Road Trip Day 17: McAllen, Texas

So I was a total failboat when it came to posting every day, but I suppose that's okay.  We leave in about eight hours to drive to Monterrey (omg!).  I should probably already be asleep, but I wanted to get some postcards written and photos loaded to Facebook before we left...otherwise that was all never going to get done.  I mean, seriously, have you met me?  Procrastination is a way of life, y'all.

Some highlights from the trip:
1) That I am apparently not grown-up enough to remember to wear sunblock (major sunburn in DC)
2) Watched all four seasons of The IT Crowd while visiting my friend Caroline in Knoxville, Tennessee (show = amazing!)
3) Birmingham Civil Rights Institute: in which it becomes clear why Birmingham was the most segregated city in America (it was against the law to allow black and white people to even play dominoes/cards/dice/etc together) 
4) That it took me two days to realize that I was in the Central Time Zone once I got to Birmingham (two days!)
5) Alabama really is as boring as my friend Caroline said (other than the Civil Rights Institute)
6) I drove over Lake Pontcharlain and thought "wow, the Mississippi River is SO big"
7) New Orleans is the most amazing city ever

8) Make sure you pee before getting on I-10 and heading out of New Orleans - it's mostly bridge over the bayous and swamps (very cool, but no way to get off)
9) The same goes for Texas: except it's just that there's NOTHING there for vast stretches of it (fields, but no towns as far as the eye can see)

10) Hung out with my new roommate and then met several new teachers/admin tonight, and everyone is awesome


And now I really need to get to bed, as we're leaving in less than eight hours!

Road Trip Day 5: Washington, DC

So I've hit several states since I last posted.  Well, some before I did, actually (MA, CT, NY, and then NJ).  I drove south through New Jersey down into Delaware and Maryland two days ago, and I arrived at my hotel in Greenbelt, Maryland, the site of the very last stop on the Green line of the DC Metro.  I haven't actually ever stopped in Delaware, so I hesitate to count it as a state I've "set foot in," but I figure when you pay EIGHT DOLLARS to drive through a TINY section of a very small state, then that totally counts enough for me.  


I originally planned on visiting the Goddard Space Center after arriving on Tuesday, but I got a late start and then had to wait around to replace a belt at Pep Boys in New Jersey.  It was squealing, so my friend Ruth's dad dropped me off there as I left their house.  It honestly would have been a super quick job...if they'd had both of the belts I needed.  They originally thought they could get one from their store in the next town over, and the manager drove all the way over to get it...but they didn't have it after all.  They managed to track one down at another store, but then that necessitated waiting an additional 45 minutes to get that belt.  Once they got it, I swear it was on the car in about 10 minutes.  To which I say: really?  Really, car, REALLY???


I visited the National Museum of American History yesterday, which was interesting, but surprised me.  I was expecting a lot more Revolutionary War stuff, I guess, and instead there were things like Daniel Radcliffe's Harry Potter costume.  I did really like the "America on the Water" exhibit, and "America on the Move" was pretty cool.  The "America at War" exhibit was also really interesting, but I cry foul on there being NOTHING about submarines at all in the World War II section.  Especially seeing as THEIR OWN WEBSITE says:


"submarines comprised less than 2 percent of the U.S. Navy, but sank over 30 percent of Japan's navy, including eight aircraft carriers. More important, American submarines contributed to the virtual strangling of the Japanese economy by sinking almost five million tons of shipping—over 60 percent of the Japanese merchant marine."


 My grandfather served on submarines before we even joined the war (he told a story about how they were patrolling the Panama Canal when they heard about Pearl Harbor and immediately zipped through the canal to head towards Hawaii...it was a long trip, and by the time they got there, all they had left for provisions was some water and lima beans...and that was where my grandfather's hatred of lima beans started), and he worked on them for years afterward, even after leaving the service.  I mean, seriously, he worked on building the USS Albacore, and the speed it reached is STILL classified.


And, wow, what a tangent.  Today I walked the monuments.  That was really interesting, but perhaps the coolest thing happened as I walked down the street from the White House.   All the sudden the cops were blocking off traffic and waving people through.  I was waiting at a cross-walk to be able to cross.  Eventually another cop waved those of us waiting away from the the crosswalk, even.  At that point, we were all intrigued, and so we waited.  Then we heard the sirens coming, and a motorcade started coming down the street.  It was Michelle Obama being escorted back to the White House.  Seriously cool.  


What was not seriously cool was me neglecting to put on sunblock.  My shoulders are beet red.  Or is that beat red?  Red as a beet or red as if I've been beaten?  I'm hoping it's the former. 

Road Trip: Day 1 The Mom, The Step-Dad, and I finished packing the car at midnight last night...this morning? Which does that count as? Anyway, we loaded up the entire back of the car and then the roof-top cargo carrier (wicked awesome). I am so glad I didn't have to do the two bags thing like the teachers I know who are teaching in Asia this year - I could have done it, but I am really happy that I didn't have to. 

I took The Mom and The Step-Dad out to breakfast as thanks, and we stopped by my grandmother's on the way home. (This is my dad's mom, mind you.) My grandmother is 94 and such a character (just the way she insists on calling Big Papi "Big Pappy" cracks me up - it isn't spelled right, apparently), but she's also a worrier. That means that The Dad and Auntie decided she doesn't need to know I'm going to be in Mexico, so I am already accruing the benefits of the school's Texas postal box. 

Anyway, the drive down was crazy. I should have expected that for a Sunday afternoon in July. Everyone and their brother was headed south, back to the city for the work week. I was originally GPS-scheduled to get in at 5:40, and I didn't get here until almost 7:30. The torrential rain in Connecticut didn't help (except perhaps as a test of the water-resistance of the cargo carrier...my comforter hopes that it held watertight) - there was too much rain for the storm drains, so there were sections that had water that was probably 6-inches deep, meaning that anyone with sense (i.e. not near as many people as one would hope) was driving slowly so as not to splash water in the wrong spot on their car undercarriage. And, you know, driving slowly in torrential rain is also a safe thing, with or without deep water. 

But I am safe and sound at my friend's house now, and it is going to be great to spend a few days with her, as I haven't seen her in ages.

Oh, my god, I have so much to do.  So much to do!  Did I mention how I have so much to do?  (Also, why do you keep switching my font to Comic Sans MS, blogger?  Super annoying, that.)  

I am leaving on Sunday (the 15th).  I will be hitting, in order:
- Driving through: NH, MA, CT, NY
- Carteret, New Jersey
- Greenbelt, Maryland
- Washington, DC 
- Virginia (lunch, somewhere)
- Knoxville, TN 
- Possibly North Carolina (a day out while in TN)
- Birmingham, AL 
- Hattiesburg, Mississippi (lunch)
- New Orleans, LA
- Texas (southeastern)


We are crossing over through McAllen/Reynosa (US/MX) on the morning of the 1st.  I am going to try to post every day (hopefully with pictures) as I drive down, so we'll see how that goes.


I am still having moments where it doesn't quite seem real.  Maybe it'll hit me once we start packing the car.  


My Route:



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In less than a month, I will be in Monterrey, Mexico, to start my new school year as an international school teacher. A big change from inner-city public schools.

In just over a week, I will be packing up my car and heading south (and west) to take a road trip down to Texas to meet with the other teachers who are driving. The school is about two hours over the border, so it's incredibly convenient. And god knows I do not know how I'd manage to bring everything I need if I was flying and just had a few suitcases. Anyway, what's really cool is that the superintendent is driving up to meet those of us who are driving, just to ensure that we all make it through customs/immigration okay, get our cars registered, and get down the toll road to Monterrey. Well, Santa Catarina, as the school is in a suburb.

I have a lot to do in the next week to make sure I have everything I need. Packing, an actual New Hampshire driver's license (not just this photo-copied temporary stupid thing), Mexican car insurance, studying my Spanish (yo hablo un poco Español), finalizing my road trip route and dates, etc etc etc. Still, despite all the craziness, I am SO excited for this new journey. It's going to be amazing.