The United States: World Tour

A Story told by JRA and Jeje:

We met up in New York on Saturday morning only to compare stories of our beginning adventures without each other.

JRA: I caught a red-eye flight Friday night that should have left at midnight only to be delayed for 45 minutes by some idiot wearing a BYU shirt that didn’t have the correct paperwork to fly out. Once we finally left, I was excited to experience first class en route to NYC (thank you, frequent flier miles), and to sleep for the entire 4 hour flight in comfort. The pilot would have none of that on his plane, however. If he didn’t get to sleep, nobody did. He decided to use the evils of the intercom to announce every single time we were to hit turbulence – and we hit it a lot. Now, I probably could have slept through the turbulence, however, the intercom at a screeching volume in my ear was impossible. I arrived in NYC an hour late, with only one hour of sleep, ready to drive 34 hours with Jeje. Of course I had to be picked up at the airport by a weird boy that I didn’t even know.

Jeje: Amazing the things JRA is willing to do after only an hour of sleep – she didn’t even check with my friend Brett to see if he knew who I was or who she was. She didn’t even ask if he knew the password for strangers picking her up after school (did your mother teach you nothing?) She just climbed in his car. At this point, I was at my friend’s home in NJ waiting for her after a 7 hour drive the day before that should have only taken 4. I think I hit a traffic jam in every possible town between Cambridge and Jersey. And it was raining. I think Boston was crying because I was leaving. I’m a little sad too. I miss you all. Anyway, I was so tired that I took my friend, Brett, up on his offer to pick JRA up at the airport the next morning. He’s a lifesaver.

JRA & Jeje: We really don’t remember what we did that first morning. Truthfully, neither of us slept much the night before. We vaguely remember driving through Jersey and Pennsylvania. We do, however, have definite recollection of Ohio. We veered off of the 80 to make a side stop in the wonderful town of Kirtland. We first went to the LDS sites, but after using their bathroom and the temple soap, we immediately left and went to the Community of Christ sites. We really wanted to see the Kirtland temple, and time was running short. Sigh. It was amazing. We didn’t realize how strong we would feel the Spirit in a building that is no longer dedicated. But, after discussing for a while realized it was because of the sacred things that had happened there. It was an incredible experience and we were glad for the detour.

When we left Kirtland, JRA quickly relearned how to drive stick (you have to put the clutch in to start the engine, honey), and we were on our way again. We figured we’d go another 300 miles that night. Little did we know . . . after passing through the bog of eternal stench (that was rancid!), we found ourselves 6 miles away from the Ohio/Indiana boarder, with still 150 more miles to go at 9 pm, and at 11:30 we’d completed those six miles. If you had a Fed Ex box on it’s way west, I don’t think it’s comin. That was a huge accident. But don’t worry, Ohio still collected its tolls at the toll both 1/10th of a mile after the accident, causing bigger delays in traffic than there already were. We went another 30 miles post-accident before finding a place to stay in Indiana. If we’d had a map, instead of just directions we might have . . . no, we still would have been in the same position.

JRA: I wanted to pull over and go to sleep since I had only had an hour worth of sleep that day, and Jeje wanted to keep going. I insisted on pulling over and since I was driving, I won. When we got to the hotel, Jeje got out of the car to go get a room for us. Upon arriving back at the car, I thought she was dead. Sleep deprivation had caught up with her, all at once. We went to bed. Hard.

Jeje: Actually, I didn’t get much sleep, but I got enough to make it through our 17-hour day on Sunday.

JRA & Jeje: Sunday was a fairly uneventful day. Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Nebraska. We didn’t get the chance to go to church cause we’re both heathens and slackers (thanks, Mike). But, the weather was nice, and we hit no traffic. We also heard a lot of MoTab, listened to some church talks (Matthew Cowley is a funny man), and had a reoccurance of the bog of eternal stench (as if it wasn’t bad enough the first time. Smelly cows). Though we did see over 10 cars (including a semi) pulled over on the side of the highway in Nebraska with no occupants. I think they got stuck in Nebraska. Forever. Poor fools. We’re just glad we got out. Not even the people in Nebraska really want to live in Nebraska. Maybe that’s why they name all their towns after world cities and places in the U.S. We drove through Sydney, several cities from England, Buffalo, Brooklyn, Bethlehem and many others. It was our world tour. All in Nebraska. We arrived in Laramie, WY at about 10 pm, MST and crashed. Again.

This morning, we got up, ate breakfast, turned in our keys and went to get gas. At the gas station, Jeje realized her wallet was missing. So we scoured the car and then headed back to the hotel. It’s gone. Probably in Nebraska. Now, not only does she have no job, she has no identity or access to her money. Sad.

We currently find ourselves in the desolate land of Wyoming. We really don’t mind the vultures overhead. We know there are pretty parts of the state, but I don’t think they’re along I-80. Although Evanston is. We may be bringing back fireworks.

We plan to arrive in Utah by mid-afternoon. Overall, it’s been a good trip. We’ve laughed til tears came streaming down our faces, and we think we’re still friends even after all those hours in a car together. It’s been fun.