Drive to California

So let's see...I picked my mom up at the airport at around 10 am on Wednesday, May 3. And we began our very very long two days of driving. I unfortunately wasn't able to finish my Advanced Astronautics final project or take-home exam, so my mom drove a lot and I worked a lot. So our first day, we drove very uneventfully through Georgia, Alabama (I of course listened to Sweet Home Alabama shortly after crossing the border, as I always do), Mississippi, Louisiana, and finally, crossed into Texas. Well, we made it all the way to Arlington, Texas on the first day, which was ridiculous. On the second day, as I frantically tried to finish my Astro stuff, my mom drove almost all of West Texas...wow, she's a trooper!! At least we had my iPod, because I'm not really sure what kind of music we would have found (well, actually, I have a very good idea, and it would have been a lot of country). Of course my mom was very excited to go through Midland, Texas, home of President Bush. We finally reached El Paso Thursday evening, where we promptly found a Kinko's so that I could meet the midnight deadline (eastern time) on my finals.

Devin arrived Thursday night, so I picked him up at the airport...and my mom left Friday morning. On Friday, Devin and I went to Carlsbad Caverns. It was amazing!! I'm really happy we decided to go on this trip, because it is in the absolute middle of nowhere, and I can't imagine why else I'd ever be in that area. We walked down through the natural entrance, which not many people do apparently. Except for a couple rangers, we didn't see anybody until we reached the part that is serviced by an elevator. The caves really are phenomenal. You can't imagine just how big and expansive they are, without seeing it for yourself. And we only just scratched the surface. There are numerous other parts that can only be reached on special tours, and new parts that are just now being discovered. There were a lot of amazing formations down there too...our favorite was called "Venus' Breast." When I first saw it, I said, "Oh my goodness, that looks just like a boob!!" And sure enough, that was what it was called...
On Saturday, we drove to Phoenix and went to a Diamondbacks game, while Game 7 of the Suns playoff game was going on right across the street! Well, it definitely made for a fun environment around the stadium pre-game, and we sat right across the street and had dinner and some beers. Chase Field was pretty nice, and the Diamondbacks beat the Reds 3-1. A pretty exciting game, but made more exciting by the fact that Arroyo was pitching (who Devin has on his fantasy team, and I happenned to be playing him that week).



Finally, we drove the rest of the way to Pasadena and arrived uneventfully on Sunday.

Bailey, by the way, was amazing in the car! No car sickness or anything!! She actually seemed to be enjoying herself most of the time, and by the second day, was actually getting in the car voluntarily. A few times I opened the door to grab something out of the car, and she jumped in when she didn't have to! I just couldn't believe it, but she was a champion. It definitely made the trip go a lot smoother :-)