I wish I could say we had an epic drive from Phoenix to Chicago, but it was a quick, tiring road trip. In the week before we left, we packed up our entire place, cleaned it up, and made last-minute fixes while attending goodbye dinners and celebrating my sister’s baby shower. Oh, and we worked. I didn’t want to miss the shower, so we only gave ourselves two days for the drive instead of the three we originally wanted to take. It was worth the less-exciting drive though for the memory with my family.
Two days before we left, our shipping containers were picked up from our Phoenix home. We loaded the top of our Jeep with more belongings.
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| I’m going to miss our townhome. |
We traveled north on Interstate 17 to the I-40 heading east. Graham and I took turns driving on our road trip.
New Mexico seemed to go on forever. It seemed that we spent most of the first day driving through the Land of Enchantment. It was easily the most scenic of the states we drove through, though.
I don’t remember much about Texas, except that the state had the largest rest area facilities I have ever seen. I guess everything really is bigger in Texas. We’re fairly certain we got caught in a speed trap near the border with Oklahoma.
We stopped in Oklahoma City for several hours to sleep before eating breakfast and getting back on the road. I took the wheel until we approached St. Louis. I wanted to stop at least once on the drive, so I forced Graham to take a detour to see the arch. We turned onto cobblestone streets and construction zones before deciding to abandon our plan. We drove across the MLK bridge, where I captured some photos of the arch.
I took another nap through most of Illinois. I awoke when Graham told me we were approaching Chicago. It was surreal. I was excited and scared at the same time. “Are we doing it?” I kept asking Graham the same question.
The temperature was in the 20s. It had snowed that morning, and it was still on the ground when we arrived at our airbnb rental in Logan Square. Welcome to spring in Chicago!
We made it! Thus began our apartment hunt and new life in Chicago.