More than OK

Remember how I mentioned we were making our own rules for this trip? Well shortly after we braved the sidewalk portion of Route 66 at dusk we decided to hop on the interstate and jump to Tulsa for the night. We then doubled back a bit this morning to visit The Blue Whale of Catoosa.

Because how can you miss a giant blue whale in the middle of Oklahoma?

I don’t know if you can tell by this picture but it was extremely windy. I originally just had the dress on but added the leggings after I stepped out of the car and promptly flashed my undies to Mr. Blue here. Maybe that’s why he’s smiling…

I may be cheesing it up but Phoebe’s hair doesn’t lie. It was windy.

There was so much to see between Catoosa and Oklahoma City that it took us almost 5 hours to make our way between the two cities. We just kept stopping to snap photos.*

At one point we stepped out of the car to take a picture of a bridge. I just walked along the side of the road like a normal human. Joel on the other hand was tired of sitting so he ran along the dirt beside me. He happened to look down just in time to awkwardly trip/jump over a giant fire ant hill.

Suddenly he decided that I had the right idea and walked along the side of the road, eyes on the ground.

Once we got a little ways outside of Oklahoma City the scenery was mostly this:

Or some slight varient.

The most excitement we had was the constant zig-zag game old Route 66 likes to play with I-40. Drive. Stop sign. Turn right. Bridge. Stop sign. Turn left. Drive. Stop sign. Turn left. Bridge. Stop sign. Turn right. Drive.

Etc.

I’ve never seen so many dead end roads in my life.

It kept me, as the navigator, on my toes anyway.

After what felt like forever we finally made it to Texas. Our plan was to make it to Amarillo but since we had so much fun at the beginning of the day we didn’t get quite that far. When the sun started going down we decided to just find the nearest hotel and get an early start tomorrow. No point in driving if you can’t see anything.

Tomorrow we hope to make it to Albuquerque by night. If we don’t it means we had too much fun along the way.

And that is more than ok with me.

*In case anyone cares to get picky those photos may or may not have been taken in between Catoosa and Oklahoma City. I don’t remember exactly but they were some of my favorites so there.

It’s all about the journey

Hm, blogging… let’s see if I remember how to do this.

First of all, thank all of you for your kind comments here and on Twitter about my dad. Things could have been so much worse than what they were. He’s not all better yet but he is recovering and for that I’m so thankful.

So much else has happened since I fell off the blogging wagon I don’t even know where to start so I’m just going to skip to current time. I may eventually try to recap things but my current adventure is way too exciting to bother with that right now.

Yesterday Joel, Phoebe and I began Epic Road Trip 2011. We’re in the process of completing number 27 on my 30 by 30 list. Driving across the country on Route 66.

Or getting our kicks on Route 66 as they say.

This is something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve been on more road trips than I can count. They’ve always been to get somewhere in particular, as most road trips tend to be. Because they’re destination focused it doesn’t leave time for the random things in between.

Like the word’s largest rocking chair.

Every time I’ve taken a road trip I’ve always said that someday I want to take a trip where I get to stop at every strange and stupid thing. Just for the heck of it.

This is that trip.

And it’s even better than I hoped it would be.

It’s unbelievable how true flexibility makes things so much more enjoyable. Any time-table? Ours. Any rules or guidelines? Ours. If we decide something looks cool, we stop. If not, we don’t. If there’s a particularly dull stretch of road we may hop on the interstate for a few miles to save a few minutes that we can later use on something interesting.

We stopped at that ridiculously large rocking chair.

I kissed Mater.*

We’ve laughed and talked and joked and dreamed out loud and just had the most amazing time ever.

There’s no rush to be anywhere because here is exactly where we’re going.

I often have a hard time living in the moment because I’m so focused on my goals and where I want to be in the future. This trip is exactly what I need to remind me that there’s really nothing more important than right now because right now is my life.

It’s all about the journey.

*Oh hi Disney/Pixar, obviously I meant a Mater-like tow truck. Don’t sue me.

Two years old already

My little baby is two years old today.

I can’t believe she’s so grown up already. Almost overnight she’s mellowed out so much. She’s never been super hyper but she definitely was testing boundaries for awhile. Typical teenage girl stuff. Hehe.

Yes I just called my dog a teenage girl. Shut up.

But she was a huge brat for awhile and I definitely did not consider finding a new home for her.

Ahem.

But now she’s becoming the amazing dog she was when we first got her. She is such a part of our family now, it feels wrong when she’s not around.

So, for her birthday I’ve given her a few too many treats, took her for a nice long walk in the beautiful kinda sorta spring like weather and we’ve snuggled on the couch for hours.

I’m pretty sure we both had a really good birthday.

Happy 2nd birthday, Phoebe.

Wordless Wednesday: Still rocking the red

Birthday Celebrations (part 1)

Because obviously I couldn’t celebrate my birthday all in one day. My birthday is way too important to be able to fit the celebrations into one day.

Or there are so many people in my life that it’s impossible to get them all together at once.

Either way.

Anyway, I had to work on my actual birthday. I got off early however and came home and took a three hour nap. I never take naps. Once I’m up I’m usually up for the day. Apparently turning 25 has changed me though because that was not the last nap I had this week.

Anyway, I came home, took a nap, relaxed around the house and then had a nice little dinner with Joel. Perfectly relaxing.

Tuesday I worked so no real excitement there.

Yesterday was when the real celebrations began. After another luxurious two hour nap, I met up with my sister and brother-in-law and they treated Joel and I to a yummy dinner and some bowling.

It was dollar bowling night so there was about a 45 minute wait for a lane. We killed the time playing pool.*

Badly.

But we had fun. Mostly making fun of how bad we were.

In case you think I’m lying, Joel and I played against Naomi and Melvin. We won every game. Not because of any kind of skills on our part though. Every win was because of a scratch on the 8 ball or something similar. Lame. And hilarious. Thank goodness we weren’t playing for money.

We finally got a lane and then had a ton of fun bowling.

Badly.

I have mentioned before that I have no bowling skillz. I actually got what I’m pretty sure is a life time high score of 88. That included two strikes in one game. ::dies::

Joel got a high score of 130. That would be incredibly impressive if I didn’t tell you he was playing with bumpers. I’m sure he would rather you be all impressed though so I won’t mention the bumpers.

Er… oops.

For the record? My 88 was completely unassisted by bumpers. I got that practically pro score all on my own. Boo yah.

Anyway, it was a truly wonderful evening. I’m so lucky to have a sister that is one of my very best friends. I can’t get enough time with her and her hubby.

Thank you guys for a really fantastic night. Love you!

*Excuse the crappy iPhone pictures, somebody forgot the Nikon ::cough:: Joel ::cough::