Road Trip Across the US

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Once the decision was made to move all of my belongings in storage and in my parents' basement, I had to figure out how to get it all out to California. I looked at a few moving companies, but those ran anywhere from $1,600 to $4,000. I decided to rent a U-Haul for around $900 and did my best to recruit people to go with me. After a few days of trying it was pretty clear that I was going to be on my own. I almost got Lindsay to meet me near the halfway point in Oklahoma City (since she gets free flights from her mom, a Delta employee) but no one was able (or willing) to take the time off for the grueling trek.

I did the trip once before, driving from Bowling Green, KY, to Los Angeles with a former girlfriend. On that trip in early 2005, we got on I-40 in Nashville and didn't make an exit until that highway merged with another in California. We stopped in Shamrock, TX, on the first night and Las Vegas on the second night before rolling into LA after another half day of driving.

This would be a challenge because instead of a Honda Civic I was driving a 14 foot van. When I went to pick it up the night before I left I got another nice surprise - no CD player or tape deck. Listening to my own music (or books on tape as I had planned) was out of the question (the next morning I found that the cigarette lighter didn't work, so I couldn't even use my phone without draining the battery in a few hours). I packed up everything with a little room to spare and headed out around 7 am. My goal was to try to make it to each of the stopping points from my first trip since I would again hit I-40 and take it all of the way across.

Day 1

Fairly quickly into the trip I realized the challenge I was up against. After only a few hundred miles of driving I had to fill up the 30 gallon tank. That means I was getting 6-7 miles per gallon... with gas prices in the $3.40 range that means I was going to drop around $100 per fill up for the 2,100 mile trip, totaling around $1,000 extra. Yikes.

After a full 13 hour day of boring and uneventful AL, tip of TN, AK and OK, I made it to Oklahoma City and called it a night. I was a few hours behind my original timetable, but I also started further to the east. The van only made it up to 75 miles per hour, so I didn't have much of a choice unless I logged more hours. I still made time to do my Insanity workout that night to stretch my legs and get some restlessness out of my body.

Day 2

I got up the next morning and went through some significant changes in scenery over the next day. The plains of OK and TX quickly changed to the arid landscape of NM, with its red dirt, tumbleweeds and rock formations jutting out of the ground. Throughout the day I could see the remnants of Route 66 - it was sometimes used as an access road to the highway or local road as an alternate, but other times it was overgrown with lone standing old telephone poles. About halfway through the day I hit a brutal headwind of 30 mph with gusts even higher. I initially thought that the van was losing engine power since I dropped from 75 to 65 average mph, but the wind blew my door shut when I got out for gas.

I randomly stopped at one of the exact gas stations from my first trip. The only reason I remember is because a really large and tacky/creepy gift shop and Dairy Queen were attached. I got Lindsay a purple raccoon tail key chain to mark the occasion. After a round of snow flurries as I crossed into AZ, I kept climbing, climbing, finally calling it a night after 14 hours in Flagstaff at 7,000 elevation. There was about 6 inches of snow on the ground and the temperature had dropped to around freezing. I definitely wasn't dressed for that weather, so I went into the hotel, hit the Insanity DVDs again and went to bed.

Day 3

I got up early one last time, ready to knock out the last 8 hours of the drive. I hoped to get out of the snow and put my toes in the sand ASAP. It was mostly downhill after Flagstaff and without the detour into Las Vegas I had in the last trip, I powered into California. The temperature quickly rose as I entered the Inland Empire and after a SHORT 7 hour drive I made it "home."

My roommates helped me unpack and find room for most of my furniture. My roommate's girlfriend needed a table and chairs along with a coffee table, so I'm temporarily storing things there. Lindsay took my sofa and chair (I tried to sell them in Atlanta but had no luck). I'm slowly selling a few things off here and there (my road bike, for one) and finding room for the rest. It feels good to be living mono-coastal for the first time in a year, but I'm about to start traveling for work again. Le sigh.

Why Are People Drawn To The Ocean?

After 2.5 years on my project with Ingram Micro, it finally wrapped up this month.  The bulk of my professional experience with BackOffice and the majority of my international travel opportunities happened while I was on this project.  I lived in Santiago, Chile, for a few months and got to go to Argentina while I was there.  I then skipped over to Belgium and made multiple trips up to Holland to visit friends.  Then came my amazing 10 months in Australia plus a short trip to Fiji before I 'temporarily' moved to California a year ago.

Choices, choices...

Since the client would no longer pay for my rent in California and I still had a Georgia license, I had to make a choice: move back to Atlanta (I just rented out my house there so I would have to find a new place), stay in California or go back overseas.  The early leaders were returning to Australia or staying in California, but it all depended on where my next project would be located.

I did some initial investigation on my options in Australia and Singapore, but I was told that I would need to give a 2 year commitment for visa purposes if I were to go back.  I loved my time there, but putting that long of a time frame without making it permanent made me anxious.  I mean, if I decided that I was going to live in Australia forever then I would be willing to make the move. As great as it was, I don't know if I could do that.  I started exclusively focusing on west coast US projects and planned to 'settle' in California for now.

As I was making these plans, my company highlighted two projects where they wanted me to be staffed.  The first was a short term gig in New Jersey where I would be the lead.  The cross-country travel would be unfortunate but bearable.  The next project was long term (3 years) and was located in Connecticut.  It provided me with a lot of opportunities professionally, but crossing the country every week?  I must be crazy.

Wave 2 by Jessica Harms

I could always just live in Atlanta, NYC or somewhere else on the east coast to ease the travel.  There is something about living on the beach that draws me in.  It goes without saying that surfing is the #1 passion in my life, but it's not just that.  I bought one of Jessica's paintings back in 2008 - a couple of years before I ever got hooked on the sport.  I have always been drawn to water - maybe we all are.  Think about all of the big cities that are in harbors or bodies of water.  Yes, part of that is because they were transportation hubs.  But there is something else... the balance between awesome power and serenity is amazing.

After living by the ocean for the past few years, I don't think I can leave it.  I've had this conversation multiple times with different people that feel the same way - it's something that is hard to explain unless you've experienced it yourself.  Plus there's this girl out here...