Roadtrip

Mom always told me that a good barometer for a relationship is if you can survive a cross-country roadtrip with the person.

David and I survived. Solid. 35 hour drive, almost the entire length of I-80, including an unpleasant stretch of hail storms in Nebraska. I was a little nervous, having not gone on such a roadtrip before, and brought a lot of things to do, mostly books to read. But, surprisingly, it was not bad at all. I didn't even get bored. David and I traded off driving long stretches (which I was proud of myself for, because I really hate driving. I love being a passenger, however. But I think we drove about equal amounts) and mostly talked the whole way. We made a list of all the states and checked off the ones we've been to. We drank lots of Sobe and Gatorade (Smith's was having a killer sale when we stopped by pre-trip to stock up on road food, so we ended up with 30 bottles for $10 or so. It was a lot of drink.) We listened to music and played Name That Band with our iPods on shuffle. We caught up to David's sisters Katie and Sarah, who were on their way from SLC to Kansas, and caravan-ed with them. We played my ukelele, which I brought along for being car-sized. I read Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk aloud to David, which is a hilarious and slightly disturbing book by David Sedaris. We went to church in Des Moines.

My favorite part, though, was Sunday night when we were looking for a place to stay and David's dad, who David was talking with on the phone, suggested that we stay in Sandusky and go to Cedar Point the next morning, so that's what we did. We stayed at the Cedar Point resort, which was excellent, because we got a great deal on tickets and got into the park an hour early. We were pretty hardcore, too. We went on 11 killer coasters in 4 hours. It was super fun! The roller coasters there are nuts. My favorite ride was the last one we went on, which wasn't actually a roller coaster, but just a set of super high-up swings called the Windseeker. It was cool because it was just like normal amusement park swings, but really high up and it was on the edge of the park, so we were swinging out over Lake Erie and it smelled like the beach and it was amazing. But the roller coasters were also amazing. Since we had to get back on the road, we left at about 1 p.m., which was perfect because it was before we got sick / sick of rides.

The drive from there east was really beautiful. We talked about capitalism for most of the drive and then around 10 or 11 p.m. we pulled into Jersey City, where David's dad's apartment is. Driving in, we had the best views of New York. It was really beautiful. That view is just intoxicating and the view from Phil's apartment, which is on the 36th floor, are incredible. Every day that we've stayed there, I wake up in the morning, walk out of my room and get the wind knocked out of me again by that view.