Journey 'Cross America

We finally made it! Theo and I left Chevy Chase, MD on Jan 3 and, after stops in Nashville, Baton Rouge, Austin, and Tucson, after friends and family, after Cajun, BBQ, Tex-Mex and New-Mex, and about 3,400 miles on the road, we made it into Santa Monica, CA yesterday, Jan. 5. With Theo’s help, unpacking the car and moving in took almost no time at all. Then it was right off to my first meeting with my yoga mentor, Annie Carpenter, where I finally got to meet the rest of my apprentice group. Everyone seems great and it was a treat to find out that I have quite enough teaching experience to get by. Our group ranges from early 20’s to late 50’s with people who have just finished their first teacher training and don’t have much teaching experience to folks who have taught for 1-3 years. After my 12 months of teaching in DC, my wonderful experiences with all my students, and all the great questions they asked while I taught, I’m ready to get back into school, find new teaching jobs and finally find the answers to all those questions. Once I got back, we were treated to dinner – homemade burgers, fries and a great salad – by my landlord, Kathleen, the aunt of my friend Jen in DC. We had dinner with Kathleen, her daughter Cheyenne, Kathleen’s college friend Carolyn and their other renter, Annalise, who happens to be from Tacoma, WA where I went to college. Then it was off to bed by 10pm b/c were exhausted! Up at 6 this morning for me after a full 8 hours.

So, that was last night once we arrived, “What about the actual journey?” you’re wondering. Well… it was great fun and happily uneventful outside of seeing my friend Nikki in Nashville and my family along the way. No flat tires, no food poisoning from roadside meals, no accidents (and only one near one), no roadkill casualties larger than insects and NO TICKETS! Instead, we had interesting conversation, funny conversation and dreamy conversation, silly car games, music and made-up songs, books on ipod, the entire 2nd book of Harry Potter and ¼ of the third, and 4 chapters of Hemingway’s “As the Bell Tolls” read aloud. We liked the Hemingway so much we’re going to keep reading it aloud until Theo flies back to DC on Sunday. Then I’ll have to get my own copy and just read to myself. As for the remaining ¾ of Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Theo will have to download that bad boy and listen to it on the plane.

Driving from MD to TN was misty and partially stormy. We saw buffalo, cows, and horses. We made it into Nashville around 10 or 11 pm and stayed up to chat with Nikki before we all crashed. She had just arrived from Rhode Island via DC (driving as well) a few hours before us, so we were all pretty tired. We grabbed breakfast at Panera Bread after having yerba mate at Nikki’s and were back on the road.

TN to Baton Rouge was also misty here and there. Unfortunately, by the time we got close to Baton Rouge, it was already nightfall, so we didn’t get to see the landscape and flora until we left in the morning. Baton Rouge was definitely one of the highlights of this trip for me. I’d never been down there and it’s a city with a long history in my family. My maternal grandmother, Jewel (nee Claitor) Ogorzaly, who I’m obviously named after, grew up in Baton Rouge, went to LSU and moved to New Orleans after graduation with her 3 best friends, Bennett, Chi Chi and Wink. You can imagine the family stories! Her mother, Mabel, and father, Otto, (my great-grandparents) started Claitor’s bookstore in Baton Rouge. The bookstore has grown from a general local bookstore into a publishing company and out-of-print collection specializing in hard to find law books. After dinner with my 2nd cousin Dan, his wife Sharmaine, their 2 kids, Sam and James, and DiBelle, a family friend, we hit the hay, bellies full of Sharmaine’s homemade turkey gumbo. In the morning we chatted with Sharmaine and Dan before he left for work. Then Sharmaine snapped a couple photos of me in the bayou in my great-granddad’s old rowboat (family tradition) and then headed over to the bookstore! We got to see my great-uncles Bob (Dan’s dad) and Jim as well as Dan’s brothers (more of my 2nd cousins) Rob and John. Dan’s other brother, Jim, was already back in Iowa after New Year’s in Louisiana. We had poboy’s at the restaurant next door to the bookstore and then got back on the highway after learning one thing to never forget – gumbo ain’t gumbo unless it’s got roux. If you’ve never heard of roux, look it up in Joy of Cooking or, if you’re lucky enough to have it, a copy of River Road Recipes.

Driving out of Baton Rouge it was pretty misty. Theo, after 2 previous foiled attempts to see the Mississippi River, is just going to have to come back for Jazz Fest because Ol’ Miss was covered by fog. We loved seeing the Spanish Moss hanging from all the trees and the highways crossing over the swamps. Though we kept our eyes peeled for gators, we didn’t see any this trip. We had some sprinkles of rain as we headed to Austin, saw longhorns once we got into TX, got lost (of course) in the Austin hills, and finally made it to my Uncle Bob’s and Aunt Molly’s house. We got a tour of the house as it’s different every time – Bob’s an architect and Molly’s a botanist/writer/artist so it’s always fun to see what’s new and different at their place. Bob arrived with Tex-Mex from Chewy’s and my cousin William who had just come back to town after snowboarding in Colorado. The UT game was on so we chatted and watched the game and finally saw the UT Tower turn red from the living room window once they won and the game was over. Then it was off to bed and, in the morning, after oatmeal and chicory coffee (wait, didn’t we leave Louisiana?), we got back on the road. We stopped for BBQ at Cranky Franky’s in Fredericksburg, TX and still a zillion light years to drive before… finally… making it to the other side of the state. Boy, how we cheered when we finally hit New Mexico.

New Mexico remains one of my favorite states to drive through. Maybe it’s a desert thing and that connects me to my childhood, but the huge skies and the way the light turns violet against the falling night and the sand and the rocks in the distance… You can’t beat it. It is just so achingly beautiful to watch the texture of the light change, the colors alter and deepen, the start come out. I texted my friend Kat, from college, about where to get good New Mexican food in her hometown of Las Cruces. She texted back from NY, NY and said to head to Si Senor so we did. We had waaaaaaaay too much good food and lots of good green chili queso and green chili salsa and then got back on the road. We’d decided to drive as far as we could so that we could miss rush hour in CA and get there with plenty of daylight to use as we unpacked the car. I took a nap after dinner, we switched driving shifts after getting into Arizona and made it all the way to Tuscon. Then we realized it was only another 2 hours to Pheonix so we just kept going. We finally stopped after driving and found a Comfort Inn off of I-10. In the morning, we got right back on the road for our remaining 6 hours of roadtrip.

The I-40, which I took driving out the first time, and the I-10, which Theo and I took this time, become one highway in CA heading into Los Angeles. It was fun to me that Theo got to see exactly what I saw heading into LA my very first trip. What was new about this time is that there was actually snow in the mountains! It was full sun, breezy and warm where we were and up above, right at the tops of the hills was snow. We pulled over for lunch at the Wheel Inn which sounds ridiculous but has fantastic sandwiches. If you’re headed into LA on the 10, you’re feeling a little hungry and you see the brontosaurs coming up on your right, take that exit and head to the dino. The Wheel Inn is only about 100 ft from his back leg. As we approached, it was a smoggy day in LA town. The air looked hazy and there was a thick brown smudge along the horizon. Theo caught one last catnap while I maneuvered the LA highways and we finally made it to my new place in Santa Monica at 2:30 in the afternoon!

Carolyn, Kathleen’s friend who’s visiting form NY, gave us a tour of the house and then we started moving things in. I have one bedroom in a two bedroom fix it upper. Carolyn’s in the other room, Kathleen and Cheyenne live in the house behind the one I’m in and Annalise lives in the casita which is Los Angeles slang for “converted garage”. Theo took a walk around the neighborhood while I did the little unpacking and we’re headed off to explore now! He’s going to show me what he found and then we’re going to see if we can find a beginning and intermediate yoga class at the same studio around the same time. I have unlimited free yoga for the next 6 months so the next time you see me, I’ll be even more yoga buff. Then we’re thinking about going to the Getty Museum or taking a hike up in Malibu. More soon!