road trip rewind

A few quick pictures from the road trip from LA to Dallas last week. The trip was supposed to start with my daughter picking me up at the airport at seven a.m. after which we would immediately embark on our drive back to Dallas, where I started out earlier that morning.

I was thrilled because, for once, I would not have to be involved in the packing. Sorry, but the girl has a history when it comes to moving. A sordid history involving things like chopping legs off of a couch at four a.m. in a last-ditch effort to make it squeeze through the door. Of course, this was after removing an entire iron railing from a two-story flight of stairs, which was stage one of the couch fitting fiasco. Her history also involves generally trying to cram two tons of material into a one-ton space and not starting to pack until your actual deadline for moving has already passed. This time, she packed up the minivan all by herself in Palo Alto the day before she picked me up. Whoo Hoo! You could not have added a toothpick into that bulging van.

We had a good plan. Until it fell apart. On her way to get me, the rented van's check engine light came on. Why, Lord, why? I'd been so close to not actually having to hoist or shove a single thing. So, I met her at Hertz, where she'd rented it from.

Let me save you the stress of the next two hours simply by saying we were the girls with the two bikes, two sets of snow skis, golf clubs, piles of clothes, shelves, and numerous boxes of kitchen supplies strewn out all over the place in the rental car return lane as we waited for them to find another equally-large van as loads of people streamed by on their way to the airport shuttle shouting out oh-so-helpful comments like, "Wooooah - looks like you ladies did some shopping!" and "Are you gonna take all that stuff on the airplane?" And, yes, I was that person heaving with all of my might to squeeze our final item: the second pair of skis, into the already-full replacement van when I noticed the bike tire we'd overlooked still sitting on the curb to be fit in. Aargh. Eventually, we finagled it in and headed off.

The rest of the drive was great. We stopped in Phoenix to see a dear friend and former co-worker who I still miss, ten years after she moved there. She was nice enough to put us up for the night and we even got to go to yoga with her next morning. I was in love with the mountains and scarlet sunsets we saw as we puttered along, as well as the desert landscapes and muted colors. I hope you enjoy these photos from the drive.