We made it to Brooklyn!

OK, I'm sorry that this portion of the blog is way overdue.

Our last night on the road was quite relaxing. We actually got a suite with our own Jacuzzi and the mattress quality was 1000 times better than the Motel 6’s.

Not realizing that we were already on Eastern Standard Time, we got out on the road a little bit late. 9:00 in the morning with about 10 hours of driving ahead of us.

It seems like we were able to keep our cool when we knew we had a huge distance to drive, but as you start getting closer to your destination you begin to get antsy.

Of course I was losing my mind and put together this photo collage of my mental state.

Driving through Ohio and Pennsylvania, the landscape began to look like the kind that I'm used to.

The foliage driving through Pennsylvania was almost peaking, so the colors were breathtaking.


Just after I got off the telephone with my mother explaining that we were extremely lucky that we had not had one drop of rain the entire drive.

Low and behold within 30 minutes, the showers began. Luckily they were only light showers and lasted about 20 minutes.


Farmland, foliage, etc. for about five hours before we stopped for some lunch at BJ's restaurant in western Pennsylvania.



It was a really cool little restaurant, and our sandwiches hit the spot.

Apparently I wasn’t the only one who was losing my mind after five days of driving.


After driving about 6-7 hours through Pennsylvania we made it into New Jersey and quickly in to Staten Island where we made a quick pit stop at my sister's house to visit the kids, feed the dogs and let them have a walk before the 20 minute drive to our place in Brooklyn.

As you can see, we made it here in one piece without a hitch.

There 1st time in an elevator
The dogs are adjusting just fine to the lifestyle here in Brooklyn New York. We're very fortunate that there is a fenced in courtyard were the dogs can run around, which makes it pretty convenient for us living in an apartment.

Thanks to Teresa and Medwin for the amazing dinner last night.

Enjoy the videos and thanks for reading our blog!

Des Moines, Iowa to Holiday City, OH

Waking up super early in the morning, I spent about one hour posting the blog from yesterday. Why am I letting this cut in tour travel time? I guess it's because this is a leisurely journey across country and not the cannonball run.

Put your hands up, I'm bored again!
We left Des Moines, Iowa at about 8:00 a.m., with no set destination.

Map Quest is nothing like a real map
Within two hours we were hungry for some breakfast, so we set our goal to stop at the closest Cracker Barrel.

Red barn captured
Tamara has never been to the Country Store before, so this was sure to be an experience.

Not Brooklyn NY, thats for sure

Corn fields
60 mi. later we arrived, Tamara ordering the pancakes with baked apples and myself ordering the unusual eggs in a basket with bacon and hash brown casserole.

Kia, Koa and Tamara's 1st Cracker Barrel experience
After breakfast we took the dogs for a quick chariot race around the Country Store. Check out the video at the end of this blog.

Run over the border
Today we passed through Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio.

Corn continues

Welcome to Ohio
We definitely made some progress but once again we traveled 500 mi. in about 11 hours. I guess this is consistent with our previous records.

Good night corn. It make you crazy!

We have 620 mi. left before we reach Brooklyn New York. Hopefully we can make it in one day, but once again, there's no rush.

I just hope we don't hit severe Bridge and Tunnel traffic getting back into the city. For all you New Yorkers out there, you know what I'm talking about.

Chariots of Kia & Koa

Kia & Koa were so excited after our 1st Cracker Barrel (Tamara called it Cracker Basket) experience, so we had to take them for a chariot race!

From Vail, Colorado to Des Moines, Iowa

This morning we left Colorado at around 7:30 a.m. We were determined to make better time today.

The morning's drive was filled with beautiful scenery on the road to Denver along Interstate 70.

Shortly after Denver we hit the flats of Colorado and there was nothing but farmland as far as the eye could see.

In a few hours we were in the state of Nebraska and the farmland continued.


I guess the Nebraska scenery wasn't as exciting as the past few days, so Tamara decided to pick things up a notch.

Smokey thought we were bringing things up a notch too high.



After driving for about 13 hours, we managed to make it 760 mi., not much better than yesterday, but we're still making good way.



By 8:30 p.m. we had made it into Des Moines, Iowa.

We have about 18 hours of driving ahead of us.

From Vegas to Vail in 12 hours?

Today we got off to an early start. Well, we woke up early with the intention of getting a very early start, but after taking care of anything we finally hit the road at about 6:40 a.m. Leaving Las Vegas we hit 10 minutes of traffic going past the strip, but after that it was pretty smooth.

Leaving Las Vegas
Heading north on Interstate 15 towards Salt Lake City, we managed to make stops every 80 miles or so. Stopping at this frequency would surely slow us down a great deal. Regardless, each stop was just as enjoyable as the last, and we're really not in any type of rush.

Hot Rocks!
Crossing the Nevada border into Arizona, within no time we were in the State of Utah.

Enoch was up in Utah!

Driving NERD!
If you have never driven through this part of the country, I strongly suggest it. It has some of the most breathtaking scenery.

Tamara on top of Utah!
I don't know how we did it, but it took us over 12 hours to drive about 700 mi. Of course we stopped at a few scenic overlooks as well as lunch in Salina Utah, plenty of bathroom breaks and doggie walks.

More of the road to Vail

More Crazy Rocks

And more rocks

In the CO
Within a few hours we were in Colorado and the scenery continued.

Big Sky!

Mirror me

I know, again

Tunnel vision

Colorful Colorado
Once we arrived in Eagle Colorado we stoped at a local supermarket to pick up some soup and sourdough bowls. After a quick dinner we hit the hay.

Thank some much to Bo & Mo for letting us stay after beautiful homes along way. From here on out it's hotels and long hauls.

Enjoy the video!

1st Day on the road

We decided to use this cutting edge technology "blogging" to inform people of our experience driving from San Diego to New York City.

Jefferson arrived in San Diego on Saturday night, the eve of Tamara's farewell barbecue.

Unfortunately we do not have photos on hand, documenting this wonderful gathering. Tamara's friends and family came to wish us safe travels. It was really good seeing everyone and how big and close Tamara's family is.

If anyone has photos of the barbeque, please send them to me so I can post them on this blog. ck@uxalab.com

Monday morning we headed out to take care of some last minute errands before heading out on the road. Tire alignment and rotation, as well as dropping by my corporate headquarters to replace my phone.

Later that afternoon we attempted to install the luggage rack in preparation for our estimated, early morning departure. We had a few mishaps with the luggage rack straps snapping, after I was trying to tighten them down, but the problem was soon solved with some handy straps from Home Depot.

That evening we went out for Thai food with some friends that could not make it to the barbeque on Sunday. After an amazing dinner we headed back to the house. Thanks much to Steve that painted an amazing portrait of the two of us as a housewarming present for our new home in Brooklyn.

Jefferson fell right asleep as we got back, Tamara, roomate Dave and cousin Dave proceeded to pack up the Land Cruiser, for the estimated early morning departure. I knew there was something up when Tamara mentioned to me that it might be an issue fitting my two small bags in the car and that we were surrounded by more stuff that was supposed to be packed in the car as well.

Tuesday morning we woke up about an hour late. The car was fully packed with boxes, and it was barely half of the intended cargo for our cross-country journey.

We unpacked the car and put together a stack of boxes that we could ship to New York instead of having them take up very valuable space in the vehicle.

After some squishing and adjusting the car was packed with almost everything, except for Tamara's PC, which contained her most precious music, we would have to come back for it another time.

We finally made it on the road around 12:30 p.m., after having one last meal of delicious Mexican food from a local taco shop.

Because we had such a delay we decided to make the 1st leg of our trip short, so we stopped at my mom's house in Las Vegas.



The five-hour drive was a breeze and we get there in time to have a quick barbecue dinner before getting some rest.


Kia & Koa, sleeping opposite.