Cross-Country Road Trip!

I have been a terrible blogger, but for good reason! Brian and I spent last week driving from Maryland to Arizona, where he will be spending the next 4 months in training. A cross-country road trip is something I have always wanted to do, and it was definitely an experience. It took us about five days, but we got to stop and do a lot of fun things along the way!

The first day, we drove almost to Georgia, and then met up with some of Brian's friends from school at Fort Benning for breakfast the next morning. Of course, having breakfast that far south means a trip to Waffle House and lots of grease, but it was so good to see them!

Keiven, Josh (and Finn!), and Brian

Jessi and Me

The second day, we drove through Alabama to Gulfport, Mississippi. We thought we might see some of the oil washing up on the beaches there, but they looked pretty clean to us! We saw a lot of buses full of people in bright yellow vests further down the road, so they may just be doing a very good job with the clean-up.

After a couple more hours of driving, we stopped that night in New Orleans, Louisiana. It is so crazy to see some of the damage still there from Hurricane Katrina. It was a quick trip and we were a bit exhausted, but we managed to drive by the Superdome to the French Quarter, walked along the riverwalk...

...grabbed dinner, and saw the craziness of Bourbon Street! 

Days 3 and 4 took us through Texas. Route 10 goes across literally the middle of nowhere! We did stop in San Antonio for some TX barbecue from Goode Co., but after that...a lot of nothing! I think the weirdest thing about driving through the Midwest is the weather; because it is flat and you can see for miles, you can see it raining and thunder-storming, even if where you are is sunny and cloudless. That, and the speed limit is 80 miles an hour and the landscape is definitely a lot different than MD!

Another thing about Texas that I hadn't expected was the windmills! I don't think I have ever seen one in real life, and I was shocked at how many there were and how huge they are. They look like something from outer space!

After we (finally) got out of Texas, we stopped in Las Cruces, New Mexico and did a little extra driving to visit the dunes in White Sands!

There, the U.S. Park Service preserves a portion of a gypsum dune field, and I think it was one of the coolest things I've ever seen (and, accordingly, I took about 1,000 pictures).

It looked so much like snow, and you can even buy sleds to go down the dunes! We went on a sunset stroll through the dunes, and learned a lot from the park ranger guiding the tour while seeing one of my favorite sunsets in a long time!

On our fifth day of driving, we finally made it to Arizona!

2,878 miles later, we arrived at Brian's new home (more like hotel) until December and moved him in. I had planned on staying for about a week to help him get set up and flying home, but decided to stay for more like two. :) This time that we have had together lately is so special and so rare, and we probably won't be able to spend time like this together again until we're married!

...and while spending endless hours in a cramped car together should probably make you sick and tired of spending time with someone, I'm taking it as a good sign that Brian still wants me to stick around for a bit longer. :)