The time has come to leave California... We knew this was going to happen, it just came so soon!
Having to transport 2 cars, a cat, a dog and all our stuff, the only option to get from point A (California) to point B (Wisconsin) was to drive! We loaded up after our last day of work in Monterey, said goodbye to the beach and got on our way!
We decided to take the Southern route to avoid the blizzard-like conditions in the Rockies. We know we are going to have to drive in snow soon anyway but wanted to put is off for as long as possible!
Our first night was spent in Bakersfield, CA... Not too interesting.
However the next day we got to Arizona...
If you look really closely you can see the "Welcome to Arizona" sign! Bear with me for the photography for this post, most of the pictures were taken at 60 mph!
In Arizona traveled through Kingman where there were beautiful canyons and the start of route 66. We were offered a position in Kingman, Arizona and immediately turned in down, but seeing how beautiful it is, we thought maybe someday...
In Arizona, we stayed in Flagstaff, where what do you know? There was snow on the ground! (no pictures because it was dark) It was a nice introduction to the coldness that was to come!
After Flagstaff we continued on our way through New Mexico. The rock formations were amazing and you could really understand why they call it "the Painted Desert." And seriously, there is nothing there except those rocks! It was at this point in the trip that I started getting tired and stopped taking pictures, so in place I will have professional pictures of what we actually saw :)
We stopped off in Albuquerque to let Stanley play in a dog park to get some energy out and were on our way!
From Albuquerque, we traveled into Texas were we have never seen such flat land in our lives! It just went on, and on, and on, and on. Then getting out of the car to get some gas we realized we had never felt such wind in our life! It was holding us up sideways complete with tumbleweeds! Something we will never forget...
Our next stop was Oklahoma City, OK. Here, the land was still very flat but the fall foliage was beautiful...
Jason and I spent the whole time looking out the window for signs of Tornados! Ridiculous, we know! I think we were watching too much weather channel at that point :)
Our Travel Companions!!
Next stop was St. Louis, Missouri. Here we got a chance to see the amazing arch on the Mississippi River...
It was beautiful and we got to see it in the morning before any crowds got there.
It was really huge...
and very neat to see the Mississippi!
Finally, on our last leg of the trip we went through the Illinois flatlands on our way to Chicago...
There was nothing but cornfields and long stretches of road as far as the eyes could see!
But we did drive through the town of Dwight!! We had to get out and take a picture:)
Finally, last stop was Chicago which was HUGE and had the WORST traffic! It didn't matter, we were almost "home"!!
This is only part of the Chicago skyline, I couldn't fit it all in the camera shot!
We are here!!! It was such a long trip but very interesting to see incredible parts of our country. We will be in Wisconsin for 6 months and are excited to explore Chicago, a Packers game, some good beer, lots of cheese and the SNOW!!
Current Location:
Milwaukee, WI
