Friday, May 29th

Faye
I’ve been working on ideas for summing up the trip, and here they are:
First, I’m really happy I decided to join Kelly on this adventure. It’s been great to spend the time with her and to help her do the tremendous amount of driving involved. 9 days sounded like a leisurely amount of time to drive from Chicago to LA, but it really wasn’t. Although we did stop to see various sights, we never spent more than one night anywhere, and there were other sights we could have stopped for. We did hit all the big ones and a few small ones along our route. Other than Yellowstone, Mt. Rushmore and Badlands National Park, some of the most scenic spots were: The Black Hills in SD, the Bighorn Mountains in WY, the drive from Jackson WY into Idaho, the Great Salt Lake Desert/Salt Flats and Lake Tahoe in CA. It’s been hard adjusting to the traffic in San Francisco and LA after all the wide open spaces. On the other hand, we agree that staying put this morning and not needing to pack up and head out on the road is a nice change. Instead, we’ll spend the morning unloading Kelly’s car and getting her settled into her apartment.

Kelly

I'm afraid I'm a bit too overwhelmed what with the move becoming real to have any good 'summing up' thoughts, but I agree I was glad Mom came along with me. Both for the companionship and for the help with driving. She also knew when to say comforting things like 'that smell that's coming from the car is part of the catalytic converter, it's perfectly normal.' There were definitely a few places that we missed that would have been fun to go to - I could easily have spent more time in Western South Dakota or Western Wyoming, and will have to go to Yosemite someday. I definitely plan on going back to Lake Tahoe sometime. But we covered a good amount of ground in a short time and are both pretty exhausted from it all.

We spent the morning sorting things out in the apartment. Then I took Mom down to Venice Beach to see the crazy people on the boardwalk, and to have lunch. We drove around the area aimlessly for a bit and eventually ended up at Target to buy some odds and ends for the place. After this long trip through the north it's only in the 60s and cloudy here in LA, which is cooler than in many parts of the midwest. Ah well, it's probably the best for our fair skin. Mom leaves tomorrow and I plan on going out for a long walk in the area to see just what exactly is walking distance from the place. This New Yorker refuses to accept that she can't walk to a grocery store.