Look Out New Zealand!

I now have a NZ driver's license! I received a perfect score and am now allowed behind the wheel of the car!

New Car!

After a day and a half of test drives and wandering around to all of the dealerships in Dunedin, we settled on a car. It's a Toyota Coronna, which is a cross between a Corolla and a Camry. Iain is pleased with the larger engine, the back wiper (lots of rain in Auckland) and the large trunk space.

Packing Skills

As the trip has progressed, my suitcase seems to have expanded, even though I haven't made any purchases. Fed up with seeing me shove jeans next to socks next to toiletries next to bathing suits, Iain finally begged me for the chance to re-pack my suitcase "the right way". I must say, I was very impressed, as was he. Hence the picture.

Hotel in San Diego

The cats are now totally unfazed by all of the moving around. Blue starts eating as soon as we shut the gate, and Tama just curls up and goes to sleep.

Cats, Cars, and Hotel Rooms

This is what our car and hotel rooms look like -- and this is with two cats. I cannot imagine what this would be like with two children!

Oklahoma!

Here are a few signs from our trip through Oklahoma. We didn't do too much while we were here -- we ate dinner in our room and went for a long walk around this huge public golf course that was located right next to our hotel. We drove through about six Indian nations which was cool in theory ("Are we on an actual reservation??") but without the signs telling us "You are now entering the Cherokee Nation" you'd never know. Although, I'm not sure what we were expecting-- tee pees?

I Can't Drive 55!

Iain has requested that I not drive anymore. After a bit of a "Discussion" it was decided that a driving ban is not realistic, but perhaps I should experiment with using the cruise control from now on.

Great time in Fort Smith

Our drive was rather tiring -- we hit a thunderstorm and the whole drive was really, really windy. When we got to our hotel, we were frazzled. All plans of staying in and having a nice healthy meal went out the window, and we hit the local rib joint and had dinner and a few beers. The food and service was outstanding - everyone here is genuinely friendly and helpful. Our hotel's staff has been the same.

Today we have a short drive to Oklahoma City where we hope to go for a nice, long walk to offset the beer and food.

Signs from the road to Fort Smith, Arkansas

Tama and Blue

We made the mistake of thinking that Blue might enjoy a view of the road, so we moved him to the middle backseat, with Tama next to him. Tama hated it and meowed the whole time. So we put Tama back in the middle where he can see everything and he settled right down and appeared to enjoy the drive. Apparently, Blue doesn't care where he is - he just wants to sleep, but Tama needs to see what's going on.

We're also convinced (ok, I am) that Tama is a bit of a hotel snob. The nicer the room, the more relaxed he is. Both cats have a lot of energy after being in their cages all day, so they've been waking us up at night. 4am is around the time they decide to eat, use the litter box, leap around on the bed, and meow. One of us usually gets up to play with them in an effort to calm them down.

Last night we stayed in a brand new La Quinta which felt like the Four Seasons compared to what we've been dealing with.

Crossing the Mississippi

Our initial reaction to the state of Arkansas is that it's just a place people drive through to get somewhere else. It was horribly flat, boring, and the roads were filled with trucks. But about 2 hours into the drive we began to see some really beautiful parts -- there are a lot of lakes and forests.

Knoxville to Memphis

Still in the South!

We had a fun drive yesterday - lots of cool billboards. The absolute BEST was when we passed a guy sitting on a rock right by the highway, cracking open a can of beer. I was too stunned to remember to take a picture.

A few pictures of Charlottesville

We drove into Old Town, walked about a mile or so to the river, then came back up and had cheap Italian. It was a fun night.

The cats are adjusting to the road!

Here are Blue and Tama in the Extended Stay America in Annapolis.

Goodbye Philly!

We checked out of the Residence Inn yesterday (see picture). We were only there for 3 days and the room looked like we'd lived there for a year. We had to make a bunch of trips to the car and it pretty much sucked (Iain disagrees). The car is packed to the hilt but we managed to get on the road before noon and got to Annapolis a few hours later. Excellent.

The drive was uneventful, save for the incredible amount of awesome reststops on the way down 95. It seemed like there was a rest stop every 5 miles and each one had different food: KFC, Taco Bell, Sbarro, Denny's, Wendy's, Burger King, Philip's Seafood... we did not partake but it was tough to resist.

The cats behaved, meowing every so often but nothing major.