Minnesota

celebrate everyday: day 10

1.10.18

I took this photo at the DMV today:

License Plate Wall

…and I had a shockingly easy, helpful experience. (See?! There’s hope for everything!)

The license plate is always the first thing I look at when I see a car. Still. Since I was little, anytime we drove anywhere, I would look for plates from states I hadn’t seen before, and daydream about where the people inside the cars were going. I would wonder about what these places looked like, and fantasize about going to them someday.

I’ve spent time in all 50 states and 19 countries at this point. Seeing this wall yesterday made me feel that fire inside I love, for adventure and the possibility of everything out there, to see, be, and do. I still believe “travel” is the fastest route to your truth; Putting yourself in any completely foreign/uncomfortable/new environment, staying flexible, and figuring out how to independently navigate is incredibly empowering.

Today I celebrate possibility in the unknown, and all the magic that can happen when you take a step towards life to somewhere new. 

Today is the day. The road awaits. Where are you going?

#StartDriving #LifeOutsideTheDroneZone #StepOutside

*Feeling stuck? Overwhelmed? Ready to make a change? Call me! (804.339.6514) I can help.

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8 X 100, plus a bunch of bugs

I’ve been tracking mileage for a few reasons. One because it is fun. Somehow unplanned, from my start point, until many hours later at my stopping point yesterday, I went to the mile, exactly 800 miles. Couldn’t have planned that one better if I tried!

Some more fun things from the road yesterday:

I found another pet exercise area at a rest stop, but I’m wondering where the human is and where the pet is. Or more, is there a human on this sign at all?

Pet exercise area?

I didn’t think I managed to get this one because it looked too dark on my camera last night, but happy day- it uploaded like this. Even through my bug-drenched windshield:

Welcome to ND!

Ok, Ok, so it’s a little small but it says; Welcome to North Dakota!

Back to bugs. When I stopped for gas I looked at the front of my car in horror. I had seen a few butterflies splattering on my windshield as I drove, but I think I killed every bug in Wisconsin, Minnesota and North Dakota yesterday. And this is just what my license plate looks like:

DSCN4555

Juan, Juanita and Pablito were very, very tired as we hit 136,000k:

DSCN4539

Anyone out there work for Honda? Hello? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I should so be on a Honda commercial. After several x-country trips, all in different Hondas, driving thousands of miles and never breaking down, and the fact that all of them have had well over 100k on them and then run like brand new? What better spokesperson do you need guys? 🙂

In case anyone was wondering, yes, it’s even freezing in ND in the summer. I woke up to 57 degrees this morning and have never been happier to see a big fat sweatshirt in my back seat:

DSCN4564

The people have been lovely here, but lets just say at 57 in August-I won’t be moving here anytime soon.

After watching miles, landscape and states fly by yesterday in what was a long day on the road, I couldn’t help but to think again that there is nothing better than a summer day driving across the country exploring. Everyone should do this once in their lifetime. I hope to do this every summer moving forward. Imagine all the cool and interesting stuff you could show and teach your kids! I want my next trip across in a convertible. Someone flew by me in one as the sun was setting last night and it looked like way to much fun. There you go Honda! You could design a Blue Lollipop Road series convertible and I could test it for you. It’d have built in chocolate dispensers, a comfy bed in the back somehow and an espresso machine for when I wake up in the morning. There’s an idea to take to the bank!

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bye bye midwest

Things I’ve seen on the road today. Just to list a few:

1.) People picking their noses. I have written about this before and again I am confused. They are called windows people, but hell- who am I to judge. Dig away!

2.) “Be a flirt and lift up your shirt!” written on the back of an 18- wheeler. (Please excuse me if you are one of the non-skeezy truck drivers out there and ignore this.) I have kept my mouth shut about this for SO long because I hate categorizing people, but really? I have had enough Skeez-dog truck drivers! Your sign would have been funny if you all hadn’t tried terrorizing women like me on the road for years. Enough honking, beeping and trying to box me in with your fellow operators on the road you ass. Do they put this as a requirement in your training or something? Get a friggin’ life.

3.) Teenage girls singing at the top of their lungs. (So fun, love that.)

4.) Teenage boys in a Jeep (from Virginia no less!) with it so weighed/packed down I wonder if they will make it to wherever they are going.

5.) About 600 silos. By 600 I mean about 9 million. I am from Vermont. I thought I knew what a lot of silos looked like. Nope. Not before driving through the midwest.

So I hit more traffic in Wisconsin and Minnesota than I ever hit going up I95 or in NYC (odd, I know,) but I am still trucking. Seeing more and more state signs like this (I had to be Ok with a rest stop rather than actual road sign today, I nearly crashed the car trying to snap the photo I wanted on the interstate):

Minnesota

I found a place to exercise Pablito too. See him at the very bottom? I always think these PET EXERCISE AREA signs are funny:

Exercising Pablito

A good day on the road, lots more to go. I even talked to a gal pal who lives in Alaska that I went to high school with today. We’re going to meet up. YIPPEE! I have literally not heard her voice in 16 years and all it took was one email. I love modern technology.

Coffee is empty. On the road again…

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