Thread by @fawfulfan

Moving day!

My cross country road trip begins.

Pulled over at a rest stop in Junction, TX for gas and a quick break. Deciding where we're going to go next on the way to Albuquerque.

That little guy next to me, by the way, is Fawful. You know, the guy I'm a fan of. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawful

He was an early Valentine's Day gift from my wife. And my road trip buddy all the way to Reno.

I packed just about everything I need to set up in Reno, but I realized after I hit the road that I didn't bring any of my hats.

Still in Texas, fortunately. Never too hard to find one. Found a store as I was passing through Big Spring.

Getting very close to the state line now...you really appreciate how huge Texas is when driving out of it.

Wait...you can do that?

Hello New Mexico!

Stopping over in Roswell, where I spotted a different sort of "little green men" than my travel companion.

Ten hours of driving later, and I'm crashing at a Quality Inn in Albuquerque.

Many of my followers suggested I go for dinner at Blake's Lotaburger, and there appears to be one just a few blocks away, so funny how things work out.

So tomorrow is going to be just as intense.

My plan is to drive to Salt Lake City, and pass by the Four Corners in my way.

I'm up and ready for day two!

Aggggh, goddamn it, as a Central Texan I am not used to having my windshield frost over.

So yesterday I kept listening to "Life is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts. This morning it's "48 to Go" by The Fray.

This is my first road trip getting to set the music, and I'm enjoying it.

Right now, we're traveling along roughly the old path of Route 66, the famous cross-country highway from Chicago to L.A. that Americans used to go west before the interstates were created. An icon of travel culture from the mid-20th century. You can see bits of it preserved.

Speaking of highways, a multi-state trip like this really shows you how differently (and inefficiently) Texans like to build them.

In Texas, every highway bigger than 4 lanes ALWAYS gets a service road, with U-turns built into every intersection. This is rare in other states.

Texans assume this arrangement makes traffic flow better, but it really doesn't.

First, it means the highway itself has less lanes due to space constraints. Second, property gets built along the service road, meaning people constantly pull on and off it, causing worse traffic.

In other states, all the lanes that would be a service road in Texas are made part of the highway instead, and ramps just go straight to the cross streets.

Capacity is about the same, but access control is better, and the footprint of the highway is smaller.

Just passed by Shiprock.

Hello, Arizona!

Just arrived at the Four Corners monument.

Important to remember I'm not just standing in four U.S. states at once, I'm also standing in the Navajo Nation, whose hospitality and kindness I salute.

Aaaaand I just stepped in a gigantic quagmire and my shoes are now covered in mud. Because I'm an idiot.

This very lovely couple from Dallas saw my predicament as they were pulling up to the monument. The husband took my shoes, banged them together, and gave me a grocery bag to store them in until I could get to a place to wash them.

So I'll just drive barefoot for a ways.

After rinsing them in a gas station sink just a couple kilometers from the border, my shoes are finally clean enough for me to be comfortable again.

Oh, since I haven't mentioned this yet, I always set my GPS to use metric units, because it's a far superior system.

By now I've gotten used to A) visualizing meters and kilometers in my head, and B) converting between the two when I see road signs in miles.

Hello to everyone of the great state of Colorado!

Except @CoryGardner. That guy can go soak his head.

It's really pretty here and so high up...elevation is nearly 7,000 feet!

Utah!!!

Finally made it to the Hyatt House in Sandy. The highway south of Provo might be the most beautiful route I've ever driven. But I'm completely spent.

This hotel is also really nice for the money. I love the way that the rooms literally do look like a small "house" that you're only just coming home to.

Only downside: no ice bucket in sight.

Anyway...tomorrow is the last leg of my adventure. The drive to Reno will be shorter than either of the previous two days, so hopefully won't be as tiring. Only catch is, I gotta set up my new apartment at the end of it.

Gonna grab a quick breakfast and begin the drive to Reno.

My one regret is that I don't think I have enough time to find a SLC gift shop and get a regional shot glass (I collect them and already have acquired a couple on this trip).

Are you freaking kidding me, Utah!?

Pulled over at a gas station in Delle City and met this little guy. He's extremely friendly and is already making me miss my furry little ones.

And I have officially arrived in Nevada!

Refueling in Battle Mountain. This should be my last stop before my new home.

In Reno now.

Time to get my apartment set up.

Texas key ring <-> Nevada key ring

And I've moved in.

Thus begins a new adventure!

I can't say what happens next.

All I can say is, it's a new chapter in my life and I'm going to seize it head on.

I may have settled into my apartment, but that doesn't mean my road trip is quite over.

There's a @ShakeysUSA two hours away in Chico, CA, and that happens to be just about how far I'm willing to drive for that stuff. So after a day of exploring Reno, I'm hitting the road again.

Well an amazing thing happened.

When I was at Shakey's, an Oroville man named Allyn Johnston walked up to me and said he knew me from Twitter, and took me on a personal tour of the town, including the famous dam that almost failed 3 years ago. I got stunning pics from the top.