8 states and counting...

So for those that don't know yet, Ben and I are moving back to Berkeley! Our stuff left our apartment via semi-truck last Monday and should have arrived in the Bay Area yesterday. Ben spent his last two work days on the East Coast working from the Virginia office and we met up Friday night in Brooklyn.

It was sad to leave our fabulous apartment and the great friends that we made during our time in Somerville, but winter was approaching and it was time to head to warmer climes!

We spent Halloween hanging out with our NY friends (west coasters all). NY was nice and warm for us and let us run around all night without needing jackets.

Here is a link to Ben's flickr page with photos of our costumes:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maplebed/sets/72157622585382617/

Ben flew to CA on Sunday while I spent the day recuperating at our friend's apartment and getting ready to begin my solo drive across the country.

I left Brooklyn at 8am on Monday and managed to get to New Jersey in an hour. I think that's a record to cross Manhattan during morning rush hour! I meandered my way along I80 across Pennsylvania. The drive would have been quite pretty a few weeks ago as the trees would have all been in color but now most of the leaves have fallen. I made it into Ohio yesterday and spent the night.

Today was pretty monotonous given that I drove over 600 miles in 9 hours. Crossing over into the Central time zone was nice and gave me an extra hour of drive time, though I was still chasing the sun to try and get to Des Moines. I didn't quite make it there but am not too far away. Apparently I crossed the Mississippi and didn't even know it...or think about it until much later. Luckily it didn't rain until I got to my hotel and it stopped by the time I was ready to walk to dinner.

I'd been craving vegetables ever since I hit the Midwest and well, the Midwest hates vegetables, but tonight I ordered a burger just so I could get the "rabbit" side. Raw veggies!! Hooray. I scarfed those down and then began the burger with local blue cheese. All in all, best meal of the trip so far. Who knew that would be in Iowa! (last meal in Iowa was with Ben on our drive across to MA and included chicken fried bacon...never again!).

I'm hoping to get to Boulder tomorrow night but might not make it that far. Getting closer and closer to CA! And getting more excited!