Here I sit on my balcony, overlooking the Rocky Mountains while enjoying the fresh air and warm breeze and truly feeling content. No, this is not a dream. This is my reality. I am finally here in Colorado.
To say our road trip here was "Epic" is an understatement. The only word that comes to mind to express it best is: blessed. God truly had a hand on us our entire way and continues to hold on to us tightly.
We left my sobbing mother and smiling father on April 16th, a sunny Saturday morning. We promptly got gas, I dried my tears and of course made a last minute stop to the New Hampshire liquor store where we bought a nice bottle of gin, vodka and a bottle of champagne to celebrate our arrival with. We then drove to New York City to see my sister, Jeremy's sister and a dear friend of mine who was coming to see us before we left the Northeast. Our stop there was a blast (besides hurricane winds and downpours) and we were so happy we had the opportunity to see the people we did. We got up rather late on Sunday which was going to be our biggest day of driving: 14 hours. We had trouble finding a taxi to bring us to our car (which I hoped was still there since it was filled to the gills with our stuff) but thanks to New Yorker Deirdre Whiffen, she called one for us and we found our way back to our CRV which was safe and sound. We than began our journey. It was 10:30am and our GPS marked our arrival time to Tennessee to be 11:30pm. If we had only been so lucky.... we made it to Chattanooga by almost 2am.
Our trip from New York to Tennessee was truly special. I've never had more time with Jeremy just to myself and it couldn't have been more perfect. As we left New York (getting lost in the process, GPS and all), we got into New Jersey and saw deer everywhere, which got Jeremy excited. As we made our way into Pennsylvania, we couldn't believe how beautiful it was and how nice all the drivers were. Coming from New England and New York, it made quite an impact! We saw a Cabella's where Jeremy begged for me to stop and explore which we did. Our 11:30pm time than became 12am.
We drove through Pennsylvania which took quite a few hours. From there we got into Maryland, West Virginia and Virginia. Each place was more beautiful than the last. The sun was shining and all the beautiful farms and homes there were just magical. We could sense how much closer we were getting to the Bible Belt by all the crosses and billboards thanking God and his glory. It was such a beautiful thing to see. Also, the radio would bleep out words such as "sex" or anything remotely close to it, which had Jeremy and me in hysterics.
Throughout the day I was texting my friend Kristina about our whereabouts since she was who we were staying with for the next day or so in Tennessee. She had warned me about Virginia and how we would grow to resent it but I kept assuring her that it was beautiful and we couldn't be happier. It was once we hit hour 7 in Virginia, Tennessee no where in sight and the sun setting that Jeremy and I starting to hit a wall. Each time we stopped to get gas or to get coffee it was like our arrival time was against us. "I could have sworn I stopped for 5 minutes, why is our arrival time now a half hour later?" became Jeremy's and my constant complaint. When it was 12:30pm and we were finally in Tennessee, I noticed my passenger becoming increasingly tired. He tried to sing as loudly as he could or dance but I knew it was no use: the boy wanted to sleep. We said a prayer, he promptly passed out and I continued on my journey until I saw the glorious sign of Chattanooga: 10 miles ahead. That got Jeremy up and I texted Kristina who then greeted us in the apartments parking lot. Jeremy and I had started to think that Chattanooga didn't exist or that it was a figment of our imagination. But it wasn't: we had truly arrived! We made some small talk with Kristina and then passed out as quickly as one could.
It was that next morning that I really appreciated everyone who encouraged me to take a day off of traveling. I had resisted it because I wanted to get to Colorado so quickly but having never driven 14 hours straight, it takes a toll on you more than you expect. Jeremy and I relished this day and I will cherish it forever. First off, everything in Tennessee was green. Green trees, green grass, green everything! It was as if in one day we had driven away from winter and arrived on a perfect spring day. We could not have been happier. We put on shorts and a tank top and decided to explore this beautiful place. Kristina throughout the day was sending us texts on places we could go. We arrived at this great brewery and I had a pulled pork sandwich (I had to get my southern BBQ in there somewhere) and just giggled at everyone’s southern hospitality and accents. At one point, I'm pretty sure Jeremy and I adopted an accent ourselves and I'm sure we sounded ridiculous. But we were content, nonetheless. We had an unbelievable time just exploring and being together. Kristina and her boyfriend Chris got out of work at 8pm so she had suggested that we take a trip to Georgia (which we had no idea was 10 minutes away!) and try out their winery there. I'm pretty sure we tried every wine there and fell in love with each one equally. We then agreed upon "Georgia On My Mind" (a peach wine) and "Southern Sangria" and couldn't wait for C&K to get out of work so we could drink them up. We then spent the rest of the evening on Chris's porch enjoying mid 70's temperature as I knew my New Englanders were battling a snow storm. It was when I realized that the apartment we were staying at was not our friend Kristina's but her boyfriend Chris who had never met us until our arrival; I realized the true meaning of Southern hospitality. Chris had opened his doors to us (and even given us a spare key!) without having met us once and was perfectly happy about it. The four of us have a special bond which I truly treasure and cannot wait to visit them again.
The only slip up to our road trip was falling in love with Tennessee. We hadn't expected to love it as much as we did and felt almost like we were cheating on Colorado when we realized how sad we were to leave it. We truly didn't want to. It didn't help that Chris and Kristina told us we could stay and hang out until we felt like leaving. That was not easy to leave at all. But we packed up our things and left for Missouri at 8:15am on Tuesday, April 19th assuring them we would be back as soon as possible.
I don't think Jeremy and I have ever felt so content. Each time we were in the car, or walking around in a new state we had never been in or ever thought we would have found ourselves in, it was like an unknown part of us came alive. I can't imagine experiencing this or wanting to experience this with anyone else.
Tuesday morning the weather was beautiful and made everything it touched likewise. We left in Tennessee, dipped into Georgia, back in to Tennessee and remained there for quite a few hours. Our arrival time was set to be at 5:30pm in Ozark, Missouri where we planned to see my mother's best friend, Linda her husband, Colin and their daughter and granddaughter. Colin is an amazing chef and Linda had told us that he was preparing something for us so that happy thought made time pass well. We found ourselves driving through all these great places we never thought we would see and took hundreds of pictures along the way. Each state we drove through looked different than the last and it made the time pass so quickly. Jeremy and I took turns driving every 4-5 hours or so and just relished in God's beauty along the way.
We spent a lot of time in Kentucky and noticed that the weather was starting to get cloudy. It didn't take away from how beautiful everything was. Our windows were down and we were still dressed in tank tops enjoying now 80 degree weather. Absolutely zero complaints from us. We noticed on our GPS that we were nearing the border of Missouri and promptly got our camera ready to take pictures. It was then that we realized that the road ahead that was to lead us onto a bridge into Missouri was closed. "Don't panic, this is just part of the adventure" was the mentality we had so we took the road in the other direction and prayed it would take us to Missouri. Thankfully it did, but not without taking us through Illinois (sweet! another state we can say we have been in!) which became the only creepy part of our trip since. It took us through Cairo, Illinois. When we entered this town, the sun hid behind clouds, the wind picked up and it started to rain. We noticed there weren’t any cars parked on the street or children playing outside. Buildings were falling apart, abandoned to let nature do what it wanted with it. "What is this place?" Jeremy kept asking. It was truly horrible. We then came across an (OPEN!) bridge ahead and noticed that everything around the bridge was flooded. Thankfully the bridge was intact and water free but the water was so high that it was half way up the branches in every tree. All Jeremy and I wanted was to get out of there. We snapped some pictures just to have proof that we had crossed the Mississippi River and then prayed Missouri was ahead. Thank goodness it was. Once we crossed into Missouri, it was as if nature had come alive again. The sun began to creep out behind the clouds, the rain stopped and the weather warmed up again. Cairo: not our next vacation destination.
When we first started this trip, people kept telling us that we are going to go crazy because of how flat the Midwest was. Jeremy and I said "Screw it! We love farms!". Well, driving through the first part of Missouri was when I started to realize what those people meant. It was flat. Flat, flat, flat. The flatness took the wind out of our sails and the camera out of our hands for the first time in days. We kept hoping for some small hill area or something that looked different. After about 2 hours of this, FINALLY there were hills - and a lot of them. By now the sun was fully out and we passed a bank that read "86 degrees". Happiness was all we felt.
By this point we were getting texts from Linda asking us about our trip and when we thought we would be there. With stopping for gas and getting lunch, our arrival time was set to be at 6:15pm. I then got a call from my mom around 5:30pm with her telling me about tornado warnings and other things going on. That's just swell: I am driving in the middle of nowhere, with the love of my life with a car packed as tightly as possible with everything we owned... the last thing I needed was a tornado. So of course, shortly after this call ended, the sky turned very dark and huge chunks of ice (also known as hail) began to pound our car and windshield. Immediately, I thanked the heavens for our zero deductible policy for windshield replacement from Progressive but that changed drastically when I notice a huge weirdly shaped cloud a few miles ahead in front of us. Jeremy and I looked at each other, then the "cloud", he takes a few pictures and I just stare ahead wondering "Am I about to drive through a cloud or a tornado?". Thankfully, it was just one scary looking cloud.Sadly for us, the scary cloud set our arrival time to past 6:30pm. I quickly let Linda know and we stayed course until we pulled into her neighborhood and were completely taken aback at how beautiful everything was. We left the close courters of our CRV and entered into luxury. It was so wonderful having that time with Linda and her family. Great food, wine and conversation were just what we needed after a 10 hour drive (and that includes the hour we drove and then lost because of time change- ugh!).
After a great sleep, we woke up on Wednesday for the biggest and most exciting day: the day we finally enter into Colorado! We gave hugs and kisses to Linda and Colin as they bid us farewell on their driveway and we pulled onto their street starting the beginning of the last leg of our road trip: Colorado, baby!
The highway that Missouri took us into Kansas was like out of an old movie. The highway was tiny and the only thing separating you from oncoming traffic was yourself. But on a good note: it did take us on Route 66 which was very cool. Once we hit Kansas, all that talk about how flat it was quickly came back to us. Holy flatness, Kansas. We drove the entire length of the state and can tell you in good faith that it is F-L-A-T. Yeah, we spent about 8 hours driving through that.
Kansas was beautiful and their accents made us giggle. Jeremy and I tried ordering food and couldn't understand what the people who were taking our orders were saying. We were just happy to have received food by the end of it. And we saw Amish people. We also saw an abandoned Oregon Trail type carriage which we took a picture next to as if we were doing our own Oregon Trail type thing (except in 100% better circumstances) and then I got stung by a bee. Tough love Kansas.
By the end of hour 8 in Kansas (and another hour gone to time change), we were about done until we noticed beautiful Colorado's Welcome Sign ahead. Our exhaustion quickly turned into pure excitement. Sadly, the first few hours of Colorado were as flat as Kansas. It's strange but you don't realize that you are going up thousands of feet in elevation because the ground remains flat. In fact, the only time that Colorado became ‘unflat’ was when we hit Denver. By this point, the weather was crummy and rainy (and it was 9pm at night so it was completely dark too) but I don't think Jeremy and I have ever been so excited. Plus we finally purchased our URAQT key chains(anyone who doesn't know this story - ask us some time. It's one of the funniest moments we had on our honeymoon which we spent in Colorado) so we were happy, happy campers.
Denver is absolutely beautiful. I am so happy that I didn't Google Image a lot of it because what we saw was worth the surprise. What I didn't know was that Denver has an amusement park at the foot of the city and each roller coaster and other rides are lit up by a different light and it truly makes it magical. Once we pulled up to our hotel (which was BEAUTIFUL! by the way), we checked in, went up to our room (with champagne) and truly hugged it out. We had made it! We truly had done it. We wanted to come to Colorado and not only had we done that but we had the most amazing time and experiences getting there. We popped that champagne, enjoyed an amazing dinner at the rooftop restaurant in our hotel and went to sleep IN COLORADO.
We have now lived in Colorado for almost two weeks. We found an apartment the day after we got here and we were able to sign a two month lease at a beautiful place. Our apartment is called the "Penthouse" of the facility which has 750 sq ft of rug because we have no furniture to put in it. We went to Walmart and got a blow up mattress, unpacked the things we had and we have never been happier. We have our first apartment together that has a balcony with mountain views, fireplace and most importantly: it's in Colorado.
Jeremy and I feel so fortunate for the experiences that we've had and continue to have. They were life changing, magical and memories we will always cherish. We cannot thank family, friends and everyone along the way for all their love and support. One of the many reasons I titled this post "Life's Blessings" is because if Jeremy and I had decided to leave NH a week later than we did, we would have had tornado warnings our entire trip from Virginia to Tennessee and we would have been in Tennessee when those terrible tornadoes ripped through there, Georgia and Alabama (which was about 20 minutes away from where we were staying). A tornado was less than a mile away from Chris's apartment where we were staying and thank God Chris and Kristina are OK. Also, in Cairo, Illinois those trees we saw that were completely engorged in water finally got to the point that everything overflowed (including those bridges) and they had to evacuate everyone from that city. If that had happened while we were driving through, our trip into Missouri would have been completely different (and possibly nonexistent).
Thank you God for all your love and for keeping a watch over Jeremy and I, day in and day out. Without your love and blessings, our dream would not have come true nor would it continue to be. I just pray that Jeremy and I continue to serve you and honor you throughout our life and pray that you use us in anyway you see fit.
God's blessings from Colorado everyone :)
