west coast roadie

i knew i was in for an entertaining trip once i met my bf’s friend, let’s call him joecoffee. joecoffee is also from arkansas. they met each other back in junior high. joecoffee had been a football coach for many years, but was ready to get out of teaching and coaching and he decided to move west to live with the bf.

joecoffee had packed up all of his belongs for this move, so needless to say we were a bit crammed. three adults, one sedan and the smallest little uhaul you have ever seen. he packed that thing like a mary poppins bag. now because of this trailer, we were only able to max out at 60 mph and we dropped down to 16 mpg. not something you’d like to do while driving through a desert.

as you can imagine, joecoffee likes coffee. loves coffee. this makes for many pit stops and pee breaks. i was totally fine with this, since i was never the one that we had to stop for.

we grabbed breakfast at the house before we left and hit the road around 10am. we had to take a few country back roads through texas before we hopped on the i-10. my turn to drive. i love driving, but it can get interesting in a car of 3 people with completely different preferences. i like windows down and music up. the bf also likes music, but a few different genres. i got my fill of the allman brothers on that trip! joecoffee prefers 80f inside temp and talk radio. not npr talk radio, but rush limbaugh and conspiracy theory radio. thank goodness for headphones.

the long drive didn’t really wear on me until after we stopped for lunch/dinner. long road trips and full bellies make for a little game of napping while driving. no no, i was fine, really. we did a good job taking turns driving. i think i had the first late shift, but i was able to hand the wheel over at 1am. i attempted to sleep before it was my turn again, but that was pretty impossible. if you can sleep in a crammed car while driving through howling winds across the desert, i applaud you.

aside from pee breaks and coffee refills, no other stops were necessary. of course we ended our 22 hour road trip in LA morning traffic. the remaining 15 miles to the house took an hour. that was a bit painful, but at that point i just laughed. probably because i was delirious and exhausted, but it seemed a bit too ironic not to chuckle.