some photos from our trip

We drove 12 states in five days, stopping only for sleep, gas, and biological functions. Here are a few photos.

 Eastern Washington.

 Kind of a funny joke between me and Dan's father. When we discovered that we both like Baroque music, Paul took me to a few concerts at the Conservatory in Victoria over the winter. Because we were there for quiet a long time with no refreshment, we smuggled in some contraband - these chocolate-covered cookies. When I told Dan's father that I *love* these cookies and that my sister used them for cheater s'mores, it became a fun thing we shared. Just before Dan and I left for our trip, Paul came by with a gift-wrapped box that said "Do not open until you cross the border", which of course I could not do, as they at the border frown on bringing in boxes of unknown contents. Luckily I had peeked before we left to confirm that there was something chocolatey in there. Sure enough, they were these cookies. They sustained me for our whole trip!

 This is Mr. Cupcake in Montana. My friend Irene in Connecticut had made this little guy for me sometime last year when it seemed like we would be making this trip a lot sooner than when it really happened. Most of the following photos were taken for the tweets I posted during our trip, thus I don't have the metadata to indicate where they were taken unless I was taking a photo of a welcome sign. 

 Sam was such a good kitty on our trip. Above she is trying to reach between the seat and the console to - what? I don't know. But she was really persistent.
 

 It was nice when she settled in. Then I could knit.

 This is a chicken toaster cosy that I knit for Dan's mum for Christmas several years ago. The chicken lives in the family condo in Missoula, Montana, and Mr. Cupcake was happy to see the chicken!

 Wyoming?

 A train, in Nebraska I think.

 Coal.

Mr. Cupcake longing for good coffee. So was I. Dan bought me this excellent travel mug at Canadian Tire the day we left. 

 Massive breakfast at The Egg & I. Nebraska still, I think. Nebraska as HUGE. I ate half, took the rest and ate the other half yesterday.

 This is the market bag I had been working on for a few months, my first time knitting with linen yarn. I really liked the project, though it was a bit fussy in the beginning because the linen yarn is so slippy off my Addi turbos. I'll make this again.

 I think this is the Missouri River.

 The exit signs in Missouri were very confusing. They had letters on them which seemed to allude to nothing. We drove all the way from Kansas City to St. Louis and could not detect a pattern in the letters. Finally, when we stopped at the Motel 6 just outside of St. Louis, Dan asked about the letters on the signs. The gal said they didn't know either, but they get asked about it a lot. Well played, MoDOT.

The Mississippi River? 

 Sam and Mr. Cupcake.

Mr. Cupcake got in the way of the Welcome to Kentucky sign. 

 The Beer Trappe is a great beer store in Knoxville Tennessee where Dan walked out with four boxes after spending 45 minutes in the shop.

 It's hard to get a good photo of a sign when you are driving by at night at 70mph. We entered North Carolina around 9pm on Friday, February 8th.

I was pleased to see so many trees! As you can see, we had excellent weather the whole way and somehow managed to avoid the cold and stormy weather that the rest of the continent experienced.

We rolled in to Kinston two days ago and it still doesn't feel real. I mean, in some ways, I have basically been camping for a year and a half, and I still can't unpack. We are now staying at the place where Dan has been living all this time, and the house we'll be moving into isn't quite ready yet, just a week or two more. I've met about 50 people, been hugged by a few dozen, have already been to the tap room, a bar, two restaurants, and the best party of the year. I have also sustained, ahem, two hangovers. So I'm tired and still a bit unsettled, and I'm really anxious to move in to our house and get busy with that but I also need to start looking for work. What kind of work? It's hard to know. I have a lot of interests and a lot of skills, but I expect things will work themselves out.

I will say, though, that it has been great to be with Dan with our stress load significantly reduced, and for us to stay put and not have to get up and drive away in the morning. I've been told that Dan is a lot more relaxed with having me around. It's good. We are both pretty happy right now. He's back at work already, of course, and at the moment I'm in his office writing this post, since we have no Internet and crappy cell phone reception at the house. But good things will come to those who wait, as they say, and I have developed excellent skills in being patient during this time apart.