My body is still moving forward, a result of spending nearly two weeks in a car driving across the country. We saw amazing sights, from northeast to southwest and home again. The vastness and beauty of our country makes me feel quite small indeed. I wish I had something monumental and utterly quotable to say about our experiences; instead, all I have to offer is “OMG awesome epicness!”

We have a lot to say about the things we’ve done and seen, and the lack of road wifi gives us the opportunity to do post-vacation reflection articles instead of on-the-scene blurbs. So what was one of my favorite things about vacation?

The food. Obviously! All right, all right: there was much more to the road trip than just food, and I promise we’ll get to all of it eventually. Today, I just need to start some projects at work, then finish Portal 2 when I get home tonight.

One of the things I started doing on this trip was to scan candy racks for unfamiliar things. We’re stopping in gas station convenience stores every few hours; it’s an opportunity to find local/regional candy. There really hasn’t been much to find. Much like Starbucks and coffee, I think the Mars corp owns nearly all the chocolate in America.

Here are two candies that are new to me: Look! and Idaho Spud.

Look! is made by the Annabelle candy company based out of California somewhere. We’ve picked up a few candies of theirs; this is just one that got photographed first. This particular candy bar reminded me of a softer Peanut Chew.

The Idaho Spud says very little about it on the wrapper. I had to look at the ingredient list to see it’s a chocolate candy. Once I eat it, I’ll follow up with a comment on this post.

After a week of eating junk food, my clothes still fit as they should. But man, I am starting to crave a really good salad. I’m not really a fan of cold lettuce based salads, but right this second, I’d love the avocado salad at Mi Puebla in Mt Airy.

There will eventually be more photos making their way to flickr, but in the meantime here are a couple I took with my phone.

Utah may not have any welcome centers on the highways, but it certainly is winning on majesty.

It seemed the perfect opportunity for using instagram, a photo filtering application I have on my phone. Here are a few of my favorite pictures from yesterday.

The grill is amazing.

This one made me laugh.

Just beautiful; chrome on red.

Caught a great sun flare on a fab orange car:

I just loved this truck, Larson’s Garage.  The second pick of just the hood hasn’t been put through a filter.  The color was simply amazing.

Close up of the hood.

The only thing to fix this: cheap champagne. I’m not kidding about cheap, this shit cost all of $5. Happily, we have the peach amaretto syrup I picked up in South Carolina to mix with it.

It’s suddenly a happy place in our hotel room!

We had a fabulous time in Elk City, and I can’t wait to do up a whole story about it. In the meantime, I’ve uploaded a bunch of photos from the road, which you can check out from the sidebar.

Our hotel is off the strip, which is good in that we can easily walk to places that don’t have slot machines in them.  Dinner was a quiet little Ethiopian place; so good!

I’ve been in Vegas a couple times before.  Advertising will say differently, but at their core, casinos are all the same; 24-hour noise and color, the smell of stale cigarettes and floral deodorizer, and people gambling.  Here’s my view from breakfast at the Java Vegas in our hotel.  I should note, this is just moments before Andrea became mayor of Java Vegas on foursquare.

Believe it or not, I enjoy Las Vegas.  Besides all the gambling and what I feel is the ugliness associated with it, the rest of the city and casinos are a 24-hour carnival.  I’m definitely going to New York, New York sometime this weekend to play skeeball and ride the roller-coaster.

Soon we’ll be checking in to the convention.  Later I’m certain to be catching some awesome live music.  Tonight there will be drinks at the bar.  I’ll be having a fantastic time, only with a very loud backdrop.

It’s Tuesday morning and I’m lounging in a hotel room in Tucumcari, New Mexico.  We’ve (briefly) seen 14 states over a little more than a 3 day period.

We are crazy.

We departed Philadelphia at 7:30pm on Friday night.  This was a few hours later than we originally planned.  But that three-hour delay made me feel much better about being away from work for two weeks. After a quick stop in Delaware for coffee, our first official visit was in Maryland where we had a late supper with the ever lovely Matt.

Since she’s the night owl, Andrea had the first driving leg. I slept through most of Virginia.

Our second stop was in Chapel Hill, NC.  Our friend Jenn, was visiting friends there, so we dropped in for a quick visit.  We had tea and chatted for a bit before making our good byes and heading out on the road, this time with me driving.  Jenn’s friend had suggested a diner not to far away, Elmo’s, in Carroboro, NC. If you get the chance, go there.  The food was fantastic.

Andrea slept for a while as I drove through North Carolina.  As we got closer to the South Carolina border, the weather was turning toward rain.  Figuring it was just a storm, I kept driving. Andrea was in and out of sleep so I turned the radio on to keep me company.  Less than a song in, the emergency weather service had a message; the approaching storm was sporting 58 mile per hour winds with the possibility of tornadoes. I’m happy to drive in the rain, but tornadoes? We pulled over and had an early lunch at a Waffle House.  Shortly after being seated, the rain started pouring down in sheets and the wind was whipping the trees around like crazy.  There was NO visibility through the windows of the restaurant.  The crazy weather lasted as long as our lunch.  By the time we walked outside the sun was out, the air was clean and calm, and birds were singing.

South Carolina that afternoon was uneventful.  We stopped at a welcome center on the highway and later a mall to stretch our legs.  The drive went so well, we were able to meet our next tour stop: dinner and a show in Athens, GA.  Our visit to Athens was only a few hours long, but I think it deserves its own post.  Look for it tomorrow.

We got out of Athens around 1:00am, Sunday night.  Exhausted, we couldn’t drive much further. Andrea got us to a hotel just outside of Atlanta, GA.

Our next tour stop was Memphis, TN.  We were pretty certain that we could make it by dinner.  But that meant a solid drive through the rest of Georgia, all of Alabama, and a corner of Mississippi.  The weather again was perfect. We made a few pit stops along the way; breakfast at a Waffle House in Georgia,  lunch at a Sonic in Alabama, state welcome centers and gas stations. We got to Memphis, TN at around 9:00PM on Sunday night. Our Memphis visit also deserves a full post of its own.  Just know, we had a really good time.

I was awake long enough as we left Tennessee, to snap a blurry photo of the Welcome to Arkansas sign on the bridge over the Mississippi River.  I slept through most of Arkansas.

I woke at 6:00am, Monday morning when Andrea pulled into a gas station just inside the Oklahoma border.  Next tour stop: Oklahoma City, OK.  4 hours later we pulled into a parking lot in the city and stepped into perfect late Monday morning sunshine. We were able to walk around a little, see some sights & have some breakfast.  We weren’t there too long as we really wanted to get to the Route 66 Museum in Elk City, OK that afternoon. Look for more on both OKC and Elk City in a separate post.

After Oklahoma, we went off the main highway for a bit and drove Historic Route 66 into Texas.  ”Oh my god. We’re in fucking Texas!” was our quote for the day.  It *finally* sank in that we were on an epic road trip, with over a week of crazy vacation to go.  I guess our two Texas stops also should get stand alone post treatment.  The Conoco Tower in Shamrock was cool. Dinner in Amarillo was simply relaxing.

While at dinner, I looked up hotels just inside the New Mexico border. We knew we had to make another hotel stop for genuinely restful sleep. And that’s where we are right now, the Hotel Safari in Tucumcari, New Mexico on Historic Route 66. The hotel owner gave us a breakfast recommendation for today, and there’s a dinosaur museum we hope to visit.  After that we’ll be back on the road. Hopefully we’ll get to Las Vegas tonight.

This past weekend, I did laundry, cleaning the clothes I’d like to pack while inadvertently making a mess of my apartment. I thought that organizing would help me feel more in control of things, but instead I’ve just got piles of clothes, underpants, yarn, and books strewn across my studio apartment. As long as I remember to put away some of the more intimate lady things before my brother arrives for house-sitting, I should be fine.

I’m seriously trying to keep my underpants-packing to a minimum. For some reason, I am one of those people who packs a dozen pair of panties for a long weekend. Joanna’s been kind enough to remind me that a) there are stores along the way that sell underpants and b) we can do laundry when possible. I do not—I repeat, do not—need to squirrel away my entire wardrobe of underpants in a car with limited cargo space for a two-week adventure.

Tomorrow I will finish packing. Wednesday I will visit my parents. Thursday I will take out the trash and recycling. Friday I will meet Joanna after work and head out on vacation!

Second, we’re in a little bit of a panic here at 2 Girls, 1 Car central. The trip we’re about to start is an epic one for us. Intellectually, we know we’re prepared. But still, there’s that little twinge of fear of the unknown. It’s both exciting and nerve-wracking.

There are a few little things to do before leaving. Sadie is getting an oil change and tune-up. I’m waterproofing my tent. We’re double checking packing lists. The maps will be updated on the GPS. All of these things we’re doing as calmly as possible. Why no. We’re not running around like crazy people. Not at all!

TEN DAYS!