Aaaaand I made it! One hell of a drive, but I love traveling so it's all good. Left San Diego on the 30th and made it out here to Fairfax, VA, on the east coast on the 9th (thank God they let me move in early).

First, some photographs:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27713140@N07/sets/72157606694848604/
Follow the link to see snapshots of the adventure (don't worry, I spared you most of the scenery I shot).

So here's how it went down:
DAYS 1-3
Left San Diego on Wed, July 30th (and of course forgot to make a final stop at the comic store on the way out of town, big mistake) and headed up to L.A. Stopped to see my buds Lia, Jessica and Steven, and even managed to make one last delivery for Look Effects to Universal Studios (so next time you watch an episode of "Life", you've got me to thank!).
(BTW, thanks for the loan of your camera Jess, I'll mail it back to you as soon as you get around to sending me your addy )
Next morning it was off to Flagstaff. Stopped at the Grand Canyon to catch an awesome sunset before heading off to a cheap motel. And after some sleep I dropped by my no.1 vegan Madelyn before continuing on to Colorado Springs. I did make a short stop at Four Corners Monument (sorry for the snapshot, lol) where weirdly enough I saw John Locke from "Lost" -- guess he got tired of the tropics. And no, I didn't grab a photo  -- the man was probably on vacation.

DAYS 4-6
After staying in a terribly overpriced roach motel for the night, I made a stop at the Air Force Academy. This was an interesting experience as I hadn't been there in 16 years, since I actually attended as a cadet. Smells, sounds, seeing my old dorm, watching the 4th years (freshmen) march to lunch, even the low oxygen level... Strange experiencing it again after so long.
Done with the reminiscing, I made a quick stop at the Garden of the Gods and then headed off. After a looong day on the road I made it to York, Nebraska, where I own some corn fields. Spent the night at what had to be the cleanest and most comfortable cheap-motel I've ever stayed at, then spent the majority of the day checking out my property, soy bean crops, corn (sorry folks, couldn't find a place that sold corncob pipes as souveniers), and other exciting things you find on a farm. Continued on from York to Lincoln to visit my grandmother's resting site and then made like a lightning bolt south -- I was determined for some reason not to stop in Kansas for any reason whatsoever and somehow pulled it off. Found the first motel in Oklahoma I could stop at and crashed for the night.
Next day it was onward to Dallas! Made it halfway through the day and spent the rest of the night with my no.1 bud James watching episodes of The Office on DVD .

DAYS 7-10
I stayed in DFW for a couple days, hung out with my top friend Angee most of the time. Caught the 3rd Mummy movie (I miss the previous actress in the franchise !) and of course saw The Dark Knight again . Watched some crappy direct-to-DVD flix (I figured Starship Troopers 3 would suck but not THAT much! ... ok, maybe I did, hahaha...), relaxed and let my car take a break, because the next day I was off again!
Took a straight drive north-east, not a lot of sightseeing this half of the trip. Stopped in Knoxville for a night's sleep, and the next day kept pressing forward and made it halfway through Virginia before calling it a night.

DAY 11!
Headed out of the motel, drove a couple of hours through the mountains, and TA-DA! MADE IT! And now here I am in my new and fairly empty apartment -- got something to sleep on, something to put my computer on, something for my houseplants to stand on (since I wasn't going to leave Charlie or Sticker on the ground at the mercy of squirrels; FYI, plants are not the most talkative travel companions), and thus ended my great roadtrip!

So now I'm here, started my new job yesterday and everything. Let's hope the drive out here was worth it -- I'm giving this Customer Support gig a few months trial. We'll see if Virginia sells me by the end of the year, if not I can just pack everything up and head back to sunny San Diego. Wish me luck!

Your result for The Steampunk Style Test...

The Explorer

39% Elegant, 41% Technological, 20% Historical, 60% Adventurous and 34% Playful!

Take The Steampunk Style Test at HelloQuizzy

So how does it happen, great love? Nobody knows... but what I can tell you is that it happens in the blink of an eye. One moment you're enjoying your life, and the next you're wondering how you ever lived without them.

 http://formula119.com/worktemp/whenwedance.wma

Basic Principles - no woman wakes up saying "God, I hope I don't get swept off my feet today!" Now, she might say "This is a really bad time for me," or something like "I just need some space," or my personal favorite "I'm really into my career right now." You believe that? Neither does she. You know why? 'Cause she's lying to you, that's why. You understand me? Lying! It's not a bad time for her. She doesn't need any space. And she may be into her career, but what she's really saying is "Uh, get away from me now," or possibly "Try harder, stupid," but which one is it? 60% of all human communication is nonverbal, body language; 30% is your tone, so that means 90% of what you're saying ain't coming out of your mouth. Of course she's going to lie to you! She's a nice person! She doesn't want to hurt your feelings! What else she going to say? She doesn't even know you... yet. Luckily, the fact is that just like the rest of us, even a beautiful woman doesn't know what she wants until she sees it. Basic Principles - no matter what, no matter when, no matter who... any man has a chance to sweep any woman off her feet; he just needs the right broom.

Surreal experience: dreaming so heavily last night that I didn't recognize my own apartment when I woke up in the morning. Man, was that a confusing few minutes while I switched from dream-memory back to real-life .
It was some darn-good sleep though, lemme tells ya.

Rant, hooooooooo!

So someone set off a small pipebomb in front of city hall here in San Diego Saturday night at 1:30am and broke some glass on a door. First thing that pops out of the mouth of the local news is "possible terrorism". Riiiiiiiiight. A mighty blow was struck by Al Quaeda by breaking some glass in the middle of the night when no one was anywhere near the building. Anyone with a modicrum of common sense can guess it was probably some kids playing a dumb prank, but of course the news has to go and sound all dramatic by pretending a jihad has been declared on our fair city.
Seriously, what the hell is with people being so blindly reactionary? Especially people in a position of supposed responsibility, like media (jokes aside, they should have responsibility and personal accountability). Has the public IQ dropped a hundred points over the last few decades? Do people just desperately need to feel like they're in an action movie because their lives are otherwise bleak, dull and meaningless?
This is really just one example of the whole thing. The latest Rev. Wright nonsense we've been seeing lately is another -- the man is nothing more than just another biggot spreading hate and racism, yet the news (and sadly many paritioners) takes him seriously enough to give his words air time. The public need for scandal and drama gives him fuel and screws up our capacity to move forward once again.
And these are just a couple of examples. You can watch any episode of the Daily Show, laugh when they point out general ignorance and stupidity, and deep inside feel sick because no matter how much you are entertained you know what a mess things really are.

I think lately I've been getting more and more annoyed with the general regression towards ignorance -- I sometimes wonder if we're not returning to the Dark Ages, back to the era of religious superstition and a fear of the unknown, of placation to those who are in power because it's less responsibility for ourselves. Are human beings really scared of becoming enlightened, better creatures? We certainly have the capacity for becoming great, but the tiniest of things can hurt our feelings, make us afraid, whatever, and suddenly we have an excuse to go diving for our holes and hide out till we think our shadow isn't out there waiting to scare us for another six weeks.
Then again, maybe I'm giving people too much credit. Maybe focusing on irrelevant matters and minutia is all the general public really wants (or at least all they can mentally handle). Maybe people actually give a damn if Obama wears a flag pin -- brings to mind post 9/11, when people had the gall to point fingers and call people without flags on their SUVs unpatriotic. Somehow these accusatory fools got their words heard, somehow they were taken seriously, and somehow the endless cycle of their ignorance never seems to end. And it's not because no one is willing to step up and say "Grow up, people!" It's simply because the majority of people out there just don't care.