|
T H E T R I
P B E G I N S
"Well, It's
not like we haven't done this before, right?" Alberto
Vazquez
My career at
Trader Joe's was stalled in San Luis Obispo. There are many
reasons why. But I think overall, I was just giving off a
stink that said, "I don't want to be in California anymore."
I received a
job offer from my old friend Jose Mendiola in Milwaukee who
had transferred there as we returned from Europe in 2006. He
was very encouraging and supportive and I traveled to
Milwaukee in June to see if it would be a good fit for us.
After much discussion about relocating, Alberto and I
decided to make the move.
The hardest
part of leaving San Luis Obispo was jerking Alberto out of a
great job that he had as a waiter at Cafe Roma. The owners
were very distressed about it, as was I. Alberto was oddly
enough, just fine with the whole thing as he is very
adventuresome overall and looked forward to seeing more of
the United States. However, he had made so many friends in
San Luis that it took quite awhile to say goodbye to
everyone.
We cobbled
together some money from family gifts and paychecks and
spent time getting new tires and brakes and all the other
necessary things for a 2500 mile one way journey.
We decided to
put everything we had in storage in a 10x10 in San Luis and
pack the Jeep with the basics that we thought we might need
- 2 flat screen televisions, 2 plates, two spoons, two
laptops, two of everything else. Except when it came to
clothing. I got one carry-on and Alberto got 4 large
suitcases and two suit bags filled with jackets.
We left on a
Saturday afternoon and arrived in Las Vegas around midnight.
We are so bored with Vegas these days that we didn't bother
gambling that evening. The next morning Alberto wanted to
play a machine called "One Hundred Dollars or Nothing" and
with one dollar, and immediately won $100 which I snatched out
of his hands and returned to him a few hours later when we
were safely on the road out of town. He paid for all the
Cafe Mochas on the trip thereafter.
We took a
wiggly route from Vegas to Provo, Utah and when we stopped
for gas along the way, an odd thing
happened to us. A motorcycle touring group that stopped at
our gas station turned out to be a group of tourists from
Spain. We spoke to them only to discover that two of them
knew our friend Philip Cunningham in Barcelona because they
also worked at The Liceu Barcelona, the city Opera Symphony.
Philip is First Clarinet in the symphony and our two new
friends are actor/singers in the Opera company. Small World!
The rest of
our trip was uneventful. No serious car problems, no delays.
We passed through Nevada, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota,
Minnesota then Wisconsin. We took one detour into South
Dakota to see the Black Hills, Mt. Rushmore, and The
Unfinished Crazy Horse Monument and Deadwood , home of Wild
Bill Hickok and Annie Oakley. (Yes, there is a real
Deadwood!)
I guess we
needed to get out of the city and away from the urban
shopping that filled our off days, because as we were
driving through Wyoming, on a clear warm day, the harvesting
of wheat and corn was under way. We had the windows down and
the music up and suddenly Alberto took a deep breath of
Wyoming air and with a happy sigh, said," Ummm. It smells
just like the Pottery Barn." He was so right but I laughed
so hard, I almost drove into a herd of wild antelope.
Here are the
abbreviated spectacular scenic shots of our car trip below: |
