My Kingdom for a Fork!!!

Well...it's one day and counting. Most of the packing is done. I've done a bit of cleaning. Tomorrow morning I pick up the truck and take my belongings to a trucking terminal where it will be tranferred to another truck that will haul it to Denver. Then I will finish up cleaning, load up the car and head out. I'm hoping to be on the road before 7:00pm so I can be in the Denver area before 8:30am.

I've already had a moving-related mishap. I went to Baja Fresh and bought a salad for dinner. When I got it back to my apartment I realized that I didn't get a fork. Unfortunately all of my utensils were packed away. I knocked on a couple of neighbors' doors in hopes that I could either get a disposable fork, or even borrow one. Unfortunately nobody was home. So I drove back to the restaurant and got a fork and came back home. It wouldn't have been so bad, except that my blood sugar levels were low and I get into a very bad mood when that happens.

I got really excited when I got to my mailbox and saw that a forwarding notice was in there. I realized I'm leaving soon. It's really going to happen! Yay!!!

I don't know when I'll be able to access the internet again after this. It may be a few days before I make another post to the blog.

Wish me luck!

Hurry Up and Wait

It's funny. I can drive a car 18 hours, stopping only to eat/pee/get gas/stretch (usually all at the same stop) and I don't find that boring. Make me wait for 30 minutes in the Post Office and I start to get pissed. That's how my day started. And it got worse.

After the Post Office, I decided to test the CD Player on the new Radio/CD Player I had installed in my car. My previous player had a CD stuck in it (unfortunately, it didn't survive the extraction process). Since I was going to be driving 10,000+ miles, I figured I would want some tunes on the way so I decided to buy a very inexpensive player for my car. Well, I'm glad I tested the CD player because it wasn't working right. It was cutting off the first 1/2 second of beginning of the CD. And if you hit skip forward or skip back, it would cut off the first 1/2 second of that track. Well, I took it back to the place I bought it. They installed a new one of the same model; it had the same problem. They upgraded (for free) to a better model of the same brand; still no luck. They finally installed a better model of a different brand, and that worked. So, almost 2 hours later, I finally got my CD player. UGH!!!

Then I went to buy a couple of new CDs for my trip and stood at the counter waiting because there was no one there. Okay, it was only for a few minutes, but a few minutes feels like 10 when you're just standing and waiting.

Then I went to cancel my cable, and sat there and waited. Then I had to go to the laundromat and clean a couple of comforters and that took over an hour. I HATE WAITING IN LANDROMATS! It's soooooo boriiinnnggg! Dr. Phil, that incipid quack, was on the television. That made the wait even longer.

Today I didn't get much packing done. Honestly, I don't have all that much left. Some stuff I can't pack yet because I'm still using it. All of that will be taken care of tomorrow and Wednesday. Today was spenting notifying all of my creditors of my new address change and scheduling the turning-off of my utilities. I also started plotting out the first few stops of my journey (thank you MapQuest).

And the Packing Continues...

Well, today was spent continuing the packing process. If I haven't expressed my loathing of moving, let me reiterate it here. I HATE MOVING!!!

Three days and counting. I have to get a truck on Wednesday morning to load my stuff into, truck it to downtown Phoenix, then move it all into another truck. That truck will drive it to the Denver area. Once there, I will rent another truck, move my stuff into it and haul it to my best friend's house where it will be stored while I'm galavanting around the country trying to find myself. There is a good friend! He's also taking care of my cats for me.

If I can get my apartment shipped and cleaned in time, I will leave Wednesday evening, drive all night, and arrive at my best friend's house before 8:30 Thursday morning. I want to be there before he has to leave for work. Otherwise, I will leave extremely early Thursday morning and get to Colorado early Thursday evening. It depends on how things go. It's about a 13 hour drive, depending on traffic. Driving at night is nice because there is practically no traffic at all.

Today I also finished my taxes, I hope. I need to have a CPA take a quick look see, but hopefully I've gotten it all right this time. The money I get back from the IRS and state of Arizona will pay for my drive around the US. I won't have to use up all my savings. Sweet!

I'm tired. It's time for bed.

So Little Time...

So much to do.

The truck that will transport my stuff to Colorado is reserved for Wednesday so today was mostly spent packing. The kitchen is nearly done. You don't realize how much stuff you have until you have to move it all. I remember now how much I hate moving!

The biggest issue for me is deciding what has to be eliminated. I moved to Arizona just over a year ago from Orlando. At that time, I thought I had been pretty brutal in deciding what stuff I no longer needed and could be thrown away. I know now that I hadn't really been brutal enough. I just have a lot of stuff that I just don't need anymore is doing nothing but taking up space. A lot of it is sentimental, though. I've had to come to the realization that I will have no one to bequeath my belongings. It makes me sad to think about sometimes.

So, before Wednesday I have to: Finish packing, put in my change-of-address with my creditors, cancel my utilities, return my employment packet to Yellowstone, finish my taxes (ugh), prepare my travel itinerary, prepare my laptop with important files from my desktop, send my new email address to all my friends and family, load up the moving truck, clean the apartment, load up the car and hit the road.

Guess I won't be bored.

Last Day at Work

Today was my last day at work. It was sad, but I'm glad it's over. I like my coworkers, and they all had such nice things to say. "Good luck on your travels." "Be careful driving." "Send us email." "We'll miss you." "It's been great working with you." They had lunch for me with a cake (chocolate...my favorite). It was nice.

It's not that I didn't like working with my fellow employees. I did. They're very nice and pretty easy to work with. And I like the company I worked for. It's just that I'm tired of what I do. I've been programming professionally for almost twenty years now and I'm bored with it (I programmed for another 8 years just for fun before turning a perfectly good hobby into "just a job"). The problem is, I don't really know what I want to do. I've thought about getting into American Sign Language (ASL) interpreting, but that takes a lot of training. I've thought about being a writer but I don't seem to have the discipline to do that. Besides, it doesn't pay (until you become established).

I have many ideas for Science Fiction stories but lately I haven't been inspired to write. It's because I've been in severe depression. I'm hoping that releasing myself of the responsibility of real life will help to clear my mind and help me decide what it is I want to do with my life. Maybe it will inspire me to write. Maybe something will come up in my travels that will help point my life in the right direction. That's another reason I'm taking this trip.

Who Is the Gay Trekker?

My name is Lee, otherwise known as the Gay Trekker. I'm (obviously) a gay person--specifically male. Age 40 (as of this writing). By trade I am a computer programmer/analyst. I currently live in a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona, but in a week that is all about to change (which is part of the reason for this blog).

The term Trekker actually represents a couple of different aspects of my personality and my life. First, I'm a Star Trek fan. I have been since I was 6. Mr Spock was my idol which is probably why I'm a computer programmer. Also, while growing up I could identify with his having to supress a side of himself he didn't want others to see. I've loved all of the Star Trek series, except Star Trek: Enterprise.

Secondly, the term Trekker relates to my life changing decision to Trek across the USA. I'm giving up the security of a job that I'm tired of. I'm also giving up any permanent place to live. Instead, I'm going to be hopping in my car and driving around our great country, visiting many friends and family, and seeing places I haven't seen since I was a kid, or have never seen before. For a little over a month I will be going from city-to-city, state-to-state, eventually ending up at Yellowstone National Park where I will be working for the summer. After that, I have no idea where I will go or what I will do. I'm not planning that far ahead.

So, this blog will consist of my experiences during my travels. Hopefully you'll enjoy them. Maybe you'll give me some feedback about my trip. Maybe you'll give me ideas about where I might go and what sites I might see. The places I plan to visit include: Colorado, Texas, Florida, South Carolina, Washington DC, New York, Massachusettes, Maine, California, Washington State, Montana, and Wyoming. There will be other stops along the way I'm sure. I've even thought about visiting Alaska. Who knows?

So come along with me as I Trek the good old USA.