Stage II Complete!!!

After 2102 miles our journey came to a close without incident at our apartment. We came, we saw, we conquered or something like that. We will have the final tallies on fuel costs tomorrow. For now we were happy to finish the road trip at 30 hours and 45 minutes on the road with one night in Amarillo ... Strangely enough only 8 miles from the exact midpoint on our route.

Well, the last 325 miles really wore me down after Tracy called for the righty from the pen. We are both overly tired and excited to start our true journey living together!!

Cheers,
T & C

2-For-2

We made it through the snow and we didn't hit any elk, which is nice. The National Park by Flagstaff is known for elk and a sign warned of their presence for 65 miles. We did see one unlucky elk ko'd on the side of the road. I can't even imagine what that vehicle looked like after the impact. Either way the elk got the worse end of the deal. More light fluries again, but it shouldn't be an issue for our superstar Tracy who hails from even snowier Sota.

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Flagstaff Full Of Snow

I just handed the Jetta over to Tracy after taking the Albuquerque to Flagstaff shift. The scenery is at its best in Flagstaff elevation 7335 feet. The trees are frosted with snow and there's more than a foot on the ground. The roads are pretty good but we've finally run in to some less than desirable weather. We've picked up some snow outside of Flagstaff and we hope we start to reach lower elevations before nightfall about 30 minutes from now.

We just clicked past the 1650-mile mark and we are both ready to see the California Arizona border.

We've traveled on and near Route 66 and the history of that highway is really interesting. We'll read up more on that when we get home.

The Texas Panhandle left a lot to be desired and we both decided you would have to be one tough SOB to live there during the summer. It truly is No Country For Old Men even if it's not close to where that movie was filmed. The only interesting sight during this portion of the trip was the winged Cadillacs buried hood first right as we left Amarillo. And really that's about it.

We both really like Zona. It's about a 4000 time improvement over New Mexico and the Texas Panhandle.

Only 400 miles to go!!! We'll post a snow update shortly.

T and C

Armadillo Texas! Stage I Complete

We toughed it out and ended our journey at Comfort Inn and Suites in Amarillo, Texas, after 1,042 miles on pavement paradise. Or, as we wearily refer to this city as, Armadillo, TX.

There are literally a hundred hotels to choose from here and we're kind of perplexed at what this area has to offer. I guess it's the Old West and pretty much the only place to rest between Oklahoma City and Albuquerque. And, we learned Amarillo has one good thing to offer: steak houses. As soon as we turned on the TV in our hotel room a 72-oz. steak eat-off right here in Amarillo was taking place on the Travel Channel. Check it out Right Here. Fortuitous timing, I'd say.

Today, we got underway at 7:30 a.m. instead of 7 as planned but we made it to Amarillo right at 11 p.m. So far, the trip couldn't be any better. The Jetta is running great and getting terrific gas mileage. We estimate $125 for fuel at $1.65 a gallon and we'll be pretty close to that. Not bad for 2,000 MILES!!!

Well, we are pretty tired so it's time to turn in and start Stage II tomorrow. We have the time changes on our side as we gain two hours tomorrow zipping through the Mountain and Pacific time zones. With that in mind, we are aiming for a later 8:30 start. More updates from the road tomorrow.

T & C

Kansas for $5.25 ... Not worth it

Well I just handed over the wheel to Tracy after putting in 350 miles to get us to the 700 mark. We are now just north of Oklahoma City and we are glad Kansas is behind us. It cost $5.25 to drive through on 35W and I'm not sure it was worth it ... Boring. I guess there's beauty to untouched prairies and the such, especially for pheasant hunting. From the car view however, it can get boring to look at fast. On foot after reading an entry from Aldo Leopold it's a completely different story I'm sure.

Anyways, we are averaging 67.5 miles an hour. Not bad considering a few fuel stops and food stop along the way. Still aiming for Amarillo, TX tonight and that would put us in there after 11. We will see how we feel once we get in to the Lone Star State.

Show me what?

Show me Missouri that's what. Tracy has logged 325 miles in the first leg of our journey. We plan on stopping for lunch soon and I'll take over driving until dinner.

Put This On Your Blog

Our whirlwind Holiday trip is almost over after bouncing around the cities and St. Cloud for Christmas and the move. Friday morning we are off to California in the Jetta ... a 31-hour journey. We will split it up tomorrow night, but our main goal is to make it home in time to watch the Vikes game on Sunday.

We got Sirius installed yesterday so we'll have plenty of time to learn all the satellite stations. Plus, we can tune in to the Saturday playoff games before we stop at the Grand Canyon, if we make it before the sun goes down.

We've spent the last four nights at John and Katie's and we can't thank them enough for putting us up after all our furniture was moved Monday. We enjoyed seeing all our friends for New Year's Eve. Courtesy of John's new i-Phone and his demands "Put this on your blog, beeotch", check out a few photos. Tracy and I jamming Country Singstar and John and I reliving our man trip to Bed Bath and Beyond earlier in the day before picking up Tracy's car at Circuit City.

We'll update you to burn time in the car if I can figure out posting with my Blackberry.

T & C

T-Mobile = A Lot of Work

I bought Tracy a T-Mobile phone for Christmas with the intention she would return it to T-Mobile and re-up her plan to upgrade to a better phone. On Monday, Tracy and I made the trip to T-Mobile by her townhouse in Blaine after the movers were finished to look over her options.

What we learned is T-Mobile's phones are absolutely terrible. It's no wonder I had dry sweats buying her phone a few weeks back for her present. The selection is really weak compared to other cell phone providers and almost every phone has received a mediocre review. I bought her the Gravity, which is the poor man's Sprint Rant. Since I paid full price for the phone, she was able to use the credit and buy what she really wanted.

After looking over her options, with a little convincing from me, Tracy opted for the Blackberry Curve. It required her to upgrade her plan with unlimited data, but I think it's worth it. It's not much more a month and she'll get addicted to the Internet. The phone is probably the best T-Mobile offers. It's no i-Phone touch (John and Katie) or a Blackberry Storm (Dan), but it's pretty good.

What's not good is upgrading a plan at a T-Mobile store if you are in a rush. I think I spent less time getting a home mortgage than we did at T-Mobile upgrading her phone. Why does it take 5 minutes just to ring up the phone purchase and memory card and another 15 - 20 minutes to get the phone service switched over? I'd say it was pretty ridiculous and my patience has a tendency to wearing thin over customer service. Maybe she was moving as fast as she could, but it's just T-Mobile's antiquated computer software ... kind of like their phone software!

Well, we are staying at the Siegrist residence ... Holiday Inn Express as John calls it ... for the next two nights. Thanks for letting Tracy and I crash at your house and we look forward to New Year's Eve.