End of the Road

Well, here we are at the end of the road. Lou has been in NYC for nearly a full week now and I'm back in OK and about to make a move myself. It's funny how when you're away from home you have all kinds of time to do this stuff. And then you get back in a routine or busy with life and some things get neglected. I guess that goes for everything.
But as promised, here's our final blog... complete with never before seen pics and a trip survey!
So here goes:

FAVORITE LEG OF THE TRIP:
LOU: All parts that did not include me behind the wheel
KEVIN: Tuesday driving from Monroe, LA to Columbia, SC. I woke up feeling better, it was great weather, the drive went quickly and that Hampton Inn bed!

FAVORITE ROAD SNACK:
LOU: BK Chicken Tenders
KEVIN: The Snappea Crisps provided by Laurie (honorable mention goes to Ana's poisonous trail mix)

FAVORITE STOP:
LOU: Sims, NC... Where Kevin thought he was being held up at the gas pump. I love me some dra-ma!
KEVIN: Besides the Hampton Inn bed, I really enjoyed our dinner and wine in DC

LONGEST LEG OF THE TRIP:
LOU: The last hour and a half!
KEVIN: Baltimore to New Jersey seemed to take forever!

MOST STRESSFUL/SCARIEST MOMENT IN THE BULLET (THE PENSKE):
LOU: It's a tie...(1) The first time Kevin drove through a tunnel and a semi passed us going 100 mph (ok fine, but that's what it felt like!)
2) My door being open on the Interstate and the fact that there was an 18-wheeler behind us and Kevin couldn't pull over, meaning I had to open and shut the door while trucking down the road. Still makes my palms sweaty!
KEVIN: Surprisingly.. it wasn't driving in NYC during rush hour. I think it was just the Jersey Turnpike in general where there was so much going on.

ONE THING YOU LEARNED ABOUT YOURSELF ON THE TRIP:
LOU: That I could drive a freakin' 16 foot Penske truck in rain during rush hour in Dallas. Hell Yeah!!
KEVIN: That I would make a damn good truck driver.

MOST ANNOYED YOU GOT WITH EACH OTHER DURING THE TRIP:
LOU: When Kevin was trying to figure out what to do about his going away party! I was about to rent out the Ford Center for him!
KEVIN: When after driving all day and helping her move in the apartment, Lou asked if my hair was dirty and took away the couch cushion I was resting my head on (she did get me a replacement).

ONE THING YOU WISHED WE WOULD HAVE DONE BUT DIDN'T:
LOU: I wish we would have had more time to stop and play along the way!
KEVIN: I wish I would have had a lot more time to enjoy NYC.

FIRST THOUGHT IN YOUR MIND WHEN WE SAW THE NYC SKYLINE:
LOU: We did it! We really made it here in one piece. I was super proud of us! Go Thelma & Louis!
KEVIN: I was very excited for Lou to finally be so close.

FAVORITE THING ABOUT LOU'S NEW PLACE:
LOU: Besides the fact that it's in NY? The closet space! What? I'm a girl!
KEVIN: Great location, great layout, great city!

Well, that just about wraps up the blog. Five days of travel, almost 2,000 miles, 13 states. I loved every minute of it. Lou is one of the few friends that I could do that trip with and remain friends. Even after we arrived in NYC, we realized that we hadn't even turned on the radio the last day (7 hours on the road). It's not that we talked the entire time... it's that we are so comfortable with each other that we don't have to talk.
And along the way I also got a job offer. It happened during a rainstorm outside of Richmond, VA when we had just happened to pull over for a break. I was able to answer my phone and Lou was just as excited for me. So in a few weeks, I'll be packing up my life and hitting the road. Maybe in a Penske truck. I sure would like to have Lou as my co-pilot. After all, we are two kindergarten friends who have a standing OU-texas football date every October now both starting over in new cities. This may be the end of the blog, but it's just the beginning of our journey.

I'd Rather Be Driving a Penske

Well, if anyone's still following this... I've got a few more posts left in me. Sorry about the delay in blogs. I mean you get handed a free porn magazine on every corner but you can't steal wireless internet anywhere in NYC.
I'm gonna try to catch you up:
My trip home was almost as long as the drive up there. It started with a 9:30am cab ride from Lou's apartment to Penn Station. There I caught a train through about 10 towns to the outer suburbs. I caught a shuttle bus to the Islip Airport and boarded my flight. Only once in Baltimore did I reazlize that my flight to OKC included a stop in St. Louis. For anyone flying Southwest out there... be warned. Apparently they like to sneak in these little stops and still call it a non-stop flight. But the flight attendant more than made up for it by keeping the free rum and cokes headed my way (I didn't even need the coupons you gave me Lou!). I also find it odd that after the plane crashed into the Hudson, they no longer say 'in the unlikely event of a water landing...'. Now it's just 'in the event of a water landing...'.
Anyway, finally at 7:45pm I touched down in the OC.
The pics are of Lou's big move. The traffic we braved in the rush hour, the movers, her boxes on the streets of NY, the joy of returning the Yellow Bullet (what we came to call the Penske), me in what I refer to as my loft bedroom in Lou's apartment which is actually a huge storage area. I suggested she put an air mattress up there and rent it out as a second bedroom.
There will be one last blog tonight. I've emailed Lou sort of 'best of' list about the trip and we'll compare answers. I know there's something called the Superbowl tonight but I'm sure the world's more excited about how this little blog will come to a close...