Glory Days and Mayonnaise

I changed my mind - this will be a 3-part post. This is the 2nd part. It should surprise no one that I can take a short story and turn it into a massive novel. Don't you even KNOW me?

Where were we? Right, I just finished outlining the first half of our cross country trip, consisting of Nat'l Park Hopping and ending with a trip to Boulder, where I plan to gorge myself on pasta, burgers and margaritas. (Side note: the margaritas at The Rio are so strong that they will not serve you more than 3 of them. And 3 is about 2 too many.) Let me refresh your memory on the basic route for our long road trip that we'll embark on before The Trip.

Just Like Phish Heads, But With Less Body Odor

I have a never-ending list of wants.

I know my life is pretty good and I'm not complaining, but I'm definitely that person who never feels like there's enough time/money to do what I want to do, and I'm pretty much always sure that people are having more fun than I am. One time, I took an impromptu long-weekend trip to Hawaii with a coworker. Tom decided to visit his mom in North Carolina while I was gone. And I was SO upset. Why couldn't he wait for me to be available to go to North Carolina? Even as I was on the beach eating a sno-cone, I kept thinking about Tom hanging out in NC and was jealous. Ridiculous, right? I suppose I can be a grass-is-greener person. I'm really working on getting better at that - enjoying what I have and what I'm doing - which I expect needs to be a lifelong focus for me.

Anyway - we've mentioned that we're driving cross-country before we go abroad for The Trip and I feel like I'll have the opportunity to check off a lot of the 'wants' from my never-ending list. I'm psyched for the amazing countries we'll visit and the new cultures we'll learn about, but I'm also pretty excited for a long roadtrip with Tom. It's one of my favorite things to do and, even when we travel, I seem to be happiest when we've rented a car and are driving around, trying to decipher road signs and taking chances on roadside food. And there are still SO many places in the U.S. that I haven't explored. Not to mention, we'll get to visit SO many of our friends and family along the way.

We checked out a book from the library called Off the Beaten Path that lists tons of unique, less-touristy places to visit across the US, and I have no doubt there are more books out there on the topic. I plan on seeing the most beautiful things that the country has to offer, as well as visiting the country's smallest cow/person/house, the biggest ball of earwax, and I'm going to eat the country's best cheeseburger, drink the best cup of coffee and swim in the biggest natural spring. You get my drift.

Here's an approximate route for our cross country adventure:

Street Meat and Squatty Potties...Budget Choices

So, we have to move. Our landlord just had a baby and he and his wife want to move into our/their place. It sucks. We needed a 6 month lease because we plan to leave San Francisco in September or October, but 6 month leases are hard to find in SF. We finally found one. We move into it in 2 weeks, and it's...fine. We don't love the apartment and we really don't want to move. If there's anything good that's come of this, though, it's that having to move has reaffirmed our commitment to take The Trip. Moving out of an apartment we love and into an apartment that's just okay means we're taking steps to make it happen. At one point, Steph said to me, "We are DEFINITELY taking this trip now. Because I am not going to make the sacrifice to live in an apartment I don't like for no reason." She said it in a tone that I know means business - a tone I don't question - so this new apartment means we're committed. It's happening. Awesome! And the new place is quite a bit cheaper than our current place, so we will be saving some $$, which is good, since I've been (slightly) obsessing about our trip budget. Side note: the new place is NOT a bad apartment and I'm sure we'll like it. It's in a decent neighborhood and has a good amount of space. The building is even a historical landmark. We just really like our current place and the new place wouldn't be our first choice if we were looking for a longer commitment.