Road Trip! Day 1

Day 1 April 26, 2011
11:36am. On the road
And we’re off. This is the grand record of the adventures of Russell and Erika as they drive through three states, two countries, and who knows how many water bottles. Yep, we’re driving home.
Brief history of us: Russ and I technically met at Youth Conference about four years ago. I danced the Gangsta Macarena with him. He doesn’t remember me at all. His loss. I knew who he was; I was friends with his sisters Jenny and Amanda.
Fast forward to Christmas 2010. We were both at the Y and heading home to Southeast on the same day. I met up with Russell and Jenny in the SeaTac airport and we watched The Transporter the whole plane ride home.
I’ll skip all the mushy details of how we met again in February and started dating in March. Suffice it say that start dating we did, but before we did, he invited me to drive home with him. Figuring that we’d be friends whether we dated or not and that the trip would ultimately save me money (not knowing that my passport was MIA and I’d have to pay oodles to get a new one expedited) I decided to come. And here we are. Adventuring.
Today the plan is to get from Clearfield, Utah to Rexburg, Idaho and then onto Idaho Falls. We’ll be staying the night with Russell’s aunt and uncle after we pick up Jenny at BYUI and make homemade macaroni and cheese with her milk. Tonight might involve a hot tub to soak out the muscles sore from sitting, and some good ol’ family time. (Okay, I’m not a part of this family. So sue me. Artistic license.)
So far, half way between the Idaho/Utah border and Pocatello, the hills are…well, were pretty: some rolling and soft and others jagged and rocky. Now it’s raining/snowing and we’re so enveloped in clouds that I can’t see any hills at all. In fact, it’s hard to see anything as we’re caught behind a truck and all the water coming off its tires is getting our windshield pretty well.
That’s it for now.
Much love from the road,
Erika


9:32pm Reed and Connie’s house
After racing through much of Idaho, passing nine government vans and semis, we made it to Rexburg and Jenny’s apartment. It was 2:03pm and we made it to the Devotional before the main speaker had begun. I felt a little unorthodox in the Center full of kids in Sunday dress. They were in skirts and flats; I was in jeans and moccasins. And then there was Russell in his fully-bearded glory. (Secret: I love his beard.) We stuck out a little amongst the ultra-clean-cut BYUI students, but as we go to Provo, we are allowed to stick out.
Jenny had chemistry class after Devo (a coinage that I’ve only heard at BYUI) so Russell and I explored (got lost in) the library and then picked up travel foods at Albertsons. We returned to Jenny’s apartment and made homemade mac n cheese then headed out to get Jenny shopping.
Side note: BYUI is cheap. I’m jealous. Jenny’s apartment is muuuuuuuuch bigger than my future abode and it’s muuuuuuuuuuch cheaper. And the couches are nice, the bathroom large and the roommates pretty cool. It’s a good deal.
Now we’re at Uncle Reed’s and Aunt Connie’s house (relatives of the Youngbergs,) well fed off Domino’s pizza and looking forward to a hot tub. After about three hours driving my lower back started cramping uncomfortably and now my shoulders feel out of wack. It’s time for a soak.

You’re probably sick of…well, whether or not you’re sick of me, I don’t have much more to say today that I want the whole world to have access to, so I’ll be passing the laptop to Russell now.
Goodnight, sleep tight, kill bedbugs, and sleep with the angels.
Erika

Hello all! Today was a great day. I slept in until about 9:00 and woke Erika up around 9:15. Grandma Wilcox had a sinus infection so she told us we were on our own for breakfast, which really wasn’t a bad thing. I had cheerios and Erika had some type of flake things.
After breakfast we synced my ipod with her itunes music (so we would be able to listen to it on the road) while she worked on getting ready for the day. We also made sure to check off the things on our list of things we needed for the trip and things we didn’t need so that we would be able to shop for what was needed.
After we had our list completed and we were both ready to go, we took everything out to the car, loaded it up, went back in to say good-bye to Grandma and then headed out the door to hit the road. Grandpa was just pulling up so we said our good-byes to him and then we hopped in the car and were on our way.
Once on the road we started cycling through the different ipods and listened to all sorts of different songs. We saw all sorts of beautiful scenery, got a truck driver to blow his horn for us, hit a few storms, and had a great time enjoying each others’ company. We drove a little over 100 miles and then stopped for gas, a bathroom break, and to get food out of the cooler at a place called “Freeway Oasis.” It was a nice gas station and a good, quick, uneventful break. (Sidenote from Erika: The bathrooms there were strangely good, clean etc. for a gas station.)
After that we got back in the car and continued our journey towards Rexburg. We went a little over the speed limit to do our best to make it to “devo” with Jenny which started at 2:00. We ended up getting to her apartment at 2:03 and walked straight from there to “devo” and made it just in time for the opening prayer. I felt a little out of place since I was probably the only person there with facial hair, but that’s ok. The whole point of making it in time was to spend time with my little sister though so it was ok.
After “devo” Erika and I had to kill some time while Jenny went to a class so we got lost in the library for a little bit and then we went on to the campus store. After that we went back to the car and then went to Walmart and Albertsons to get our shopping done. Then we went back to get Jenny 
With Jenny in our company again we went back to the stores to get her grocery shopping and personal shopping needs taken care of. Then we went to a frozen yogurt place called Twizzleberry and had some incredible frozen yogurt. They have a promotion there that if you can guess the weight exactly you get it free… Jenny was only off by .2 grams! From there we took the yogurt in the car and came out to Reed and Connie’s place.
Here at Reed and Connie’s Uncle Reed showed us how he makes pens starting from the very beginning, which was totally awesome! He had Erika and I each choose a block for him to make us a pen out of which will be ready next fall. After that we ate Domino’s pizza and then Erika and I went hottubbing while Jenny worked on homework. I helped her where I could, but other than that we didn’t get to do too much unfortunately.
Now I’m sitting in Jenny and Erika’s room at 1:04 a.m. and, having brushed Erika’s hair, helped Jenny with homework, had a heavenly back massage from Erika, I think it’s about time to go to bed. I most definitely didn’t get sick of Erika in the least bit today, so we should be in for a nice, relaxing, fun roadtrip. But now I bid thee all goodnight. Dormen com os anjos!

Finicky Finals

I have all these wonderful dreams for sprucing up my blog. For one, I'm going to learn how to put pictures on it. Well, I'm going to find my camera, take pictures, and then post them. Then I'm going to add some nice music.
Then I'm going to write somewhat regularly.

Why the new resolutions?
Probably because I'm in the midst of finals.
AAAAGGGGHHHH!!!!

Okay, not that bad yet. As of half and hour ago, I've become done with two of the six little buggers. I say "become done" because nobody showed up to give the written ballet final. Today at seven to eleven I entered the RB and started reviewing French vocab for the test that was to start at eleven on the dot. At eleven on the dot my entire class entered the studio and got cozy as the proctor wasn't there yet. And we waited. And waited. And waited. And talked about boys and husbands and missionaries and hands and standards and....yeah, girl talk. :) The MDT majors started playing the piano and singing. The nervous kids (yeah, we're still kids) reviewed vocab. The confident and slightly apathetic talked. Definitely me on that one. And at eleven thirty on the dot there was still no proctor. Somebody wrote all our names on the board with a note: "We were here for the test until 11:30. Suzi's 291 Ballet Class." And then we left. On the dot.

I guess that means they're going to drop the final. Could they really make us all take it after the appointed time? I doubt it.
I'm not too devastated at this turn of events. I studied for it, but got real satisfaction out of the dance final. Now that was AMAZING!

I'm not going to make my blog more snazzy after all. I'm going to go read The Book of Mormon. :)

Love,
Erika