There’s No Place Like Home

  • After leaving Friday at 4:20 PM and traveling 2916.7 miles and spending a total of $448.09 on gas we finally arrived home around 1:15 PM.
  • We left San Diego yesterday morning right about 6:00 AM with plans to stay the night in El Paso, but since we arrived in El Paso around 5:30 PM we decided to keep on trekking and stay the night in Midland or Odessa.  When we arrived in Midland we tried three different hotels and they were all booked, same story in Odessa.  We were told that since gas prices are high that business is good and all the hotel rooms are booked by people in the oil industry.  With that in mind we ran into the same situation in Big Spring, but the reason all the hotel rooms were booked was because of a refinery explosure and all the repair folk are taking up all the rooms.  Finally we found an open hotel room at the Holiday Inn Express in Sweetwater a little after midnight and about 4 hours left to go on our trip home.  I was actually really impressed with this hotel and would recommend it over the Monte Crappo in Las Vegas anytime.
  • WifeGeeding really misses Disneyland.
  • I do find it interesting how I see a commercial in DFW and automatically think it’s a local business, and then I see the same commercial in California.  One such business is Empire Carpet.
  • It’s such a great feeling to come home and see our little fur-children.
Posted in Personal | 8 Comments

The Journey Home Begins

  • It sure was fun making an unannounced visit and surprising your aunt with flowers while trying to pretend being a flower deliver man.  The look on her face was absolutely pricess.  That experience alone made the trip worthwhile. It was also great seeing other family members in San Diego (Santee acutally) as well.
  • California actually has stop lights on entrance ramps to the freeway.
  • Mmmmmmmmmmmmm In-N-Out Burger.  It’s interesting to look back in the kitchen and see that they cut their french fries fresh daily, you can definately taste the difference.  The closest In-N-Out Burger to Texas is in Arizona. :-(  One of my cousins says they would gladly trade their In-N-Out Burgers for the Sonic Drive-Ins we have in Texas.  That’s one trade I would gladly make.
  • Our journey back home started by traveling east on Interstate 8 in which we hugged the U.S. -  Mexico border.  There are some parts of the border that is heavly patrolled by the Border Patrol, and then there are parts that are desolate.  We actually had to stop at an inspection area on the interstate.
  • You learn some interesting facts reading the Randy McNally Road Atlas that we picked up at a truck stop for $5.99.  For instance, Interstate 19 that runs from Tucson to Mexico uses metric mileposts.  I also learned that even though Alaska is the largest state in terms of size it ranks 47th in population with its largest city hold around 275,000 people.  So that’s lot of land and a lot of nothing for a state that my pastor’s sister lives in. 😉
  • The drive west is easier as the sun is behind you for most of the trip and the time change works in your favor.
  • A little suggestion for those planning long road trips, try to plan around rush hour of major cities.  We were able to plan around the morning Phoenix traffic, but the evening El Paso traffic was ugly – not DFW ugly, but still ugly.
  • Ealier I made a comment about how the Texas speed limit is 70 mph in the day and 65 mph at night.  Well, we are currently 30 miles west of El Paso and have seen a posted speed limit of 80 mph.
  • WifeGeeding is driving now so I’m forced to listen to showtunes and country music, this trip can’t end soon enough.  I will have to clense myself with some U2 as soon as I get behing the wheel.
    I really miss DogGeeding.
  • Some folks were teasing me that WifeGeeding and I were going to get really sick and tired of each other, but it really has been an absolute joy being around each other for so long.  I’m sure she would say the same thing minus the all the farting I do in the vehicle.
  • Everytime I enter a new time zone my phone will automatically change – wayy cool.
  • I think tonight we will arrive in Midland/Odessa around 11:00 PM and stay the night there, so we should reach Geeding Manor sometime in the afternoon.
Posted in Personal | 5 Comments

Disneyland to San Diego

Time to catch up on a few thoughts before I visit family in San Diego:

  • From Vegas to Disneyland I actually saw highway signs using the metric system. I also saw that there was a set apart solid white line lane just for vehicles with trailers.
  • In the Disneyland parking lot we saw a posted speed limit sign of 14 mph . . . 14?
  • Disneyland has now built a gigantic five story parking garage, it’s fantastic.
  • Maybe it’s just one of those things we don’t understand since we are not parents, but we have a hard time understanding why so many parents bring their stroller strapped kids. It seems that if the child has to be pushed around in a stroller that child not only can’t participate in all the attractions because of physical limitations but they also can’t conceptually appreciate the experience. Not to mention, it must be a bear pushing that stroller and dodging other park guests.
  • We heard one mother say to her child who was about to roam the park all on her own, “If you get lost or need help, just ask anyone with a Disney shirt for help.” I recommended to her that a park name tag might be a little more beneficial.
  • The happiest person in the entire park had to be WifeGeeding.
  • We were very fortunate that not only was the weather PERFECT but the crowd was actually pretty small. How small, only about a 20-30 minute wait for Indiana Jones and Space Mountain which we road multiple times.
  • The castle in Disneyworld is much larger than the one in Disneyland.
  • Surviving Space Mountain:
    spacemountgeedingads1.jpg
  • Surviving the Tea Cups:

Posted in Goofy, Personal | 3 Comments