going to california

1400 miles is pretty easy, but i was in no rush to get to cali so i thought i'd play it safe and split it up into 3 days. it also gave me an excuse to stop in phoenix to visit one of my fab gal pals. 


true to my usual form, i left everything to the last minute. i wasn't able to find a driving companion so i decided to rent a u-haul pod so i could pack my stuff and leave the transport up to the professionals. seems convenient and cost-efficient, but i've been sleeping on an air mattress for a week straight, so i'll let you weigh the pros and cons on that one. moving on.... pod packed (big thanks to my dearest 4' 11" friend) and ipod charged, i took off on wednesday, september 1st. i was hoping to hit the road around 8a, but as i mentioned before, i'm a bit of a procrastinator so 10:30a was good enough for me. 


day one was definitely the toughest stretch since i was going 620 miles that day. it didn't help that i was going to be traveling within the state of texas for 95% of the day so there were no state line celebrations to enjoy until the very end. another con was being stuck behind TWO double-wides for a lovely 20 mile stretch. gotta love those texas county roads! luckily i had peacho's, a great playlist and an icy cold mountain dew on hand, so it made the country congestion a bit more bearable.

i must admit, west texas is pretty flippin' beautiful. i definitely noticed a lack of clouds once i breached the boarder. 

once i got onto i-10 i was making great time! did you know that the speed limit in texas is 80 mph!? thank you, lone star state! and as much time as i had made up thanks to the speedy speed limit, i decided not to meander in mexico but stay on track towards las cruces. here's a shot of juarez, mexico.

i rolled into las cruces around 7p mst. nothing too exciting to report. food. shower. bed. the end. the next day was pretty exciting because i was off to visit my dear friend at her new college campus. easy breezy drive. still pretty scenic through new mexico to arizona. there was this really cool rock formation in dragoon. apologies for the poor picture quality. it's pretty tricky to drive and shoot at the same time.

i thought i was going to meet my friend a bit later than i had anticipated, but thanks to arizona's refusal to acknowledge daylight savings, i was right on time. another fun fact for you.... an early september evening in arizona = 113F. dry heat or not, it was outta control hot. temperature aside, my phoenix cameo was short but sweet. good food, drinks and convo. muchas gracias for the hospitality!


day 3 was early, and lackluster. at one point my big highlight was passing through the city desert center. for realz. solid desert until you hit palm springs. i was lucky to roll into la when i did because half the city was getting out of work early for labor day weekend. i must admit that most of them seemed to be going in the opposite direction, away from the city, so that definitely worked in my favor. grabbed some essentials and a welcome to cali drink with the bestie and called it an evening. so far so good.