reeeeally long road trip...

this past weekend, my mom, dad, and i went on a veeeeery long road trip. it wasn't a huge deal or anything, but i FINALLY moved to colorado. and by "FINALLY" i really mean that i've wanted to move to colorado since my dad had a job change when i was in fourth grade. that desire was reignited after 3 summers' visits to stay with cousins in colorado...and it's finally been realized.

in order to get here, many, many hours of driving were necessary. on saturday we drove from nc to virginia (where, at one point, we went ~7 miles in about an hour and a half, thanks to all the buckeyes from ohio), to west virginia, to kentucky, to indiana, then finally to illinois. we really hadn't intended to conquer 6 states in one day, but thanks to some major hotel trouble, we eventually found solace in mount vernon, illinois at a very nice hotel. sunday we hit the road and spent some quality time with missouri and kansas. it was really fun to see the arch in saint louis and we had lunch in old town columbia home to mizzou. then, after kansas city, it was basically a bust. kansas was nice for about the first 17 miles, but then 400 miles later, it got a little old. oh but we did see a wind farm--that was exciting for about 3 minutes. and, legitimately, it was very cool to be chasing the sun on the border of mountain time at sunset, so daylight seemed to last forever. we did, however, have the pleasure to have some awesome mexican food in russell, kansas (hometown to bob dole...exciting, huh?) and a lovely night's stay in colby kansas, about 50 miles from the colorado border. before lunch on sunday we had finally reached colorado, and it was such a surreal feeling. it didn't feel like i had really even gone anywhere at that point, especially because i'd never had my own car in colorado.

charleston, wv is a beautiful city! 

super old fashioned mcdonalds

meet me in saint louis!

kansas.......

more kansas...including a wind farm! though the windmills do look somewhat like crucifixion crosses to me....

chasing sunset

FINALLY!

so now, i'm here...getting settled in to my apartment in fort collins. putting together ikea furniture, finding other pieces of furniture on craigslist, and redoing many of the things i brought from home. thank goodness my parents are staying until sunday, because i've needed them for every bit of time they've been here to help with getting my life here together from scratch. next on the list is redoing much more furniture, some sewing, lots of paperwork, and making friends. preferably not in that order! stay tuned...

but i'll leave you with the view from my apartment patio :)