Odometer: 2177

Indiana to DC!

This part by far was the prettiest part of the drive. No offense to any of my Wyoming to Indiana peeps. After I passed through Columbus, Ohio, the hills scenery was amazing. There were lush forests on both sides of the road as far as I could see. I was driving up and down hills and making all sorts of turns through what felt like an old mountain road. I had to keep reminding myself that I was only around 1000 ft in elevation and that I was not at the top of some mountain range. Well perhaps I was. Appalachians? Ah yes I was, thank you Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appalachia. I guess I was in the tops of mountains sort of, albeit very little ones. I take back any teasing I gave to my eastern standard time friends who love their little mountains. They actually are quite a sight. The pictures I took don't quite capture the beauty but I will show you what I got.

There are also some strange traffic patterns there. You just have to know when you should change lanes.

One fun stop was in Beavercreek, Ohio. Growing up in a military family caused lots of moves in my childhood. We spent a few years in the midwest when I was around 5-8 years old. Sixteen years later I came back to see my old home. It's still the same shape but there were some changes. It used to have brown doors and mustard-yellow siding. I think it looks better now. The yard has more grass and less bush/flower beds. One time I got stuck in the tree which is barely showing in the left of the picture. I climbed up but got scared to come down and had to wait till my father came home from work to help me get out. My and my brother's room was the left window on the top floor. 

As you can see in the last picture it was a little rainy. The first few states weren't bad; however, once I hit Maryland it was crazy! It was seriously the worst storm I've ever driven in in my life. The strength of the rain reminded me up Texas rain bursts. Luckily I was in a car instead of on a bike though like in my missionary days. This rain was coupled with lots of lightning and thunder which you could actually hear and sometimes feel inside of the car! The cars which used to be spread out through the mountain highway were now closer together, driving 15-20 mph less than the limit with wipers and emergency flashers going. Although at times it was a little scary, I was brave and made it through. I finally got out of the storm as I was approaching the city.

The first Washington sign!

Getting out of the storm and driving the rest of the way to my destination reminded me of finishing the climax of an adventure novel and reading the resolution where the loose ends are tied up. Until this trip I wasn't very familiar with how that worked but I had been listening to the Chronicles or Narnia on CD the entire way and was now on book seven. The Horse and His Boy, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and The Silver Chair. I still need to finish The Last Battle. I'm sure that will probably be good but the story is still developing. 

So I made it to DC (Arlington technically) and am staying at my uncle's apartment with my brother until I can move into my new place in Alexandria. The odometer changes won't be quite as dramatic now but the posts will still be at least somewhat interesting.

Odometer: 1580

This covers two days of driving so be prepared!

Wyoming to Indiana

I left Wyoming bright and early. Already had a full tank of gas so I was right on my way. As I traveled east I noticed an additive property in the land. Nebraska is like Wyoming but has green. Iowa is like Nebraska but has hills and trees. Illinois is like Iowa but has water. Indiana is like Illinois but has NASCAR!

This section of the drive wasn't very eventful. There were lots and lots of straight roads with 75 mph speed limits. After hundreds of miles of that 65 feels super slow and unproductive. I ought to mention that this would have been incredibly boring had it not been for THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA!!! Before I left, I borrowed a large collection of audio books, including the aforementioned, from people at my university job.

In Nebraska I stopped at a rest stop and met an older couple who invests with Edward Jones or knows a financial advisor there... it wasn't clear. I also took a picture of these cows.

This was a lot of Nebraska and Iowa. During a lot of the drive, a line from Dumb and Dumber kept passing through my mind. When Lloyd and Harry are traveling cross country, the stop at a diner for a bite to eat. Lloyd says, "feels good to mingle with these laid back country folk, don't it Hare?"

 I think this was the Missouri River?

Before I got to my friend's house in Indiana, I drove downtown to the Heslar Naval Armory. Since it was Memorial Day and military related I thought that perhaps it would still be open, but it wasn't. I don't want to join the Navy, but I stopped to see one of this building's artifacts. My grandpa on my father's side served on the USS Indiana in WWII in the Navy. After the war, the battleship was sold for scrapping, but some of its parts are scattered throughout the country. The bell is kept here. Unfortunately I wasn't able to see it but it was cool to be close.

Odometer: 447

Well in day one I already beat my record for the longest solo drive I've ever done! 447 miles all by myself! I started out in Provo, UT and drove through Provo Canyon. If I had known what was awaiting me in Wyoming, I would have taken more time to appreciate the scenery in Utah. Although there were some very cool geological features in Wyoming, it just wasn't very awe inspiring.

Most of if looked like this.

 Part of the way it looked like this.

Sometimes there were cool things like this.

I actually did enjoy looking at the sedimentary rocks in the second picture. I took a geology class a couple years ago so I could understand the history of the area (sort of). First there were orange layers, then some red layers, then somehow it sank into the earth and now has been eroding away.

BRITISH PEOPLE and FOOTLONGS
I had an fun time in line at the subway in Evanston, Wyoming. I pulled in at about lunch time so it was pretty crowded at the local Subway. Behind me there were three or so couples from England with cameras around their necks. I didn't talk to them but heard them saying things like "Here they call it a foot long," which was fascinating to some. One woman pretended to order, "how about 30 centimeters?" which they all chuckled at. As they were making it through the line I heard them encouraging and congratulating each other on successful orders. I wonder what the heck they were doing in Wyoming...

LITTLE AMERICA!
For some reason, every billboard in Wyoming is for a place called Little America.

I got to Wyoming safely and without incident. It was warm, sunny, and quite windy, which I guess is pretty normal in those parts.

Odometer: 0

Well, I decided to make a blog. Never thought I would make one of these but I thought it would be good to keep everyone up to date on my summer adventure.

About a year and half ago I started looking into the financial advisor career. I decided it would be a fun career, albeit especially difficult in the first few years. In January, 2012, I applied for the financial advisor internship program with Edward Jones, crossed my fingers, and prayed that I might get the opportunity to work for their firm. Months passed without any word. In the mean time I applied for almost a dozen other internships with out success. I had pretty much given up hope on getting a summer internship when I got an email from Edward Jones--three actually--in April. The first was an invitation to have a phone interview, the second was a "disregard the last email" email, and the third negated the second. <= That was a stressful 20 minutes. The interview went well and a few weeks later I was offered a position in the program. After a few more weeks I was given my location assignment in Maryland.

I was excited to move out east for the summer time (I needed a break from Utah). After a few freak-out moments and lots of help from my friend Linda, I found somewhere to live in Alexandria, VA. My workplace was about an hour outside of DC but I wanted to live close to the city for the Washington experience and to be able to hang out with my little brother, Ben, who also has an internship in DC right now. The metro doesn't go to my job so I decided I would need my car with me in DC to get me around.

So this mighty blog that I've created will keep track of my life for the next few months according to the number of miles I've driven. Hopefully I can think of interesting things to write about and take some cool pictures along the way.