It's pretty here....

This is tonight's (Friday) sunset from my driveway.

This is the sunset from my bedroom window tonight.

After I left the boat ramp tonight, this is the drive back to the main road...

Here is where our boat lives.  Crazy, eh?  We call an hour in advance - they bring their fork-lift over, grab the boat & set it in the water.  All we do is walk up and hop in.  :o) Then, when we get back, they pull it out, hose it off and put it away.  It's lovely!!!

Pic  from our boat ramp, looking at the rest of the marina area.

Made it through my first week!

Pretty houses on the coast - very s'uthern...

There are tons of these benches along the coastline.  Perfect study spaces!  :o)

This is actually a rough day here, since I have been here.  

Welcome to the Beach!

The patio to get to the beach.

Thanks again, Mar!!

Windy!  Walking on my new beach.  :o)  

I'm home.

Hey y'all.  (hehe - just kidding) - we made it!!  

After a long and fun week - Mary and I cruised up to Southport to my new home.  What a trip!!  (In more ways than one.)  

For those of you who thought this was the end... on the contrary - this is just the beginning!  I am getting ready to go shopping for my new bed-set (yay!) and other various errands, but I will post more later.  I have more to say about the trip, but my coffee is empty and my dad is ready.  :o)

Mary gets home today around 12:34 PST.  What a trooper!!  

Happy Monday to all and thanks for following our adventure across the country!  

~ linds

Last day!

Here is what the back-seat of my car looked like for 8 days.  3 house plants behind the driver.  Lyric's cage is the one in the middle.  Richard is on the far side, buried under the blanket.  He just literally chilled.  We got to pile some bags & stuff on him.  Good kitties!

Getting closer!!  South Carolina - Smiling faces, beautiful faces.  :o)

The turn-off to head north!!  

And here we go!!  Welcome to North Carolina.  First in Flight.  :o)

I can be flighty here with no excuses!

Peachy in Georgia

So.... this is our last night (except for Mary - she still flies bak home).

I am not sure how I feel.  I have posted 4 new posts.  (enjoy)

I am so excited.  It is strange that I have been planning this for months, and now I am on my last night before my life changes for a few years.  I still have no doubts.  Thankfully!!  

Honestly and sincerely, I thought I could do this by myself.... thank GOODNESS for Mary!!!!  She is my guardian angel.  It's been so nice, not only for company, but for the help.  2 extra hands... I should have added that to the "Tid Bit" entry you will see below.  Thank you Mary, Thank you Mary, Thank you Mary.  She is So sick right now... caught the travel cold.  :o(  I want to get us all the way tomorrow.  Today, she was so sneezy and so head cold, and she still gave me a break!  I love you Mar!!  (She is in the room now, taking a bath - only free internet in the lobby, so I am here, and she gets some unwind time.....)

Tomorrow, we stroll into my new home.  I will post then.  

xoxo,

linds

More pics!

We finally made it to Georgia today!  

 After Alabama (slamma) 

Mississippi was the first we saw today!!

2 cats, 3 house plants, a kitty luggage, our luggage.... it's a class act and we have it down to a science now!

Atlanta W, here we come!!!!

Trip Tid-bits

Here are a few interesting facts:

Since the purchase of my vehicle, I have driven 24K miles in 6 years

Averaging 4K miles per year

So far, in the last 7 days I (we) have driven it 2,813 miles 

After tomorrow - it will be 3,297 miles

Bertha is the name of our GPS

8 = number of states we have driven through

2 = number of states we have left!

4:10 PCS time on Friday, Dec 12th - I finally converted to my new time-zone on my cell phone.  (I have been on Pacific time this whole trip.)

2 cats

3 house plants

1 Bertha

1 each - Thelma & Louise

Brad?  I'll never tell - hehe. (jk)

1 extremely amazing road trip!!!

Photos

This pic was taken on the freeway leaving Lafayette on our way to New Orleans!!

We Finally made it to our hotel in the French Quarters!!  Hello W!  :o)  

House of Blues was our first stop on our adventure!

Mary on Burbon Street!

Mary and Linds - Pre-dancing in New Orleans!

so much fun!

we made it here at 3 ish. 

went out.

had a BLAST!!!!

we heart New Orleans!

pics tomorrow

really???

we made it here at 3 ish. went for a walk..... SO much fun.  here is Mary - We're having a great time.....laughing so much of way and enjoying all of the new experiences.  Lindsay is dealing  with me and the rodatripamerica cold I picked up in Texas, but luckily, here in New Orleans, there was enough vodka to make us both forget that I had a cold..hehehehe  Anyways, we are on the tail end of our trip and I can honestly say that I could not of ventured across the country with anybody but Linds.  Cheers to all! from Mary

Day 6 (Thursday) - STUCK!

Heya,

What are the odds... we took the Southern route on this trip to avoid snow!  Hmmm.... We had snow in Lafayette last night for their first time in years!  As we watched the weather channel this morning, we learned that I-10 is closed right now in Baton Rouge.  Crazy part is that today, we only have 138 miles to get to New Orleans.  What is exactly in the middle of us?  B.R.   

We're in the middle of the storm that we've been slightly ahead of this whole trip (coming down from Alaska - brrrrr, no wonder it's so cold) and the storm that is about to hit Florida.  Lovely. Makes for terrible travel situations on the roads. 

We're still hopeful to get there today.  We're also thankful to be past Houston.  They have already had a fatality on the roads.  (Really, people drove CRAZY near there...)

Keep up the positive thinking for us all!  :o)  

We need it, for sure.  

~ xoxo

P.S. we got Richard out of the bed!  (he came out)

Onto Greener pastures! - Day 5

8:53 am - departure

4:20 pm - arrival

410 miles

We woke up after the best night of sleep we both had this whole trip.  San Antonio was awesome!  Now that we are out of Texas, I will give you the real-deal.  From the moment we entered, it felt like a battle (El Paso & that story...).  Then, Van Horn was nada to write home about.  At least we were only 2 doors from the lobby.  :o)  We had to settle for extremely crappy coffee and hit the road (after Mary literally tried to clean the windows with only water and a 20 year old squeegie (sp?).  We made a stop at a gas station... I can't find a way to describe that situation (no worries, our car was cool & safe), so when you (who are reading this) are talking to me, ask me about it.  

San Antonio was HOT!  Mary & I decided to go for it!  Picture this combo = Linds, skirt & long sleeved shirt.  Mary, jeans and tank top with a shawl.  Hot & nice, turns to cold and windy.  We got a little turned-around because we exited the river walk in a different place than we entered.  Thank goodness for the turquoise jacket people!  They see lost tourists and walk up and ask to help!!  Cheers to Harley!!  I used to laugh at the SF tourists who would be on Pier 39 with sundresses, and it's cold!  They keep the "San Francisco" sweatshirt shops in business.  If it weren't for the fact that neither I, nor Mary wanted anything to wear that reads "Texas" - we chose to fight it out.  Let's just say a friendly breeze turned into being pelted in the face with texas dust/crap.  We still had blocks to go!  We finally made it.  Mary, using the scarf for shelter.  Lindsay, holding on dearly to my skirt.   I saw peeps laughing.  Shute, I would laugh at us too.

We changed, went back out much warmer & cozier and guess what?  We were met by Hail.  Texas.....

Today, we left - headed to Lafayette.  Houston was a trip!  Prolly the most stressful of the parts.  We (thankfully) had a route which took us around the main part of Houston.  It was lunchtime, so it was a great idea.  (Thank you Taylor & Mary!!!)  The thing is, it was a stressful belt-way!  Just the perfect way to end Texas!  We had rain & literally high-fived when we made it out of TX.  That rain turned into a hard rain.  We made it here at 4:20 (central time) and since it was storming, it was getting dark.  

Cats:  Richard is great during the day.  Meowes a little at night.  Tonight, we have those bed types where there is no "under the bed" - it's like a board.  He managed to pull an old trick (not known to us until i thought hard on where the he**ck he could be) and made a hole in the box-spring bottom cotton-cover thing, and crawled through.  He was missing for a while..... there were very few hiding places in this huge room... and then I remembered the ol' trick.  Sure enough - he was there.   Lyric is good.  3 plants are doing extremely well!!  We load those roller luggage things up from the lobby and it looks like we are moving in.... too much!

Tomorrow, the W in New Orleans!!!!  We can't WAIT!  Short drive - early check-in - fun times!!!

Side note:  We like comments!!  If you are reading, please feel free to leave us a note!!! :o)

~ xoxo

Tonight's hotel room has a pillar in the middle of it!!  Here's Lyric cruising around it.

Richard found the window before the box-spring...

The trees were beautiful around the River Walk.  :o)  Looks like fall?

Our state signs, thus far...

I know this is a repeat, but it goes with the others and was the first we saw leaving CA!

This small town of Deming had a better sign than most states!    Check out the happy hand waving!  :o)  "Goodbye, Deming!"

This is where the trip became most interesting...  "Drive Friendly - the Texas way" was correct - MINUS around the area of Houston.  Holestly, everywhere else - speed limit 80 and people followed it...  It was nice and stress-free

Get us out of Texas!  We are over the "hump" of the trip and both of us can't wait for the next few days.  

So stoked to get out of Van Horn!

So... this morning, Mary and I decided to get up at 5:30 AM and get the ef out of dodge.  It was really that bad.  Room reservations were screwed up.. town was small and slightly sketch.... So far, Texas was rubbing us wrong!  From El Paso to Van Horn... yowzers!  So, Mary set the alarm in the room, just in case.  Good thing she did!  We had NO wake-up call.  As we were already irritated with the place i said before we left, "hey, Mary, pick up the phone and see if it even works."  She did and no dial-tone!  Needless to say - we shook our heads and blamed it on Texas (our luck here hasn't been so good).  Gas station was our only coffee option and even that was bad.  I will stop here, but there's more......

Moving on!  We were headed to San Antonio.  

6:44 am departure

1:20 PM arrival

433 miles.  

Scenery went from dull and nada to hilly & covered in trees.

Below you will see a few new entries of pics, but the ones in this entry were our welcome to the rest of Texas.  We arrived early in San Antonio because we knew we would want to look around.  What a great idea!  We had a great afternoon!!  Earlier, we flew out of Van Horn in the lead of a storm.  It's safe to say by the hail outside right now..., it caught up!  We were caught off guard downtown early afternoon when the wind hit.  Skirt + wind = disaster.  :o)  Came home, changed - went back out!

The river walk is Awesome!!!!!!  The Alamo is really pretty, too.  I'm really glad we stopped here.  Everything crazy that happens now, Mary and I laugh so hard and say, "it's Texas, are you surprised?"  We laugh ALL the time.  After tonight we are over the hump. Only Lafayette, LA - New Orleans, LA & Altants GA left!  (only 3 more nights)  Then we pass through Myrtle Beach (we may stop and find some gents to Shag with) and then onto my new home this Sat!!  :o)

More posts will surely follow!

xoxo,

Linds

Starting the journey this AM

It was all so pretty.....

We saw a buddy to follow (note the car)

This was the last thing we saw before we went blind.  Thank goodness for that car!!  He turned slight left after this pic and we could follow.  Otherwise, It was scary how blind we both were, driving into the sunrise!  

San Antonio, Alamo & River walk

We made it to San Antonio!

Here's the Riverwalk...

Various Pics

Another fun shot of the ladies.  Had a blast on night #1 in Dana Point!  :o)

A tree in the heart of the Alamo, San Antonio, TX

This pic was taken from me, in passenger seat, in my rear-view window - of the lady behind us with the hitch-hiking tumble weed on her car.  You can even see the end of my car because I was zoomed into the rear-view mirror.  hehe.  Then, Karma caught up.

This gas station saved us....  

Howdy from TX!

This entry is going to be short & sweet and no pics.

Left AZ, headed through New Mexico. Got a really funny picture taken from my rear view window of this lady driving with a tumble-weed stuck to the front of her car. Yeah, remind me not to laugh....

As soon as we hit the Texas border it was..... less than great. Got a tumble-weed that I swear got stuck to my car! I saw this 2 to 3 foot thing tumbling right in front of me.... then checked the rear-view window and it didn't come out. D'oh!! Also, El Paso?... dump-ville! The hwy changed to 4 lanes & there was a lot of traffic and GARBAGE flying at us from every direction! no joke. That added to all of the dust... yuck. Was SO happy to get out of those 10 miles.

We are at the Super 8 tonight in Van Horn - the jankiest of our whole trip. Not sure who thought of the "Super" - but Mary and I are having fun thinking of all of the other "S" words that are more fitting. hehe. The wireless in the room even reads "use at your own risk" - or something along those lines. So I am in the lobby. Pictures will be uploaded tomorrow.

We're (HAPPILY) getting up early and getting the heck out of dodge. We are just making it through the night. :o)

Tomorrow we veture to San Antonio where we are staying by the River Walk and near the Alamo. Should be fun!

Kitties are still trooping along. I had no idea they were going to be so good!! Richard is a rock star. Lyric is all over the place. I hope a few more days are in them! :o)

It's like 30 degrees out here in the desert. Brrrr.

I heard that once I hit Texas there would be nothing. Who knew Robert would be So right. Not a whole lot to see.

Some of the scenery though looks like something out of a movie set. Super super pretty!

More tomorrow!!
Miss everyone!
~ Linds

Sunday - Day 2 "Pray to the gas gods"

471 miles

7 hours driving

Hola,

We hit the road around 9 today.  Mary drove first!!  yay!  Decided to take Hwy 8, so we swung past San Diego and headed east.  For a while we were parallel to the US/Mexico border.  What a trip - it's a large black fence.  When you look at it in the distance, it looks like a large black snake, slithering up and down the sandy hills... for miles.

Mary continues driving.  :o)  We switch later on at a random exit on the hwy.  Mary takes a nap and Linds is just strolling along, enjoying the drive....  Looks at the dash - gas light.  I won't tell you how many miles the odometer read because it was over the norm.   

Lindsay's head: "oh, S***"

I didn't wake Mary for about 10 miles because I was busy praying for a gas station in this deserted AZ desert hwy.  I was very thankful I have AAA (wink, wink) and I thought I was going to have to use it.  Finally, the red line hit the thick-white last gas line and I had to ask her how fast it had been going down all day?  (needed help)  Making a long story short - it was down to the wire.  We were trying to Magellan the closest gas station.  i hear Mary read, "11 miles" - not going to work for us....  Then, she returns it to the map picture (because I was literally wondering what it felt like to run out of gas (on a highway!) at this point and I think Mary could tell I was trippin'!!!!)  and the miles on the Magellan started reading 1.8 miles with green arrows pointing to take a turn.... then 1.6... I was like - Mary!! is that a count-down???  She replied "not sure" - trying to remain calm.  ("Count-down for what? the Magellan knows how fast I am going, can they read gas?" I wondered.)  Then comes the sign - Exit 151.....(next sign)...food & lodging............(next sign)........GAS!!!!!  Bingo baby!  Just in the nick of time.  

Made it to Tucson!  Heading out of AZ, through New Mexico tomorrow and into Texas!  3 states, one day.  

Kitties are (knock on wood) being amazing.  Not a peep out of Richard - he just chills all day in his carrier.  Lyric's is in the middle of the back seat and we opened her door today.  Much better!  She came to the passenger and crawled back into the case a few times.  Here are some pics.

Feel free to leave me comments!  :o)  

linds

DONE WITH THE POD!!

in Dana Point, Laurel, Mary & Linds

Check out the arrow.  It's pointing to us, and the border of US & Mexico.  Note: we were only going 71 mph. 

Road Trip!!

I'll log in from Texas tomorrow!  :o)  Cheers!  ~linds