Aside from the wedding, life is a bit crazy. We almost completely disconnected from the real world on our honeymoon, and it’s been tough to recharge. It’s only Tuesday, but it feels like it’s been two weeks. The minute we stepped back into real life, we ran face-first into a bunch of crap we had left behind, and it feels overwhelming. And work… I’m tired just thinking about it.

But I want to hold onto the bliss of the last couple weeks, so oooohhhmmmmmm. Bliss. Happiness. Relaxation. Breathe…you’re not in the middle of chaos right now. Things are calm and easy and not stressful.

The wedding and reception and honeymoon really were so cool. I want to go back there!

The one thing I don’t like about my new gadget, though, is that the screen doesn’t display a compass rose or north arrow or anything to tell me which direction I’m traveling. It always gets me where I’m going, but sometimes I would like or need to know which direction I need to go, and there the GPS fails me.

See, I have this problem. I can never figure out east and west. I know which is which – I can look at a map, see which way is north, and I know that east is to the right and west is to the left. But the only way I can do it is if I look at a map or if I picture a map in my head.

So for instance, I’m traveling on a north-south highway, and I know that the store I want to go to is on a certain side of the highway. But I don’t automatically know which way I need to go – east or west. If there are two exits (36A – Blank St. East & 36B – Blank St. West), I go SO confused. I have to picture a map in my head, determine if I’m going north or south, then determine if I need to go to the right of where I am or the left, then determine if that is east or west. It sounds pretty simple, and maybe you run through something similar in your head. But it always takes me so long, that I usually miss the exit or pick the wrong one on a whim.

I often use geographical landmarks to help me figure it out, too. “Detroit is east of Grand Rapids, so I need to go right.” Or “I need to head away from the Rockies” and “I need to go toward the Atlantic” (even though neither the Rockies nor the Atlantic is anywhere near where I am).

East and west just don’t make sense to my brain. I’m 29 and it has never gotten better, so I think this is a mental shortcoming I have to live with.

Which is why having a compass on my GPS would help so much. A visual aid without having to pull one up inside my mind. I used to have one of those floating compasses you can buy at the gas station to stick on your windshield, but I took it down when I got the GPS. Guess I should get a new one.

This year BlogHer is in New York City (August 6-7), and I’d love to go, but 1) I’m paying for a wedding and honeymoon just two months prior, 2) it’s not a mere three-hour drive away, and 3) I can no longer get the student rate. The conference, unfortunately, is out. It’s just not doable.

BUT!!! I’ve gotten word that several of the same people I missed out on meeting last year will be attending this year’s BlogHer. And I want to go. Still can’t afford the conference, but I’m thinking maybe a weekend in NYC is in order. If I find a reasonable flight and some roomies, I think I can swing it. And dude! A weekend in New York with some awesome ladies! I so want that.

Here’s the question. Are you going to BlogHer? If not, are you maybe thinking weekend in New York? You know you are. Seriously, let me know if you’ll be there that weekend, conference or not. Convince me I need to go.

You enter a bunch of information about when you’re traveling, what the weather will likely be, how you’re getting to your destination and what you’ll do when you get there. Then, whiz! bang! it pops out a packing list for you! I haven’t actually used it to pack for a trip yet, so I can’t speak for how well it performs, but I think it’s a brilliant idea.

I ran a test using the information for my upcoming honeymoon, just to see what it would come up with. Not only does it tell me what to pack, but it even suggests what I should do before leaving (like charging batteries and making sure your pets are taken care of). As for the packing list, it includes suggestions for clothes, documents, equipment, toiletries and gadgets. There are quite a few things that are unnecessary—like a sleeping bag even though I told it I’d be staying in a hotel (or actually a cabin, but that wasn’t an option). But it thought to remind me to bring q-tips and fingernail clippers, which, brilliant.

I think I still like my own method of using google docs to organize a pack list, but this is a good place to get inspiration and ideas on what not to forget. I think it’d be really good for people who hate making lists—this website does it all for you! Anybody else ever used this?

(I’m in no way profiting from Univeral Packing List. Just sharing a cool resource.)

I don’t count states that I’ve simply driven through, which is why we made a distinct effort to stop in every state we passed through for a little exploration. I want to feel like I’ve really been to a state before I count it.

Since last we checked, in 2006, I have gone on a couple road trips and a few other-state trips, so my map is really coming along:

(You can create your own personalized map of the USA too!)

As you can see, I have several pockets to fill. The Pacific Northwest (when can I visit Jen and Kerri Anne?), the northeast, and whatever you call that area down there with Louisiana et al.

Plus North Dakota is hanging out at the top  like a big grey cloud. I don’t even know anybody in North Dakota, what am I possibly going to do there? It never worked into one of my several cross-country road trips, and I don’t see myself ever making a special trip there, so how am I ever going to get to North Dakota? I’ll probably have to be buried in North Dakota someday just complete my map.

And then of course there are the outliers. But I have no doubt I’ll someday visit Alaska and Hawaii, so no worries there.

What’s your map like?

Unfortunately in the middle of the night I found myself in the bathroom hanging over the toilet. Sorry Erica, I christened your toilet many times over. So my symptoms: sore throat, headache, congested head, body aches and barfing. Flu right? After that miserable night, I spend the next day doing little more than sitting on the couch. The Giraffe went out to find a Trader Joe’s and stock up on all the treats he misses from his time in California a few years ago.

And because we didn’t actually do anything in San Diego, the only other picture I have to show you is the one of this little guy that was hanging out on the side of the apartment building:

The flight home kind of sucked. It was a direct flight from San Diego to Chicago, which was nice (and cheap!), but when you don’t feel good, flying blows. By the way, you know the Giraffe is quite tall, and so he really needs an exit row in order to even fit on a plane. Well, Southwest doesn’t do assigned seating, it’s basically a free-for-all. And we knew the coveted exit row seats would go fast. So he talked to the boarding agent pre-flight and she took one look at him and understood his plight. She let us be part of the pre-board group—you know, families and people who need special accommodations. Yes my freakishly tall fiance needs special accommodations when flying. So cute. Gotta say, I didn’t mind the extra leg room myself.

Anyway, once we got to Chicago my sister and her fiance picked us up and drove us home. I felt ok for the first hour of the drive, but then I began to feel pukish. It was no fun. No fun at all trying to keep myself from vomiting all over everyone. When we finally pulled into our apartment complex after a few hours in the car, I didn’t even say goodbye. I made a run for the bathroom. And I spent all that night and all Sunday in delirium. It’s all a big blur to me. A blur of sleeping and throwing up and coughing and sleeping and blowing my nose and swallowing medicine and sleeping. I even had to take Monday off to continue recovering. Ugh, don’t ever get the flu. It sucks.

So yeah, the trip was awesome. The car malfunction and the illness parts sucked, but I think what I’ll remember is the stunning national parks and the beautiful countryside and the bonding time with my man. I’m so glad we did this trip.

On Wednesday we drove through Zion (twice) and Bryce. Zion has a shuttle you can take further into the park, but we decided to just drive through and go to Bryce first, thinking we’d probably grab the shuttle when we came back through. So first, Bryce. This was an afterthought on our part. My grandpa found out we were going to be so close and insisted that we make time for it. Very worth it. I could have stared at this place all day if it hadn’t started raining. Luckily we were at one of the last stops we planned to make before it did.

When we left the park, we drove straight back to Zion, a place we were very familiar with by now.

Then we got some bad news. Suddenly the car was making this awful noise, like the muffler was missing, and the Giraffe, who was driving, could feel a vibration from the engine. Shit. I was a spaz, I just could not handle the situation at the time. Luckily the Giraffe remained level-headed and eventually sorted something out. After way too many phone calls, we determined we should not drive it, we found a tow truck, found a place to have it towed and then waited. It was already evening, so there was no way anyone was going to look at the car that day, which meant we definitely weren’t going to make it to our hotel in Vegas. We ended up spending the night in St. George, UT instead.

I was a disaster, but once we had a plan, I managed to relax and realize it could be so much worse. Once we got the car where it needed to be, we settled into our hotel room, ordered pizza, visited the hot tub and called it a night. Thankfully, all that was wrong was a rusted out exhaust pipe, but it was right near the engine so they said it was good we didn’t drive it anymore. They had it fixed by noon on Thursday and we were on our way to Vegas, baby!

I hate to tell you this, but I wasn’t a big fan of Vegas. I’ll go ahead and admit right now that we were in our room by 10pm. I can see the appeal for a lot of people, but I’m not a late night crazy partier, so I didn’t feel like I was missing anything. Even though I don’t like to gamble or drink till all hours of the night, I thought I’d be intrigued by all the energy and lights and excitement in LV. Instead, I was hot and tired and crowded and annoyed.

When we checked into the Monte Carlo, the first thing I did was take a nap. The Giraffe played poker. Then we went to dinner at Cafe Ba Ba Reeba (with our restaurant.com coupon – first restaurant non-fail!) and walked back down the strip. It was cool for sure, but it all eventually looked the same. We stopped for a fountain show at the Bellagio, walked through some of the hotels and shunned about 924 people trying to give us naked lady trading cards. I hate those people so much. I started to feel sick, so when we got near the Monte Carlo, we decided to go in. The plan was to just change clothes and take a break for a minute, but once we got there we realized we weren’t that enthusiastic about going back out. So we didn’t.

Go ahead, make fun, call us lame. I just think next time I visit Vegas I need to have more money so I can play some slots without guilt and see a show. If there is a next time…

By the way, the Giraffe and I basically split the driving the whole week. I’d say overall he did more than me, but we switched every couple hours generally. And we listened to audiobooks almost the whole time which is a brilliant way to a) read a book, b) make driving more interesting, and c) not have to talk to each other when your fiance is driving you mad (and by “your fiance” I mean the Giraffe’s fiance. Poor guy, I can be grouchy.).

Next stop was Amarillo. We had selected a restaurant online, and I swear we checked to make sure it was open Sundays, but when we pulled in we were denied. Closed. Second restaurant fail in two days. We asked the GPS to find us a nearby Mexican restaurant and there was one less than a mile away. I can’t tell you how delicious those damn burritos were. I love you El Tejavan.

Final stop for the day was Santa Fe. We got there late so didn’t do much, unfortunately.

Monday we didn’t linger in Santa Fe because we had a full day ahead, so we took off for Albuquerque where we stopped in Old Town. It was Labor Day, so there were only a few shops open, but it was actually perfect because the parking was free and there were almost no people around. After shopping, we drove to the Petrified Forest where we bought an $80 Annual National Park Pass since we were planning to visit four on this trip alone. The Petrified Forest was pretty cool. I love land that is preserved and undeveloped, so we made a few stops, took a lot of photos, went to the Visitors Center and went on our merry way.

We had dinner in Flagstaff at the Galaxy Diner on old Route 66. Burgers, fries and a chocolate malt? Yes please.

After Flagstaff it was off the to the Grand Canyon where we got in just before the sun went down. But alas, we didn’t get to see it set over the canyon because we were too busy setting up our tent with one small flashlight and the trace amounts of sunlight left. Sleeping that night was rough. We had to sleep diagonally in the small tent because of the Giraffe’s giraffe-ness, we only had one pillow, the ground kept punching knots in our backs, and all night we heard strange noises that the Giraffe thought were elk calls but that turned out to just be cars running over rumble strips on park roads.

When we saw the Grand Canyon the next day though, we decided it was well worth the terrible night. More on that later.

We were gone a week, Saturday to Saturday, and managed to see a lot of new cities, states and attractions. It was pretty awesome. Except I got sick. Big frickin’ surprise because apparently I get sick every time I travel. Remember Ireland? And that wasn’t the first time. When will I learn? Luckily the worst of it was the Sunday after we got home – that day is pretty much a blur in my memory. As the Giraffe put it, “every time you emerged from the bedroom (usually to use the bathroom), it was like you were in another world.” I was. It’s called Delirium.

So the trip. Road Trip 2009.

We left early and drove straight to St. Louis where, of course, we saw the Gateway Arch and took all the same pictures I’m sure everyone takes.

Then we attempted to eat dinner. See, we had this great plan where we found coupons on restaurant.com. We bought coupons for three different restaurants in cities along our trip, $25 off at a meal for only $10 each. PLUS a sweet 80% discount I found. Basically we were gonna get $25 of food for $2 at each place. Yay right? Except we had horrible luck everywhere we went.

In St. Louis we planned to eat at Gladstone’s. St. Louis BBQ, yum. We got there and had no idea what to do. There was a smoke-filled bar, a crowded patio with live music and an empty dining room. We were standing in the dining room, looking confused, when an employee asked what we wanted. Um, to eat please. So she told us to sit, gave us menus, sighed and walked away. We never saw her again. After 20 minutes, we wrote a note on our restaurant.com coupon (“Sorry, had to take off. Thanks!”) and bailed. We ate Subway on the way out of town.

We slept at a Motel 6 in Joplin, MO where there was no free wifi, no art on the walls, no alarm clock, no free toiletries, a full-size “queen” bed, a crappy shower, a hard mattress and what we called a dog blanket on the bed. Lame, Motel 6, lame.

It gets better, I promise.