cross country-ing yet again.

hey folks.

so, here I am, 1,500 miles away from where I last blogged in Albany. The Nissan dealership decided to find more and more things wrong with Nick's car and we didn't make it out of Albany until 4 p.m. last Friday! We skipped Niagara Falls and headed straight to Cleveland...which we didn't get to see. (p.s. Aunt Trish, thanks for the references! I"ll keep that in mind for my next road trip...)

Saturday, we woke early and headed to Chicago and despite a little traffic, were able to get there around 2 in the afternoon (we gained an hour thanks to the transition from eastern time to central time, whoo!). We had a FANTASTIC day and night in Emily's adorable new apartment and got to meet her roommate John and meet up with the Trace twins for deep-dish pizza and late-night Margaritas. Chicago really is fantastic and I am so excited for both Segal and Abbott and the life they are about to start there, however temporary it may be. And soon Costello will be there too so I will have many good reasons to visit as often as I can. I actually looked into deaf education programs in Chicago when I started the grad school research...but there are NONE! Guess it wasn't meant to be...for now anyways.

Yesterday, Nick and I woke late thanks to the fact that Emily made us go out after midnight and the bars don't close until 4 p.m. (ouch) but were able to hit the road immediately. Next stop: Omaha. Don't laugh. A friend from UVM is actually from Omaha and gave us great tips on where to get the best steak dinners and get a good glass of beer....unfortunately, Nick and I didn't get to Omaha until 10 p.m. and were too tired to consider going out. I will say this though: Omaha looks legit! We saw billboards for the Omaha Zoo which, despite the sadness behind the concept of zoos, looks awesome. Also, lots of pretty buildings and cool-looking casinos...who knows, maybe I'll make my way back there someday. I will also add this: the drive through Iowa was actually surprisingly gorgeous. I did this drive three months ago but it was during an all-nighter and I was either asleep or driving in the dark. Iowa has lush rolling hills and conveniently for us, the sunset began as we were driving through an area with tons of wind turbines. I got some great pictures of purple, pink, and blue skies with magnificent wind turbines looming in the fields.

Nebraska on the other hand.......blech. With the exception of cool-looking Omaha, the whole entire state, and I kid you not, has nothing worth looking at. And today's drive from Omaha to Boulder was basically all Nebraska. Oh well - at least I got that same feeling of excitement and serenity that I always get when I drive in Colorado. I am so excited that Nick is here and we will get to explore together and he can see why Colorado has always been my favorite state other than my obvious home states. The weather was a little gray today but we still caught a beautiful sunset and I'm hoping it will clear up tomorrow and Wednesday.

In an unknown order, I plan and/or hope to spend the next three days chilling in Boulder, exploring the moutains, visiting Denver and reuniting with Ms. Gillian, meeting up with Dylan and getting a glimpse of her Boulder life that she loves so much, driving through Estes Park, and just remembering all the trips I've taken to different parts of this state and remembering why I love it here.

Side note: I drove for six hours today! A minor detail in the grand scheme of driving for hours and hours in a lifetime accumulation of roadtrips but what makes this special is that Nick's car is a stick shift and I learned how to drive it...three days ago. I'm a bit faulty at times still but at least I don't stall anymore and I can take the load of Nick's shoulders. Plus, driving a stick is FUN! (when I don't shift into the wrong gear or have to parallel park that is...)

So, we'll be here or somewhere else in Colorado until Wednesday morning at the earliest. If we can't stay at Emily's place in Estes Park that night, we will head to Cheyenne, Wyoming which I am SUPER excited about. Something tells me I'm going to love Wyoming a lot.

I'll keep you posted!