Road Trippin' Again!

I finally got the much needed work done on my vehicle, so weekend before last, I took a road trip, the first one in over two years. Partly just to see if I could do it again (especially since I have a big vacation road trip coming up soon) and partly as a "tester outer" day for my co-worker who wants to go on my big road trip with me. Well, shock of shockers, my coworker backed out, which I wasn't surprised about and, although she is still talking like she's going on the big trip, I'm not 100% planning it with her in mind now, just to be safe. It was probably best being solo for this little trip anyway, after two years of not going anywhere, I needed the "break in". I did OK, but not brilliant, and I bit off WAY more than I could chew, but we'll get to that.

With her in tow, I had every intention of basically re-tracing my last road trip (not Disney, but Kansas)...a Supernatural trip, if you will. All the so-called Sam and Dean haunts (that aren't really Sam and Dean haunts because the show was filmed in Toronto, but you get it if you've seen the show). She has never been to Kansas outside of the one town she lived in for a brief time, is also a Supernatural fan, and all those sites are a day-trip kind of thing, so why not? As an alternative, I wanted to visit as many state capitols as I could in a day (by my count 5-6, depending on time), but she wasn't interested in that. Ironically, the day before she got her headache (on a Wednesday, that informed her she wouldn't be able to travel on a Saturday), I had watched a YouTube video ranking the state capitols, so I was wanting the capitol idea more, until...another crazy thought popped in my brain...could I actually make it to Colorado from Northeast Arkansas? And not just Colorado, but the Rockie Mountains and nick Wyoming while I'm at it? That would be two more states for my scratch off map (although, in all fairness, my capitol trip would be three, potentially four states, but I had the Rockie Mountains on my mind...too many vanlife YouTubers!).

I tried for at least three days to talk myself out of Colorado, after all, it was an incredibly stupid idea, right? I'm not on Ritalin anymore and I do tend to sleep more now, so my record of 34 hrs is probably unobtainable, I'm even more alone now than ever without any family for backup if something goes wrong, so driving to Colorado is just insane. I had also been battling a migraine that entire week too, but I had still resolved to go. I woke up late on purpose so I didn't have the time to make it (I left at 2:30 a.m. on Saturday morning), but I'm not really sure why I do things like that to myself when I know my mind was probably already decided.

One surprisingly serious shocker...about two hours in, I almost turned around and came back home because my ADHD kicked in and I was bored! That's the first time THAT has ever happened! I also had bouts of episodes where I started panicking about the house and the dogs, but I managed to control that after a while. Everything was fine and I have both a security system and cameras. The pups are old and sleep all the time. They had food and water and I could call someone to check on them if they needed it (which they obviously didn't). I did keep going through with the trip though, battling my issues, and, considering my first capitol was Kansas, I think I had already doomed myself on that front (we'll get to why in a mo-mo). I did stop in Lawrence (the home of Sam and Dean) just because I really love it there: And I needed to get a pic of the actual Lawrence sign that Jensen Ackles was climbing all over when he visited Lawrence himself, which I've been scouring Google Maps over forever to try and find and just recently came across it. NOTE: to those who want to visit, it's in a public area, but back off the road a bit to get to it, and I had a couple of strange vehicles pull up and "watch" me take pictures and just lurk a bit before driving away, so be aware of your surroundings: I did eventually make it to Witchita and the Kansas state capitol, but the traffic was mad because almost all the roads leading to the capitol were blocked off for some kind of festival, and I didn't get out to walk around (nor did I take pictures of the festival because I was managing both traffic, road blocks, and pedestrian traffic): I was so frustrated with the whole "capitol experience", I decided I didn't want to head up to Nebraska to hit the next one, I was going to Colorado to see if I could "touch" the Rockies, so off I went! And I'm pretty sure I had decided that the second I had left the house, but I'd like to think I still had a more "rational" plan in my head up to that point. Besides, if I really think about it, Kansas, Nebraska, touching South Dakota and Minnesota, back to capitols at Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Missouri, then home, might be a bit more crazy than just driving across Kansas straight to Colorado then up to Wyoming, right? Over 2000 miles is over 2000 miles and both trips were going to be over 30 hours, just variations of each.

But anyway, back to what actually happened, I haven't been further west into Kansas than the Geographical Center of the U.S. (my last trip), but the thing about Kansas is, there isn't a whole lot of anything anywhere but windmills: and oil rigs, some of which of the later were powered by solar panels (which seems like the biggest oxymoronic statement ever, but unfortunately, they were also hard to catch in picture form, so here's just a regular old rig: Two things I can say about Kansas, get gas when you can or else you're screwed and they have the cutest little towns (if it wasn't for the storms, I could live there)! You can't tell it in Kansas, but the elevation starts to rise drastically the closer you get to Colorado, the landscape stays flat. What shocked me is Colorado is pretty much flat too for quite a while before Denver! That surprised me! I was expecting instant mountains. Two things I can say about Colorado, they need to put money into their road system (their roads are terrible compared to Kansas) and they have a very popular welcome sign to be as ugly and "unprofessional" as it is: But then something strange happened, I started driving into a storm. Coming from the heart of tornado country, I didn't give this a second thought...at first, but driving through storms when you are in elevation is a whole other thing than being in a storm at my elevation! And I kept thinking that it had been flat for so long, surely I should be seeing mountains soon considering how high I was getting, but the storm was blocking them, until the big reveal: The closer I got to Denver, two things happened, the storms went away: and the bigger the mountains started to get: But then there was another huge shift, I got into Denver, another state capitol, by the way (so bonus). It started out OK, but then it turned incredibly dirty and scary the closer I got to said capitol, so much so, I got scared to stop at red lights. I've been in some pretty big and scary cities, but Denver ranks up there with Detroit in my opinion. That also shocked me. I expected more Denver. By the time I actually got to the capitol itself, I actually missed it entirely! I don't know what happened, but I literally drove right past it! I just kept focus on the mountains ahead of me and kept driving until the neighborhoods got good enough for me to pull over...by that time, it was 7:30 p.m. and I ended up in a Petco parking lot: I also had a tough decision, do I keep moving towards the Rockies, which were basically not far, but, considering the time, well into night for me with a "one way in" and "one way out" road. Then there was Wyoming and its capitol to consider, which I wouldn't even be able to see in the darkness. I could also just make another day of it, keep driving, and hit Wyoming, Nebraska, Ohio, Missouri and then home, but that would have been nuts, because I wouldn't have been home until time to go to work Monday morning and that is too long of straight driving for someone who hasn't been on a road trip in two years. Then there was the more sensible option of turning around right then and going home (which meant, according to my GPS at that point, it would be 3 p.m. Sunday before I got home). I was already frazzled, tired, a bit scared and, as much as I wanted to get closer to the Rockies, I was also more than a bit intimidated by them, so I decided to just go home. I can always go back (and make two days out of it and do it right). I didn't take any pictures close up other than the one above, and I did get a bit closer before I turned around. Totally unlike me. I'm just going to chalk it up to being out of practice and freaked. The camera didn't come out again until I got out of town, and the storm I had already drove through once was WAY worse by then as I approached it from the opposite direction. Lightning is scary when your IN the clouds, but I never could catch it in picture form (not from a lack of trying): And I got caught in a hailstorm for 11 minutes! We get hail here, oftentimes big hail, but it lasts two to three minutes max! And dumb me, instead of pulling under an overpass, I pulled off an overpass to its top, screaming at the heavens to STOP (like they were listening)! When I could eventually move again, I ended up with a low tire because the temperature dropped from 90 degrees to 58 degrees, but I carry a pump with me, so I stopped and took a breather, aired up and checked all my tires, and then moved on very slowly, closer the low end of the speed register, to allow the storm to move on through without me running into it again. One thing I can definitely say, I swear I saw more rainbows in that one Saturday than I have in my entire life! In addition to the others, here are two more: At one point, about 4 a.m., I pulled over at a rest stop to sleep, but because of either truck noise or just general uncomfortableness with my surroundings, I kind of realized that I wasn't going to sleep (and I wasn't really sleepy), and I just wanted to get home, so I headed back out after about 30 minutes. The road home was long, dark, and scary, with all kinds of animals on the side of the road. I didn't take another picture until I hit the Arkansas border, sometime around maybe 11 a.m.? I finally reached home on Sunday at 1:30 p.m. (GPS be darned), for a total of 2001.2 miles and 32 hrs and 54 mins. I'm just glad I made it home in one piece! At various points, my headache tried to slip back in, but I wouldn't let it. Wish all headaches were that easy to control. All in all, I was very disappointed in myself for not taking more pictures of the mountains, or even getting out of the car when I should have. That also tells me I don't really need to buy a new camera for my PA trip, but maybe, at least, a new lens, because I didn't change lenses not once and I can tell that hurt me. I tried to use my phone more for Instagram purposes, but I wasn't very attentive to it either. But I do need to make more of an effort to get out of the car, for the sake of my feet at least, they were humongous by the time I got home! I also didn't sleep until normal bedtime on Sunday night. I was pretty revved up.

As a partial aside, a few months ago I gave up sugar, dairy and gluten, so my snacks were all different this time (although I did bring my staples of Coke, Red Bull and licorice, everything else was following the guidelines), but I found myself not grazing the entire time as I usually do, which probably had a lot to do with the boredom, and I had a LOT of leftovers, especially the soda and energy drinks. I'd like to say I've lost a ton of weight, but I've only lost about 30 or so pounds. Probably because I'm not exercising and I toally veg on the couch until bedtime when I get home from work (and most all weekend).

I'm also really into podcasts at the minute, especially history ones, so I did listen to quite a few of those rather than music, which is what kept me going when I wanted to turn around and probably why I kept forgetting to take pictures like I normally would have been, I was distracted by podcasts. I tried audiobooks, but I do tend to zone out during an audiobook, so it's best not to do those when driving (plus, I'm not really listening to the reading anyway, so what's the use of the Audible subscription?).

I'm also pretty sure I need to get a AAA membership before I start trapsing up north. Several times on this trip I started to panic about "what if I have car trouble?". And when my tire light came on in the middle of nowhere, I almost lost it. For the record, of all the people who were pulled over with me and all those who passed by me, only one old man pulled over to ask if I needed help...ONE. And I was literally a good 50-70 miles from anything in either direction. It could have been disasterous. I kept watch on that tire the entire way home. I need to make sure I'm protected this next big trip, for my own sake. If anyone has any experiences with AAA, let me know. I know I have some roadside assistance with my car insurance, but I wouldn't trust it as far as I could throw it.

Overall though, I think I did OK, all things considered. I needed last weekend to "get over" the weekend before, but now that it's cooled off a bit (we've been well over 100 degrees pretty much all summer long and don't get me started on the storms and humidity), I'm starting to want to go to the beach one time before PA (and give my coworker one more chance to not back out again...if she fails again, I will uninvite her from the big trip, because I need to start finalizing plans and making some reservations). I'm now also sure the final things I need to get for this trip, so I'm working on those now.

I did start going to the eye doctor back at the beginning of June to get new contacts for this big trip and, as of this date, that still is not worked out. I took this Colorado trip with horrible eyesight and I was super mad about it. I don't understand why they are having such issue getting my new contacts working, especially after all these years. I knew it would be a long process, it has been every single year (which is why I started in June for a end of September trip), but now we are in the middle of August with no resolution in sight (no pun intended). I'm wearing an older pair now which I can see better out of than the pair I wore to Colorado, but they are incredibly cloudy (as was the left lens I wore to Colorado, only the right lens was new...I'm no longer wearing that one since that trip). The joys of hard lenses.

And that's about it! It was a long one, but trip updates usually are for me! If I do make another coastal trip, I'll let you know how it goes (hopefully with better pictures).