Desert Living (Part II)

Time to pick up where I left off (more than 6 months ago)

After reaching the great rural hillocks and forests of Sadie's hometown, we woke up and promptly began to pack. And pack. And pack some more. All in all there was a huge amount of things Sadie took with her, and being that she took some very large stuff (such as the queen bed and a couch) the truck filled up in no time. When all was said and done, me, her, her mom, her brother, and even her dad (whom she rarely sees) were loading stuff into the truck. We had to shift things about left and right, up and down and securely fasten all we could before taking off. It was a pretty brutal affair but in the end the team managed to pack it all in. After this grueling affair, Sadie's mom invited us over for dinner. I debated this invitation for the simple reason that Oklahoma City, the day's next destination, was a very, very long ways from Clarksville and the sooner we got on the road, the better. However, I figured this gave Sadie a chance to spend one final afternoon with her family, so we went and partook in the tasty meal (which was pasta I believe). Soon afterwards, we went back to get the truck and that's when disaster befell us. I was not, for the life of me, able to maneuver the damn thing back to the road. The problem was getting the truck out of her grandmother's field. You see, we had to back the damn thing in through the grass in order to park it in front of the house and load it up. The problem came with trying to back it out, and not because of the truck itself, but the trailer Sadie's vehicle was loaded onto. I tried for a solid hour, or even two to get it freed, but I could not do it. In the end we had to ask her dad to maneuver it out for us, as he had lots of experience with that kind of thing. Thankfully he didn't have a problem with it, and we got on the road well into the evening.

The journey through the rest of Tennessee was not problematic; clear skies and clear roads on into sunset. Even driving through Memphis was a relative breeze. We crashed through the border and began our incredibly long, tedious, and winding journey through Arkansas, battling a wicked storm front all the while. The beginnings of our Arkansas journey were nothing to write home about, but the storm, which hit shortly after passing through Little Rock was cause for concern. Visibility was poor. Lightning was frequent. Winds were high, and I was driving a damn moving van with a vehicle strapped to its ass. I pulled off the road a few times to regroup with Sadie, relieve myself, and regain my composure before setting off once again into the hellacious tempest. Eventually, after hours of mind numbing driving, we reached the Oklahoma border.

You may be tempted to think "oh, the border, OKC can't be too far off now, but let me tell you that's a huge pile of lies and fetid horse shit. It was dark, it was still storming, and the City was nowhere near the border. In fact, if you check a map, you will see it is damn near the center of the state. That meant a very large amount of continuous driving for us before we could finally rest our weary heads. We trucked and trucked and trucked on, with little noteworthy happening between our border crossing and destination reaching. I believe we both were suffering from sleep deprivation and highway hypnosis by the time we arrived, as all I could see was Sadie driving my car in front of me, swerving from time to time and bringing me to nearly soil myself every time. We had a pair of walkie talkies we began using when leaving Tennessee, but by this point of the drive they were long past dead and we relied on eye contact to keep us together. At least it wasn't hard for her to see the giant yellow Penske in the distance, even in the dead of night. We mercifully caught wind of an exit to a little known place called Oklahoma City due to the friendly guidance of a little green highway sign. I waved to it, and sped with all my might to the road, eventually finding the hotel with our life-saving beds waiting for our extremely tired selves. It was 5AM by that point, with a hotel checkout of 11AM. The cats were freed for a brief period as we checked into the hotel and I tried in vain to sleep what was left of the morning away. I managed at least an hour, possibly two, of restfulness, and fully awoke, somewhat ready to begin the next section of our odyssey.

Desert Living

It's been a long while since I've updated this here page so I guess I could start with the basics. The move went well. I only fucked up with the truck itself once, and with the trailer maybe 3 times. I saw a huge amount of the country in a span of only 4 days, although a lot of it was under cover of night. I had one very horrible drive, as well as 3 not-as-bad drives, which I shall now detail for my future amusement.

The Move:

Day 1

I woke up ass early on day one to grab the moving truck from the Penske rental center down the road. I was told the truck I received was the newest of all on the lot and, barring one side of the thing, it was in decent shape superficially. I signed the necessary papers, made some small talk with the shop owners, and drove the truck out to begin the arduous task of moving all of my amassed junk from one side of the country to the other. I parked the truck squarely in front of the apartment building, unrolled the ramp, and began lugging junk from point A to point B ceaselessly. You never realize how much junk you've amassed over the years until the fateful day comes in which you need to move all of it. My bedroom, big enough to house my bed and dresser (but not much else), during the task of moving soon took on the dimensions of a cavernous basement. I did not realize I had managed to shove so much into so few nooks and crannies, and the sheer volume of shit began to irk me, provoking me to outright toss the more useless trinkets and baubles into the garbage. Thankfully, I had the assistance of Jim and Nubs, as well as Sadie when loading the truck so it did not end up being as laborious as it could have been, but all in all it was the second worst part of the moving experience. Eventually, after much shoving and shifting, everything was loaded. I bid adieu to my friends, closed up the truck, and Sadie and I made our way back to the rental facility to pick up the trailer.

The car trailer (yes, it deserves its own paragraph):
When we left with the truck, our rental-master told us if we were back before noon they would be there to help us with hooking up the trailer. As unluck would have it, we did not arrive in time. We had to figure out how to finagle the damn thing onto the truck ourselves. We fucked it up once, and holy shit was it scary (though my car was going to end up smashed since the trailer popped off the hitch and started rolling down the slight gradient it was placed upon) but in the end we got it figured out and headed out on the first very long drive of the trip.

Day one took us from Pennsylvania all the way to Tennessee, much of it happening through the night. It was an outrageously long journey, but not especially difficult. Having Sadie in the front to help me stay entertained certainly was helpful. Eventually we made it to her cat-shit filled, somewhat dilapidated housing situation and promptly took our rest to prepare for one of the longest days of my entire life.

Westward and Houseward Bound

So great and mighty interfarts, it appears I've finally gotten myself a place to call my own (since the Hawthorne apartment was leased under Jim's name). It took awhile, but I'm thinking it will be worth it in the end. I hope it becomes a vacation destination for my friends out east, and I'm hoping for a few weeks a year spent with them in my place. I, of course, will be visiting them as well. There are some repairs which need made, some minor, others not so much. I'm pretty nervous about driving a truck with a trailer on it, but thousands do it every day so it must not be too tough. Just have to make sure I don't knock anyone off course.

Real Estate Woes and Waffling

Suffice to say it is difficult buying a house in Phoenix. I am fully qualified to own one, however I've yet to even get an offer accepted by any sellers. The issue hinges on the market crash and after effects. Investors are swooping in and buying up all the houses at my price point to flip them or rent them out. For a home buyer who just wants to live in a place, this presents difficulties. This being the case, I've decided that no matter what happens, house or no I'm planning on leaving the second week of October and staying in a furnished apartment till the one house we truly love falls into our lap.

On John's suggestion we visited Maricopa and though the area seems nice it's pretty far from Phoenix proper. Sadie is not much interested in living out there and I can't disagree with that. It's a brand new town, incorporated in 2003, and it doesn't have much in the way of amenities at the moment. I'm not saying it won't take off, but as of today there's not enough there to entice me to live there. Plus, it adds about an hour to the Havasu drive which is long enough to begin with.

The vacation was pretty great, minus the housing issues. I stayed at my grandparents' new place and reveled in its awesomeness. We swam in the lake, met herpes fish, and generally lazed about. I went to see Nickolas for his birthday party and watched him smash his face into the cake repeatedly. I also got to meet Michelle's new friends who have been, from what I hear, very helpful during her time of need. The drive up was even pleasant, as the scenery is just so different and hauntingly beautiful.

We were able to look at a few more houses on Friday before we left, but I didn't feel great about either of them. I had felt kind of worn down from the previous disappointments. In the end it turned out my feeling was correct.

Sadie and I had a bit of a tearful goodbye at the airport, however we knew and still know the future involves being together so there is no reason to be sad.

Sunset over Allegheny

I am getting excited. Only a few more weeks before the yearly vacation down south, and this year, plans to seek out a more permanent domicile. This is going to be a helluva ride.

I talked to my agent yesterday and somewhat hammered out the details of my visit. I'm gonna line up a few places for visitation, a few awesome places I would not mind inhabiting. I've got plans, ideas, and fun things in mind and lined up for the ready. I've got visions of getting a little truck, a trailer, and a jet ski/dune buggy/boat. I've got visions of uprooting any stupid trees, killing any stupid grass, and installing a big motherfucker of a saguaro cactus. I've got visions of lounging around in a large pool, sipping alcoholic drinks, and peeing liberally.

My great white hope hinges on businesses steering clear of any properties I've got my eye on to give me a fighting chance. I'm hoping for a quick, clean sweep. I'm tempted to put an offer in on one house before even visiting it in person, however I feel that would be too much of a gamble seeing as I'd be stuck there for a few years in case there are any issues. Thankfully, for every house that I like which disappears off the market, it seems two crop up to take its place. I'm going to take a bunch of pictures, compare some strengths and weaknesses, and if I'm lucky, be able to put in an offer before the end of the first day of searching.

Absurdly simple? Don't bet on it.

It never ceases to amaze me the ridiculous things people want information about. I suppose it true that my interests, seen by others, may seem as ridiculous as theirs do to me. It's all about capitalizing on those interests, however ridiculous they may seem, and giving the people what they want. That is how business is born.

Of Whiplash and Wind

King's Island was great. It was better than I had remembered. It is nearly on par with Cedar Point for sheer number of great rides, including the classic, rickety, thrillingly terrifying Beast. We got a chance to ride all of the major rides, even though the crowd was quite solid the entire day. Our first stop was at the newest ride, the Diamondback. The experience was Millenium Force lite with wide, sweeping banks, smooth climbs, and some wicked drops. It felt very open and floaty with a good amount of air time. The final stretch, which used water as a breaking system, was a unique experience which soaked my shoulder. A solid 8.

Other than the Diamondback, I had never ridden the Stunt Track or the Firehawk so we eventually made our way to these throughout the day. Stunt Track ended up being a fun little romp through the set of an action film (since it was formerly called The Italian Job this makes sense) which involved a few special effects and some unique features, including a powered launch up a spiral and a stop mid-coaster where an antagonizing helicopter "shoots" the car, causing jets of flame to shoot from the scenery.

The Firehawk has its own story to tell. It started with the end of the Outer Limits ride. I headed off to the bathroom and tried to empty my clogged bowels for the fifth time that day and once again met with failure. I cut my losses and headed to the queue with Rayya and Rob for what appeared would be a thrilling ride. The line was long but the excitement was high. I had never ridden the ride while it was installed at Geagua Lake and known as the X-Flight and had never experienced such a feeling as appeared to be offered by this ride so as I stood it was with anxiousness and a little apprehension in my heart. People were also line-jumping. Rob eventually had enough of this and told a little girl with horrible teeth and a grating voice off, and let the entire line know of her misdeed. Unfortunately it was to no avail as the "honest person" ended up getting in a train ahead of us anyways, but we struck up conversation with the people behind us and it made the line move a little faster. We never learned their names but the adult of the group was a stereotypical ginger redneck from West Virginia. He was full of stories about bar fights, traffic accidents, and previous amusement park experiences and kept us entertained through the long wait. Finally, it was time to strap in. I climbed into the seat, clamped down the harness, and waited with trepidation. We were hauled up the hill backward, taken to the top, and flipped. From then on, it was a bit like what I'd imagine flying like Superman would be. I would have loved another go, but the line was prohibitively long so we declined another wait and instead traipsed over to the Beast for a final night ride. My feet aching, I gimped off to my car with Rob and Rayya close behind and, saying our final goodbyes, sped off into the night.