Road Trip Phase 1: Not the Best

I had a brilliant idea to spend this past week (what will hopefully be- fingers crossed- the last week waiting for Corey to get here!) on a road trip across a big honkin' chunk of the country I've never seen. This was my route- all 4,000 miles of it in 6 days:

So just by looking at that, you reading this (being of greater mental capacity and possessing more foresight ability than I've demonstrated recently) could have probably told me that it wasn't the best idea. But I likely wouldn't have listened to you anyway, so oh well. I figured: Hey, I like being by myself, and I like driving, and this has got to be more exciting than sitting around with Bernie for 6 days (no offense, Bernie...).

The first day was awesome. I drove 12 hours from SJ to Salt Lake City and had a ball singing along to Speak in Code at the top of my lungs and cruising down the open road. I didn't even mind all that much when I got my first ever speeding ticket in Nevada (whoops). It was a beautiful day all around.

I probably should have just turned around then and gone back to San Jose and left it at that.

The next day I gripped the steering wheel with white knuckles for like 6 hours through the state of Nebraska during a severe weather warning, watching a giant storm system get progressively more threateningly tornado-esque right alongside the highway. It never started rotating, but if you know me and my life-long phobia of tornadoes (thank you Twister), you can imagine that I was wishing I was anywhere else in the entire world than in Nebraska that evening.

Highlights from the other 4 days have included:

-Breathtaking sights of Mt. Rushmore in Keystone, South Dakota.

-Snow closing a bunch of roads into Yellowstone allowing me to instead spend a lovely night in Billings, Montana eating Outback take-out in a questionable motel room.

-Near constant thunderstorms dampening almost any opportunity for awesome photography views.

-Snow all throughout Montana making my wardrobe of t-shirts and tank tops rather useless.

-My phone's GPS deciding this would be a great time to no longer operate.

-A strangely dazed mental state thanks to an average of 9 hours of driving across plains every day.

The non-sarcastic highlight of the trip was seeing Eve 6 yet again (they just happened to be playing in Minneapolis... funny how that worked out!). This was the only day I had actual conversations with other human beings aside from gas station and hotel attendants. Believe it or not, I have actually gotten lonely on this trip. I wasn't sure it could happen given my introverted, loner tendencies, but I must admit this trip has been a bit too isolating. There's just nothing out here... I didn't even see a Starbucks for like 4 days. Can you imagine?!

Anyway, I'm in Washington now waiting for Corey. I'll enjoy staying in one place for a day or two before Corey gets here and we take off on Roadtrip: Phase 2! I'm sure that half will be much more exciting. I can't wait!!