State to State

Here is our journey across the United States.

We started in California, of course. The first state we crossed into was Arizona. We were just traveling through; we ended up stopping at several rest areas because it was the first time for Sage in a car for 13 hours so she was just a little restless. The only challenge was finding a rest area that was open. Due to the economy a lot of Arizona's rest areas are closed because there is no money to up keep them.

New Mexico is next and this is where we finally stopped for the first night. Albuquerque, New Mexico. It was such a long day hauling through two states with a total of a 14 hour day. We will not be doing that again for a long, long time.

With a nice night’s sleep we started on day two of our journey, we traveled through the rest ofNew Mexico, which went by pretty quick. We then entered into Texas. We watched people get pulled over one after another right in front of us, and who stepped out of the police car? Of course it was police men wearing cow boy hats and cow boy boots. I mean I know they “say” that’s what they wear; I just didn't realize it was a reality.

Through Texas to one of my favorite states… O-K-L-A-H-O-M-A Oklahoma!! It is so green and beautiful, compared to the desert we had been traveling through for the past day and a half.

We stopped at the Oklahoma City temple. Unfortunately it was Monday so it was closed but we got to see the outside and the grounds. It was really beautiful and it was a nice break from the highway we had been on all day.

We decided to take Sage out so she could stretch her legs as well. We were worried about her because she had not gone to the bathroom since the night before we left. It had been two days so we were hoping she would calm down enough to concentrate and go to the bathroom.

This is one of my favorite parts of the temple. I love the saying and meaning Holiness to the Lord!

A gorgeous fountain on the back side of the temple over looking the temple grounds.

After Oklahoma City we were so close to the city I used to live in, so we had to stop. Our next destination was Edmond, Oklahoma. We stopped for dinner at CiCi’s Pizza buffet, which I hadn’t eaten since living in Oklahoma since I was a kid. The pizza was so yummy! After dinner we went and looked at the house we used to live in so I could show Michael. It looked so different and small. It is so funny how things like that change from when you are kid and you remember things being so big.

That night we had to travel an hour and a half to Tulsa, Oklahoma where we were staying. We got in at about 10 to our hotel and they were not being kind to us, they made us wait for our room to be prepared for a half hour out in the cold with no where else to go. Then once we got into the room it was filthy and disgusting. So at almost midnight we changed hotels throwing all of out stuff into the car as fast as we could and drove across town to a wonderful La Quinta Inn. We had been having issues with the moving company that was moving us and they were threatening not to move our stuff. At this point it was still sitting in a storage unit in California and we were worried about it. So once we got to our nice comfy hotel I was feeling so sick. I ended up throwing up all night. It turned out to be a long night. It was a relief to wake up and pack to get ready to see some family in Missouri.

Once in Missouri we made our way to my Uncle Scott’s. He is my dad’s oldest brother and he lives just a little outside St. Louis. We had so much fun at their house. Sage got to play with their dogs and all the neighbor dogs. It was a blast. He has a Koi pond and we got to see them and feed them. It had been a while since I had seen him, and Michael had never met him so it was exciting for both of us.

We stayed the night with Uncle Scott and the next day we headed out passing by the St. Louis temple and the gateway arch.

Passing through Illinois

And Indiana

Finally into Ohio where we would be staying with my Grandpa, we spent a really nice evening relaxing and watching TV. It may sound boring but after you are sitting in the car tense and driving just sitting and not having to think about anything is wonderful!

We were so excited because the next day we knew we would be entering into Pennsylvania, our final destination, and end of day 5! We were excited to find that when we woke up the next morning we were expecting rain. Now you have to understand that Michael being a California native was ecstatic about this. To his greatest desire it rained all the way up until we got about 30 miles from my parents house, It was a really nice change. In the end we arrived safely and extremely stressed to the max, but it was a great feeling to know that we would be starting a new chapter of our lives with family and friends close by.