California Here We Come - Day 1 - May 8, 2014

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As you know, we are heading to Los Angeles to begin the next chapter of our lives. I decided to keep a record of our trip west and here it is!

Hanging from my neck is a chain with a pendant that on one side says, “Life is short” and the other side says, “enjoy the ride.” That is my motto although I sometimes am not so good at the enjoy the ride part. I’m determined to take it literally though as we make our way to Los Angeles and what's to come.

The past weeks have been tough as we tried to organize what to take and what would fit in the car. We are staying in a furnished apartment for the first three months so we will need limited items from home. The stress this morning seemed to ease (maybe it was self-preservation) as the car was loaded and last minute items checked off the list. I will admit that I never thought Rick could pack all the stuff we were taking in our little Prius but he did. The only thing we ended up leaving behind was the printer.

We left Leawood at 12:30 with the first stop on our itinerary in Topeka. I’ve been collecting photos of all the homes I’ve lived in and the street signs where they are located. We drove around Topeka to the two apartment and two houses where Max and I lived those first ten years in Kansas. What memories were stirred up.

After a fast food lunch (Rick wanted to stop at a nice restaurant in Topeka…I didn’t know of any!), we headed out on I-70. The Flint Hills were just as I remembered, very beautiful. The remains of the spring burning was still evident in some places.

The first thing that really was remarkable was a wind farm that went on forever. I find the windmills beautiful for some reason. It may be that they remind me of Europe.  The windmills were followed by miles of oil wells. What a contrast of technologies. The windmills have my vote, if anything for aesthetic reasons, let alone care for our environment.

Our trip to Colby was made more interesting and enlightening by our listening to three podcasts of the TED Radio Hour. If you aren’t listening to these, you are missing out on some really cool stuff.