We were on our own schedule today, which was entirely different from past trips. Actually, quite a bit is different now from our prior trips, in pretty much every way, shape, and form. We were supposed to have done this trip six months ago, for our 20th wedding anniversary. But in mid-March, specifically March 11, it became abundantly clear that would not be happening. We can still remember it, one of those "flashbulb memories." The day had seemed normal enough, with nice weather in San Diego and us doing our normal work. Justin actually had a call with his boss in the late morning that started with talk about ongoing projects, but morphed into a discussion about winding his career down, and how to phase that appropriately. After the call, Justin told Crystal "I think I just retired, sort of." We decided to go out that evening to celebrate over happy hour. We went to a local Mexican restaurant, Jimmy Carter's (the food is legit, even if the name gives a false impression), and chatted with a couple from Mission Hills at the bar. We were there maybe 60-90 minutes focused on conversation and ignoring our phones, and when we were all done, we paid up and started walking back home. We glanced at our phones, as they'd buzzed quite a few times while we were eating and drinking, and saw three things had transpired in the time we were sitting at the bar: 1) The NBA season was suspended; 2) Travel to and from Europe was cancelled; 3) Tom Hanks and Rita Wilson had contracted the Coronavirus. It was the last time we'd be out in public together for several months.

Even if we had done this trip as planned in March, it would've been different. It would've been our first holiday trip in the mainland USA. It would've been our first road trip together. And it would've been our first trip with our pups, Lola and Avon. We had been feeling a little guilty about all the travel we'd been doing without them, and since it was a road trip anyway, we decided we should bring them. Today, six months later, they've had one or both us at home with them for 99% of every day and night since March 11. They've had their fill of us - we hope they enjoy that more than the old normal. But since we'd planned (or should we say, re-planned) this trip on a whim, and there were going to be enough logistical hurdles dealing with Coronavirus stuff, we decided they could stay at home with the in-laws while we snuck away for this trip. We'd actually booked everything just Monday of this week, and even this morning we still didn't have anything booked for tonight, as we weren't sure exactly how far we'd be able to make it since we weren't sure when we could break away from work.

In March, we were supposed to have gone to Sedona (1 night), the South Rim of the Grand Canyon (2), Monument Valley (1), Page (2), Bryce and Zion National Parks (2), and Las Vegas (1). Our 20th anniversary was going to be the full day we were in Page, visiting Antelope Canyon. In the recast version of the trip, however, Page was substituted out for the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. The North Rim is not "open" in March or early April, but is now. And Antelope Canyon tours are, as of today, still unavailable. But the rest of the stuff was more or less the same, save for some of the lodging locations and the fact every hotel and tourist location website had to be scoured for how Coronavirus impacted things.

The idea to do a 2.0 version of this trip came in an email from Goulding's, the hotel we'd booked in March around Monument Valley. By happenstance, the day we'd booked to be out there in late March was one of 2-3 days during the spring where one of the "Mittens" casts a shadow onto the other Mitten. So we'd booked a tour to see this around sunset. Well, the 2-3 days of Mitten shadows come back in the fall, and since we were still on their email list, we got an email touting that. Justin called to ask about it, and the people at the front desk were confused, as they didn't know anything about the tours. Apparently the email is somewhat automated, and the specific tour wasn't actually possible, since the Navajo nation is currently closed to the public. But even looking into this made us contemplate trying the trip again.

We'd finalized our plans, or at least what we wanted our plans to be (subject to whatever real-world hurdles there might be) a week ago today, sitting forlorn at an outdoor patio area constructed in the parking lot of our local dive bar, Cherry Bomb. They'd had to install the patio and start cooking burgers on a tiny grill, such that they could serve food along with booze. We were sitting there drowning our sorrows and cursing the current state of affairs at the loss of Justice Ginsburg, and how every day in 2020 seemed to be worse than the day before. We lamented how every day there seemed to be one fewer friend or family member we wanted to associate with, how by the end of the year there might be only 10-12 people we wanted anything to do with, and how when we move to Spain, we may never come back to the US. So we thought it seemed wise to do our American Southwest roadtrip when it was only a short(ish) drive away, not when it was halfway around the world.

18 months ago we visited Spain, Portugal, Morocco, and Andorra on a cruise, going to Madeira and the Canary Islands and ending up in Barcelona and the surrounding area for several days. Even before the Coronavirus upended everything, we were planning on upending things on our own. It had been a goal of ours, for several years now, to live abroad. When we first discussed the subject, the place in mind was Istanbul, but that was far from a certainty. Several places had always piqued our interest. We'd enjoyed many of the places we visited in late 2018, such as Vienna and Budapest. And just last year, almost immediately after stepping off the boat in Tenerife in the Canary Islands, it felt like home to us, like a perfect mixture of our two current residences, San Diego and the Big Island. We'd been on Tenerife two days, and the second day we visited the north part of the island, including a town called Puerto de la Cruz where we walked around the shoreline and visited an incredible botanic garden. It resonated with us, so we added it to the list with Vienna and Budapest, and shortly thereafter Barcelona rounded out the list for potential new homes. In late 2019, we took a trip to Barcelona, Puerto, Budapest, and Vienna, more to scout for homes than to vacation, although we certainly did enjoy ourselves. We came away from that set on moving to Puerto. So since last December, we'd been gearing up to move there, pursuing two dual tracks, a residential visa and Crystal's Hungarian citizenship (which would allow her to reside anywhere in the EU). We've been diligently learning Spanish and Hungarian all 2020. Just this week, we received word that all of our documents for our Spanish application had been translated and were being sent back to us. We should be applying for our residency as soon as we get back from this trip. And it was for this reason that Justin announced his retirement plan (or, at the very least, semi-retirement plan) to his boss back on the morning of March 11.

We actually sold one of our two cars just a couple weeks ago, since we weren't going to be taking any cars with us abroad. But the one we kept for the time being, a VW hatchback, was perfect for this roadtrip. It has Sirius XM, which we rarely use any more (particularly since we've barely driven anywhere the last six months), isn't too big, and is therefore easy to keep cool via AC. Justin got the car serviced last week, and we packed things up in the VW this morning, once Lola got out of the suitcase. We told her the next time we packed the suitcase, she would be coming with us, and it would be quite the adventure.

Crystal was trying to get some work done, but her build kept failing, and each time she ran it, it took about 7-8 minutes where we hoped for good news. Justin was antsy, and tried to fill the time. After finishing packing, he picked out our hotel for tonight, the Sky Rock Inn. It seemed to have good views, good reviews, and was within walking distance of the airport, which we had read had great vistas of the red rocks. It also appeared to be within walking distance of restaurants, which we thought might be good if we could get there by dinner time. After finishing this, he was still antsy, and at some point decided to run out to get us lunch at Shake Shack. It was pretty warm outside, and he was walking briskly, so he was a little sweaty by the time he returned. Then, to top things off, opening the bag, we realized that Crystal's order didn't get included. So this was an epic failure all around. Fortunately, Crystal's build was able to build correctly shortly thereafter, and we headed on our way around 12:45.

We filled up the VW just after we left. Normally we fill it up, at most, once a month. We expected it would be much more regular the next week or so. This was our first road trip since 2002, when we went to a family gathering up in Northern California. For that trip, we took Pacific Coast Highway up the coast, which is supposed to be an iconic drive. In our case, however, it was not the greatest, as the AC wasn't working correctly, so we drove with the moonroof open, and realized when we arrived that Justin's right side and Crystal's left side were sunburned. Today, we needed the AC to work, as it was likely to be well over 100 degrees on much of the drive.

Interstate 8 starts about 3 miles north of where we live, and we spent much of the afternoon on the 8. We were past much of "civilization" in about 30 minutes, going through hilly areas, ravines, and a bunch of low scrub. Around El Centro, which we'd signs for a million times but never actually been to, it was incredibly flat, and there was a decent amount of farming going on. It looked - to us, at least - like they were growing hay. We'd never seen hay been grown before, but we could see the crop, see the machines rolling it into cylinders, and a bunch of cylinders that were drying, plus some that was already dried. The only other things around were some double decker trains, which we couldn't recall having seen before, and the border wall, which was pretty close in many cases. Seeing how out in the middle of nowhere we were, and how many miles and miles and miles of border there is, it immediately becomes clear (or should become clear) that trying to build a wall on the entire stretch of border is logistically and financially impossible, and would cost more in upkeep than the US probably pays to all its agents right now.

Anyway, we went over a different border, the California-Arizona one, in Yuma. The border is actually the Colorado River, which we'd be seeing again several times this trip. At this juncture, the river was not very imposing. After passing into Arizona, the speed limit went down, the number of cops went up, and the driving ability took a precipitous drop. For whatever reason, the Arizona drivers (at least the ones in Yuma) did not seem to appreciate that the left lane was for passing, as opposed to just put-putting around. This led to several backups full of frustrated drivers, but thankfully no road rage or accidents.

At Gila Bend, we (and seemingly half of the 8) got off the highway and stopped for gas and provisions at Love's Travel Stop, an enormous gas station/market/truck stop. We filled up and got some caffeine, but otherwise stayed on our way, as we didn't want to get into Sedona after dinner and after driving a ton in the dark. We'd been listening to Sirius XM most of the way so far (mostly Hair Nation, Lithium, and Classic Vinyl), but changed up a bit and listened to a podcast, The Rewatchables take on "Se7en." It's always tough to enjoy the art when the artist now lies in disrepute, but man Se7en was really good. Having that and The Usual Suspects come out in one year was quite the year for Kevin Spacey. The drive from the 8 up to the 10 was on some random, straight as an arrow, speedtrap of a road called Highway 85 - not a lot to see except for our first couple cacti of the trip. We also went past a prison and a landfill, to be completely accurate.

We weren't on the 10 for very long at all, but enough to know we were back in suburbia and that there was a major city nearby. Rather than head into Phoenix and get dinner there, we decided to press on and eat in Sedona. We turned onto Highway 303, which is the outer - outer - loop of the Phoenix freeway system. There was literally nothing on our west and north, and just a bunch of sound walls to what we presume were suburban neighborhoods on our east and south. Traffic was flying, and there weren't many cars. We were admiring an M6 that calmly went by us at about 95 miles an hour, the same way Usain Bolt would stride by the fastest high school athletes. Eventually we got on the 17, the main interstate heading north out of Phoenix towards Sedona and Flagstaff. Here we encountered what we assume is a weekly event on Friday evenings - Phoenicians leaving the city for the mountains for the weekend. So there was a bunch of traffic, and a bunch more crap drivers (apparently Yuma did not have a monopoly on that). A couple times we slowed to a crawl where, on twisty uphill climbs, one truck passed another at a snail's pace, leaving everyone else waiting. When we had cell signal, which was hit or miss, we kept abreast of the impending traffic on the 17, at around Cape Verde we actually got off the interstate and took local roads the rest of the way.

The sun had just gone down, so we weren't sure what the surrounding scenery looked like or whether any of the famous "red rocks" were around. There were, however, an inordinate amount of roundabouts, as opposed to stoplights, on the road. This had dual benefits, as it likely decreased the odds of bad accidents and also served as a way of keeping the speed limit down, as any time you sped up on the straight parts, a roundabout was likely right there to keep the speed in check. Somewhere around Cottonwood we entered this town that actually had lights, and we took a right on 89A, which we'd end up on various parts of throughout the rest of the trip. 89A was pretty close to pitch black, and we kept seeing signs for deer, but thankfully didn't see any deer on the dark road.

We finally got to our hotel, the Sky Rock Inn, around 7:30pm. As we approached the hotel, we kept an eye out for restaurants, and there appeared to be plenty, including with outdoor seating areas. We'd made pretty decent time, all things (and bad drivers) considered. Check-in was interesting, as this was our first time staying in a hotel since COVID. There were plexiglass panels between us and the person checking us in, with an opening at the bottom to pass credit cards and IDs. It was a bit like talking to a bank teller, but not quite that extreme. It turns out that we'd parked right next to where our room was, so getting the stuff from the car to the room was easy. We hadn't really given much thought on what to bring in terms of baggage, but we brought our laptop bags, a waterproof backpack for hiking, and then a giant suitcase for all our clothes and toiletries. It is so much easier to pack when you don't have to worry about how your items are arranged. We also had some loose stuff on the floor of the backseat, such as our hiking boots, hiking socks, and cooler; again, it was nice to just be able to leave that stuff except for when we needed it.

As soon as we dropped our stuff, we started walking towards places to get some dinner. Crystal hadn't gotten a proper lunch because of the Shake Shack fiasco, and Justin was hungry as well. The Sedona Bar and Grill looked like it had a good-sized outdoor seating area, but we couldn't get a host or hostess to seat us, so we gave up after about 5 minutes. We walked a little further and ended up at Los Rosales, a Mexican food restaurant. It was fairly busy, but there were a bunch of empty tables inside and out. We asked to be seated outside, and the host/waiter said that was fine, to just wait a minute. It looked like it was just him handling the front of the restaurant, and he was literally running around trying to bus tables, get tables set up, taking orders, etc. He kept apologizing to us for taking so long, even though we could see he was (literally) going as fast as possible. Once we got seated, we enjoyed some margaritas (the guava ones were excellent), chips and salsa, and then a taco salad (Crystal) and al pastor tacos (Justin). Everything was good, and hit the spot after a long day. At some point we figured we should decide what we wanted to do the next day. We had a list of highlights that we'd put together 6 months ago, but we couldn't remember any of it, so we just looked at photos and reviews on the web and made an impromptu list - the chapel in the side of the mountain, cathedral rock, the airport mesa, and views along the red rock highway - then off to Flagstaff and the Grand Canyon. We walked back to the hotel and quickly crashed - we had another long day ahead of us tomorrow.