CROSSED COUNTRY #2

The dreaded cross-country drive is now over, and I am safely back in Phoenix again.

I have to be out of my Tempe apartment by midnight Monday (August 17), then, following a meeting with a tax accountant Wednesday morning, I drive the U-haul back to California.

Japan departure date: August 30!

I have a reservation on ANA (All Nippon Airways) first to Tokyo, then to Osaka, where my university will collect me at the airport. My contract starts September 1, so they wanted me there right around there. (I arrive the next day, Sept. 31.)

Some highlights of the drive:

Aug. 7: To Plymouth, Wisconsin

SCHOOL’S OUT! The day after finishing my Community College ESL teaching (nice multi-cultural class), I left Illinois and drove up for one night with my Uncle Tom and Aunt Chris in Wisconsin. I missed them last summer on my grandmother’s immigration recreation trip and wouldn’t have seen them till next year at the earliest. (I stayed over one more night at a Sheboygan motel.)

Aug. 9: To Pella, Iowa (through a Weather Channel red-zone all day)

RUN OFF - Got run off the highway just outside of Madison by a tanker truck who apparently thought drivers in the third inside lane shouldn’t have the right to pass him to merge when the three lanes became two. (He kept speeding up every time I tried to get ahead to merge, so I finally had no recourse but to drive onto the grass median and stop when my lane ran out.) I reported the incident first to Wisconsin Highway Patrol, then his waste disposal company. (The manager called me a few days later to check my story against his. The-speeding-up-to-block-me part didn’t win the other driver any points.)

CLOUD MASS: Just west of Brooklyn, Iowa on Interstate 80 I enter the blackest, most oppressive low-hanging storm cloud you’ve ever seen. At the “entrance”, a long fuzzy squid tentacle-like lip under it ranges from far off to my left to my right – just the kind of unformed cloud mass that could turn into anything. Fortunately, inside it was just torrential rain. Most cars had to stop on the side of the highway until they could see out their windshield again. Other parts just north of the interstate got 70-mph gusts and hail. I was lucky!

Aug. 10: To Topeka, Kansas

OLD PHOTOS: Discussed old photos of Swedish relatives with my grandmother’s brother’s grandson, Dean Samuelson – a former missionary doctor in Congo. He’s been inspired to create family history albums for his children and wanted confirmation on some of the names. I stayed over with them on the way to Illinois in June, too – and on my “immigration” trip last summer.

Aug. 11: To Limon, Colorado

JAPANESE SURPRISE: At the Denny’s in Limon, the young waitress notices my Japanese textbook I’d brought along to study during supper. “Konnichiwa!” she greets me. Surprised, I ask how she knew Japanese. “Took it in High School in Alaska. Japan is one of our main trading countries.” Turns out she’s also from Wasilla, of Sarah Palin fame. (She grimaces when I ask if Palin is from her hometown.)

Aug. 12: To Santa Fe, New Mexico

MERGER STORY #2: The last thing I need my last month in the US is car insurance complications. So it was with a sinking heart that I considered the consequences of my 3-car crash on a surface street in Colorado Springs as I was trying to get to Interstate 25. The brain-dead road crew had put the flashing merge arrow at the very end of the road at the intersection, and we all come to a screeching halt when three lanes of traffic suddenly try to merge into one. The car behind me was paying attention, but the car behind her slammed into her rear at high speed, pushing her (not as hard) into my rear bumper. The damage to my rear/her front was thankfully negligible, but I left my insurance info with her anyway. After taking some photos, I drove away in relief it wasn’t any worse. My good deed has now been punished by a call from her insurance agent wanting details. Another unending claim. Just what I need!



NEW YORKER CARTOON comes to life: In Raton, NM (“rat” in Spanish) I browsed until I found the cheapest gas. You get what you pay for. This station was out of some edgy new-age American travel movie: bald, semi-toothed old station owner in a grimy gas station-cum-old automobile graveyard with aged gas pumps that hadn’t quite acquired an ATM/Credit card facility yet. (I have to tell him how much I pumped – he accepts my word. Good business strategy!) His slobbering, grungy Bisanji dog jumps up on the glass counter between me and him while he slides my credit card. He doesn’t shoo the mutt away or apologize. Just lets the customer have his close encounter with his mutt’s butt. Charming.

SUNSET: Stay with a friend/colleague from 2002 in Santa Barbara, who now lives in Santa Fe with her husband. (He was away on a trip.) I meet Lee on the top of the La Fonda hotel in the heart of the historic city center, where there’s an open rooftop bar with spectacular views. The perfect spot to unwind from a long drive with a margarita and conversation!

Aug. 13: To Phoenix

Arrived in Phoenix after a drive through beautiful back-country roads from Interstate 40 down through Payson. Dramatic cloudscapes with spotty rain showers and sun bursts. Even Phoenix isn’t broiling. A mild 95 degrees!

This weekend: packing fun!