The Halfway Point

I need to write this down before I forget...

Tuesday: Finished up finals, hung out with Jessica and then Matt, packed up and left Auburn at about 7 or 8, stopped in Troy to see Jme and arrived in Daleville to spend the night before starting our journey in the morning.

Wednesday: Woke up and went to Tracy's to see the kids before they went to school. Picked up Frisco's moms car (she helped out with saving us on a rental) and at about 9:30 headed for Troy. Made a last minute stop in Wal-Mart for Frisco to pick up some things and then after passing Montgomery, it finally felt like we were in unfamiliar territory so that's when it felt like our journey really started. Making only one stop in a KFC in a town called Demapolis we crossed through Alabama to Mississippi before we saw a sign that said Jackson was only 70 miles away. Frisco didn't realize our path took us through Jackson and he had family there, so after a few phone calls, we ended up stopping for a couple hours to see his aunt, uncle, and some cousins. And before we hit Jackson, here was the conversation we had. "What is Cassie's kid's name?" "I'm not sure..." "Is it Jackson?" "Yea, I think so" "We should stop and get her something from the town because of the shoutouts she was giving us on twitter" Our conversation after we crossed into Louisiana "DANGIT, we forgot to get Cassie something" So you can see that this whole freestyle thing wasn't really working. Finally, at about 12:30, made it to Jacksonville, Texas where my grandparents on my dad's side live and stopped there for the night.

Thursday: Had a wonderful breakfast from my grandparents, who spent the time that we were there calling my roommate Sisqo and we didn't have the heart to tell them that his name is Frisco. They gave us a bunch of stuff to take a road, stuff we didn't even ask for (cookies, bananas, jellybeans) and we left there at about 11. Crossed through Dallas and thought about stopping but couldn't decide on what to do so we just kept driving. It worked out because we got to Lubbock at about 6 or 7 and I saw my cousin Kayla first. She is a year and a day younger than I am and we were really close when we were little. Now, she is the only one out of the 11 of us cousins to have kids, and she has two. First time seeing them and it was kind of crazy. Met up with my aunt and uncle and who took us out to eat and was probably the coolest thing when she met Frisco when she was like "Can I hug you?" and proceeded to give him a hug that lifted him off the ground, something i know Jme would have enjoyed. Then just spent time at my aunt's house snappin pictures and getting beat by super smart 8-year-old cousin in video games. My other cousin Alicia also came over to say Hi before having to leave so study for a final.

Friday: Left Lubbock in the morning with our destinations to be the Four Corners, where New Mexico, Arizona, Colorado, and Utah all meet at one point, and then to get to the Grand Canyon. However, we looked at the map and saw that Santa Fe was only a couple hours north. So we headed north. This is where we had our first experience of tons of picture taking. Santa Fe was an awesome city to visit as that city, along with other parts of New Mexico, had in indescribable look to them. I say that because I honestly can't find the words to describe them. But we walked around the Plaza for a good two hours and looked at all the amazing art and visited this chapel with a set of stairs that has been featured on Ripley's Believe it Or Not. It was like a spiral staircase that had no support. Once again, I can't really describe it, but I will post pictures. At about 5, we decided to make our way to the Four Corners, arriving at about 11 to find out that it isn't really a spot, but a monument. A monument that closes at 8. So needless to say we were pretty bummed. Especially because after Santa Fe, Frisco drove the entire way to the point. I tried to pick up after that with our goal to be to hit the Grand Canyon and get a hotel there, but I only made it about an hour or two into Arizona before we called it a night.

Saturday: Drove about two hours and then hit it: The Grand Canyon. Once again, words cannot describe this place. All Frisco kept saying was that it looked like a painting, like it wasn't real. It was crazy because when we were in the gift shop and we looked at pictures, we were like "we know what that looks like in person" Some of the coolest things there was walking off the trail and daring ourselves to further to the edge. We never got too crazy though, but it provided some pretty awesome picture shots. After the Grand Canyon, we were faced with an option. Drive a little while and find a hotel. Or drive 10 hours to Modesto and make it there at about 2 or 3 in the morning. We made it to Modesto at 2:30.

Sunday: My brothers had surprised me by being here when we showed up and we didn't get to sleep till about 4 due to going to Jack In The Box and then enjoying our Oreo cookie shakes in at the part. When we woke up we tried to make some plans, but just ended up spending the day with my brothers and my mom and grandma. But for the most part, with my brothers. I sometimes felt like I was letting Frisco down because we weren't going anywhere, we just stayed in Modesto, but he never showed it if he was. I am very thankful for that because I don't get to see my brothers but maybe once a year and this time it was only for a day or two.

So now, it is Monday morning and our plans are to take the day to explore San Francisco, then in the next few days hit up Santa Cruz, Monterey, and then the LA area. Wonder what else we will randomly do...