Road Trip

After staying for few days in Charles Town, West Virginia, my wife, the dogs and I got ready to move to our new destination - California.
We bought a road map and planned our road trip all the way from West Virginia to California and of course used google maps to help with the plans. We planned the trip for 4 days of driving with about 14-15 hours drive a day.

The plan
Day 1: Charles Town, West Virginia to St.Louis Missouri.
Day 2: St.Louis Missouri to Denver, Colorado.
Day 3: Denver Colorado to Elko, Nevada.
Day 4: Elko, Nevada to Foster City, California.

In the end it actually took us 4 and a half days to complete the journey.

We stopped every few hours of driving for either to get coffee from Starbucks or just at the rest areas on the freeway.
It's amazing how organized the rest areas are, with bathroom, vending machines and dog walk section. Some of them even have WiFi.

Day 1
We had a little drive to Maryland to get some of Jenn's pottery and then drive through the Appalachian mountains, we managed to get to Ferdinand, Indiana, about 2 and a half hours from our original destination.
Distance: 691 Miles (1112 Km)
States: Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and Indiana.

Day 2
We drove from Ferdinand, Indiana to Abilene, Kansas.
Distance: 596 Miles (959 Km)
States: Indiana, Illinois, Missouri and Kansas

Day 3
We drove from Abilene, Kansas to Rifle, Colorado.
Distance: 638 Miles (1026 Km)
States: Kansas and Colorado

Day 4
We drove from Rifle, Colorado to Winnemucca, Nevada.
Distance: 693 Miles (1115 Km)
States: Colorado, Utah and Nevada

Day 5
We drove from Winnemucca, Nevada to Foster City, California.
Distance: 404 Miles (650 Km)
States: Nevada and California.

First day - first impression

In short, my first impression of the states is BIG.
Everything here comes in big portions. Big stores, big parking lots, big cars, big meals and lots of big people.

We went to eat something and I wasn't very hungry, so I ordered half size nachos from the appetizers menu, you would think it would be a small plate with maybe dozen of nachos right? wrong! It was a meal for two, I kid you not!

The flights

The first flight, from Tel Aviv to London departure around 8am (Israel time) and landed around 11am(UK time), it was pretty easy and watching movies on board made it fast.

We had to circle London for 15 minutes till we got a free runway and another 20 minutes on the runway because the jet bridge was occupied by another delayed airplane - boohoo for the wait.

The security part in Heathrow airport sucked a bit, I had a big backpack with lots of stuff in it and needed to opened it up and get everything out for inspection - boohoo again.

Then I had 30 minutes before I knew which gate to go to, so I sat down in the nearest pub and asked for a pint Guinness and there was none, WTH? no Guinness in London?!? So I got Stella instead :-)

I went to the gate and boarded the next flight to Washington DC. This was a longer flight and had a couple with their baby next to me, the baby cried for ages and it was extremely annoying, for me and all the other passengers around. Good thing that I had my phone and earphones, So I had some music to block the noise.
In fact, there were lots of kids on this flights, I suppose it's because it's summer break.
The toilets on the plane looked like toilets in a busy club - pee everywhere - boohoo-yuck.

The landing was OK, we went down from the plane and then boarded this strange vehicle, it was bigger then a bus, sort of a 4 wheelers bus-truck which took us to the terminal.

The security and passport control was easy and everyone were nice. Took my suitcases and went out to meed my wife, which I haven't seen for a month; The rejoining was incredible :-)

We went and got our nice rental car and drove to her parent place in West Virginia.

Prologue

I have opened this blog to document my move to work and live in the united states. This will be a way for me to describe what I'm going through as a foreign and the process of adapting to a new place and culture.

My wife, Jenn is American, we lived in Israel for the last 3 years and I have seen Israel through foreign eyes; now it's my turn.

I hope to make my writing light and funny and hope to make you giggle from time to time.

See you in the next post.