Welcome back! Look at me posting two weeks in a row! This week on the blog I'm sharing about mine and Shawn's three day drive to Little Rock, Arkansas. After moving to Vancouver, Washington just barely a month before (you can read more about that here) we officially decided to repack everything and move to Little Rock, Arkansas.
Because it was so last minute, everything happened so fast. We had even less time to pack than when we moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver, and somehow it seemed like we had so much more stuff too. We planned that the movers would pick up everything on July 16th and we would hit the road on the 17th. Thankfully everything went smoothly with the movers (or so we thought...but more on that later).
We had the whole trip planned. Friday we would drive straight through from Vancouver to Salt Lake City, Utah, Saturday we would drive to Denver, Colorado, and Sunday we would finally arrive in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I have this (maybe) strange hobby where I love to collect the reusable Trader Joe's bags from all across the country. Main cities have their own themed bags. Right now I have Southern and Northern California, Boston, Arizona and Portland. I planned to stop at Trader Joe's along the way to pick up some but it turns out that not all of the stores have them.
Because it was so last minute, everything happened so fast. We had even less time to pack than when we moved from Los Angeles to Vancouver, and somehow it seemed like we had so much more stuff too. We planned that the movers would pick up everything on July 16th and we would hit the road on the 17th. Thankfully everything went smoothly with the movers (or so we thought...but more on that later).
We had the whole trip planned. Friday we would drive straight through from Vancouver to Salt Lake City, Utah, Saturday we would drive to Denver, Colorado, and Sunday we would finally arrive in Little Rock, Arkansas.
I have this (maybe) strange hobby where I love to collect the reusable Trader Joe's bags from all across the country. Main cities have their own themed bags. Right now I have Southern and Northern California, Boston, Arizona and Portland. I planned to stop at Trader Joe's along the way to pick up some but it turns out that not all of the stores have them.
On July 17th we said goodbye to Vancouver and Portland and headed East. On the first day, we drove through Oregon, Idaho, and Utah. It was supposed to be about an eleven hour drive but I think it ended up being closer to thirteen. As you can imagine, it was a beautiful drive. We drove threw the Wallowa-Whittman National Forest, the fields and rolling hills of Idaho and beautiful, mountainous Utah. I wanted to stop at the Trader Joe's in Boise, Idaho but it was just too far out of the way. Just as we crossed the border from Idaho to Utah it started raining and kept raining until we were just outside of Ogden, Utah. It was a pretty easy and fast drive. Maybe that was in part because we had just done a fourteen hour drive from L.A. to Vancouver. As soon as we drove in to downtown Salt Lake City, there were people everywhere. We were driving around the Mormon temple so of course it was crowded anyways but there had to be something going on later that night. And there was, turns out the Mormon Tabernacle Choir was putting on a concert. I wish I would have known this! That would have been a great concert to see! Thanks to my grandparents sharing their hotel points with us, we were able to stay in a very nice hotel in downtown Salt Lake City.
The next day we was the shorter, seven hour drive from Salt Lake City to Denver. But of course I had to make my last stop at Trader Joe's for awhile (there are no Trader Joe's here in Arkansas). Unfortunately they didn't have a Utah themed bag; that was disappointing but at least I was able to get some licorice! I needed to stock up for living in Arkansas! The drive from Salt Lake City to Denver was even more beautiful than the drive the day before. We drove through Utah, Wyoming and then northern Colorado. With Shawn being a true Bronco fan and me being a Bronco fan by marriage we felt an obligation to stay in Denver overnight. Plus it was either Denver or some tiny town in Kansas and who wouldn't want to stay in Denver?! The drive really was so beautiful! I wish I would have taken pictures but when I wasn't driving I was sleeping for the most part. When you head east out of Salt Lake City you drive past where the skiing and snowboarding events took place during the 2002 Olympics. I would probably be terrified but it would be pretty cool to have the opportunity to ski on those mountains.
Once we crossed over into Wyoming it started POURING. It was like nothing I had experienced before. I'm used to California rain, which really was nothing compared to this. The eery part about it was that, because Wyoming is so open, we could see exactly where the storms were, whether it was off in the distance or directly in our path. The thing that freaked me out the most though was the lightening. It reminded me of War of the Worlds. It was coming down right next to us or in front of us. I felt bad for the motorcyclist because they were getting soaked. But we were in the middle of no where and there wasn't even a gas station or restaurant to pull into to take a break. The weather cleared for the last hour or so driving through Wyoming and it was clear for about an hour once we reached Colorado but about an hour outside of Denver it got dark quickly. And it wasn't because the sun had set. It was because a huge storm rolled in fast as we were driving. This was definitely the scariest part of the trip. It was coming down way harder than it didn't in Wyoming and I was barely about to see in front of our car. We just too it easy and went extremely slow. This storm lasted for about 45 minutes before we finally drove out of it. After that it was clear sailing into downtown Denver.
Once we got to our hotel (again thank you to my grandparents for paying for our hotels), we decided to walk through the downtown/mall area we were in. Obviously we were in a prime location. It reminded me of 3rd Street Promenade but definitely a lot less crowded. The most important thing to do in Denver, at least for us, was to pick up some jerseys. I had been wanting a Demaryius Thomas jersey and Shawn wanted an Emmanuel Sanders jerseys. So of course we had to get those! When in Denver, right?
Once we crossed over into Wyoming it started POURING. It was like nothing I had experienced before. I'm used to California rain, which really was nothing compared to this. The eery part about it was that, because Wyoming is so open, we could see exactly where the storms were, whether it was off in the distance or directly in our path. The thing that freaked me out the most though was the lightening. It reminded me of War of the Worlds. It was coming down right next to us or in front of us. I felt bad for the motorcyclist because they were getting soaked. But we were in the middle of no where and there wasn't even a gas station or restaurant to pull into to take a break. The weather cleared for the last hour or so driving through Wyoming and it was clear for about an hour once we reached Colorado but about an hour outside of Denver it got dark quickly. And it wasn't because the sun had set. It was because a huge storm rolled in fast as we were driving. This was definitely the scariest part of the trip. It was coming down way harder than it didn't in Wyoming and I was barely about to see in front of our car. We just too it easy and went extremely slow. This storm lasted for about 45 minutes before we finally drove out of it. After that it was clear sailing into downtown Denver.
Once we got to our hotel (again thank you to my grandparents for paying for our hotels), we decided to walk through the downtown/mall area we were in. Obviously we were in a prime location. It reminded me of 3rd Street Promenade but definitely a lot less crowded. The most important thing to do in Denver, at least for us, was to pick up some jerseys. I had been wanting a Demaryius Thomas jersey and Shawn wanted an Emmanuel Sanders jerseys. So of course we had to get those! When in Denver, right?
We woke up before the sun on Sunday so that we could make at stop at the Broncos stadium. There are very few circumstances where I will agree to be up before the sun and this was absolutely one of them. It was so cool to be able to visit somewhere that I have been watching on tv for the past few years! Even if you aren't a fan of the Broncos, or any NFL team for that matter, it's still cool to just see the stadium where everything happens!
We then hit the road and headed east towards Kansas. After stopping for breakfast at an IHOP in east Colorado I fell alseep pretty quickly. When I woke up we were at a gas station. Iassumed that I had only been sleeping for a little bit. Nope. Right as I walk into the gas station it was obvious we were in Kansas. There was Wizard of Oz stuff everywhere. I wish I would have had more time to look around and of course buy a few things because I love that movie so much but because of our breakfast stop we were already behind on time. The longest part of the drive for both of us was Kansas. It just felt like it was never ending. It was just fields after fields after fields. And that got boring after the first two hours. After Kansas we finally made it to Oklahoma, where there were a few brief moments of panic because all of a sudden there were tolls. We were able to pull into a gas station to get change thankfully. After driving through Oklahoma for about three hours we FINALLY made it to Arkansas. Finally! We were exhausted but still had three hours to go. I was just so excited though when we finally drove past that state line that it was like I all of a sudden had this burst of energy and I was so excited to finally be here. It took us to finally get into Little Rock. Our friends, Chris and Sarah, let us stay at their house for the night (thank you!). In the morning we got up, signed our apartment paperwork and it was official. We were now residence of Arkansas.
We then hit the road and headed east towards Kansas. After stopping for breakfast at an IHOP in east Colorado I fell alseep pretty quickly. When I woke up we were at a gas station. Iassumed that I had only been sleeping for a little bit. Nope. Right as I walk into the gas station it was obvious we were in Kansas. There was Wizard of Oz stuff everywhere. I wish I would have had more time to look around and of course buy a few things because I love that movie so much but because of our breakfast stop we were already behind on time. The longest part of the drive for both of us was Kansas. It just felt like it was never ending. It was just fields after fields after fields. And that got boring after the first two hours. After Kansas we finally made it to Oklahoma, where there were a few brief moments of panic because all of a sudden there were tolls. We were able to pull into a gas station to get change thankfully. After driving through Oklahoma for about three hours we FINALLY made it to Arkansas. Finally! We were exhausted but still had three hours to go. I was just so excited though when we finally drove past that state line that it was like I all of a sudden had this burst of energy and I was so excited to finally be here. It took us to finally get into Little Rock. Our friends, Chris and Sarah, let us stay at their house for the night (thank you!). In the morning we got up, signed our apartment paperwork and it was official. We were now residence of Arkansas.
We have been living here for almost three months now and we both love it here. Although we were exhausted after driving for three days I'm still so happy that we did it. We got to see so many cool things and places. If I were to do it again there are a few things I wish that I would have done differently. The first and foremost it that I wish we would have had more time to pack. It was just pure chaos trying to everything packed up so quickly. I also wish that we could have planned our travels better and made time to stop and see some national landmarks. But hey, we got here safe and that's all that really matters.
Newt week on the blog I will be talking about our nightmare with the moving company (it's a doozy) and our life here in Little Rock, Arkansas. I hope you'll come back to read it! Until then, I hope you are having a fantastic week and if you aren't then I hope today is the day that it turns around and gets better.
I'll see you next week!
Newt week on the blog I will be talking about our nightmare with the moving company (it's a doozy) and our life here in Little Rock, Arkansas. I hope you'll come back to read it! Until then, I hope you are having a fantastic week and if you aren't then I hope today is the day that it turns around and gets better.
I'll see you next week!
Caitlin