We set off on our great cross-country venture, two-year old in-tow, and made it to Twentynine Palms, CA four days, and 9 states later, without a hitch. Well, almost (there was a google maps error that resulted in an extra hour or so added onto travel time, and a breaking down, and reassembling of a certain U-Haul/Car tow dolly in a particularly street light deprived, sketchy part of town...but that's besides the point.)
It was amazing to see how much the scenery changed, sometimes even from state to state. The drive took us through/touched: Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and lastly California. Texas was by far my favorite state to drive through because it was so completely different and open, though I think I went into some form of shock when I saw the one of the first exit signs say "EXIT 877". Surely I misread that, I thought...then I saw exit 876.
We got to the base at night and checked into the military hotel. When we got up the next day, I opened my door and the mountains were *BAM* right there. They're gorgeous and they're everywhere. The biggest change has been the fact that there really is hardly any grass. If you pass a building/house/establishment with a green lawn, you're like "Wow! Grass!" About a week ago we went though our first sandstorm. It was weird because everyday that we had been here there was a blue cloudless sky and then all of a sudden one day it looks like it's overcast outside and it's a tad chilly. I soon realized that they weren't clouds...it was sand. You could see where the stronger gusts were because there'd be a stream of sand going across the road. Tommy and I were driving that day and he looked alarmed for a second and then said "Oh, I thought that was rain for a second." Nope, just sand on the windshield.
The weather isn't terrible. It can get hot for sure, and usually is, but as soon as the sun starts checking out for the day (about 5:30 pm), it cools real fast. There have been a few random days where it'd be exceptionally windy/chilly, so much that even with a jacket I didn't want to go outside and that caught me off-guard. For the first couple weeks we were in the military hotel and now we're living in a house off-base until we get housing ON-base (currently we're number 4 on the list...but we've been number 4 for almost 2 weeks.) When we found the house we're in right now, I saw it had a fireplace and laughed to myself. I mean come on, it's a desert. After those few random days of chilly weather, I now understand the fireplace.
That's pretty much where we are right now. We haven't done too much sight-seeing (I have seen a ton of roadrunners though). Aside from a quick hop to LA to pick up a bike Tommy found, we did take an air tram to the top of Mount San Jacinto, and that was pretty awesome. That's about where we are now...more adventures to come. :)
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