Friends are Grand.

Sometimes we take for granted the amazing friends that we have. I am probably the most guilty. But I was so gently reminded when I arrived home yesterday to a package sitting on my doorstep--with my name on it. I thought to myself, I can't remember ordering anything....let alone having the money to even think about ordering anything. But when I opened the package it was a lovely book from the one and only, Sheila Kitchen. It was a picture book of all of our adventures driving across the country last summer.

For those of you who don't know, Sheila was my roommate for three years and such a dear, dear friend. She was accepted into a PhD program at OSU in Corvallis and so she packed up all her bags last August and invited me along for the trip. It was so great to spend those bittersweet memories together.

If anyone ever has the opportunity to drive across the country,

please do yourself a favor, and GO!!

We did it in two weeks and did so many fantastic things. We drove the Blue Ridge Parkway, stopped in Knoxville for some delicious pizza, stayed the night with an old friend in Nashville, drove through the beautiful Kentucky countryside stopping at the Maker's Mark factory for some whiskey, drove through the plains of Indiana and watched some CRAZY thunderstorms on the way to Chicago. Stayed two nights in Chicago with a new friend and excellent tour guide, stayed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota and moved quickly along to Rapid City checking out Mount Rushmore and the Badlands (soooo cool!). Next we moved on to a breathtaking drive through Yellowstone National Park staying in the interesting Idaho Falls. We went white water rafting down the Yellowstone River, and saw countless animals including a momma grizzly and her two cubs, elks, bison, crazy looking birds, etc. Moving on to the idealic Couer D'Alene, we enjoyed a delicious greek dinner, street festival, and sitting under the stars in North Idaho, we thought to ourselves what could be any better than this? Almost done our trip, we stopped to stay in a really cool hostel in Seattle and enjoyed the delicous food (we picked a North African restaurant) at the public market, amazing shopping, and a great New Pornographers show! Sheila started to get nervous at this point as we reached Oregon and we knew we'd have to part....but we drove down the Oregon Coast, through Astoria, stopping in Cannon Beach, Newport (SEALS! YEA!), and then finally Corvallis. We decided to get the keys to Sheila's apartment and then take off again, not wanting to accept reality. We headed to Portland, had Voodoo donuts and stood in line with Weird Al Yankovic, did the shopping thing, walked around, and ended my time there with a beautiful drink date with a dear old friend whom I haven't seen in forever (Love you Jinell!!).

As I think back, I don't understand how to I got to be so fortunate to have great friends and great memories to go with them. I'm looking forward to my adventures this summer but I am happy to have that little drive across the country in my back pocket. Thank you Sheila for my beautiful gift!