Updates...

It's been three weeks since I left Simi Valley and began the journey to North Carolina. In that time, I've seen everything to the left and right of I-40 between CA and NC (see blog entries below), learned my way around the country roads of Huntersville (think narrow, badly lit roads with hard to read signs), giggled incessantly with my sister Laura, gotten a new work-out buddy (my brother-in-law Sacha), become a personal photographer to my newest niece Taylor, and done some massive job-hunting all over the Charlotte area (I have a few serious interviews on Monday, so I'll keep you posted)... so life is good!

But I do miss my L.A. friends incredibly! To name a few...

My girls!

Roomie!
I'll start laughing, then you'll make that face, then...
My Simi Valley Fam - the Chans
Mawk & Jen (the Thursday walk is a little too far now!)

My twin sister!

Beach Club!
My Study-Buddy
Accountability Group
My little bro - Maxy
Becky (& Meags) - Is it time for another girls' night out?!?!

Taylor is here!

Taylor Marraine Lindekens was born today!
January 14th, 2007
2:00 pm
19.5 inches long
6 lbs. 9 oz.

Road Trip - Day 4

We're here! After four full days on the road, we arrived in Huntersville (pronounced Hunnersvuhl) this evening! I'm so tired that I can't think of anything noteworthy to write about from today's journeys. I'm just glad to finally be here!

Turns out that the best man from my dad's wedding was traveling with his wife today too and we all ended up being around Charlotte and got to have dinner together. It's been 30 years since they've seen each other, so that was pretty cool!

The other pic is Laura and Sacha comparing their bellies. Laura wins, so we're all hoping she gives birth tomorrow! I'll keep you posted...

Pictures from Nashville

Fun Road-Signs of the Day!

I risked my life on the side of the freeway to get this picture for you, Caroline, but it's worth it... isn't it?

Other notable mentions:

On a completely dry frontage road: "Do not drive vehicles into the water past this point."

"Lotawahta Road" - and yes, it was by a lot of water.

"Toad Suck Park" - I don't even want to know.

And finally, "Gas ... Attractions" - I think something was missing from the middle of this sign.

Road Trip - Day 3

Today the country girl in me got to run wild and free! I'm about a two-step away from buying an authentic belt buckle the size of Texas.

It started with breakfast at "The Waffle House" in Oklahoma. If you've never eaten at one, well, let me just tell you that it's more about the cultural experience than the taste of the food. We were just sitting there when suddenly, mid-waffle, "I'm a Redneck Woman" came blasting through the 1950's jukebox and all the waitresses went hog-wild. Yes, even I sang out loud. This inspired "country day" in the car and I forced Dad to listen to everything from Dixie Chicks to the "Walk the Line" soundtrack. In defense, he imposed Elvis on me.

Then to make country day even better, we happened to drive right through the hometowns of both Garth Brooks and Carrie Underwood! Could it get more exciting than this?? Yes, it could!

8 miles outside of Memphis we decided to spontaneously divert to Graceland and Helen went along with the plan. We exited Elvis Presley Blvd. only to be informed that you must park and take some sort of ferry or shuttle service to the actual house. So, we opted to view the Heartbreak Hotel from the outside and take a picture by a Graceland sign (see above). Let's face it, if I didn't tell you it wasn't actually in front of the house, you would never have known the difference.

And now, the icing on the cake... we are spending the night in none other than downtown Nashville, TN!! I was even surprised myself at how excited I was to be here when we pulled off the freeway, so Dad and I are going to take a few hours to tour in the morning before our last 6 hours of driving to Charlotte. I'll let you know if anything exciting happens. You know, someone might mistake me for Carrie Underwood or something...right Francis?

Road Trip - Day 2

Todays travels were about left turns, rest-stops, and a whole lotta nothing.

We finally reached the infamous "left turn" Helen had been warning us about for the past 665 miles, and it turns out it was more of a left lean than an actual turn in Albuqerque, NM. Immediately after completing this milestone of our journey, Helen informed us that there would be another left turn in 538 more miles. We predict this to be Oklahoma City, so we should reach that point tomorrow morning. Woo hoo!

Today I realized that when you're traveling cross-country, you automatically become a sort of Siskel & Ebert of the rest-stops. Seeing as I've used facilities in third world countries in the past, I always figure that nothing in America can shock me. However, I have to admit that the one thing I miss the most whenever I leave California is the complimentary toilet seat covers that are standard in all west coast bathrooms. Once you cross stateline, apparently nobody has issue with sitting on a toilet seat shared by thousands of other strangers, so I'm forced to build what Lisa Chan calls a "toilet paper throne" - but somehow it's just not the same. However, the biggest laugh came today when we actually found a voting mechanism for how you rate the public rest stop (see photo)!

Other than that, we drove due East for a really, really, really long time through AZ, NM, TX, and OK, and saw a petrified rock park, dinosaur statues, and about 75 mocassin stands. Like I said, a whole lotta nothing!

We're halfway done! Until tomorrow...

Dinner at Lilo's!

Road Trip - Day 1

Reporting from Flagstaff, Arizona at the end of day one...

Amazingly enough, I packed Rocky, my Civic, by myself and actually got everything to fit while still leaving viewing space out of most of the windows. Then I said goodbye, drove over the hill out of Simi Valley and picked up my dad from the Burbank airport.

Turns out Dad and I are the perfect road trip buddies! He instantly played "pimp my ride" by attaching a convex mirror to the driver's side rear-view and mounting a GPS device (that we've affectionately named Helen) to my dashboard. Helen is incredibly helpful as she feeds us such tid-bits as "In 665 miles, you will turn left" and "You have been driving for awhile. Do you need a rest?" The three of us have been having a blast together finding rest-stops, gas stations, and tracking our progress across the country.

Speaking of progress, it's been slower than we expected due to a twilight-zone experience where we got "stuck in Fontana" once again! That's right... a year and a half ago, Barak, Honeybear, and I spent about 16 hours in a Fontana parking lot during our road trip to Kentucky. Today, my dad and I spent close to two hours on the 15 through Fontana as they merged four lanes down to one. Needless to say, if I never spend time in Fontana again, I'll be okay with that.

Once we got past that slow down, it was smooth sailing from there and we were excited when we hit the 40 East in Barstow and immediately saw a sign that read "Wilmington, North Carolina - 2,245 miles ahead." No joke.

Our other highlight was when we had dinner in a hole-in-the wall diner along Route 66 in Seligman, AZ called "Westside Lilo's German & American Food." That one's for you Omi!

Well, time for bed and then I think we will be on the 40 East until about Thursday, or next month, or something... I'm not quite sure, but I'm sure Helen will tell us in the morning. Good night!

The Countdown...

13 hours to go until my dad and I set out cross country driving! I can't wait, but I think that's partly because it hasn't sunk in yet that I'm actually moving and not just going on vacation.

For now, I'm so excited to get going that I'm counting down the hours. But I know that a month from now, when the dust settles, I'm going to be laying in bed one night thinking about how much everyone back here means to me and how they've all touched my life more than they know.... and maybe, just maybe, I'll actually cry a little bit in gratitude over the fact that God has blessed me so much more than I deserve.