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Cross Country!
What a road trip!  From Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to San Diego, California - in but three days!  Yee ha!  And not just some trip for fun - oh no, nothing so recreational!  Instead, this was the roadtrip I took to bring my Julia out here to me.  That involved packing up all the material aspects of her life in OKC and then hauling it cross country to my home.  That required a rental moving truck and a car trailer for her Firebird.

I had driven such trucks before, but rarely, and never for more than a few dozen miles at a time.  This trip would be over 1,300 miles at one go and it'd be driving a fully loaded moving truck that was also hauling a trailer with a full size car on it - and doing this whilst going up and down some of the steeper mountain highways in that nation.  Oh, and it was also doing all this driving across several deserts.  And crossing them in the middle of summer!  The longest bit of cross country driving I'd yet done was on my trips up to San Francisco.  Even the roundtrip of that drive didn't equal this one way venture.  And that was in my unloaded personal car, not some big honkin' and woefully underpowered moving truck.  At least I had excellent company!

The first day's drive saw us head off from Julia's home of over fifty years and begin heading almost due west.  We crossed the breadth of Oklahoma and then cut across the top of Texas.  We reached Albuquerque and called it a night.  The next day it was off again and we got as far as Phoenix before pulling.  We were just too tired to press through the night, as had been our original plan.  The third day did see us fully across the Arizona desert and then through into California, through its desert, and then over the mountains and into San Diego.  We were pretty tuckered by the time we pulled up in front of my San Diego home.

The first day's drive we pretty uneasy for me as I was worried about going too fast with the truck and trailer combo.  The heavily loaded condition of the truck, its relative lack of power, and the high speeds which the truckers around us all maintained didn't help things.  By the second day though I felt better about my driving the whole rig so I was able to maintain a higher average speed.  Still though, those big semi's roared right on past.

Along the way Julia and I took a whole bunch of photos of our adventures.  It's been a while but now here they are.
At the start

Day 1: At the start and about set to go.
Julia's pad

Julia's OKC apartment.
Where we started from

Where we left from.
Julia's front door

Her digs, from the front.
The family

The family.  From the left, Jacob, Finn, Julia, Danny, Anna, and Toby.
Saying goodbye to Finn

Saying goodbye to her grandchild.
The fully stuffed truck

Fully loaded truck.
Yucking it up at Furr's Family Dining in Gallup

Day 2: Julia having fun yucking it up at the Furr's Family Dining cafeteria in Gallup, New Mexico.
Big excitement outside of Furr's

Excitement outside of Furr's!
Dark skies

Back on the road.  Again.
Roadside Americana

It was in New Mexico that we began seeing a lot of such roadside signs.  These hearken back to such Americana of the 1920's when private automobiles really began to appear in greater numbers - and when folks tried making a buck off of their being driven around.
More Roadside Americana

More Americana.
More dark skies

Coming out of Gallup and nearing the Continental Divide the weather turned sharply nasty.
More Roadside Americana

This stuff appeared so damn cheesy we simply had to get a shot of it!
Rocks

Lotsa rocks in these parts.
More dark skies

More dark skies.
More Roadside Americana

More Americana.
Typical view for most of the trip

This was the most frequent thing we saw on the drive.  Usually though I was over on the right side as the truckers zoomed past.
Really, really flat 01

It was flat out there.
Really, really flat 02

It was really flat out there.
Really, really flat 03

It was really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 04

It was really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 05

It was really, really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 06

It was really, really, really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 07

It was really, really, really, really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 08

It was really, really, really, really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 09

It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 10

It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 11

It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 12

It was really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really, really flat out there.
Really, really flat 13

It was really, really... ah hell, you get the picture now, right?
Really, really flat 14

Heading into Flagstaff.
Flagstaff Skies

Heading into Flagstaff.
Flagstaff Skies

Heading into Flagstaff.
Flagstaff Skies

Heading into Flagstaff.
Flagstaff Skies

Heading out of Flagstaff.  I was really surprised at how green and alpine like this area was.  I'd had it fixed in my mind that all of Arizona - even the parts of it at high elevations - would be desert like.  Silly me.
Heading Back Down Skies

Heading out of Flagstaff.
Distant vistas

Once we'd gotten through the storm cells which had just rolled into the area, Julia and I pulled over at a scenic vista to take in the scenicness.  And it was scenic.
Rain cleaned truck!

Here's a shot of our freshly rain cleaned truck and trailered car.
Stormy Flagstaff Skies

The sky was awesome.


Awesome indeed.


The retreating storm.


Looking out over the vista.


More vistaness.


The sun punching through.


More scenic scenicness.


The brilliant sky.


That's my love.


Looking down to where we're headed next.


That's me!


Julia took these next few shots as we rolled along down from the Flagstaff heights.  That was a steep run!


Picture postcard stuff!


More postcardness.


Ditto.


Ditto Part 2


Truly awesome stuff.


Looking out from the McGuireville Rest Area at the bottom of the valley west of Flagstaff.


More views at the McGuireville Rest Area.


That smoke there off in the distance was one of a couple of wildfires we saw burning in the distance.


McGuireville Rest Area plaque.


Day 3: On the road outside of Phoenix.


Day 3: Still on the road outside of Phoenix.


Day 3: Still on the road outside... anyway, I thought the heat and pavement made for an interesting mirage effect up ahead.  It looked like the cars in the distance there were skimming along on top of some very blue and shimmery water!


Along the way on this morning we ran into several swarms of these very yellow butterflies.  Tiny things.  They hugged the ground quite closely.  But they also got swept up into the speeding cars and trucks.


Across the Arizona border and now into California!


Still driving in California.


Still driving in California.


Still driving in California.  Lotsa miles and miles of just miles and miles.


Finally!  Back in San Diego!  Looking over the truck once more, I found that this clump of dirt was still there.  It was from the roadside berm on the street next to Julia's apartment back in OKC.  In trying to horse the truck and trailer of the the driveway where we'd loaded Julia's car onto it, I managed to back the trailer up into that berm and it scraped up some of the dirt into the nook between that bumper and rubber pad.  So, some of Oklahoma territory came with us out to San Diego.


Day 3 and finally stopped at home in San Diego.


The truck about to be emptied.  Most of Julia's stuff made it through okay.  Not all of it, but most of it.


Day 4: The emptied truck.


Day 4: The emptied truck and trailer.


Day 4: Ready to take the truck back.  (and the trailer as well)


And that's all we wrote.  Home here in San Diego now.  Our roadtrip done.



If you would like to know more about me, then ask me directly.  Just click on my email address here: 
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In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed your "stay" at this site.  Check back again to see what new images I have added.  Until then, stay well, play hard, play safe, and have fun!

Madoc

This page was last updated on: 17 April 2005  


Unless otherwise noted, all photographs and images on this page are copyright protected property of Madoc Pope.  If you would like to use any of my images you must contact me first before you do so.

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In the meantime, I hope you have enjoyed your "stay" at this site.  Check back again to see what new images I have added.  Until then, stay well, play hard, play safe, and have fun!

Madoc