earthsedge

A fox wandered into the back yard yesterday. We’ve seen him around before, but this is the first time I was able to get a decent picture. He came right up to the porch, killed a mouse, and continued on his way.

Total Miles: 4826

Total States: 11

Cheapest Gas: $2.39 (Oklahoma)

Most expensive gas: 3.79 (California desert)

Speeding Tickets: 0

Roadkills: We stopped counting after a hundred. And that was just Illinois, Missouri, and half of Kansas.

Tom Cruise sightings: 1 (well, he may have been wearing a mask). Our other brush with a celebrity was when we got stuck behind Alan Jackson’s tour entourage at a toll booth-which led to Becka’s confession that she once owned an Alan Jackson cd.

Worst Bathroom: Shamrock, Oklahoma at the Phillips 66 station. We stopped there in the middle of the night. I think they would be better off digging a few holes out back. They may need to soon, since two out of the three toilets were out of order.

Best Bathroom: Basspro Shops, Springfield, MO

Mike and Ike’s consumed while driving: Too many to count

Starbuck’s stops: Maybe 3 or 4. This number is low because I brought some nice coffee along and brewed it myself whenever we weren’t driving.

Best view: Laguna Beach, CA, and the Utah desert. I think the beach was definitely one of Aidan’s highlights:

Worst view: The Inland Empire. At least the smog isn’t too bad this time of year.

Most surreal moment: Staying with total strangers in a house by a cemetery in the middle of nowhere in Kansas.

Best Lunch Deal: $5 footlongs at Subway

Questionable Logic/Marketing Fail/Sad Commentary on our Society:

Worth the stop: Denver surprised us in a lot of ways. It snowed and sleeted while we were driving in, but the next day was in the 60s and sunny. We stayed with a wonderful older couple who spoiled us, and hung out with Becka’s sister who now lives there. We walked around the city center (which was beautiful). The public library was amazing, and there was a free museum across the street. I accidentally left my water bottle in a park bench in the city center, and when I came back a few hours later, it was still there. But one sad thing: there were literally hundreds of homeless people hanging around the city center.

Most redeeming moment: We forgot to bring any books with us, which we instantly regretted. Then I found a Michel Foucault book at Goodwill for $1.99, and Becka found the entire James Herriot series at her parent’s place.

Biggest disappointment: we picked out a really nice camping site by a lake in Arizona, but when we showed up, it was closed for the winter. Aidan took it pretty hard (we had been telling him the whole time we would set up a tent by the water-two of his favorite things). But we still had a good time an alternative place:

Weddings Attended: 1

Successful Dental Operations: 1 (thanks Beth!)

Trips to In n’ Out: 3

Best meal: The Market Broiler (thanks Greg). But all the amazing Mexican food we ate was a close second.

Worst meal: a $1.50 polish dog from Costco. I don’t know what was in that thing, but I still felt queasy four hours later.

Best Aidan moment: While camping in Arizona, Becka pointed out all the stars to him. I asked him if he could count them all, and he looked up and said, “One, Two, Free” over and over again.

Rudest Strangers: The employees at the New Mexico welcome center. Not very welcoming.

Kindest Stranger: An elderly man offered to pay for our meals “because that boy of yours is such a nice little fella.” That made us feel pretty good!

Most played song while driving: Southside of Heaven by Ryan Bingham

Best way to pass the time in the car: This American Life. This is one of our favorite podcast/radio programs…

Most Disturbing: Listening to hours of right wing talk radio while driving through the heartland. Apparently fear sells better than corn.

I could’ve cried moment: When we decided to drive straight through on the way back after spending one night in Arizona. We started driving and less than an hour later, our ancient ipod’s battery died, with 24+ hours left to go. This is the first time it occurred to me that maybe it is worth spending $30 on a car charger. When I got home, I discovered that they don’t cost $30, but you can get one for a few bucks. Man. But it was kind of nice driving in silence through those vast stretches of New Mexico, Texas, and Oklahoma.

Best part of the whole trip: getting to see all our friends and family!

We are in California, and will be for at least another week. We’ve been moving around a lot, so posting a lot hasn’t been an option. But here’s some pictures from the last few weeks:

Just before we left, we (or I should say Becka!) broke down and gave Aidan a haircut. Here’s what he looked like before we cut it:

This is in-process. Becka cut it herself on the front porch:

We took our time driving to California. The Mennonite Your Way program was a great experience-I’ll write more about it later. We stayed one night in Kansas with a nice family and then stayed with an older couple in Denver for a few days while we visited Becka’s sister and explored the city. It snowed the first day we were there, and was in the 60s the next day. The Denver Capitol:

Aidan really liked these giant cows:

Driving into Las Vegas:

A family wedding in California:

Aidan taking a break:

Becka’s parents are moving. We stayed at the old house for a few days and boxed some of our things up. It seems very empty! The end of an era, I guess. Becka taking a break, while Aidan plays in a box:

We’ve had some beautiful weather. Some hot days, but mostly mild and sunny. Aidan has been asking to go to a park every day:

This week, among other things, we’re trying to put together our trip out west (we leave early next week). We’ve made this trip more times than I can remember, but I never get tired of it. I love driving across the country. With the possible exception of Australia, just about every place we’ve lived has started to feel crowded after a while (which probably says more about me than the places). After a while I start missing the sheer vastness of America. Plains, mountains, wilderness…America has got it all. And the best way to see it, in my opinion, is still by car. (Not that we have one, but thanks to my folks for letting us borrow theirs…and it’s a little nicer than the one pictured above!)

This time around we’re trying to plan our trip a little better. Before Aidan was born we used to drive straight through, camp (the preferred option), or sleep for a few hours here or there. Now that Aidan is a very active almost-two-year-old, the driving straight through is probably not an option. We would camp, but all of our camping gear is in California, so we’ll save that for the return trip (if its not too cold). Hotels are sometimes fun, but they are usually sterile and outside of our budget.

So we’re going to try something new. It’s called Mennonite Your Way, which is a hospitality network through the Mennonite church (and others who volunteer to participate). You can stay with local families all over the world for a small donation, the idea being it’s a way of building relationships with new people and encouraging hospitality across cultures.  Some Dutch friends recommended it to us; they raved about it so much that we decided to give it a try. If it turns out to be worthwhile, we’ll share our experiences in another post.

Once we’re in California we’ll be moving around. We would love to catch up with as many friends and family out that way as we can. So drop us a line!