Day 7...."CALIFORNIA!!!"

WE MADE IT :-D :::Celebrate:::

We arrived about 4:00 Pacific Time, but wasn't scheduled to meet Stella (my land-lady) until 6. So Kath and I went to Starbucks to enjoy our first LA coffee break :-) We met Stella at 6 as planned. There was another man waiting to meet Stella too. His name was Kyle and he was taking pictures for his friend who is moving in next week. We also met one of my roommates who lives in the back guest house. His name was Jason (a.k.a. Jason Bourne as Kath says :-). He was also incredibly nice and had come over to say hi to the new girl and offer that the experienced roommies would like to take me out to dinner sometime. How cool!

I was so nervous the closer we got to closer and closer to LA...ask Kath, I was a nervous wreck. I kept playing with my neckalace, and twisting my hair, and my stomach was doing summer-salts. It was mostly just the fear that I know no one here, and what if no one likes me, and what if I can't find a job, and...and...and.........It hadn't hit me too hard before, because this trip still felt like a vacation to me, more then an actual move. But I feel 100% better now that I'm here and have met such nice people and am in my amzing nice room :-)

But on with the details of our drive....We started out around 8:30 am Mountain Time and hit the highway. The higways are not nearly as interesting to drive on as the scenic routes, but it's the fastest way cross-state. We did get off on one scenic road tho that went towards Zion National Park. We took multiple tripod pictures and owwed and awwed at the amazing mountain and canyon formations. It was fun, but being as I was a nervous wreck (see above), I was antsy to get back to the highway and on the road.

We went on and on and on for a long time, before we made it to Los Vegas :-p No! We didn't stop and gamble all our money away. We did drive down the Strip tho (once we found it ;-p), and took some video. Kath was very impressed, and so we'll have to go back for a real Vegas experience in the future.

Next thing we saw was the "Welcome to California" sign :-D My place de residence! We played "California Waiting" by Kings of Leon on the iPod for effect. It was great!
And....we had to go through an "agriculture inspection" where we stopped at this tool both and a man asked us if we were carrying food products and I had to pop my trunk and everything (I think it was the out-of-state licence plates because they were doing "random" checks). anyway, it was like I was crossing the boarder, not driving through a state. Weird!

We continued on and were almost witnesses to a horrific accident. we estimated that the accident was maybe 5ish mintes old when we came upon it. Somehow, an SUV had flipped over and landed in the grassy median between the highways. The car was totalled and lots of people had stopped on both sides to offer assistance. We didn't see the driver, but no one was panicing over a body, so we're going with the idea that no one was seriously hurt. However, the nearest town (Baker) was still 30 miles away (we were in the middle of nowhere desert), and so it took quite a bit of time for us to see an emergency vehicle making it's way to the scene. Later, at a gas station, I heard that they had closed that direction of I-15 N :-/

We made it to Baker, and it was bloody HOT! !04 degrees according to the "World's Largest Thermomator," which was the attraction we stopped to see. It was hot, stickie for a desert (we think Hurrician Dean might have something to do with the mousiture), and incredibly windy. We took refuge in a great Greek dinner called The Mad Greek :-) They had awesome Gyros and a wonderful air-conditioning system! We took our pictures and were on our way.

Next stop was Glendale! We made it without dying....cause let me tell you...California drivers are crazy! I know NOVAians have a bad rep, but at least I know how to handle them. Cali drivers don't wait for there to be space for their car to fit, they just go and hope the space matterializes miraculously.....I don't know, there are no words, it just has to be experienced. But we're here now, and the car is unloaded (tho most stuff is still in it's boxes :-) Kath has been searching the internet for decorating fun, and tomorrow will no doubt be another busy day.