Orange and Maroon Skies

Two Year Vigil at Virginia Tech

Tennis Ball Inside AJ

Tulips and Hokie Stone

Flowers at San Diego State

San Diego Coast

Flickr, Twitter, and Email, Oh My!

You may be asking why we switched our blog from Blogger to Wordpress.  Well the answer is pretty simple....we wanted something that was a bit more interactive.  I want to point out three of the new features on our blog: Twitter, Flickr, and an email sign up feature.  Our Flickr feed allows us to share more pictures with you than we could on our regular blog.  If you click on one of the pictures on the left, it will take you to our Flickr photo stream, where you can see hundreds of our pictures, read our comments about them, and even comment on the pictures yourself.  http://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderinghokies/ If you click on sets, you can see how our pictures are arranged into albums: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wanderinghokies/sets/ I am going through and adding all of our pictures from 2009 and 2010, so be checking them frequently, as you will be able to see our entire year! :) I just added pictures from Pensacola, where James and I spent the 4th of July last year.  And I promise many more will be added soon!

You’ll also see our Twitter feed below the Flickr feed.  We thought it would be a nice addition, since we don’t always get a chance to update our blog on a regular basis (though this is something we are working on).  Twitter gives us an opportunity to make quick updates to the blog and to share articles we have found interesting.  In 140 words or less, we will give you a brief update on our lives.  We will also follow you if you are on Twitter.  Just let us know by following us (http://twitter.com/wanderinghokies) and we will follow you in return.  If you’d like to receive email updates, just type in your email address in the top left hand corner, and you will receive an email whenever we update the blog.

We hope you enjoy our new site, and that you spend some time getting to know it.  We welcome feedback and comments, so please do not hesitate to let us know what you are thinking!  Thank you for reading!

Love, Angela and James, the WanderingHokies!

Cliff Dwellings, Red Rocks, and Snow!

If you know me at all, you know that I am not a morning person.  My natural body clock would wake me up around noon and have me go to bed around 1 or 2 in the morning. Getting up early is tough on me. (James used to be a morning person, but then he married me!) That being said, we got another late start on Thursday morning.  In our defense, our last week in San Diego was exhausting as James was checking out of the Makin Island, I was finishing up my job at San Diego State, the movers were there all week packing up our things, and we were trying to move out of the apartment and say goodbye to friends.  It was both physically and emotionally exhausting, just in time for a drive across the country!  But such is life, and we were still determined to make the most of the drive, no matter how tired we were.  Our first full day of driving was filled with breathtaking views and fast speed limits, two things that make for a perfect drive.

James mapped out our entire trip using Google maps and determined that we would take 1-40, as it avoids most major cities, thus avoiding traffic.  And if you know James, you know that nothing makes him more angry than traffic.  I-40 is a gorgeous drive and we drove 1,752 miles of it. We weren’t planning on stopping anywhere other than for fuel, food, and sleep, but like I mentioned previously, how can you not stop in the wild west? We made our first stop at Montezuma’s Castle, a five story, 20 room cliff dwelling carved over 100 feet into the air on the side of a limestone cliff.  This wasn’t our first visit to the dwelling, as we had stopped on our way out to California, but it was a beautiful day and we thought AJ would appreciate the walk.  Plus, we try to use our National Parks pass as much as possible, and how often do you get to see cliff dwellings?  Montezuma’s Castle was built by the Sinagua people over 900 years ago, and it fascinates me.  Had we been there before 1951, we could have actually climbed into the ruins, but due to the immense damage tourists were having on the structure, you can now only gaze at the dwelling from afar.  Fascinated yet?  You can take a virtual tour here: Virtual Tour or you can read more about the history of the dwelling here: History and Culture.  The complexity yet simplicity of the structure simply takes your breath away.  It was amazing, but we had limited time, so it was back on the road for us.

We hadn’t gone very far when we began seeing signs for Sedona. Sedona is not on 1-40, but it’s still kind of on the way to Flagstaff, and since James had never been there, we decided it wouldn’t take us that much longer to change our course just a little bit.  Plus we needed food and gas, so why not get that in Sedona?  I think the detour was the best decision we made on the entire trip.  It was gorgeous!  I am glad James was driving, as I would have been unable to pay attention to the road with the beauty around us.  I was reminded of a sermon given by one of our pastor’s at Tech about driving along the road and being sucked into the beauty of a sunset.  He was overwhelmed by the immensity and beauty of it and saw God in His creation.  I was completely overcome by Sedona, and wish we could have stayed longer.  It was the kind of place that made me feel like I could be inspired again to do great things, and that I could be creative and lively because my surroundings pushed me to be that way.  I am thankful for the momentary bliss and the encouragement that Sedona gave me.  The red rocks disappeared as quickly as they had appeared and gave way to a winter wonderland.  I was a bit shocked, especially since we had just spent hours driving in the desert, but was pleasantly surprised when we were able to stop and play in the snow!  These southern Californians did get to experience winter after all!  AJ was not nearly as enthusiastic when we threw him in a mound of snow and took his picture.  It made me a little sad that he was more excited to get back into his kennel for hours than to play in the snow, but he too had acclimated to the 70 degree year-round temperatures of our SoCal home.  And with those three exciting experiences behind us, we continued our journey to the East Coast.[slideshow]

On the Road Again

With only four and a half days to get from California to Virginia, James and I had to really push ourselves to make the drive.  If you recall, two years ago we spent an enjoyable 10 days visiting national parks, never driving more than 300 miles a day.  It was nice and relaxing, and we took in some beautiful scenery.  (Another fond memory in the HTPINK!) This time around, we were driving between 600 and 700 miles a day, with not much time to stop and enjoy the beauty around us.  Even on a tight timeline, we couldn’t pass up touring a little bit, and we stopped at Montezuma’s Castle, drove through the red rocks of Sedona, and played in the snow outside of Flagstaff.  I find it extremely difficult to drive through the southwest without stopping.  There is something about those massive Saguaro that suck me in and say, please stop and enjoy me and the beauty around you!  And I can’t help but stop and take it all in.

We had a late start leaving San Diego on Wednesday, which allowed us to watch one last California sunset and enjoy one last burger at In-N-Out.  We drove to Phoenix, AZ, just to put some miles behind us to make the next four days a bit more pleasant.  The desert is pitch black at night, and for much of the drive, I could only see a few feet in front of us, which made for a slow night.  We were engulfed in darkness for miles, until suddenly we saw flood lights, a huge fence, and reflectors lining the fence as far as the eye could see.  The Mexican border.  I had no idea there was really a fence/wall between parts of the border, but there it was, lighting up the night sky.  Floodlights beamed into Mexico, so bright that you would be able to see little animals scurrying across the sand.  We passed border patrol vehicle after border patrol vehicle, until we went through a make shift border patrol stop.  They stopped the car and asked me where we were from and where we were going.  I told him we were headed to Virginia, and he looked at my ID and asked which city we would be visiting.  I said Virginia Beach and we were on our way.  I was a little worried at first, since our car was completely loaded down, and it would have taken us hours to put the puzzle of our things back together if they had inspected our back seats.  Thankfully we don’t look like suspicious people, so we were on our way back into the darkness of the desert.  We thought we were doing good on time, until we hit Phoenix and remembered they don’t adjust to Daylight Savings Time, and we had really lost an hour.  So much for getting in before midnight, but at least we had put a few hundred miles behind us.

Saying Goodbye to the HTPINK

Though it was almost two years ago, it seems like just yesterday James and I were packing the HTPINK as full as possible to embark on the 2,806 mile trip across the country to begin our new lives on the golden coast.  Now, some 5,612 miles later, we find ourselves again in Virginia Beach, waiting to move to another country.  The HTPINK liked San Diego so much, she decided to stay there, and we made the trip across the heartland of America in the Element, or as James calls it, the E.  Despite how much we travel, the HTPINK only had 52,000 miles on it, and I was sad to say goodbye, as we had fond memories together.  We learned how to change a flat tire together on the side of a mountain in southwest Virginia when her tiny sport tires hit a pothole.  We learned what the 2-4 servo was in my transmission when it went out a few times, and we learned how to be tough at the Ford dealerships by ourselves.  We traveled to football games in North Carolina and Florida, drove across Virginia countless times, and moved to Texas, back to Virginia, and then to California.  We were pulled over together for the first time for talking on the cell phone while driving, and we got out of the ticket together.    We learned that her engine made a nice home for mice, and that cyan peppers keeps the little furry ones away.  We visited friends, family, and had many happy memories together.  So this is my tribute to the HTPINK, my little Focus who got me through college and a few moves across the country. Thank you mom and dad for my 20th birthday present! (My dad tried to take a cut of the sale since they bought the car, but I didn’t think that was fair, and I declined his request.) I am now car less until we get to Japan and buy a cute little Honda or Toyota. HTPINK 2003-2010