We loaded up everything into a rental truck and worked out our route to Arizona, trying to make it a nice leisurely route, spread out over 6 days of driving, stopping to see many cities and towns. During the final goodbye party, we decided that since we had the truck all packed that we would leave later that evening, instead of the next morning. At the last minute we changed our route, decided to go through the nearest customs border into the US, the one we were the most familiar with, and figured we'd drive like 3 hours and get a hotel room.
After driving about 20 minutes, we reached the border, and were both prepared to be sent to second questioning, and to have the car tore apart and searched. We've had quite a bit of difficulty in border crossings in the past, so we had made a very detailed inventory of the car, listing all the items, numbering all the boxes to correspond with the inventory, hoping to make things go easier. When we pulled up in the truck to the booth of the US customs agent, he took our passports, entered them into the computer and made a little small talk. There was a little issue that appeared on his screen because of our past problems crossing the border, but he took care of it at the booth with the click of a few buttons, saying that Michel's permanent residency visa superseded all our past issues.
We both figured we'd still be directed to second questioning to have someone examine the car.... The customs agent asked a few questions about Arizona, asked us to roll down one of the windows to the back part of the truck, he looked in and said "you have a safe trip" and let us right through. I was so shocked that we didn't get stopped and questioned, nor have the car tore apart, that I must have driven 10 miles with a nonstop smile and saying "oh my god, I cant believe it was that easy!" over an over again.
Day two we woke up a bit early in Altamont, Illinois and drove to Tucumcari, NM, exactly 1000 miles according to google map. We had discarded our original map of the route we were going to take and were just driving in the most direct route we could, but adding a couple of stops like St Louis, and Oklahoma City. We were driving just in front of a big storm as we went through Oklahoma City with golf ball size hail, and from there we raced the sun to hit the Cadillac Ranch before the sun set to get some pictures of the caddies. Just made it. From there I drove to Tucumcari, NM but was too tired to continue on. Michel doesn't have a driver's license as he's always lived in cities with good public transportation, so we had to stop for the night for me to rest.
I ended up being so amped up from the border crossing being so pleasant that I drove all night. We ended up sleeping a few hours in the truck while parked in a Tim Horton's coffee shop parking lot in Pennsylvania the next morning, and then I drove all day. On that first day we connected a bunch of smaller highways, zig-zagging our way through New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and to about the middle of Illinois. Just under 1100 miles. We got a hotel room and I slept like the dead. It was a fun drive though. We went through a lot of Amish country, saw many horse drawn buggies, but man did we drive through a lot of rain.
Day two we woke up a bit early in Altamont, Illinois and drove to Tucumcari, NM, exactly 1000 miles according to google map. We had discarded our original map of the route we were going to take and were just driving in the most direct route we could, but adding a couple of stops like St Louis, and Oklahoma City. We were driving just in front of a big storm as we went through Oklahoma City with golf ball size hail, and from there we raced the sun to hit the Cadillac Ranch before the sun set to get some pictures of the caddies. Just made it. From there I drove to Tucumcari, NM but was too tired to continue on. Michel doesn't have a driver's license as he's always lived in cities with good public transportation, so we had to stop for the night for me to rest.
On the third day we pretty much just took I-40 into Flagstaff, with one side trip up to Sante Fe to see what it looked like, and then straight to our place here in Verde Valley. Just under 2700 miles in three days. We plan to go back to several of the cities we drove through in the future to explore them more. Once we got on the road though, we both felt like doing the trip really fast, rather than taking our time. It worked out really well though, as once we got the car unloaded, we did day trips around Arizona on each of the final three days we had rented the truck for. We found a bunch of great materials to work with to make jewelry and artwork out of, and found an awesome table saw that someone had built a rolling stand for with pop up side tables, drawers full of blades, and they had built a bunch of jigs to use on the saw to make picture frames with. It's going to be a lot of fun to work with, and we got it for an amazing price.
This 5th painting was started long before we started our move, but it's kind of fun how its release aligned up with our trip, and how we were planning to take our time getting to AZ, like the desert tortoise would have, but ended up going as fast as we could to get to AZ, like the jack rabbit could have. We arrived in plenty of time for Michel to celebrate his first July 4th in the United States, as a permanent resident. We got several of our friends together here in Arizona to help us celebrate. A good night indeed.
The following is the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare"(One of Aesop’s Fables)
Once upon a time there was a hare who, boasting how he could run faster than anyone else, was forever teasing tortoise for its slowness. Then one day, the irate tortoise answered back: “Who do you think you are? There’s no denying you’re swift, but even you can be beaten!” The hare squealed with laughter.
“Beaten in a race? By whom? Not you, surely! I bet there’s nobody in the world that can win against me, I’m so speedy. Now, why don’t you try?”
Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off. When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. “Take your time!” he said. “I’ll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute.”
The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round, looking for the tortoise. But the creature was only a short distance away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post. And smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoise’s face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. The sun started to sink, below the horizon, and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish. At that very point, the hare woke with a jolt. He could see the tortoise a speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and he’d be first at the finish. But the hare’s last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the winning post. Poor hare! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who was silently smiling at him.
“Slowly does it every time!” he said.
Annoyed by such bragging, the tortoise accepted the challenge. A course was planned, and the next day at dawn they stood at the starting line. The hare yawned sleepily as the meek tortoise trudged slowly off. When the hare saw how painfully slow his rival was, he decided, half asleep on his feet, to have a quick nap. “Take your time!” he said. “I’ll have forty winks and catch up with you in a minute.”
The hare woke with a start from a fitful sleep and gazed round, looking for the tortoise. But the creature was only a short distance away, having barely covered a third of the course. Breathing a sigh of relief, the hare decided he might as well have breakfast too, and off he went to munch some cabbages he had noticed in a nearby field. But the heavy meal and the hot sun made his eyelids droop. With a careless glance at the tortoise, now halfway along the course, he decided to have another snooze before flashing past the winning post. And smiling at the thought of the look on the tortoise’s face when it saw the hare speed by, he fell fast asleep and was soon snoring happily. The sun started to sink, below the horizon, and the tortoise, who had been plodding towards the winning post since morning, was scarcely a yard from the finish. At that very point, the hare woke with a jolt. He could see the tortoise a speck in the distance and away he dashed. He leapt and bounded at a great rate, his tongue lolling, and gasping for breath. Just a little more and he’d be first at the finish. But the hare’s last leap was just too late, for the tortoise had beaten him to the winning post. Poor hare! Tired and in disgrace, he slumped down beside the tortoise who was silently smiling at him.“Slowly does it every time!” he said.
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