The adventure continues.

So I made it safely to Arizona. The trip took a good two and a half days to complete. We left at 7:30pm Thursday night and drove 23 hours [includes the stops for gas & bathroom breaks] pretty much straight through to Tulsa, which was our ultimate goal, and stayed Friday night. I drove the first 10 hours, even though we had planned to switch off every 5 hours, but I chose to do more of the driving simply so Ryan could relax and enjoy the country side without hesitation. Once he took over driving, I took a little cat nap and it did me a lot of good, because it allowed me to recharge after sitting in the same position for so long. It only takes 4 major high ways to get from New Jersey to Arizona, the first being I-76. This was 110% the most boring part of the drive, mainly because it was all driven at night time. Even though the scenery was limited to begin with, it was still not able to be scene in the pitch dark night time sky that hovers over Pennsylvania's unbelievably overpriced Turnpike. It cost $14 to drive from the King of Prussia/PA-Turnpike-276/I-476 Interchange all the way to I-70! We didn't encounter another toll until we enter Oklahoma, which was a mere $3.50. When we reached West Virginia, although it was a short lived 11 mile long stint, we "jumped" for joy when we saw the 70 MPH speed limit posting. Unfortunately for us, that 70 MPH mindset got us pulled over only 5 minutes after entering Ohio. The police officer was very nice as was I in return. Thankfully, my driving record is clean, so I was let go with a verbal warning, plus I was literally only doing 5 MPH over the speed limit so if he gave me a ticket, I'd show him what the hell a Jersey Girl had to say about that. Indiana was by far the worst state to even be in as far as the scenery, culture, and everything else in between. It was just so....uncultured. Everyone was a carbon-farm-bread-copy of each other, all driving their Chevy pick-up trucks or the Ford F150's. It was almost disturbing. Everyone was so pale and unhealthy looking. Maybe Ryan & I have an issue with having to be tan and looking healthy, but these people just appeared to be sickly from head to toe. I'm sure that's a bit much to say, but well...we had plenty of time to make a judgment from a distance. This is not to say that the people themselves are not brilliant minds or not worthy of recognition beyond their less than mediocre lifestyle. Everyone just appeared to be very unhappy. I feel bad saying that, but still. To add to this, gas was $3.79/gallon for regular, which was surely a rip off. Illinois' apple didn't fall to far from Indiana's tree either. Missouri was quite interesting to drive through overall. It was a constant change of rolling hills, beautiful trees, and a lot of annoying billboards advertising various tourist traps. The natural beauty of this particular state was really something to see. Upon entering into St. Louis, we were greeted with the famous Gateway Arch on the Riverfront. It was absolutely spectacular to see, even through the heavy fog which lay low over the city this morning. We attempted to take several pictures, but we we're caught in rush hour traffic. This was the first time we hit traffic during the entire drive up until that point. We managed to maneuver through the 5 separate car accidents, all one after another, which not only held up traffic but it also caused an awful lot of rubber-necking. Oklahoma and Texas didn't offer much as far as scenery goes. New Mexico changed things up a bit for us once we arrive in Albuquerque. The winding roads through the mountains we're just intense to say the least. We stopped and had dinner with my friend Katie, who is a native of Albuquerque. She showed us around town and it was great to see her and catch up on things. After our little visit, I decided that Tempe was only another 6 1/2 hours away, that I was going to suck it up and drive it straight through. Ryan wanted to get a room, but I was determined to get there as soon as possible. I wasn't even tired once we arrived at around 4:30am Sunday morning. I just knew I wanted to lay in bed with Chad and that was that. Plus, once I was there with him after 4 long weeks of not seeing each other was just amazing for both of us. On Sunday, I spent most of the day organizing what I could. We had friends of ours come over and everyone hung out at the pool. We went out to dinner at a place called NYPD [New York Pizza Department] where they use a lower pH water, how they do in New York, so that it has that authentic taste. Frankly, I thought it was tasted horrible, but the idea is there, which is what ultimately counts I suppose. Everyone headed home one by one or couple by couple by 11:30, and then it was time for bed! I had to drop Chad off at the airport yesterday morning which sucked because I was only able to spend one day with him, then he has to work in Oakland, California until Thursday evening. The apartment is coming along quite well with all the merging and rearranging I've been doing. Chad let me have full run of that stuff because he knows I can organize really well and I wouldn't just come in and change everything around. I would obviously rearrange things to suit the both of us. Tomorrow night Ryan & I are going to see Armin Van Buuren spin at Axis-Radius in Scottsdale. We went to see him spin last fall at Pacha in Manhattan but it was an 18+ night so the club was extremely packed thus making for a not so good time. So we're both excited to see him spin here and enjoy ourselves without a bunch of underage people taking up valuable space haha. So, we'll see how things go! Overall, I love being here. I love the 325 days of constant sunshine, the mountains, the 8% humidity, -- just everything is GREAT! I love it!