Summer 2007 Road Trip: One girl. One car. Over 8,000 miles.

I’m currently in Holbrook, Arizona.  How did I get here?  Hmm, I’m not quite sure.  It’s all a blur of desert scenery and thunderstorms.  Oh, and 98 mph driving.  (In my defense, almost everyone goes this fast in the desert!  I swear!)

I did actually get up to 100mph at one point.

I stayed last night in Redlands, CA in the same hotel as my cousin (who is originally from Tulsa, OK but out in So Cal doing work for the summer).  We left Redlands this morning at about the same time.  I was headed to I-40 East, which would take me all the way to Oklahoma and Missouri, which are my next two places to visit.  My cousin was headed to Kingman, Arizona, which is right off of I-40 as well.  So, we both left around 10am this morning, in separate cars.  We kept in sight of each other on the long drive - about 250 miles or so - and both stopped in Needles, CA and Kingman, AZ for gas.  I left him in Kingman (much to my sadness) and continued East on I-40.  So here I am now in Holbrook.I ran into a lot of storms in Arizona today… lots of rain and lightening. I got a few pics of various Arizona landscapes, but nothing too exciting.  See below.

I’m currently sad because of leaving my family members behind. Although I still get to see my favorite Aunt in Tulsa, Oklahoma Wednesday and Thursday of this week, I am still leaving behind my sisters and nieces and nephew and cousin and other Aunt. I parted ways with my cousin in Kingman, AZ today (we both drove out there from Redlands, CA but in spearate cars but were stopping at the same gas stations and texting each other) and from there on out, it was a little lonely. It’s hard to be surrounded by family for days and days on end and suddenly be plunged into solitude again. I often wonder why I live in New Hampshire when the rest of my family lives in the Southwest or Midwest. (Actually, it is my fault. I grew up in Cali but hated it so much I decided to leave. But now I think it’s time to relocate states again). I have plans to move somewhere new this fall. Where exactly, I haven’t decided, but I have two places in mind. I’ll post more about that later on.

Arizona is OK but a lot of desert.  I’ve been through here many times before so it’s nothing too exciting to me.  Right now, I’m around 80+ miles from the New Mexico border.

For now, here are some pictures of the Arizona scenery, which happened to include several thunderstorms and downpours today.  I managed to get involved in a total of 4 thunderstorms and/or downpours today on the road.  How fun.

Not too long after I took that above picture, it began raining so hard I almost had to pull over.