Moving, Stage 2

I guess Stage 1 was moving Kim and the Kids to Tulsa.  I came over 3 weeks later, but that doesn't really count. We put the RX350 and the van pack crate on a boat a few weeks ago, and last week it all arrived in LA. Stage 2 was bringing all that stuff to Oklahoma.

I woke up at 4:30 (central), Kim got me to the airport by 5:20. Flew to LAX, with a 1 hour layover in DFW. Once in Los Angeles (9am, Pacific Time), I took a taxi to Matson near the port of Long Beach and picked up the Lexus. Then I went to U-Haul of Long Beach and had a trailer hitch and harness installed. After the 5x8 enclosed trailer was attached, I drove to pick up the van pack where I had to unload everything, and re-load it into the trailer. Then I was able to start driving (4pm).

I did the packing change-out in the middle of a shipping container warehouse parking lot. Fortunately the guy was nice and gave me plenty of space where there were no tractor-trailers around.

The first hour was just getting out of LA and getting up to Barstow, CA and on to I-40. The next stop was in Kingman, AZ where I had to get a phone changer because my phone died and forgot a car charger. Flagstaff, AZ is pretty, but it was starting to get dark. By the time I got to Gallup, New Mexico it was 3:30 (mountain time) in the morning and I had been driving for about 10 hours.  I was starting to doze off a little, so I pulled off into a Pep Boys (dark) parking lot and slept for about 90 minutes in the back of the car with the rear seat folded down. A little after 5am I got some coffee and hit the road again, driving through Albuquerque, Santa Rosa, and Tucumcari. Next was northern Texas where there were TONS of cops, then Amarillo where I should have gotten gas, instead I rolled into Shamrock, TX with 5 miles on the dash indicator. I was cutting it pretty close. After gassing up and some delicious Taco Bell for lunch, I was headed into Oklahoma for the final stretch. In OKC I went up the Kilpatrick Turnpike and though I got into trouble because of stand still traffic from an accident, but fortunately it clear after only a couple minutes. Then the last stretch up the good ol' Turner Turnpike into T-town.

Total driving time: 24 hours
Total sleeping time: 90 minutes
Total distance driven: 1445 miles
I was awake from 4:30am Monday until 10:30pm Tuesday. I was tired.