Blog Master G

Amarillo, Texas — We woke up this morning in beautiful Flagstaff to a dusting of snow. I love that: Opening the curtains, looking out, and seeing snow-covered ground. I’ll never forget the very first time at Vassar my freshman year when I had that same experience. It’s one that will never grow old for me, and one of the things about which I’m very excited to be moving to upstate New York.

This morning’s snow was the first for the dogs. Happy got to charge around the trees adjacent to our hotel. The crisp morning was only the beginning of a long and fun-filled day.

We left Flagstaff around 10am and headed east on I-40. Our first stop was in the Petrified National Forest, exemplary of much of the Southwest: Red rolling hills, vast and detailed canyons, and a natural light unique to this part of the country. The Painted Desert at the northern end of the Petrified Forest was especially picturesque with its red rock and snow-capped top (though we chose to take it in mentally rather than stop for a photo). The petrified wood was pretty cool, too. We also drove past some faux teepees, including Route 66’s Wigwam Motel, at which you can actually sleep in your own teepee.

After Arizona it was on to New Mexico, whose landscape is quite breathtaking. We drove through Albuquerque, along with towns with catchy names like Gallup and Tucumcari. Then we crossed the Texas border — into enemy territory, I joked (in a political sense, of course, for two liberal, now former San Franciscans).

Another highlight from today’s trip was our “reading” the audio book The Big Bad Wolf (thanks, Liz!) by James Patterson, who also wrote Kiss the Girl and Along Came a Spider (both good movies, I thought). It’s a great murder mystery and an excellent way to pass the time on a long trip. We’re about halfway done with the eight-hour reading, my first time listening to an audio book.

So here we are in Amarillo about 12 hours after leaving Flagstaff. We’re now in the Central Time Zone with just one more zone to cross.

The stars at night are big and bright…

In other news, I was annoyed (and shocked) to find out this morning that our stuff with the moving company (A) weighed in at a thousand pounds higher than the estimated weight (suspect considering we got rid of a lot of stuff after the estimate), and (B) has still not left the facility in Vallejo, three days into the seven to fourteen day delivery estimate. As for the cost, there is a not-to-exceed price that we’ll end up paying, but I was hoping we’d be able to pay less than that. As for the delivery date, it’s just frustrating to think that it may be later than we were originally told our stuff would arrive. So far, I’m not impressed with North American Van Lines and its local agent All Points Moving Systems in Vallejo. I’ve left a voicemail with the guy who gave me the estimate to find out what’s up.