CALIFORNIA

Got home on Saturday afternoon and it has really taken me this long to muster up the energy to do anything, really, including updating to say that I'm home safe and sound!

The last leg of the trip was fairly uneventful given that I've done that LA - Phoenix drive more than a few times, and was just in Coachella Valley a few weeks ago, but still I do love seeing the desert! My dad and I were out of the hotel by around 9a, stopped for a Starbucks, and then took that Interstate 10-West all the way home! (Fun fact: I'd been on and off the I-10 W since New Orleans!)

There was no California rest stop with a nice welcome sign (rude! who can I write to about that, by the way?) but we did get the faded poppy sign, and then got DEL TACO!! That's how you know I'm home! And then the fuel light came on somewhere inbetween Blythe and Indio, and let me tell you, that was a scary drive, although Coachella popped up before Indio and saved the day... relatively speaking, because somehow or other gas shot up to $4.13, where in the rest of the country it had been about $3.50. That hurt. And then we drove into some weird rain storm. But I made it!

Desert sites in Arizona, that just didn't look as good on the phone

There wasn't even anyone in any of the booths, but at least we got a picture

"Thanks" California....... forrrrr nuthin! Have you seen the welcome signs of the other states??

Coming out of the desert you can see the greener valley below, which represents civilization!

A sign for Los Angeles. Coast to coast!

Oh and in Atlanta, Jayna and I fulfilled her dream of making a karaoke cd, and you can all experience the magic here!

New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona and California! Sixteen states, three passengers and 3,087 miles later, here I am! For the record, I could have kept going. Give me that rental car back and I would have went straight up to Montana or taken the northern loop right back to the East Coast and come around again. I loved it!  But, now to settle in and figure out what I'm going to do and what is going on in life. Womp womp!