We left Winnemucca extra early -- maybe 7ish -- as we were excited to get going and arrive in our new home. Throughout the trip, our faithful servant, Vanessa (Vanessa is our name for our GPS) had done a pretty darn good job of getting us where we were going. She had a few problems in Chicago, as the tall buildings blocked her signal. Plus there was the time we were just about to get on the entrance ramp to the highway, when she suddenly told us to drive another mile ahead, and upon us doing so, she promptly told us to make a u-turn and head right back to the same entrance ramp. But overall, she had been an incredible help in navigating.
One of Vanessa's fine features was that she kindly tells us an estimated time of arrival. Often she is off by a bit, but usually she is in the ballpark. So, when, as we left Winnemucca, she told us our ETA was in just 3 1/2 hours, at around 10:30 a.m., we were thrilled. I had figured the trip at about 5-6 hours, and we were thrilled at the prospect that my figuring was wrong and Vanessa's was right.
It was not to be. I'm not quite sure just what Vanessa had for breakfast, but she shouldn't have it again. The trip took about 5 1/2 hours. It was actually a bit funny because toward the latter part of our drive, for each minute we drove, Vanessa would just extend our ETA by another minute. It was as if we were getting nowhere though we were driving 70 miles per hour.
Well, anyway, it was a beautiful drive going through the mountains as you cross into California. But, frankly, we were done with sightseeing at this point, and just wanted to get "home".
When we arrived, Josh was there to greet us, and he had many nice treats for us. He had stocked the house with delicious foods, planted us a wonderful herb garden, fixed the broken garage door -- lots of pleasant surprises! And, as we set about beginning the unpacking of all the "stuff" the movers had delivered, he even made us both lunch and dinner! Thanks, Josh.
So, we are now here in Berkeley, setting out upon this new life. Excited. A bit nervous, Certainly disoriented. But, here, and getting started.
The trip, we hope, will provide us lots of nice memories -- right now, life is enough of a blur so as to obscure the trip really (maybe that's why I'm just getting to this final entry).
The trip took us a total of 4512 miles, across America and then some.
As this picture demonstrates, our car collected 4 million splattered bugs (okay, it's an estimate). It was not always easy for our family to get along in such close quarters for a 3-week period, but we managed. We saw sights that were new, exciting, beautiful, magnificent, strange and mundane too. We got a sense of how large the country is, and how much it is varied in so many ways.
It was a good trip. Now the real journey begins.
