from one place to another the life of Katie: 2010

Current location: My loft
Mileage: 6,920
2 full days home from "no expectation vacation"

I have traveled 6, 920 miles in 21 days. I drove thru Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, South Dakota, North Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Utah, Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and back to Georgia. (10 of which I had never driven thru) I went to three National Parks (Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone, and Glacier) I have seen a grizzly bear, a moose, an elk, a white mountain goat, and bull horn mountain sheep all in the wild, in their own habitat. I have watched the sun lower on my left as I watched a full moon to my right. I have watched the sunset into cornfields, glaciers, and rocky mountains. I have learned more about the Native Indian culture. I have felt extremely patriotic watching the four Presidents at Mount Rushmore under a clear sky and a full moon. I have built a camp fire all by myself, I have set up a tent as well. I have reconnected with old friends. I have encountered extremely wonderful people all across the U.S. I stayed in my first Bed and Breakfast. I showered at truck stops. I saw windmills, cornfields, ranches, and did I mention corn fields? I had brunch with the Governor and senator of Wyoming (without a shower I might add) I did not turn on one TV, open one book, open one magazine, and I made my phone calls limited. I never even made it into a bar on this trip. Every day I had to figure out where I was going to sleep and what direction I was heading.

When the idea of this trip formed in the back of an airplane, I knew that I had to do it. I didn't know why and I really did not know what to expect. I also knew that I needed to challenge myself. People always wonder why did u stay in rest stops, campgrounds, and peoples houses. Yes I could have paid for a hotel, but then I would have gotten into bed, turned on the TV and not really experienced all the things that I did. Sometimes I think that we need to take away the modern conveniences of life to remind ourselves, there are other ways. I started a blog, so I could write my feelings in the moment.When someone ask about the trip, it is easy to leave out details that happened along the way. My favorite author, Paulo Coelho says, that every time you speak of a dream or a goal you give a piece of it away. I kinda feel the same way about this experience. Writing is not comfortable for me, and so it was another way to challenge myself.

I had to fill up my jeep 25 times ( you do the money calculations) but most importantly with each one of those stops, I was also filling up my soul. I have come to realize that people and cars may be very similar. When a car gets low on gas it needs to be filled up to be able to continue to drive. As with people, I think we also need refueled. Sometimes we need to refuel our emotional selves, our spiritual selves, and our mental selves. They also sometimes get low. I am starting to learn, that expectations will not always be met, goals not always accomplished. People will disappoint, as I am sure I will disappoint. There will be challenges, struggles, and heartache throughout ones life. The fact that you can not change people you can only improve yourself is starting to become more and more clear to me. My "no expectation vacation" did me good, but I am now back to the reality and challenges of life. I did not wake up in a bad mood once on the trip, and I think I may have been grumpy to my mother once on the phone (I accuse altitude sickness) J/J and sorry mom. What I realize though it is our choice on how we decided to deal with these things in life, because inevitably they are going to happen to us. I do not claim to be perfect, but I do know that after driving 6, 920 miles, thru 22 states, and doing a big ole circle around the U.S. I feel that I am finally on the right road. I am sure there will be detours, and U turns, but I can honestly say that I feel that I am on the right path for myself.

I know that I could not have done this trip without the amazing support of my friends and family. I had tons of CD's to get me thru the trip (so many that I never once turned on the radio) I had great snacks, and let's not forget the mace and very large knife my father bought me. I was glad that I was able to refuel myself thru my "no expectation vacation" and I highly recommend that you plan your own, whatever that might be.

I have decided that I will continue to blog, when I feel there is something important that I might want to talk about. There is a fine line with putting your thoughts and feelings for all to read, and as my friend stated once to me "some things you need to hold onto and keep for yourself, you need to keep a little of yourself so that one day you can share it with that special someone in your life" I couldn't agree more! Til Next time Peace and Love ~KT~

Current mileage: 6100 miles

Current location: At K-Bar Breakfast Cafe, Okemah, Oklahoma
Day # 20 of the no expectation vacation

On the morning of Thursday Sept. 30 I had a phone conversation with my best friend Renee. It seems that I had lost track of the time and days and while talking to her I realized that I should probably start heading towards Atlanta. I came to this conclusion because I was about 100 miles from the Canada border, and I had about 6 good days to get home! I guess that is part of the no expectation vacation. Loose track of time, which is a great feeling I might add! So on Thursday, Kathy and Steve (my hiking partners from Washington) and I decided to head to the other side of Glacier and hike to a place called Hidden lakes. It was one of the places the Ranger said that I had to see while I was here. I exchanged numbers with Kathy and Steve, because my plan when I got to the other side was to find a place to shower (I was going on day 3, which is about my limit) Turns out that most places are closed since it was off season, but I did know that a KOA campground was open for one more day. I got to the KOA but it seems their office was only open from 8-11am and 4-9pm. Well I was there around noon. What I can tell you is: there showers were not closed, so I borrowed them! Disclaimer I would have paid, but there was no one there. Ahhhhh showers ,man I tell ya, they can make you feel like a brand new person! After feeling like the cleanest person at Glacier I headed toward Logan pass to hike to Hidden Lakes. As soon as I pull in who do I see' No other than Steve and Kathy. They couldn't loose me even if they wanted to! The good thing about this couple is the fact that Steve likes to take pictures as much as me or even more than me. He even hikes with a tripod! I think it was meant to be that I met them. I can tell you one thing about Steve and Kathy. They seemed to have it figured out. They had been married for 37 years I think, 5 kids, and they just seemed to be content with each other. It was rather cute, and really inspiring! I posted the pictures in my previous blog, but I can tell ya, once again Glacier National Park by far at this point in my life has the most beautiful scenery, especially if you are willing to hike a couple of miles to get to the hidden places! After the hike I said my goodbyes to Steve and Kathy and got on the road. I made it to a "rest area" towards the bottom of Montana at a place called Ghost Town, and slept for the night.

I woke up in the morning and finally made it to Idaho. Idaho is a little special to me because my first roommate from college is from out this way. Although me and Nichole were only roommates for one semester, we went thru some really tough freshman times.We both got mono our first semester, we were both homesick, we both played on the soccer team. We just bonded! Only problem is, I decided mid semester that I was sooooooo in love with my high school boyfriend that I was going to move home to be with him. Well, later turns out that was a very bad decision (like my father said it would be) and I lost touch with those girls that were there thru some of the biggest changes in my young adult life. I had reconnected with Nichole on myspace, but later deleted the account, not realizing how hard it would be to find her again. Keep in mind, we met in the year 1999 and it is now 2010. I had tried to do some research before I left, sending out random messages to people that I thought might be her or even related to her. NOTHING. But as I was seeing signs for the place that I knew she was from I just had to stop and try to find her one more time. I pulled over and spent about two hours on the internet. See the problem was, I forgot how to spell her last name, I knew that she was now married and it had changed, so I was running into a lot of dead ends. I tried looking up old soccer records thru the college but they didn't go back that far. Just when I was about to give up I found a link to Pocatello, Idaho class of 1999 on facebook with her name!!!! Yippie I found her! I immediately sent her a message and decided to make a pit stop in Pocatello to shower and do laundry, I knew that would buy me a couple of hours for her to read the message. I knew from facebook that she lived about 4 hours away, but I was willing to drive and see her. After about a 4 hour pit stop I decided to hit the road. Maybe she wasn't addicted to facebook like me, and it might be a couple of days before she read the message. Bummer. (Turns out Nichole called me the next evening while driving thru Colorado) even though we didn't get to meet up, it was nice to catch up with her on the phone. She is married and has five kids (WOW) and at least we were now facebook friends! I now can picture where she grew up, because Pocatello, Idaho seemed like a world away back in1999!

The rest of the drive thru Idaho was scenic. I saw a person riding in this contraption, not to sure what it is called. I am sure my pilot friends would know. It looked like a go cart with a motor, and a kite on top. Sounds like fun to me! Anyways I had to stop and take a picture and watch this "thing" glide around! I was also able to capture another sunset into he mountains....I do not think that I will ever capture or see enough of these to bore me in my lifetime. Every single sunset takes my breather away!

I got on the road and headed towards Salt Lake City. I had a couple of people that I knew lived in Salt Lake City, and since I had just slept in the jeep, a bed was sounding quite appealing. The first person that I called was a friend of a friend named Steph. Steph is a friend of my good friend Paula whom I met while working at my part time job. Steph knew I was going on this trip and offered up her telephone number and told me if I was out that way to give her a call. Well I took her up on that offer. Only problem, she was headed to California to see a friend. Hummmm, next option. I have an old college friend that lives out here, but I hated to just call up and say hey, I am in the area, mind if I sleep and shower at your house (which I now know she would have gladly taken me in) So my last option. Shari, a good friend that is also a flight attendant, whom stays at my house when needed for work told me that her brother lives in SLC. She told me to call her if I needed a place to stay. Well guess what, I called. Shari called her brother, and then called me back. Turns out Rick, Shari's brother had just had surgery, and understandably was not up for company. But hold up, since his mother in-law was at their house helping out with the kids she offered up her apartment, which was less than a mile away! After my bad direction following skills I finally found the place "gas station with the red roof" and Belinda (the mother in-law) met me with a key to her place. THANK YOU Belinda (and Shari)!!! She was so sweet, and made me feel right at home. I really hope that I posses these same qualities to total strangers! The main reason that I wanted to stay in Utah besides a bed and a shower was the fact that I would like to do a quick tour of downtown and although I was not brave enough to ask my college friend to stay at her house, I did send her a facebook message to see if she would like to have lunch the following day. Besides, I have always heard that SLC was a cool town, and I had always wanted to see the Mormon temple.

The next morning, after stopping to get coffee I was informed by a SLC police officer that I was crazy to go downtown to that area if I didn't get there in the next hour. He informed me that it was "conference week" whatever that means and that there would be tons of protesters. So I have to say I made my stop in downtown brief, because as I passed the temple it was crowded, there were protesters, and quite frankly I just wasn't in the mood. I promised myself that I would be back to explore SLC in depth especially since my new employer (Southwest) flew here.

State Capitol of Utah

At this point in the trip I was two for two about sending out last minute facebook messages to meet up with old friends. But

hold up.... Just as I was leaving Salt lake City I received a phone call from an old college friend from Davis and Elkins college. Jess and I had reconnected thru facebook and I had just seen a couple of days before that she was pregnant! BTW CONGRATULATIONS!!! So it was really cool that she called, I was able to turn around and met her and her husband for lunch. Turns out that they lived about 5 minutes from the apartment I stayed in the night before, and they said they would have gladly taken me in. Thanks! I can tell you, that when you are out traveling on the road it is just really nice to see an old friend. Even if you have lost touch there is something about the common bond of the past that brought comfort to me on my solo road trip! It was really nice to meet Jess and her husband Elliot. We spent about two hours at lunch, and brought each other up to speed with our lives and what had happened in the past 6 years. Funny how time just passes right by us! It really was a highlight on the trip!

Jess and Katie

Jess and her husband Elliot

After lunch I got on the road and headed towards Denver. But not without some great picture opportunities!

made me think I was in WV

I listened to a whole book on tape (the Spellman files...Thank you Tracy) and made it just inside Colorado to sleep at a rest area to sleep in the town on Eagle. The next morning was Sunday and I was on the lookout for a church. Seems that I over slept a little that morning and it was rather hard to find a church. I drove all along I-70E thru the ski resorts such as Vail, and Beaver Creek, and saw million dollar homes, but no churches. So I continued to drive thru Colorado and decided I would try and catch a night service. This day was a particular hard day to drive. I was felling a little homesick, and was really actually excited to get home although I was more than a 1,000 miles away. Didn't stop me from speeding though! By my calculations as far as I had to go speeding would drop atleast 2 hours off my time, my sister Aimee, said like 5 minutes! No worries though cause the Colorado State Patrol put a stop to that. I was day dreaming I must admit when I came flying over this little hill only to glance and see a patrol car, that obviously saw me. Crap, I pulled over immediately because I knew that I was busted. Trooper Robinson was very nice, and very cute. He asked for the standard: license, insurance, and registration. And then asked if the address was my correct address. I told him no, and gave him my Atlanta address. He then asked for a phone number. I started to think great, he is going to ask me out....LOL NOT...........he said hold for me just a moment, I am going to write your citation. 89 in a 75 will cost you $170 in Colorado that averages out to $12 a mile....Humm bet I slowed down in Colorado! I never found a church but decided to pull out the computer and tap into the telecast via the Internet with the church I just started attending in Atlanta. Funny enough the subject was technology. As I was driving along I-70E listening to church service in Atlanta (ironic, sounds like someone above was talking directly to me) Anyone that knows me, knows that I absolutely HATE when people are with you at dinner or where ever and they constantly check their phone. I think that it is just plain rude! Well seems that I have the church on my side too. The sermon was AWESOME! There were three rules to follow #1 have only one conversation at a time (make the person your with feel of value.....i.e. DO NOT CHECK YOUR PHONE) #2 have important conversations in person (although it is tough and awkward you can make sure the person understands #3 have a designated place for conversation i.e. a quiet place. The moral of the sermon, communication is the key to great, lasting relationships, and technology was meant to enhance life, not replace it! AMEN BROTHER!!

This brings you up to speed as to where I am right now. I drove over 700 miles yesterday, thru Colorado, Kansas (not alot to say about that) and into Oklahoma. I finally made it to a a place called K-Bar Cafe (in Okemah, OK) a place where truckers can sleep, so I decided to sleep here as well. A really cool website to give you all the info you could want about where to shower and places to eat and get gas is http://www.truckerguide.com/. I must admit I was a little apprehensive sleeping here last night, but when I woke up from the Resort de Katie's jeep, opened the door and saw that the parking lot was full.. One thing I know from being a flight attendant.. Follow the locals. Although the place looks kinda scary they must do something right, so as I sit here writing, I just had a homemade breakfast that consisted of eggs, bacon, hash browns, biscuit and gravy (that could compete with my mom's) and coffee for $7.00 Sounds like a deal to me! I plan on hitting the road, finding a shower and enjoying my last couple of days on the road. I spent most of yesterday speeding to get home (it was just one of those days) and realized I was resorting to my old ways, so today I am going to try and remember to take my time and enjoy. Til next time Peace and Love ~KT~