Amarillo, TX to Flagstaff, AZ

So, Friday we went from Amarillo, TX to Flagstaff, AZ ... taking us right through the state of New Mexico.

Nothing too exciting happened as we were leaving Texas, but as we entered NM we changed time zones again ... to "Mountain Time" ... and we stopped at a rest stop ... coffee goes through you quickly!

This rest stop had ...











HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!




So then we kept driving all morning ... and decided to pick Albuquerque, NM as a place to stop for lunch. Mom had said the day before that she had a taste for pizza, so we figured we'd find a local pizza shop in Albuquerque with a little help from our friend Jack Garmin. Well, I put in Pizza into the search screen, and just picked one that "sounded" good ... that didn't have a nationwide chain name associated with it. Needless to say, it took us into a section of town that we all decided we really shouldn't be in ... and just kept driving. After driving and deciding, we stopped at a hotel and Mom went in and asked. We ended up at a pizza shop across the street from one of the boundaries of the University of New Mexico ... so it was a college-esk pizza shop. Nevertheless, we went in, ordered pizza, and it was delicious!

About 2 blocks away from this pizza shop was a Dunkin' Donuts ... so we had to stop for iced coffee immediately following lunch ... just because!


We left Albuquerque, and headed into AZ .... and in doing so ... we crossed the Continental Divide.


After pictures, we kept driving and ended in Flagstaff for the night. Here are a few pictures of the desert and the mountains ... with more to come tomorrow ...













Tomorrow's adventures: Flagstaff, AZ --> Sedona, AZ --> Lake Havasu City, AZ!

Tulsa, OK to Amarillo, TX

Day #3 of our trip took us from Tulsa, OK across the Panhandle of Texas, into Amarillo. Overall, we didn't cover a "huge" amount of land, but we did take a stop in Oklahoma City, OK to spend some time at the Oklahoma City Bombing Memorial. Although I wouldn't say that was fun, it was definitely something I'm glad we took some time out of our schedule to do.

Some thoughts on that: We were there on Thanksgiving, which I think made the overall feeling of being there and counting my own blessings all that much more intense. When I think of all I am thankful for, and then I find myself at a memorial for a terrible happening on our own soil, I find myself speechless. There were also a decent amount of people there that were no doubt visiting the memorial because they lost family members that day, and it was a holiday.

Needless to say, the sights at the memorial were very impressive.


The picture to the left is the fence
surrounding the memorial. The
picture to the right shows a wall
of tiles that children from across
the nation made and sent in
appreciation to all of the workers and rescue personnel.




The picture to the left shows "chairs"in the field, one for each person that lost his/her life that day. The picture to the right shows the one (oak if I remember correctly) tree that survived that day and is still living and well.




So, after the sobering experience of touring the memorial, we continued on our trip, through to Texas.




We stopped at a rest stop in Texas, and I took two pictures worth sharing. A picture says a million words!!







We ended the night in Amarillo, TX. Keep in mind, this is Thanksgiving Day. We treated ourselves to a Thanksgiving Night Dinner at a Genuine Texas Steakhouse! Fun point: the hotel we were staying in had a connection with this Steak House (as did several hotels in the area) ...

** side note, the song from Elf, where she is singing in the shower, and he joins her and freaks her out is playing in Starbucks right now, and it makes me smile (i like smiling, smiling's my favorite!) because I LOVE this movie!! **

... where there was an old Limo that would pick you up at the hotel and take you to/from the Steakhouse. Needless to say, we took it just for kicks! The steaks were delicious! There was a guy there trying to eat a 72 oz (that's 4.5 pounds) steak in 1 hour. He didn't finish it. BUT, if he had, he would have gotten it for free. Since he didn't finish it, it cost him $72 (a dollar a pound) ... but if a table were to order this same steak, it would cost $250!!!

So, since we were in Texas, and in a steakhouse, and it was Thanksgiving, Mom and I decided to try these small, hot, green peppers! Needless to say, neither of us ate the whole thing. Mom actually ate more of hers than I did mine!



Tomorrow's adventures: Amarillo, TX --> Flagstaff, AZ!

Effingham, IL to Tulsa, OK

Wednesday morning we woke up in Effingham, IL and started driving. It didn't take us too long to hit St. Louis, MO. One of my goals of this trip was to do some sight-seeing along the way. St. Louis was PERFECT for two reasons:

1. THE GATEWAY TO THE WEST ARCH!

This was absolutely beautiful and gave us a reason to walk around for almost 2 hours, which was a welcomed activity after sitting in the car all of the day before.

There was a whole "tourist-y" set up which was below ground UNDER the arch!




2. I got to touch the MISSISSIPPI RIVER! In addition to my quest to be in all 50 states by the time I'm 30, I also want to touch as many large bodies of water as possible. So far ... Atlantic Ocean, Pacific Ocean, Golf of Mexico, Mississippi River, Lake Erie, and Lake Ontario.

3. Not that it's one of the perfect reasons, but we now have hit 3 cities of NFL teams ... the St. Louis Rams.

After spending some time in St. Louis, we continued our drive across Missouri (which seemed to take FOREVER) ... and since MO and OK pretty much join corner to corner, we decided to take a short detour into Kansas to hit that state! There's a border town called Pittsburg (no "h") ... and we had dinner there.

After dinner in Kansas, we headed south and a bit more west until we hit Tulsa, OK. In that short trip, my jeep hit 1000 miles into the trip ... so I took a picture!

Tomorrow's adventures: Tulsa, OK --> Amarillo, TX.

Erie, PA to Effingham, IL

So, Tuesday, November 25th, at 9:00 am my parents and I left Erie and headed WEST. We covered 550 miles, 4 states, and 1 time zone change. That first day we didn't do a whole lot of anything other than driving, driving, and more driving.

When we left, it was snowing outside. It was cold. The roads were decently bad (if that makes sense). The weather stayed pretty much that way until we hit the Columbus area.

We got into Effingham and it really wasn't much warmer. And heading west made the last leg of the drive every day hard as the sun was setting. I think I'd rather be driving East and having to face the sun head on in the morning when I wasn't as tired.

Tracking NFL teams: Cleveland Browns (yuck!) ... Indianapolis Colts (go Peyton!)



We also passed through Indianapolis. Here's a picture of their sky line.


Tomorrow's update: Effingham, IL --> Tulsa, OK.

I miss everyone!

Driving through SPAGHETTI!!

HOLY MOLY!!!

If you are bored, mapquest Lake Havasu City, AZ and look at a map of the town - and then you'll understand the title of today's post!

The past week of my life has been spent in the car driving across our beautiful nation (From Erie, PA to Lake Havasu City, AZ) ... I'm going to take the next few days and post pictures .... ENJOY!

I'm starting with the end ... Here are some pictures of my HOUSE that I'm living in for the next 3 weeks!!


This is obviously the front of my house ... notice the lack of lawn meaning that lawn mowers are not so much needed out here! My front door is in that area that is set back, but you enter the left side.







Here is a picture of my living room. The window that you can see on the right side is the same window thats set back in the front shot.




AND YES, THIS IS MY BIG SCREEN TV ... notice my reflection in the screen!!!







My kitchen with a breakfast "nook" ... I don't know if that's really what it's called ... but its fun, nonetheless!




And here is my kitchen table! Fun fact ... notice the China Closet on the left ... its the same China set that my parents have!!! CRAZY!!





GUEST BEDROOMS!

One has a queen sized bed.

One has two twin beds.

Too bad I'm only here for 3 weeks!



My bedroom ... queen sized bed ... and yes, that's my teddy bear on the one pillow!!!

The wall with the window in it also has a door outside to a patio which runs the length of the house!





This is my bathroom. It has 2 sinks, a jacuzzi, a large shower,
and a toilet in its own room. This picture was taken standing inside
HUGE walk-in closet!!





In an attempt to spare you all, I'll stop with this last picture ... of a wall hanging in my room that I love! This house is so beautifully decorated! Like I already said, too bad I'm only here 3 weeks!

Playing Catch-Up

Good Morning to everyone! I know some will not read this until afternoon, but seeing as how it's before 6:00 AM when I'm writing this, good morning seems to fit perfectly!

So, almost 4 weeks ago now (it doesn't seem that long at all to me) I posted feeling OVERWHELMED. I can truly say that I am no longer feeling as overwhelmed as I first felt. Do I feel completely comfortable and as though things are status quo? NO ... I think I'm going to be learning and adapting for a few years, as long as I keep myself moving around this wonderful country that we live in. I do feel as though I've grown as both a person and as a professional within the last month. I know that I've been able to handle situations that I never thought possible, and gotten results with people (both patients and co-worker on all levels) that surprise even me.

I've been logging extra hours at work, but my uncle kindly and jokingly put it to me this way: You only worked 10 hours today? That's not even a half a day's worth of work! To which I promptly replied with: I guess I didn't even deserve my lunch break that I took then! Nothing like a little humor to make a long day seem more than bearable.

Updates on different areas of my life:
Jennifer Alexis: She is now just shy of 6 mo old. (She was 25 weeks old this past Tuesday - which by an account of a month really being 4 weeks that'd make her 6 mo and a week ... but that would also make a 52 week year into 13 months ... She'll be 6 mo on Sept 25th. We'll leave it at that.) Either way, she's getting really big, and she's playing more and more. She's laughing and is able to concentrate for SHORT bursts of time on something. She tends to get really bored easily and LOVES any type of movement. They have one of those jumper swings that attach over a doorway and its set up between their foyer and living room ... SHE LOVES IT! She will jump and jump and jump. However, the PT in me noticed that she was only hitting with one leg, so I used a stuffed animal as a prop to force her to use both feet ... equal wt distribution!! She's very obviously R hand dominant.

Friends: Recently I took a road trip with Tera and Treye to Philly, PA for a little "creative get-together" with some old and new friends. I urge you to visit highlowaha.com and give yourself about a week to get into the swing of things ... It's a blog site updated daily with creative ideas constantly flowing! On another note, I'm realizing how much I miss my "Buffalo Family" that I left behind. I realize some key people have also left Buffalo, but there are still enough friends there that I want to go visit SOON ... I'm just up against school responsibilities.

Next Place: I haven't decided exactly where I want to go next, or if where I want to go will actually be where I end up, but I'm hoping somewhere in Southern CA ... and that would be for the winter months of Dec - Feb. I will update here as I know more.

My alarm is going off (big surprise there - I was up before it) ... so I have to go and get myself ready for work!

If you happen to want to send me a piece of snail mail ...
Julie Schnepp
24 Orchard Pl
Apt #205
Bradford, PA 16701

Have a wonderful day!!
Julie

OVERWHELMING

So, today was the first day of my first job as a traveling Physical Therapist.

OVERWHELMED might just be the best word to describe how I feel. I know that within a few days I will be comfortable there, and confident with what needs to be done, but until that comes, overwhelmed is the perfect word. The rehab team that I'm working with all seem very nice, approachable, and seem as though they have a good sense of sarcastic humor - which fits me perfectly!

In so many ways, this new facility mirrors where I was at this past summer. I LOVED working in Niagara Falls ... I didn't even mind the 23 mile, one way, trip each day. The ladies I worked with were beyond fabulous and I've missed being there every day since I walked out the door the last day (with too many tears in my eyes). But, in all the ways this new facility mirrors Niagara Falls, I can also list that many ways in which it is different from Niagara Falls. I just have to keep reminding myself that day 1 at Niagara Falls was not as fabulous as day 105.

I'm staying in an extended stay suite just south of the town of Bradford for a few nights. I arrived into town yesterday afternoon. I'm staying here until Core gets my housing finalized, which I am hoping is tomorrow. Until then, I'm driving my Jeep around and it's stuffed full of my life. I just want to start moving into a place, so that I'm not driving around and parking for long periods of time with my whole life in my Jeep.

I took myself out on a walk/run today after work to try and work out some nervous energy, which worked. Also, I bought myself a bottle of delicious Concord wine, which I'm enjoying now, and I have some ice cream in the freezer which I'm planning on having when I'm done with this blog entry.

I spent last week at home with my family. It gave me a chance to re-discover my family with the addition of my niece. I hadn't really had a chance to see my brother-in-law in a "Father" role, since he works out of town on the weekends. With that being said, I also hadn't had much of a chance to see my sister and him interact as husband and wife, or see how they are meshing as a newly married couple in my parents' house. Needless to say, the entire experience was eye-opening. I love my family :) And my 5 mo old niece is growing and developing and discovering new things every day!! It was certainly a honor being able to spend time with her for a whole week!

Ok, ice cream time :)
Then, bed time :)

ENJOY YOUR DAY!
Julie