Leaving Manch Vegas

I really wouldn't have thought such a thing. Until now.

Will and I have been welcomed to California with dream opportunities, such as staying wiith my mom and Joe through October, house/dog-sitting at a beautiful house with a pool and hot tub, ON A GOLF COURSE, for chrissakes, and to top it off, my mom is going to lend us her car while she and Joe are traveling in Europe. This morning I took Bella and Bailey (one of the dogs we're sitting) on a hike up into the beautiful hills nearby, and now I'm thinking about going for a swim. Things could not be better.

Or could they?

Getting a job in fundraising is pretty hard. Looking for a fundraising job, however, is pretty damn easy. There are only so many organizations in need of a go-getter like me, and only so many websites that list them. Here's me looking for a job:

Check email for responses on the few applications I've sent. None - but dad, thanks for the 1959 Good Housekeeping ad on being a housewife. Definitely something to think about...

Visit Opportunity Knocks website to check new postings. None of interest.

Visit idealist.org for same. Same result.

Go hiking.

Again, I KNOW this sounds reallly good. And it totallly would be if only there was an end in sight. I feel a little in the weeds. Staying with my mom and Joe is a huge help to us and so much fun, but it's hard not to feel in the way there, especially with our hyper-dog. And being at Shannon and Matt's (our dogsitting gig) is awesome, but it feels like it might be easy to turn it into a vacation and leave here on 8/27 no further along in the job hunt than when I started.

I've had two really good interviews with the Yosemite Fund, but beyond that I haven't seen many jobs out there that excite me. I've been giving some thought to visiting a couple placement firms, but I know they'll want me to temp along the way and am I ready for that? And am I ready for them to offer me an Admin Assistant position? No and no. Even though the salary might be what I'm looking for, and the work might be more interesting than just filing and making travel arrangments, I feel like I should make the best of this fundraising experience I've got and find something more fulfilling. Right?

Or do I get myself a good paying, but kind of blah 9-5 gig and then just enjoy my life OUTSIDE OF WORK? No special events on evenings and weekends, no stressing about the job at home? That definitely does have its appeal. Goddamn these are hard decisions!

Apparently I'm supposed to know about the Yosemite Fund job within the next 2 weeks. Maybe their decision is the timeline I need. If they make the mistake of missing the fabulous opportunity that is me (WTF?), then to the placement firms with me!

I think. Maybe I should go for a swim.

We made it! We're currently in Tahoe sitting on the back deck of Joe's condo, sipping a
couple very appropriate and very deserved Sierra Nevadas. We started in Wyoming today and sped through Utah then Nevada, totalling 650 miles. We'll spend tonight and tomorrow relaxing here and then we'll be in the Bay Area very soon.

Today's ride was mostly a blur. Utah was nice, if only because it was good to see some green. I did notice that the houses there are HUGE and I couldn't help wondering if that was because they have to fit all those wives in. Sterotypes rock! Honestly, I didn't make that up to be funny. It actually crossed my mind...

On UtahPR we heard a story that Marie Osmond was hospitalized for what was originally called
an attempted suicide, but now the official story is that it was an adverse reaction to medication. Isn't that the same thing with just varying levels of consequences?? Mostly I was wondering if that story was aired anywhere but Salt Lake City. Anyone?

We passed the Great Salt Lake, watched a couple salt factories racing to see who could desalinate the lake first. Then we drove and drove and drove and drove. At an Elko, NV Shell station (Thank you Ell, Marisa and Craig!!) we had a mechanic point out that one of the tires on our car carrier was getting a bit bare. We're pretty certain that he found something wrong with every single car that pulled into his station, so we decided to ignore his offer to fix it for some astronomical price and just go for it. (Note to our mothers - it's totally fine!!!)

We had to spend a lot of the day without AC because the truck does much better on the hills without it. Now I know what it feels like to spend 8 hours in a microwave.

We stopped again for gas in Winemucca, NV, and then headed straight on to Tahoe. Along the way we thought we were listening to public radio airing a particularly vehement story slamming Madonna for her somewhat controversial self-crucifiction on a mirrored cross complete with crown of thorns during her current tour, which includes a stop in Rome. That reporter was PISSED. Come to find out we were listening to WGOD. They fooled us for like 7 minutes!

I will admit right now that a few minutes after we crossed into California it hit me and I teared up a little. It is so so so good to be back here and being able to share it with Will is more than I could ever have hoped for.

We've disconnected the car from it's carrier and will be driving it around for the next couple days. It should feel really bizarre, but will certainly be a lot better than trying to lug the Penske around Tahoe City.

NOT THAT WE DON'T LOVE THE PENSKE!!! It's just less than ideal for in-town cavorting.

Sorry, no pics today because we're stealing internet from Joe's neighbors and it's kind of slow.

Still no correct answers on the second Wordy Gurdy, but Eileen did come up with the correct answer to the first one. Sioux' blues.

Here's a fresh one for you. Local Tahoe knowledge will help you...but for those not in the know, you can get it!!

Indian woman's imperfections.

Bring it.

Bella started today practicing for the day's sleeping. I don't blame her! The Holiday Inn Express has nice sheets! This has been our favorite hotel by far.

Today was a long day of driving, taking us past Sturgis, SD and the thousands of bikers who are already there in anticipation of Bike Week next week. We made a 650 mile zig zag across Wyoming. Once again we pretty well stuck to the interstates, aside from a nice shortcut we found, taking about 3 hours off our trip and allowing us to avoid Cheyenne. Last time I was there I had to get a new clutch and my brother and I watched a plane crash into a mall. I wasn't too excited about going back.

Instead we cut across a moutain pass from Casper to Rawlins taking in some awesome scenery. It would be silly to try to put it into words, so I won't. Pretty breathtaking, though.


We did stop at a fairly amusing gas station along the way. And at another gas station (we visit a lot of these in a day) we met up with some peeps who were driving a similar set up to ours - 16 ft truck, car carrier...except it was BOO-Haul. The girl noticed the sweet Penske ride we're rockin' and asked Will if we'd had any problems with our truck. He proudly answered, "No," and was sad to hear her tale of woe. The couple, with a tiny baby were moving from Seattle to Denver and they were on their 2nd truck, which they'd had to reload themselves and were having problems with the new truck! She was more than jelly of our Penske, and the encounter was a fine reminder that U-Haul sucks. Don't use them, people.

We made it way further than we'd expected, to Evanston, WY. We just got back to the Day's Inn from dinner at the weirdest, creepiest, dingiest, nastiest customer-havin' restaurant ever. We felt validated in our bewilderment of the place as other obvious travelers came through making the same faces to each other that Will and I were. It was the kind of restaurant that murderers hang out in in independent films. We may have seen a few.

So we're just three miles from the Utah border and tomorrow expect to make it to Tahoe. We'll hang there for a couple nights and then we should be in the Bay Area in time to attend a friend's birthday party in Stinson Beach on Saturday. Crazy!

No one got the WG's from yesterday, which is kind of great, because we're too tired to think of one for today. Keep trying!

So...this morning we woke up in the Comfort Inn to this:

It's kind of hard to make out, but our truck and trailer were nearly washed away overnight since we had to park on a dirt driveway. Fine, fine...it's an exaggeration, but it rained A LOT! We lucked out and just before we got going it let up enough to get packed up and on our way.

We kind of wish the rain had kept going, though. If it had, we might not have made our first stop of the day - the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.

We absolutely KNEW that it was a tourist trap and just the sort of thing we didn't care about, but for some reason the barrage of billboards worked on us and in we went. As Will described it, it wasn't much more than a high school auditorium decorated with corn. Decorated once a year every year at the cost of $100,000 no less!! Insanity. And so not worth it. What you see behind us in the photo is a flea marketish gift shop on the basketball floor. (No joke) There were some corn related items for sale, but also a lot of other crap that no one should ever buy. This includes these menacing looking kitties here. We were duly punished for the stop by having to walk back to the car in another downpour. We totally deserved it. At least we didn't have to pay to get in.

From the Corn Palace we returned to the monotony of I-90 West. Nothing of note happened for an hour or so. No renagade flies, just lots and lots of Wall Drug billboards, nearly all of which had grievous quote misuse. We crossed the Missouri, where just as we'd read, the landscape changed instantly from the rolling farm plains of the midwest to the dry, brown hills of the West. It was an exciting moment for us finally being in the West. We noted it by taking blurry pictures out the window, which aren't worth of posting.

Luckily our need for gas coincided perfectly with the Pioneer Auto Show in Murdo, SD. "I Breathe a Different Way" Tom, a MA native was nice enough to let us bring Bella on the tour and she was psyched to see the last intact General Lee (out of the 17 produced for the show) according to the placard. The only weird thing is that it had door handles and it looked like the doors opened and we were sure that on the show it was welded shut into one panel... odd. Matt, can you confirm? They have over 250 vintage cars and a bunch of classic motorcycles on display there, along with random other stuff like tractors, dairy equipment and a sweet collection of old outboard motors. In an ad we saw they also claim to have lots of Betty Boob (sic) memorabilia. We missed that part. All in all it was well worth the admission fee, especially since it was Bella's first-ever tourist trap! She was so happy to finally meet The King and sniff his personal motorcycle.

We motored on to the Badlands, which were amazing. There's an easy scenic route off I-90 and even though we had to rush through a little bit to get to civilization (aka cell service) for Will's phone interview, we got to walk around a bit and drove through the park for about 45 minutes.

Check out Bella taking in the view.
From the Badlands we sped right on "past" Wall Drug and landed in Rapid City, SD for the night just in time to check into the Holiday Inn Express (no steam cleaning fee at this one!) and for Will to take the call for his interview. South Dakota is pretty incredible. Our hotel is crammed into a commercial area with lots of actvity, but during Will's interview I took Bella for a run and it didn't take us long to be out in the plains again. It was pretty cool, but maybe a little "all or nothing for my taste."

Sad to say we dined at the Outback, mate. It was right next door and was just as good as any of the other chains nearby. Also we'd left Bella loose in the room and wanted to make it a quick trip. We ended up having a decent local beer (the first round of which fell during happy hour - yay!) and ok food, so all was not lost. The best part was getting back to the hotel to find everything looking perfect and Bella sleeping. Man, she can sleep. This is her five minutes after we get in the truck.

So we're off again this morning. We're getting excited to be so close to San Francisco, so we're giving some thought to hightailing it the rest of the way. If we see something interesting we'll definitely stop, but the plan will be to get as far as we can each day and hopefully we'll be HOME soon!

Mad props to Angela for getting the wordy gurdy! The answer was indeed Fromage Homage.

Who knew a New Hampshire native could some up with something so international!

Here's today's wordy gurdy:

Native's depression

Here's where I insert another under protest from Will. The reasons for the protest will be divulged in our next post, but don't let it stop you from spending all day trying to solve it!

Semi-biographical, historical midwestern author's advertising devices.

Git 'r done.