San Francisco or bust

meredith's trip is reminding me of a trip that Erik and I took when he graduated from college. He needed to drive his stuff from Champaign-Urbana, Illinois, to San Francisco (where his family was), and I wasn't going to miss a trip like that. (However, I didn't drive, so I couldn't help him with the driving.) He had a beater car that was cool for bopping around Champaign-Urbana, but it had never been on a long road trip.

We left Champaign-Urbana with a car full of Erik's stuff. When we were going through Normal, Illinois, the tailpipe fell down. Erik jury-rigged something to attach the pipe, and we went on our way again.

In Davenport, Iowa, the tailpipe fell down again. Erik "fixed" it again.

I think we might have stopped in Des Moines for the night. The next day, the shocks gave out outside of Atlantic, Iowa. We had to go to a farmhouse to borrow the phone. Someone towed the car to Atlantic, and we spent the day there while they fixed the car.

We made it to Omaha, Nebraska, where we were staying with my friend Deirdre, with no mishaps.

We then made it to Colorado Springs, where we visited with Erik's sister, who was at the Air Force Academy. I think that the tailpipe might have fallen down again.

We stayed overnight in a small town in New Mexico. While we were there, we created an ad-hoc bumper sticker with packing tape and a marker that read "San Francisco or bust".

We spent the day sightseeing in Santa Fe. During the evening, while we were outside of Gallup, New Mexico, a tire blew. We had to ask our parents to wire money because we had run out of money. We spent the day in Gallup waiting for the car to be fixed. The people at Goodyear thought that the tire blew because the people who fixed the shocks didn't realign the car.

After that, I think that the car ran okay. We stopped by the Grand Canyon and Painted Desert (I think?), Las Vegas, and Anaheim (Disneyland). We were so tired during the last push from L.A. to San Francisco that we stopped in San Jose, parked on a residential street, and slept for a couple of hours.

The next morning, Erik's cousin said, "Well, they're still speaking to each other. That's a good sign."

I think that trips like that are a rite of passage.

Now I want to take a road trip -;) I've driven down to L.A. and up to Sacramento. Oh, and I've driven back-and-forth to Fresno a zillion times.

Yay

I finally have my car (the Honda) back from the body shop. It looks all clean and shiny.