New Mexico, New Year!

The road stretching out before us...the mountains ahead are part of the Rockies!

I just thought this was funny!

The shadowy figure is me...can you guess where?

We saw a few wind farms and snapped a few pics - these are really beautiful - they looking like living origami!

Hi everyone! We are officially in Albuquerque!!!! We really hauled today and made it here by about 5pm. We are super tired, but are trying to build up the energy to explore downtown!



But, i will take a quick second to say that New Mexico is absolutely beautiful. We were in Texas, in the plains, and then crested a hill and were all of a sudden in the desert! It felt like we opened a door and walked into another room. So amazing. We came through the desert and saw the mountains in the distance.

Along the way, Kate and I were talking about how unfairly the Americans Indians were treated. And, how not right it is that we have given them Casinos and trading posts to sustain themselves. I told Kate that my American Indian history is not very good. She replied: "I will cut the story short for you - the got screwed".

i thought that summed it up!

ok - really bad internet connection - will post more tomorrow! happy new year!!!!

the driving marathon continues...

Kate leaving "T&K POB" (Portland or Bust!) on the wall of Graceland!

Tracey, Kate and a little bit of Alex in front of Graceland!

If you look really carefully, you can see John Stamos!!!!

Beale Street in Memphis!

Our dinner at BB Kings...Before

...and after... yum!

So many apologies for not updating the blog last night! we are doing great - no need to worry about us! we just wound up getting in so late last night that we decided to continue the blog today.

Memphis: We left Knoxville and traveled to Memphis. The trip was quite pretty - poor Kate had to take most of the hills. We arrived at our swank airport Comfort Suites around 7pm. oh, did i say "swank"? i meant to say "stank"...not the best place - really needed a good scrub down. but, we made do. We wound up scoring a sweet deal on a ride to downtown Memphis, Beale Street, from Gary, the hotel handyman. We went to BB Kings Barbeque and had ribs, baked beans and hush puppies! There was a band playing - blues of course - and about half way through, the singer announced that her new friend, Mr. John Stamos, was in the house. And then, freaking John Stamos - yes - UNCLE JESSE!!! - jumps up on the stage! He sat in on the drums through Mustang Sally and Rocking Robin! It was the most random awesome moment! After getting over our celebrity sighting, we wandered over to The Taproom Juke Joint. The band was pretty good, but were making some heavy demands for tips. The singer announced at one point that they were about to play their number one most requested song...the title was "Tip the Band". Kate and I suspect that is not necessarily most requested from the audience, but likely the band's fave song...
We got back to the hotel around midnight and decided to hit the sack to prep for our long day of driving ahead.

Arkansas - the state that never ends!: We got up and out fairly early - around 9:30 this morning. We decided to stop by Graceland for a quick photo op. We were both pretty surprised by the neighborhood surrounding the joint. It was a bunch of strip malls on a dingy, busy street. And then, all of a sudden, you happen upon the Elvis Presley Mecca. They have built up quite an infrastructure around the entire place - parking lots, shops, special museums. We pulled up next to the actual mansion, which seemed completely out of place for the area. It was a beautiful home set on rolling grounds. We took a few photos and then headed back on to I-40. We crossed the Mississippi River, which made us feel like we were really heading west.

Then we got to Arkansas. For all you kids out there that had dreams of moving to the fabulous state of Arkansas, you may want to reconsider. From what we saw from I-40, no one actually lives in Arkansas. You may want to argue that people actually live there, but we did not see them. It was just mile after mile of rough road and empty fields. Kate did most of the Arkansas driving. At one point, we drove up a hill with a rather steep drop off. This apparently made Kate freak out a bit, while I, the faithful co-pilot, missed the entire incident, as Alex and I fell asleep in the front seat. We finally crossed over into Oklahoma and were completely grateful to be out of that place!

Oklahoma: So, we drove pretty much the rest of the day through Oklahoma. Pretty uneventful, except for the fabulous big sky sunset. We saw the sun set and the sky turn about a million different colors from the dusk. We pulled into our hotel (much, much nicer this time!) and collapsed. Tonight we are regrouping, getting laundry done, eating pizza and watching South Park reruns.

We are planning on heading out early to get to Albuquerque before dark tomorrow. We will go into the downtown area for the New Years festivities. We are both really excited about New Mexico because neither of us has been there before. And the down town area looks pretty awesome!

Please don't be dismayed if we don't blog tomorrow night - we have to get our New Years on! We promise to give you an update on Thursday! Until then, everyone have a great new years!!!!

boo virginia!!!

whew! knoxville at last!

we got up around 830 and started in on packing up the house. quite a big job - would have liked more time to get it all done, but we did it! kate is the queen of stuffing a prius! we certainly look like the beverly hillbillies - the car is completely packed!

we got on the road around 1230, and hit I-81 around 1:30. We did a few pit stops, but didn't actually reach I-40 until around 10:20pm!!! we have both decided that we are NOT a fan of boring virginia!!! Almost had a run in with a virginia state trooper. the speed limit was 65, i had cruise control set on 70. all of a sudden, i saw a completely darked out cop car put on his lights! fortunately he was gunning for someone else. but i knocked the speed down to 66 - sure enough a few miles down the road the trooper passed me on the left. whew - i know how those virginia troopers LOVE snagging maryland drivers!!!

the rest of the trip was pretty uneventful - just long! we pulled in to our hotel around 11pm, ate our subway dinner and we are now about to hit the sack. i guess the full impact of the day is finally hitting me - it was quite a lot to get done. i still don't think it is real for me that i won't be returning to baltimore at the end of this trip.

oh - and bonus - gotta love some tennessee cable access! we are watching a special on how to make stack cakes! according to the narrator, it takes about as long to make as it does for christmas to get here! apparently, its a bit of an endurance test... wha?

alex has offered to drive a bit tomorrow - i think we are both tired enough to take him up on it!

last night in the old hacienda

me in the empty living room before getting on the road!

so its the last night on Fait Avenue. Had a crazy day - running here and there to get stuff done. Had a fight with a fire alarm, which i wound up winning. Had a fabulous sushi lunch with amanda and jessica - delicious and awesome to be with good friends. then off to pick up kate and then to birches. Leaving my sweet, sweet birches wasn't easy - they have treated me so well there. for all of you still in baltimore, go there as often as you can and order a guinness for me!

then on the way home, kate and i happened upon a classic baltimore scene. There is a house down the block i have referred to as the "lost boys house" - it seems to be a collection of boys that hang out there. i have never seen any adults. and of course, being baltimore, i always suspected there was some sort of suspicious activity there. so tonight we walk up and there were about ten cop cars and a paddy wagon. and all of the lost boys were sitting on the stoop. the scene was quiet, but serious. kate and i managed to spy on them a while - it seems like there was some sort of raid going on. even better was that we saw a woman and her daughter walking through the scene. it was at least 11pm, but there was the mom, wearing her going shopping clothes - pink t-shirt, pink plaid pajama bottoms and pink terry cloth slippers. as kate said - a little too matchy - matchy, as if that was the only thing wrong... we assume the daughter, who was holding the shopping bags, will follow in her mother's slippered footsteps...it was a sweet scene straight from "the wire" going on right on my own street. i feel like it was baltimore's way of sending me off!

then kate and i got to work. poor girl, she totally pitched in cleaning up my dirty house! and then she helped me pack up all my stuff! the prius is going to be WAY full!

so we are off tomorrow - kate and i are both really looking forward to getting on the road! alex- well, i'm not sure he even knows what the road is. he is totally going to find out!

so much to do...

there is just so much to do before we hit the road! won't bore anyone with all the details, but i really have my work cut out for me before kate and i hit the road. i think if i really work it tonight, i can be almost all ready for the big drive off!

christmas was really good! got to see my family and ate chocolate chip cookies pretty much non-stop. jen and sam and i took alex to the ocean, so i got a few pics of alex and i on the atlantic coast. feels kind of fitting to kind of start from the actual atlantic and eventually make my way out to the pacific. hopefully i will figure out how to post pics on here soon!

ok - now i'm going to be terribly lazy and take a little nap. then hit some birches and then back home to get started on all the work i have to do here! here is hoping i don't electrocute myself putting in the fire alarm!!!

Empty house

The movers came and packed up all my stuff and took it away on a truck today. Such an odd feeling. I watched as other people touched pretty much everything I own and stuck it in boxes, inventoried it and put it on a long truck to Portland. Not sad by any means, just a moment.

The house also gave me a fabulous going away gift - no heat last night! Alex and I were fine. Poor John the Plumber had the joy of a 1230 am phone call from me. But, they came out first thing this morning and got me up and running. Turns out there was water trapped in the pipe that runs from the furnace. The $75.00 solution? Taking the 2"x4" I already had in the basement and propping up the pipe to increase the angle to help the water drain. Greaaaaaat...

I had a nice little farewell dinner with my neighbor Karen and her beau Fred this evening. She is going to keep an eye on the house after I leave, which is sincerely appreciated.

So tomorrow it is off to put on the forwarding address and turn in my cable boxes! Then I'm off to Delaware for Christmas with the family. The rest of the week will be spent traveling home, doing a quick final clean on the house and putting pretty much everything else I own in space bags for the car and picking up Kate for the trip!!! Everyone say a prayer that I haven't overestimated the cargo capacity of the prius. And that Alex doesn't get trapped in a space bag!

Merry Christmas!!!!