road trip, part one

so this week i moved across the country.  literally.  from michigan to colorado – that’s about a 20-hour drive if done in one fell swoop.  driving that kind of distance provided me with many stories as well as a lot of thinking and processing time.

 

so first, the stories:

day one of travel was wednesday. i left my parents’ house in michigan at about 730am (eastern time), had my dad follow me to make sure the car-top carrier was staying in place okay, visited kari, drove through a lot of rain/mist/fog, saw a really cool sky, almost hit a deer in iowa, and got to northwestern college, where my 20-year-old sisters go to school, at about 8pm (central time) – in all about 13 1/2 hours of travel.  then i proceeded to hang out with said sisters for quite a while even though i was exhausted.

side note: when i visited my teammate kari on the way out, she shared how she didn’t want to be working in an office among all Christian people in the town in which she grew up, but in God’s divine sense of humor that’s exactly where He has her right now…and she knows she’s doing exactly what she’s supposed to and she’s thriving in it.  just a bit of an encouragement to me in the midst of a long day.

 

day two wasn’t so much travel as it was “hang out with the sisters that i don’t get to see very much.”  i slept in (or attempted to, anyway), colored, watched a movie, played cribbage, ate their food, hung out with their roommates, and pretended i was in college for a day (without any of the actual school stuff, though).  it was great to just spend time with them, and i definitely needed a day of rest in between two long travel days.

 

day three, friday, longest day ever.  i left northwestern at 7am, hoping to make it to colorado springs around 5pm.  by the time i got to omaha, nebraska (2 hours down the road), i realized it had started to snow. hard.  and that the roads were getting bad.  so i called my mom and her response was basically “turn around.”  yikes…definitely not what i wanted to hear at that point in the day.  so to make a long story short, i drove around the major snowstorm, freaked out when the “check engine” light came on in my car (turns out it wasn’t anything that was going to leave me stranded or even really affect me, so i could keep going and be fine), watched a semi-truck start moving over on top of a car not too far in front of me, drove across almost the entire flat state of kansas, and ended up traveling for about 14 hours instead of 11.  that’s a really long day.  however, during that time, i was able to have many conversations with jackie (fellow world racer that i moved in with in colorado), renee and caitlin (teammates), and my mom (because that’s what moms are for!)…so thanks, friends, for keeping my day upbeat and entertaining me with your funny stories and ramblings. 🙂

 

so friday night i got to jackie’s apartment (i guess it’s my apartment now, too), and as we were carrying the first load of my stuff up the steps a couple nice guys came out and asked if we needed some help…bonus!  so instead of just unloading a little bit like i had planned, we had the entire contents of my car on the living room floor in about 20 minutes time.  it was wonderful to not have stuff all over my car anymore, and when i woke up the next morning and wanted something i didn’t have to go all the way down to my car to find it.  also, when i walked in to my bedroom in the apartment, i was greeted with a pile of goodies compiled from suggestions from my beloved teammates. so basically jackie rocks for buying that stuff and my team rocks for knowing me well enough to know what kinds of comfort foods and fun things i would like.