Violet Cottage: Spontaneous trip to California & back

Perhaps we are allergic to planning things, perhaps the OCD runs deep... but when someone asks you "what do you want to do this holiday weekend?", it usually doesn't involve a 40 hour cross country drive.

We were supposed to go to my friend's wedding in New York for the Memorial Day weekend. A leisurely 10 hour drive. But with a series of dog-sitting miscommunications, and therefore a lack of one, we had to find a place we could go with our 72 pound dog. Why not my Mom's house! The logic, at the time, was air tight.

Cut to us driving on the I-40... and me having a panic attack once we got into Tennessee.

The "for-realsies" kicked in. For example...gas is almost $4.00 a gallon, I just closed my online stores for 4-8 weeks, I will not have my computer friend (only an iphone). ohboy... hand me a paper bag.

So in record time, we got to Los Angeles. Fourty hours in 3 days. Being in Arkansas one night, then in Los Angeles the next, but your vehicle, possessions and dog are with you. Totally surreal. But I have to point out... every Starbucks in this great nation is basically the SAME. How do they do this?!? Even the golden arches have slight variations on their menu and choice of play place... (not that I've checked). But... yes. Starbucks... I thank you for making a universal iced caramel macchiato.

So... since this was an EPIC trip... I'm going to break it down into bite-size blog chunks. Because, really... a busy schedule was kept.

I missed seeing many of our California pals (I'm looking at several of you), but... one epiphany on this trip is that we do miss that smog infested, freeway congested, perfect Mexican food bearing warm fuzzy that is Southern California. It's not a desperate, folk-song writing need... but... we do miss our home state.

So, chances are... we'll be moving back in the next 24 +/- months (and I will be stalking all of you who I didn't visit last month). Alas, we have adult commitments to consider before we just pack up our legos and head back again, so it will probably be later than sooner. A few folks, after hearing the news that we were homesick, blurted out such phrases as ... "just sell it ALL and get back NOW". I think they need a dose of the "for-realsies", too. (A bit of a jolt, they are, those realsies. I don't like them.)

So, let me gather my thoughts and my 900 iphone photos. I'll lay out a few more posts and share with you the madness that was our adventure. Oh and 10,000 miles. We put 10,000 miles on our van in 7 weeks. That usually takes 18 months. Our Honda minivan, "Vanna the Grey", is awesome... our trip was sort of awesome, too.

From San Diego...