I've Been Everywhere

I know, we're so far behind, but the trip kicked off with a couple of rocky days and we are finally getting our bearings here. As of this moment, we are sitting in our hostel in Madrid unwinding from the first week of our journey and taking advantage of a finally reliable internet connection. Obviously we've already made three stops, and I will post about those in time.

This is the short story of our crazy 3.5 day drive across the country in a 26-foot truck. We started off late, paid for it in the form of California traffic and couldn't even make it past Flagstaff, AZ the first day (granted, Michael was basically dying the day before, and I was still sick from a week before). The next day, though, we were feeling much better and finally got on a roll. We drove through the emptiness that is New Mexico, and saw a lightning storm, a huge wildfire, and 3 overturned trucks, and finally made it to Amarillo, TX and a quite... let's just say charming hotel.

The next day was tornado country, and a landscape of splintered trees and leveled barns in Oklahoma and steep climbs in Arkansas. We stayed in West Memphis that night, and crossed the Mississippi to drive through our new favorite state all the next day. Tennessee is simply beautiful (at this time of year at least). The greenest green I've ever seen and a river or lake at most every 10 miles. We stopped in the city of music for some amazing soul food (fried green tomatoes!) and pushed through the night and up the Smoky Mountain Range all the way to Raleigh. I don't think we've ever felt relief like pulling up to Michael's father's house. Mission Penske completed, and leg one of the trip too. And what I learned is our country's beauty is underrated.