Leaving California July 2006

Leaving California: Sacramento, Tahoe, San Francisco, Napa Valley, Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, L.A., Disneyland, Monterey, Los Gatos, Santa Cruz, etc. (click view all to ... view all)

How did Sacramento Get ... Cute?

Midtown Sacramento

From Wikipedia: "Midtown is a trendy neighborhood just east of Downtown Sacramento bounded by Broadway Avenue on the South and the American River on the North. It's a largely residential community with tree-lined streets and old victorians. It is also the center of Sacramento's art, music, and cultural scene. Boutiques, bars, clubs, upscale, and casual dining abounds. Midtown hosts an art walk every second Saturday of each month which attracts thousands of metropolitan residents. Increasing in-fill develoments consisting largely of upscale lofts have priced out some residents. Historic sights such as Sutter's Fort, the first European settlement in Sacramento, are located in Midtown. Midtown is known for being pedestrian friendly and bike friendly with continuous marked bike-lanes throughout the neighborhood and a bike path connecting to the American River Parkway which extends all the way to Folsom. Public transit consists of light-rail lines running down R st. connecting the neighborhood to the metropolitan area and bus lines serving the central city area."

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Thursday, 27 July: Packing

Packing everything up sure turns moving into a reality. Two crews came on Thursday. One to pack everything up. And another to load it all into the moving truck. Why the same people can't do both jobs is beyond me.

The packing crew came first. They wrapped everything. I mean everything. I think they even wrapped our newspaper with newspaper.

And I think the moving crew was high. By late afternoon our place was empty.

That night we slept on the hardwood floor in our living room watching movies on our laptops, eating ice cream out of the carton with the one plastic spoon we had between the two of us.

Friday, 28 July: Leaving

With all the furniture out, we had the apartment wide open to clean.
It was 3:00 in the afternoon by the time we finally left Sacramento.

Nevada

We landed in Elko, Nevada after a very uneventful drive. Somehow I broke my camera along the way (the lens jammed), so I have just two photos to document the 2,100 mile drive. And they’re not even in this blog.

http://www.nevadaweb.com/cnt/cc/elko/

Saturday, 29 July: On the Road Day #2

Utah

Driving through Utah on highway 80…sucks.

(We did see some neat rocks along the drive,
but not like we would have seen at a National Park)

(Salt Lake City)

We only argued once along the drive, which happened to be in SLC, when Patrick said, “Ugh, I CANNOT get this car up this hill,” while we were climbing up mountain in Salt Lake City (probably that mountain range you see in the background). Actually it was the third time he said it, that I finally took it as some sort of underhanded comment about my car and snapped, “Well I’m sorry I don’t have a Subaru WRX!” which is what he says. That was one of the lamest things I have ever said.

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Wyoming

Wyoming was a much better, scenic, and even beautiful drive! We stopped the night in Cheyenne. Get this­­-- the rodeo was in town!? I swear, we got the last hotel room in the city. I guess the rodeo is a big deal. And everyone in Cheyenne wears a cowboy hat. That was a new experience.

I’d definitely say that Wyoming has good BBQ sauce.

"Welcome to Cheyenne, Wyoming, your Rodeo and Railroad Capital”

Sunday, 30 July: On the Road Day #3

Welcome to Nebraska...and Iowa

Driving though Nebraska...back to sucking. Iowa was a better drive, but everyone at Target was very…white. We stopped at my friend Trish’s place near Iowa City. She made us dinner. And cupcakes. I love her!

Monday, 31 July: We made it!

Only 4 hours to Chicago, so we were easily there by lunch: