Whirlwind Road Trip

This past weekend the Squishy and I took a whirlwind road trip down to Yucca Valley. Read: left at 8:15am Friday, got home at 6:00pm Saturday. Now for those of you who don’t know where Yucca Valley is (like myself) … it’s about two hours east of Los Angeles.

Something a LOT of people don’t realize when the visit us, is how far away the major cities in California are. You need to keep in mind, California takes up the majority of the west coast. The top of California lines up with Northern Pennsylvania/Connecticut, while San Diego is in line with Georgia.

So when you come to visit us and want to go to Disneyland (which eveyone does!), you need to realize that you are asking to drive from Virginia down to South Carolina! Which is exactly what I did with Kelly on Friday. I got a call from her on Tuesday that included the phrase “I have a plan, but tell me if it’s crazy”. That is usually code for “Here we go!!!” Haha! I guess I’m lucky she only took me as far as Yucca… she ended up following me to Africa last year!

But, I digress *smile* Kelly was planning to go home and pick up her dog, to move her into their new place in the north bay. And she was looking for a road trip buddy. So we threw our bags in the car and headed off Friday morning. Now, something to remember: Kelly and I used to stare at each other for hours on end, 4-5 days a week. Like, literally stare at each other. We moved our desks at the office to face each other because it hurt our backs to turn around all the time! Now that neither of us work for the clinic anymore, we take our together time VERY seriously. As in, I think we turned the iPod on, but we spent the entire trip talking with the radio turned down… All eight hours there and back! I have never been to the California desert, so there were a lot of “firsts” for me on this trip. The amazingly dry heat (105ish at 4pm) and Joshua trees. Joshua trees have a very cool story behind their name, read more here.

We got in Friday night and hung out with some of Kelly’s friends, then had dinner with her mom and stepdad. We laid on the trampoline to looked at all the stars and even made S’mores! Mmmmm! Saturday morning we woke up, had breakfast, loaded the car up with the dog and all her things, then headed back to the Bay Area!

As we neared the end of the trip, Kelly commented that we should stop and let the dog out. I agreed, and when we realized we were near Gilroy, our brain’s IMMEDIATELY got onto the same channel – SONIC!!!!

Perfect ending to a fantastic trip! Kelly and her pooch are settling in at home, and I am happy to be back with my “boys”. Until our next adventure …

<3 Tara