Stained Glass Window Shopping

I didn't get to sleep until around 3a last night. I had some funky dream that kept me up, I woke up when my uncle got home around 4:30, and then I was up at 8 with a text then a phone call. Despite all that, I managed to get myself up and at church like I promised myself I would.

I checked out several churches online and finally decided I wanted to visit Three Village Church. There was really only one reason I chose 3VC as my first option: they had an updated, decent website. Maybe it's callous or a sad commentary on my generation that that's what I looked at first, but to me, an appealing website to me is indicative of having at least some young people in the church. Also, the fact that they have a hip acronym like 3VC (which is reminiscent of LW or 'el Dub' to me) helped.

Not being entirely certain on service times (that was the one thing about their main page I didn't like), I decided to show up for the earliest one I saw. It was decidedly the early service. I saw almost no young people, despite info on their website about 'College and Career' ministries. I was a few minutes late, which is sadly typical for me these days due to my need for a cup of coffee on the way to church, but I walked into the sanctuary to hear a familiar song playing, which was really nice. Apparently the church is in the process of looking for a new senior pastor, so they had a guest speaker, but he was very engaging and was easy to follow. That means a lot coming from me, since I've found probably less than half a dozen people that I actually like listening to as much as Garris.

There's a whole coffee, fellowship, bagel shindig upstairs in their youth area between services, so I wandered in there. I have to say, I appreciate a church that has a good youth area, because it reflects on their values, and 3VC has a very nice area. It's not extravagant, but it's clear that they want to give their youth a space of their own. I'd already decided to stay for second service to see if more young people showed up, but between services I was caught by Jon, one of the pastors on staff. Talking with him was great, I met several people through him, met their youth pastor, Bart, between services. All-in-all, I felt very welcomed.

As second service started, I definitely saw more young people come in, and started to actually believe they had a college/career ministry. The church clearly isn't very big, probably about the size of Living Waters, my church in Medford, maybe even a little smaller. Their services are a little more liturgical than I'm used to, their worship a little less contemporary than I prefer, but it was all very comfortable. Clearly a group of people who come to worship. I did use my phone for reading and note taking, as is standard for me, which is fine until it falls off my leg while I'm not using it, and everyone around me probably assumes I'm texting or checking Facebook (which in all honesty, did happen a little...).

After second service, I had the chance to meet a few more people, including the young adult leaders, and Bonnie. Bonnie is, as far as I can tell, a lady who's a part of the church. We chatted for a bit, then she invited me over for bagels and coffee. Bagels and coffee. Of course I went. I only got home from her house about 30 minutes ago, so I was there for a couple hours after church. I spent the afternoon with her, her husband, her niece, and met her daughter and daughter's boyfriend. It was great! After only one day, I felt welcomed and like I've finally met people on the island!

So, I think I've found my church. I've had some heavy things go down back in Medford since I got here, so I asked God to spare me from church hopping for the next two months trying to find a good place. I found 3VC online, thought it looked nice, and simply asked that this would be the church for me. I think it is. I was initially going to write this blog with the intent of asking what people suggest I look for in a church, or how they've church shopped before, or what helped them decide. But now I'm afraid my title is misleading. After today, I don't have anymore shopping to do, I only need to spend more time there! I suppose there are still things to find out, a very small number of things that are theologically important to me. Based on the service today, however, the familiar worship, the Bible-based teaching, the welcoming atmosphere, I feel very good about this being the right place. This may be the only church I've ever gone to where I've felt comfortable and at home without already having a group of friends to welcome me.

That's been my experience. So although I don't think I need to do anymore shopping, I'd still be intrigued to hear other stories of church shopping, things that helped, maybe some funny church fail stories, or ways that you know you'd found the right place.

Road Trip Guidelines

This is something I intended to write while I was on the road, but when I finally arrived at my destination every night, I pretty much just crashed. So now, a little late, here are some road trip guidelines I came up with on the drive:

• Snacks: keeps lots of snacks in the car. Buy a flat of water to keep with you. For me, stopping for coffee before I leave town is a must, and I always have Clif Bars or granola bars with me. Snacking will keep you going for a long time instead of stopping for food all the time. And if you're a smoker, bring extra cigarettes. Unless you're really casual or you have great willpower, you will wind up smoking more, because there's nothing else to occupy your time.
• Comfy clothes! On my trip, I was driving 9-12 hours a day, so I wanted to be comfy! Find the most comfortable jeans or shorts you own and put 'em on. Shoes that slip on and off easily are nice. And a light jacket, so you can drive with the windows down even when it's a little chilly, is great.
• Pack light. You're driving, you're not trying to impress anyone. If you need to look nice once you get somewhere, put one extra outfit in the bottom of the bag and forget about it. And make sure you pack extra underwear. The more you road trip, the easier it is to remember everything.
• Make a checklist. If you write things down as you think of them in the few days before you leave, it'll make that morning much easier. You won't be running around trying to remember anything, you can just check your list, have peace of mind, and hit the road!
• Music. Music is a whole subcategory in itself. If you don't care about music that much, you can skip this part:
• First off, this is the digital age. If you really feel like changing CDs every 30 minutes, and carrying around that huge book of CDs, go for it. But seriously, just get a stereo with an aux. in or an FM transmitter, and load up your iPod.
• You've gotta have your favorite music with you. I don't ever start or end a road trip without having some Ben Folds blasting, and I don't remember the last time I had a long drive without some Blues Traveler or Hilltop Hoods.
• You need a good variety of music to mix things up. Something funky-fresh to get you psyched up when you leave, but also some chill stuff for the end of the drive. When I've been driving for 11 hours, I don't want to listen to anymore Rage Against the Machine, I want to listen to Damien Rice or Micah Dalton or Elliot (yeah, check them out: Elliot).
• Make sure you have good speakers that work! Nothing can suck more than having your music crap out mid-drive.
• Bring new music so you don't get bored with all of it, but also bring good music you know, so you can crank the windows down, the music up, and sing along like an idiot! :)
• Know how and when to stop for photos. Unless you have lots of time to kill, don't stop for everything little thing. For example, if you see McAndrews Road, don't say, 'LULZ! OMG! There's totally McAndrews in Medford!' It's not that exciting. If you see Jackass Hill Road, yeah, stop and take a picture. I took a picture of every state line I crossed, which I thought was cool for me. Also, learn to take pictures while you drive, it takes less time ;)
• A map is good, but honestly, not necessary. I just drove across the country without printing out a single page. Like I said, it's the 21st century, get a GPS or an iPhone. Actually, just get an iPhone. It's a good investment for life.
• Have people you can call or text while your driving. Er... I mean, don't text while driving, it's not safe. Practice safe text! But seriously, sometimes having a voice on the line can make the difference over that last hour between a safe drive and nodding off at the wheel.
• For my last guideline, I'll apologize in advance to the ladies: sorry, ladies. There are two good reasons to stop: you're having car problems or you need gas. A good rule is to not get on the freeway with less than half a tank, but you can push that with certain cars. But you need to pee? Pee when you get gas. Out of snacks? Buy them at the gas station. In an emergency, take 30 seconds and pee on the side of the road instead of 15 minutes to pull off and find a gas station. Unless you have no time constraints, then stop whenever you please, and stop at cool places to take pictures!

That's it. Those are my ideas, after five days and 3100 miles on the road. If you've got your own road trip guidelines, put 'em up!

NY and Bust

The first (almost) week in NY has been... fairly uneventful, actually. My cousins, Sam and Sabrina, were over at Rick's house Sunday and Monday night, so it was nice to finally get to meet them and hang out for a bit. But mostly it's been a lot of chilling around the house. Rick works nights, so it's been nice to have the house quiet and empty at a relatively early hour so I can crash, or start working on something and not bother anyone.

My new store is - interesting. Definitely a different culture and mindset out here. And I'll just put it this way: I was trained very, very well to do everything according to standard and to make the customer my number one priority. So at this store, I look great! There are a lot of different and strong personalities working at the store, but they're all friendly and I have no problems with any of them.

Long Island really hasn't turned out to be all that different from Oregon. So far, I've talked to some random lady in Starbucks about Apple computers, I've sat and read at (several) Starbucks, I chopped up some firewood for Rick, and I still buy cigarettes from Indian people! On the way to Starbucks today, some guy's car died, so another guy and I got out and helped him push it, and people totally open doors for each other! It's practically the same place. Oh, and I brought the Oregon weather with me, apparently: 66º and sprinkling today! So much for the beach on my day off.

I'm really looking forward to next week at this point. Probably because they were unsure of my availability and training, I was only on the schedule three days this week. I did manage to pick up a short shift on Friday, but it's still not much. Without having work, and without knowing anyone on the Island yet, I pretty much just sit around and get kinda bored. So once work picks up, and hopefully after I visit this church on Sunday, I'll have a little bit more going on.

On a side note, I just ran out to my car to grab some stuff. I left my computer sitting inside, and started talking to some random guy about the area. See? This place is totally chill. The thing I have noticed, though, and yes, this is totally a shout out and props to Southern Oregon, we totally have the cutest baristas there. I'm telling ya, haven't met anyone out here that's as pretty. Oregon girls are prettier ;)

That's a week in Long Island, I think. Rick's got a huge backyard, and a pool, and a gym downstairs, so once the weather gets nice and I find an actual schedule, I'll have a lot more to do. And once I get paid and get my balance about the $30 or whatever it's at, I'll be making a little trip into the city, I think.

Hope all is well back in Oregon!

NY or Bust - Day Five: Columbus to Port Jefferson Station

Just so everyone knows, I am writing this from my new store in the Smith Haven Mall in NY! Of course, the first place in town I went to find was my Starbucks :)

As tempted as I was to spend an extra day in Bexley, by the time I woke up, I was definitely ready to hit the road. Part of me almost wishes something bad or extravagant had happened, so I'd at least have a cool story to tell. I feel like traveling across the country and not having any great stories to tell is a bit of a letdown. Well, except for that awesome night in Kansas City (thanks again for that, Rob). Oh, and I guess I did get to be there for my best friend having her baby. Maybe the trip wasn't completely boring...

Everything yesterday went really well. I felt like I couldn't get out of construction all the way from freakin' Pennsylvania to New York, but it actually didn't slow me down too much. And thanks to being in the middle of nowhere, maintaining that 'steady speed' wasn't a problem (no, no more cruise control, it was too hilly). I've honestly been surprised at how nice most of the states have been to drive through. Pennsylvania was actually a pretty state to drive through. Going over the Appalachians was very nice scenery, even though they're only very cute little mountains, barely bigger than Roxy Anne, it seemed like. The East Coast definitely doesn't know how to rock the mountains. But they get A+ for effort and still being pretty.

Getting into NY was actually pretty darn exciting. Of course, I had to turn on 'Empire State of Mind' by Jay-Z and rock that as I was driving. Passed through Brooklyn, Queens, and got a killer view of the Manhattan skyline! I got into town at about 6p, and made it the next 60 miles to my uncle's house a little after 8p... Honestly, the traffic on the Parkway wasn't any worse than in any other city I've had to drive through. But after being on the road for about 9 hours, I was ready to be done. At one point, it took me about an hour to get five or ten miles. Not fun driving.

Along the way, I had to pay a couple tolls. In Kansas, it was about $2 (yeah, Kansas has toll roads...), one in Jersey that was about the same, I think. Then I paid one in Jersey that was about $12, and coming into NY, had to pay $8. The only problem with tolls is you need to pay with cash. I'd stopped at an ATM when I got gas to make sure I had cash on me, but when I got there, I couldn't find it anywhere. I thought I must have accidentally handed the last toll guy my $20 instead of a $1. So, freaking out a little, I grabbed my change bag and started counting out quarters to pay the $8. I felt like a retard, and the toll guy was pissed. Luckily, though, I found the money laying on the floor. That was about the biggest problem I encountered along the way.

I wanna take just a minute to give a genuine thank you to everyone who helped out, or called, texted, gave me a place to crash (or booked me a hotel room), prayed, or anything else. According to Google Maps, the route I took was 3,189 miles. I just traveled over 3000 miles in the course of five days with absolutely no serious incident. No accidents, didn't get pulled over, never ran out of gas, didn't even so much as spill any coffee on myself. This is, to me, totally just one more sign that this is what God actually wants me to be doing.

What do you say to family when you haven't seen them in 11 years? I didn't remember anything about my uncle's town, or even what his house looked like. So, I found what I thought was the right address, walked up to the door, and saw him inside in the kitchen. He said, 'Come in, man!' So I walked in, gave him a hug, and said, 'Hey...' Haha! It was great. There's definitely going to be some getting to know each other and feeling each other out, but after 11 years I can just show up in NY and say, 'Hey,' 'cause we're family.

I called my other uncle last night, Mike, and I don't think I got a whole heck of a lot more than ten or fifteen words in. He sounded really excited to have me here, and couldn't stop talking about his son wanting to see me, or him coming down to visit, or me heading up there, asking me questions about the drive, and on and on. It was great! One of my cousins might be down tomorrow to have a BBQ at my uncle's house. It's great to be here with family, and I already feel like I'm part of the family - which, you know, I always was, but more than just a surface level. I'm getting to be a part of their lives!

So, today, I am taking it pretty easy, hopefully getting stuff rearranged in my room, and gonna cruise around town a bit to find out where to go, hopefully track down a decent church, and probably head down to the beach for a bit - yeah, as I'm writing this, it's 58º and cloudy in Medford, and it's 86º and sunny here... suckers ;) I'm sitting in my new store new, and already got a great welcome. It's in a mall, so I doubt this'll be my new hang out, as it's not conducive to sitting and relaxing. But the partners here are great! I told them I was scared that nobody in the store would actually be friends with each other, but they told me they all hang out all the time, and are apparently going to the beach at least once this weekend. So it looks like I may not have as hard of a time meeting people as I expected. Also, across from my store is a Cheesecake Factory and a California Pizza Kitchen.

So, since I've been sitting here for a while already, and I don't think I want all my coworkers to find out how much time I actually spend at work when I'm not working (not yet, at least), I think it's time to do some exploring of Long Island. I'll continue to put photos up on Facebook and keep everyone up to date on exciting goings-on out here.

Thanks again for everyone's thoughts, prayers, and support! I'm living in NY!

NY or Bust - Day Four: Kansas City to Columbus (Bexley) cont'd

Good morning, good morning! I got very little sleep Wednesday night, and had a very uneventful drive Thursday, so being awake, well-rested, and on the last leg has me feeling very well today.

Honestly, I can't give much of an update regarding yesterday's drive. I wrote down the highlights so I wouldn't forget them:

The abbreviation for Missouri is MO, so they have Mo' Everything! Seriously... Mo' DOT, Mo' road crews, I saw Mo' cars, Mo' towns... That's the highlight of Missouri, getting to say Mo' before everything. It's pretty much the same as when you pass a dam on the road, and then start calling everything the 'dam road' and the 'dam trees'.

The other cool thing in MO was crossing the Mississippi. But only on principle. The Mississippi is wide, and long, and dirty.

In Illinois I stopped at the Blue Springs Café for lunch, and ate a pretty decent BBQ pork sandwich. That lunch stop consisted of all of 12 minutes...

And Illinois is muggy.

Oh, and I didn't realize when I was coming up on Indiana, so I didn't get a picture of getting into that state :( There goes my one road trip tradition!

As you can imagine, with such an uneventful (but still smooth) day, I was just ready to get to Columbus and relax. Little did I know I was going to what is likely one of coolest little towns east of the Mississippi! Seriously, even just pulling into town, I felt familiar with the place. There were neighbors chatting in their front yards, families walking around, people out walking their dogs. I was expecting to arrive in Columbus, which is about pop. 1 million, and I wound up in a welcoming little neighborhood.

Matt and Allison are great people (and pretty much exactly who I'd expect Susan to stay in touch with after college)! Sadly, I didn't get to meet their daughter, who is two. Matt works in the web marketing department of a local university, if I remember, and Allison is an Italian teacher at the local Catholic high school. Not only is that kind of funny and badass in and of itself, she is also fluent in German, French, and Latin, and I think another one that I forgot. No joke. These people are ridiculously smart.

Chatting with them was great. They're easy to get along with and are very intellectual (which means it's actually intelligent conversation). Matt and I decided to walk down to a local pizza place for a late dinner, so on the way he took me all through the neighborhood then to their little main downtown strip. I wish I had more time to hang out in the town; I want to take pictures of all the neighborhoods, the park I found down the street from their house, the new Jewish Temple, Capitol University's campus (which is beautiful). This town reminds me of something from The Wonder Years :) Oh, and still a little of Spectre from Big Fish, 'cause now I don't wanna leave.

However, I'm going to finish up this post and hit the road. I believe I'm about 9-10 hours from Long Island, with no time zone change today! To be honest, I'm a little sad the trip is ending. It's been a lot of fun to get to adventure and see new places and meet some of these people. I think I'll be bored for a couple days once I get there, 'cause I won't be unpacking and packing my car and getting ready to drive half the day!

I'm also a little anxious about being there. I mean, I've only been gone from Oregon for five days now, it's not as if it's been a long time. Arriving in NY and unpacking will finalize this decision for me and finally make it real, I think. Leaving Oregon was a little sad, but as soon as I spent an hour or two on the road, I was focused on the trip. I think getting into NY and finally slowing down is going to give me some time to simply ponder the decision again and what it means.

But, before I can do that, I do have to finish today's drive. I checked the weather in Port Jefferson, and my app says thunderstorms. So maybe later tonight instead of doing another update, I'll watch the thunderstorm from the beach in NY...

NY or Bust - Day Four: Kansas City to Columbus (Bexley)

I am presently sitting on a microfiber couch in a ridiculously comfy, quaint home in Bexley, OH. This may be the most relaxed I've been since leaving Medford. Bexley is a suburb of Columbus, so it has a very charming small neighborhood feel, with the convenience of a real city just down the street. I went to grab pizza today with the people I'm staying with, but we didn't just grab pizza, we decided to walk there. So I got a tour of the city on the way: the neighborhoods, Main St., the college, the brand new, stinking huge Jewish Temple... I love this town. This town is like Spectre in Big Fish.

Because I didn't get much sleep last night, though, and because it's already pretty late, I'm gonna finish doing a real update later. Tonight, I'll just leave you with this cool little story:

I parked my car down the street and walked down to where I thought the house was. The first thing that struck me was how many people were either walking to their neighbors' yards just to chat or walking around themselves, even though it was getting dark. I found the right house and found the guy I was staying with chatting with his neighbor. So I introduced myself, then let them finish their conversation.

While they were talking, I noticed the sun glinting on something in the air. It looked the way a dust mite looks in sunlight, but much brighter. I kept looking, hoping to see what it was, when the sun caught it again. Then I noticed the same thing to the right of it. Then, on the left, another small flash. Suddenly, I realized: they were fireflies. It was right then that it struck me that I'm not only on the last leg of my journey, but the eastern half of the US.

Now, having lived in NY, I'm sure I've seen fireflies before, but I don't remember it. I think that for a long time, I'll remember this relaxed, familiar feeling this town gives me. And I'm going to think of Buxley as the place where I saw fireflies for the first time.

NY or Bust - Day Three: Colorado Springs to Overland Park (Kansas City)

Phew. I'm a little tired while writing this one, so pardon me if it rambles a little in places.

Highlight of the freakin' trip happened today: one of my best friend's, Jenn, went into labor when I was staying with her and her family in Colorado Springs, so I got to go to the hospital with them! I popped on a little 'Still Fighting It' by Ben Folds on the way, and even though Jenn had a daughter, it was perfect. I met her new daughter, Tischel Leanna, just a couple hours after she was born!! I was super excited to get to share that experience with Jenn and her family, one of the coolest things I've ever done. I guess that's just how my vacations roll: went to Catalina Island and saw a wedding, went to Ensenada and got stuck at a Mexican funeral, go to Colorado Springs and take part in a birth :-D

After that whole experience, I can only imagine what it must feel like to be a dad. Watching her go through the contractions knowing I couldn't help was pretty hard; that male instinct to protect kicks in pretty strong. But if I experienced a 1/10th or a 1/100th of the concern for her that a husband would experience for his wife, I know I only experienced a 1/1000th of the excitement that a new dad would have! So to all the dad's out there: props, and congratulations, and now I can't wait!

As cool as that was, though, it did mean instead of sleeping at a house and getting a full night's sleep, I caught naps on the couch in the waiting room of the hospital between grabbing stuff from the car for Jenn and her family and getting updates on how it was going. Her sister told me a lot of things about 'triage,' and 'posterior,' and '81%,' whatever the heck those things mean, then she finally said something about 'water breaking' and 'epidural,' and I totally know what those mean! So we spent the night at the hospital, Jenn had the baby at about 11:30, and I hit the road entirely later than I intended to, at a little after 2p (sans a shower and changing, mind you). I said yesterday how much Colorado reminded me of Oregon. Well, as I was leaving town, it was sunny and started drizzling on me. Yeah, that's how similar they are :)

Now, I was fully prepared to eat my words about Wyoming when I drove through Kansas. Of all the states I'd expect to suck, Kansas is right up there on that list. It actually wasn't bad! It was clear skies almost the entire way, the first really sunny skies of the trip for me, and that was great. Not to mention it's much flatter than Wyoming, so my cruise control was working great for quite a while, and I got to drive some killer back roads (CO 94-E and US 40-E) where I had a chance to enjoy scenery and make up some time. And Kansas is so much greener than Wyoming! I will say this about Kansas, though, and this is coming from a guy who grew up next to a farm in Oregon and lived on a farm in Montana: Kansas smells. Seriously. Entire parts of the state just smell funky.

The drive through Kansas went very smoothly. Huge thanks to the sheriff in Topeka who helped me out: there was construction on part of I-70 and I had to exit the freeway, so he let me follow him off the exit and back onto I-70 on the other side of town. After Topeka, I did push Gracie pretty hard, and probably should have stopped for gas a little sooner. I thought I'd make it fine, but I swear, it's like the Kansas Turnpike never ends. I was starting to doubt whether or not Kansas City even existed! So I did wind up making one last stop for gas before I got to Overland Park.

Now, my good friend Robby took it upon himself to book me a room in Overland Park, just outside Kansas City. I had no idea where I was staying until I got there, and the hotel looked nice. As I walked in, I was excited, because even the lobby smelled good! The clerk promptly greeted me, asked me if I had a reservation, then informed me he was sending me to another hotel because some of the sprinklers in the rooms weren't working. I got sent down to the Hampton Inn (which I at first misread as 'Hilton'; that was a letdown). As I got out of my car and started walking to the entrance, two cops were circling the parking lot. I'm pretty sure this entire floor was at one point a smoking floor, based on the smell. The room was definitely a smoking room. But, as Robby said, it wouldn't be my road trip or a funny story if everything went well.

So I decided to head to a bar across the street for some food and a beer before bed. The place is called 'Fox and Hound,' but according to the sign out front, it's the 'Fox an- --und.' Props for burnt out lights. Inside it actually wasn't bad at all, and the hot wings were good (I don't even have heartburn from them!). Then, when I got back to the hotel, there were six, yes, six police units outside the hotel. Apparently a guest had seem someone walking around the parking lot checking car doors. I parked in the front of the hotel, in view of the clerk's desk, and approached the cops to ask if everything was alright. They told me there was no concern for anyone's safety, and one of them adeptly pointed out to me that this is probably the safest hotel in Overland Park tonight. All-in-all, I'm just really glad to be done driving for the night and to have a bed to sleep in.

So, I'm another day and 580 miles closer to NY! I think I'd be mad at Kansas, too, if I hadn't been so entertained by all the misfortune that took place here. Now, I'm ready for a shower, bed, and starting at a decent hour in the morning!

NY or Bust - Day Two: SLC to Colorado Springs

Mad props, once again, to SLC Kate and her family, and the Starbucks crew in SLC. I'm gonna go ahead and throw a 'bucks plug in right now: buy a Starbucks tumbler. They last for years, and they keep coffee warm for at least six hours after it's poured. That's all.

I didn't get quite as early of a start as I'd hoped, but I did spend the extra time sipping on coffee while I updated my blog and photos, so it was time well spent. As I was leaving town, it felt like Gracie was dragging a little, which concerned me at first. It felt like she'd lost power. But I think it was just the car going from 1/4 tank to a full tank; either way, once I was on the freeway, she continued running smoothly.

Probably a little more than half the drive today was in Wyoming. Wyoming sucks. I don't know how else to extrapolate that without complaining. It's flat, ugly, nothing exciting or pretty to look at, and too hilly to utilize the custom cruise control I developed (see the Facebook photos for an explanation on that...). Also, the girls at Subway charged me $7.42 for a '$5 Footlong'... I just paid and got outta line; I didn't feel like dealing with it anymore.

Then I got to Colorado... Colorado is like taking Bend, mixing it with Portland, then blowing it up to the size of a state. In other words, I loved it. There are cities, mountains, and architecture. I thought about stopping in Denver, but I was really anxious to get to Colorado Springs and see my friend Jenn, plus I was going through town at 5p, middle of rush hour. So I decided to just continue driving. I loved driving in Colorado, though. Definitely want to come back here for a visit and hang out sometime.

Two amazing things happened while driving today: first, when I started the day in Utah, Jenn told me she'd gone into early labor! There's early labor, then active labor, and it can come and go... I don't really understand. Long story short, I'm updating this from their living room, and before I leave Colorado Springs, I'll likely get to meet Jenn's baby and be an uncle!

Later in the drive, I was chatting with Robby about my plans for Kansas City. He shot me an address, so I thought he'd Priceline'd a hotel for me. Turns out, Bob decided to surprise me with a reservation! So I've got a room ready and paid for when I arrive in Kansas City. Which means I can take my time getting there, 'cause I don't have to worry about being an inconvenience to anyone, and I can completely relax (maybe even explore) when I'm there.

All-in-all... Day two wasn't bad. It felt a lot longer than the first day, but I'm going to continue to blame Wyoming. More than worth it to get to explore beautiful Colorado, though, and spend an evening with Jenn and her family. I'll continue to keep you all updated. And please continue to pray, they are definitely still being answered.

NY or Bust - Day One: Medford to SLC

I need to start by giving thanks to everyone who's helped this trip so far:

Thanks to Nevada and Utah for being so generally flat and straight, allowing Gracie to get about 45 mpg, and allowing me to make the trip in about 12 hours

Thanks to InCase for making a dual-USB car charger, so I could keep my music rolling and charge my phone at the same time

Thanks to Jason for giving me an amp and speakers that makes the music so much better

Thanks to Apple for making the iPod and the iPhone such great freaking tools (and toys!)

Thanks to Google for making such a good map app

And being serious,

Thanks to SLC Kate and her family for giving me a place to crash!

Thanks to my family for putting together such a killer snack basket for me

Thanks to everyone who called and text with me during the long drive

And thanks to everyone who's been praying for me; your prayers are both heard and answered

My last day in Medford went a little differently than planned... Had some heavy stuff come up that I was not expecting to deal with, but God was good, and got me through it, and used it to show me even more how much he's blessed this trip. The couple days before I left, I was asking God to help me make sure this was what he wants me to do. I even took it to the point of praying that if he didn't want me to go, he'd cause me to get in a car accident. Not because I didn't want to do the trip, but because I knew it would take something that drastic for me to catch on. Well, two days, some crazy driving, and about 750 miles later, I'm still safe and sound and more confident than ever that this is the right thing!

Today's drive went very, very smoothly. I left Medford at around 9a (after getting coffee, my review, and a raise!) and arrived in Salt Lake City a little after 10p. When I first got to Utah, I was excited for the time change, because I was in the future! Then Robby made me realize that I actually just lost an hour; Utah stole an hour of my life! Friggin', Utah! I want it back!

As is only appropriate for me, I started the trip with a little Ben Folds, and wrapped up with some more Ben Folds. In between were the likes of Beck, Chili Peppers, White Stripes, Nightmares on Wax, Lightbreak, Dave Matthews, Rage Against the Machine, and Black Eyed Peas. I only had to stop a couple of times. My last stop was in Winnemuca, Nevada, where I gassed up and ate some food, then made short work of the second half of the first day. I almost pulled off when I got into Utah to spin out on the salt flats, but was worried about getting stuck, so I opted to cruise on by and satisfy myself with a couple pictures.

Today was my longest day, at about 12 hours, like I said, and it was the shortest 12 hours of driving I've ever done. From here on out, the rest of the trip is going to feel easy, being only 8-10 hours of driving a day. I plan on taking off by 7 or 8a tomorrow (which will probably be today, by the time I've posted this), staying tomorrow night in Colorado Springs with one of my greatest friends ever, Jenn! Look for new blogs in the coming days, as I'll try to put one up after each day of driving (and also post my 'Road Trip Guidelines' that I've been brainstorming). I'll try to have a few pictures up here, but the majority will be on Facebook.

Again, thanks to everyone for the prayers and phone calls! I'll keep you posted!


P.S.
I'm still looking for a place to crash in or near Kansas City, MO tomorrow night. If anyone has any contacts, let me know.