo. Which I think I now have memorized after hearing it 47,000 times!
We passed several wind farms on the drive. I had never actually seen them in person and let me tell you they are pretty amazing. They are HUGE! I do not understand why critics of wind farms choose to use the "they are ugly" argument. Maybe they aren't fans of modern art!
HUGE I tell you!
The scale of these things just can not be shown in a picture,
taken on a cell phone,
while driving 80mph!
An amazing view of cloud cover on a mountain.
I think this is somewhere in Nevada.
There were a couple spots that were a bit perilous thanks to our good buddy snow. We narrowly missed an accident near Salt Lake that was not pretty, but we inched around it and everyone involved seemed to be ok. The car did fairly well...except when all of the gauges decided they were done working! It is much easier to read your speed on the speedometer than to try and "feel" it!
Now a Note from Daddy aka Tommy: The trip was great but a lot more fun the second time with people in the car with me. That drive is hard (but the salt flats make it suicidal road side mud graffiti and all) and I can't believe how well both our children did the whole time. We do miss being closer to all of our family and friends even the ones that were 10 plus hours away because they were only 10 plus hours away. If we drive 10 hours now we won't even get out of Utah or the State of California (if driving southward).
The car did do well except when climbing from 4500 feet to 7500 feet in about 10 miles (okay a little exaggeration but it was pretty close) and if the gauges and speedometer is out during that time it makes it even more fun. But so far it has all been worth it. Great place to live and phenomenal place to work. Now if all of our family and friends could move out here. Did you get that subtle hint that everyone needs to move out here, just making sure.
Peace and Love from the McLaughlins
No comments:
Post a Comment