Me Vs. Cape People

May 22, 2010

Well, we still have not moved into our new place yet. It's been almost a week and the guy has been so delayed on everything and just lags all together. I'm learning there is no sense of urgency out here. So laxed. Blows my mind. If this were Los Angeles, we would have been in our place for close to 4 days now. The guy that lived there before us, paid up until the end of the month and still had some of his stuff in the place. The renter also told me that he said if he needed it to be moved before the end of the month, no problem. What a problem it's become. I got phone call yesterday, after many phone calls, saying that the guy will be fully moved out Wednesday. That's five more days of hotel stays!! More money. And that is becoming the issue. Now we are running low and I'm scared we won't have enough to move into. We have been starting to pay everything with Chris' Amex card and the hotel bill is going to have to be put on that too. He doesn't know it yet, but the car payment will have to go on there too. I had to go and get a storage unit too, because all of our stuff will not fit into the apartment, which will be another 100.00 a month. More expensive then LA, we only paid 80.00.

To make matters worse, we are being kicked out of the Travelodge tomorrow. After almost a week of 'living' here, I got an angry call from the hotel owner today saying the housekeeper saw a cat in the window. Busted. We must leave at checkout tomorrow. Damn Superfly. I know it was him, he's been the only one trying to get to the window the whole time. Goodbye Travelodge, it's been real....tricky. Oh and thanks for making us homeless...again.


On the upside...this beach, Nauset Beach, is a mile from our soon to be new place. If he ever let's us move in.

Welcome to the Travelodge

May 16, 2010

It's Tuesday and we have been staying at the Travelodge. Everyday we have too keep extending our stay because we have been having no luck finding a place. It's been basement apartment units on the crack smoking side of town, or attic units in people's houses in the crack smoking side of town. All located in a town called Dennis. We have been warned to stay away from there. Now I know why. When you think of Cape Cod, you don't think of druggies and scary white trash and stabbings occurring at nightclubs, but I guess they have it too. Says the locals, anyways. Only witnessed the a few of the following.

Random act of kindness.
So I had spend half the night emailing every Realtor and rental company I could find around this place and was having no luck. Because the Cape is so seasonal, everyone hones in on the summer time, makes a bunch of money and leaves, and all the rentals are bought out this time of year. So oddly enough, I got a response back saying that there was two apartments in Orleans that were nice and they gave the owner's phone number. Orleans was a really pretty little town that we found randomly and just fell in love with. Its a nicer town and not a lot of openings at all, so this seemed like some real luck. We called the guy and made an appointment to see it the next day. It was so cute. LOVED it. The only problem was that a couple had came and saw it the day before us and he had given first dibs to them. Boo. Then he asked how did we even know the place was for rent, he hadn't posted it on any site yet and had just put the for rent sign out that day. I explained about the email from the person who I thought might have been his assistant of some kind. Turned out, it was the guy that had saw the place before us the following day. Weird. he worked for a housing company that I has emailed, but was not linked to or working for the renter at all. So strange, but worked out for us. Later on that night I had called and asked a few questions and expressed my love for the place and he said if we really wanted it, it could be ours. Yay!

Is this what the Pilgrims felt like?

May 15, 2010

We touched down to the Cape at about 11pm. Staying in West Yarmouth. Does not seem to be the nicest of places on the Cape, but one of the cheaper areas. We are now staying at the Travelodge on Rt.28. I initially phoned in a reservation at a different hotel, but Chris' family got there before us and apparently there was some soliciting going on in the parking lot, and I don't mean a couple of Mormon boys in ties trying to recruit you. More like skank in mini and man peeing in a bush. A little bit of weird introduction to Cape Cod. I hope this isn't a preview of what's in store over the summer.

Anyways, I am beyond tired, delirious, and hungry. Noting that there are no fast food places around here. How do people find food around here late night? No Jack in the Box?? This could be a problem.

Cleveland to Erie and one missing cat

May 14, 2010

Picked up my parents in Cleveland. Now we had a full on motorcade going. We drove all the way through to Erie that night. Not to bad of a drive, but the parents were beat. I have not explained though all of this, our cat routine, and how we sneak our three cats in and out of the hotels, set up the litter box and food and water, along with bring all of our luggage in. It's a 40 minute ordeal. Morning and night. It's totally stressful and I hope to never do it again.

Well, the morning we were leaving Erie, Chris and I noticed all the cats were in the room. He had seen Willow (the largest cat) eating her food. I had left the room for a quick second to go see my parents in their room next to us. I had left the door slightly ajar, resting the door on that heavy silver latch lock thing that you use at night. I thought I was pretty safe. The door was heavy and I was only gone for less then a minute. I came back in and shut the door. Rounded up all the luggage and the litter box and the whole nine, ready to call everyone in to help us. There was seven of us now, so we should have been able to make it all down, cats and all, in one trip. One problem. The fat cat was m.i.a. Willow was nowhere to be found. We looked in the bathroom, under the foldout couch, in the bed, on the bed, under the bed, the dresser drawers, behind the t.v., behind the mini fridge. We even lifted up each mattress of the bed, to look under the hollow bed frame they were laying on. Nothing. No cat anywhere. Joey and Superfly were just lounging around the entire time this was going on. My Dad, Mom, Roxi, and Chris' mom started searching hallways of the hotel. My Mom had informed the front desk clerk that there was a missing cat on the second floor and there started the Hotel Staff Search Party in full swing. Organized as ever, like they had done it a million times. Armed with walkie talkies, they each spread out one by one taking each wing of each floor. ( For the record, it was a two floor hotel, not the biggest,but for a cat, might as well have been Trump Tower.)

As we frantically searched for Willow, Joey was starting to zip around the room, and slipped right underneath the bed closer to the headboard and base and disappeared. Then, Roxi said, that were ever Joey went, is where Willow was, and sure enough, she yanked the mattress away from the headboard and there were the two cats. Huddling together, looking really annoyed that we found their hiding spot. That was probably the worst morning I have had in a REALLY long time. Damn Cats.



The troublemaker herself.

Muncie, Indiana

May 13, 2010

Had to stop off at Grandma Bradway's house in Muncie. Ate some pizza with grandma and cousins. Went over to the neighbors barn across the street and played with the barn cats and saw the goats and horses. The goats have multiplied since 2 Christmas' ago. It was nice to stop and visit. It was a humid day in the 70's and I was CRAVING that kind of weather. 70 degrees in L.A is still too cold. Dry air sucks.



The neighbors farm across the way

Somewhere in Iowa

May 12, 2010


I didn't find this out until after the torrential downpour we had gone through was actually a Tornado warning through the whole state! I knew it was dangerous when I lost all vision of the bright red tail lights of the truck that was 20 feet in front of me. In hindsight, we probably should have all pulled over, but because we we were on a time crunch now, and were behind almost 2 days, we were racing the clock. Because of the truck breaking down, Colorado had put us back almost 2 days. Roxi was due in Boston on Saturday the 15th and his parents in Providence at 6am on Sunday. Iowa sucked the whole way. Super gloomy and didn't stop raining the entire time. One fun thing that happened, we stopped at a gas station for a gas/bathroom break and right there as I was handing the cashier my money for my tootsie rolls, the hole place went black. I guess it was the second power outage of the night. Talk about awkward. Just us five, and this lady. The bad part was his dad was in the middle of a 200.00 cash transaction with the ATM and the machine went out and when it finally rebooted, no money. Boo. The lights were back on at this point, I paid for my tootsies and we got an 800 number to call the bank about the ATM snafu and we were Illinois bound.

Open road+corn fields+banging head against dashboard=Nebraska

I have nothing to say about Nebraska except I'm glad I am no longer in it anymore.

My Colorado Lovefest

May 10, 2010

I have never been through Utah so I was pretty excited today. We didn't get to go through any cool cities, like Salt Lake, but one day, right? St. George was nice. Pretty red rock mountains. Very cool. I was real close to buying a Mormon cook book but then remembered I am not Mormon and I don't like to cook. So I saved 12 bucks.

Colorado.
My favorite although, may have been a curse. It started out towards the end of Utah. Our truck hit a piece of metal or steel in the middle of the freeway. Chris' parents were driving, and we were leading the way. We managed to dodge it, but they were unsuccessful. I watched the tire hit the debris and shoot out like a rocket onto the shoulder of the road. Since we didn't get a phone call I assumed everything was OK. Wrong. Once we got to Grand Junction Co., we stopped for gas. His Dad then told us that we had a flat tire. We called Budget and within 30 minutes, the guy was there fixing the tire and we were on our way. It was actually amazing to see that happen that quick. Then we drove another 100 miles and stayed the night in a beautiful little town I fell in love with called Glenwood Springs. If Massachusetts doesn't work out...that's my next move :)We were warned not to drive the Rockies at night. Enough said. Well the next morning, we were supposed to leave at 6am, and Chris' Mom informed us they heard a strange noise coming from the truck, so we had to wait to get it checked out. Turned out that the whatever that piece of metal was somehow broke the carrier barring. I'm not going to act like I know what that is, he told us it's a very important piece to the truck and in more ways then one holds the truck together. Enough said. It looked like we were staying another night in my new favorite town. Yay for me! Then, the parents volunteered to drive back 100 miles to Grand Junction, pick up the part from Chevy (it was going to be shipped to us the next day if we didn't go get it) and drive it back to the Best Western parking lot where the mechanic would work on it on site. Well, we were about a day off schedule. So off they went.

While the truck issue was being worked on...we decided we would hit a local trail. Wyatt Earps buddy Doc Holiday was supposedly buried in a cemetery high up in this trail head and there was a memorial for him, so Chris, Roxi and I hung out with the deceased for a bit. Very beautiful cemetery. Eroded for sure, but I found a grave there from 1820! We also found unmarked grave stakes and old headstones of confederate soldiers. Pretty Neat! Then Chris and I drove ahead and had lunch in Veil and he showed me Breckenridge, where he's been skiing a few times.

The Rockies were cool. I saw snow for the first time in about 6 years I think. Denver...I have no thought on that. Onto Nebraska...


Natural Hot Spring...didn't get to go in, but I will be back


Path leading to trail head...


Cemetery where Doc is buried somewhere.


Doc Holiday's Mermorial


Veil, CO


The Rockies

Goodbye L.A

May 9, 2010

Chris' parents flew in from Montana and his sister from Boca Raton. So happy they came out. Such a huge help. We had about 80% of our stuff packed. The other 20 was little things. Its amazing how many 'little things' you accumulate over time. Anyways, long story short is that I intended to be on the road in the a.m Sunday morning. That is not what happened. We ended up getting the truck at 7pm on Sat. night due to miscommunication on the Budget rental guy which had Chris and I, not to mention my brother, loading the truck till 4am in the morning. That said, and on only 2 hours of sleep, we finally pulled away from Los Angeles. Only to reach Las Vegas, or as I like to call it: L.A. 2.0. Only four hours of drive time that night. Ended up at a hotel/casino. I won 136.00 on a penny slot. Yay me. Sneaking the cats in and out of the hotel was a challenge but a challenge met.