Where Are Jeff and Monika Sleeping Tonight?

 

The picture above is our new home in Brighton, Colorado and we are sleeping there tonight.  But, how we got there is a long story, so I'll just give you the final eight day journey.

Finding the right house to buy, selling your own house, moving across country, and then moving into your new house, is almost always very challenging.  Typically there will surprises and things just don't go the way you wanted.

If you throw in your daughter getting married, family coming in from other states and closing four days after the wedding, that's were things really get interesting.

On eight consecutive days at the end of May, my wife and I moved to another place to sleep on five of those days.  Each night we had to go over what we were doing, where we were going, and if we were using one car or two.  Here are the details:

THURSDAY, MAY 22nd, FRIDAY, MAY 23rd

The Holiday Inn Express in Thornton pictured below is not far from our son and daughter-in-laws house. We had to move here for Thursday and Friday night since our daughter and son-in-law were staying there for the wedding.  Our dog, stayed only Thursday night and then he stayed at the dog sitters for three nights before rejoining us.

SATURDAY, MAY 24th

We moved to the Holiday Inn Express in Littleton, Colorado.  It was thirty minutes from the wedding and forty minutes from the hotel in Thornton.  We were here only on Saturday night, after the rehearsal lunch and a family dinner.  Many of the out of town guests stayed here. It was right off the highway and also close to a bunch of other things including the famous Red Rocks music venue.

SUNDAY, MAY 25th

It's the day of the wedding and it is scheduled for 5 pm at The Mountain View Ranch in Pine, Colorado.    Since the wedding ended at 11 pm., we stayed at the resort on Sunday night in this cabin and had a hilarious experience which I will share in the next week with some beautiful pictures of the wedding and wedding venue.

MONDAY, MAY 26th THRU WEDNESDAY, MAY 28TH

After a brunch at the bride and groom's house, we headed back to our son and daughter-in-law's house in Thornton. On Tuesday we went back to our daughter's house in Arvada, Colorado to fill my car up with stuff and then Wednesday night we started packing all of our other stuff out of the house in Thornton for the final move on Thursday.

We did originally plan on one or two more nights at the Thornton Holiday Inn Express, but we gave the first night to our oldest daughter and son-in -law, which prevented us from moving six out of eight days.

THURSDAY, MAY 30TH

We closed on our house and moved in with two packed cars and slept on an air mattress.  Would anyone believe that our house has an orange door? I drive an orange car and my business name is "The Sunshine Man."  Below is our orange front door.

THE WEEK AHEAD

On Friday, our pod will be delivered from storage and we are hoping the mattress for the rest of the bed that we have will arrive soon.

Since we are watching the dogs from the house in Thornton, my wife is planning to sleep in that house  three nights over the next week, possibly with our dog.  I'm going to sleep in our house and stay there and stop moving to other places.

UNUSUAL EXPERIENCES DRIVING TO COLORADO

 On any road trip I take there always seems to be things I've never seen before or things that are difficult to explain.  On my two, 26-hour journeys to Colorado, these are the few that really stand out.

VISITING BUC-EES FOR THE FIRST TIME

Buc-cees is a very large gas station/convenience store.  There are only about 50 stores built and I think the one I was at was in Tennessee.  The picture above shows a few dozen gas pumps. The average store has 100 gas pumps, yes, one hundred gas pumps! The largest one has 120 pumps and 12 EV hook ups.  

My first impression of inside reminded me of a very large Walmart, without all the blue.  They have a lot of tourist type things and a big selection of food that is cooked right there.  I went to use the bathroom and I thought I was in a pro football locker room.  Here's the picture I had to take, but I did not count how many urinals there were.

BUYING KFC

What could be better than a bucket of chicken from Colonel Sanders on a long road trip? I knew I would be stopping soon and I found one right off the exit and I got 8 pieces so I could have dinner and lunch the next day.  When the chicken pieces arrived, I was shocked when I saw they were in a box, pictured below.  I asked the woman at the register, "Did I get cupcakes too?"  After getting the chicken it occurred to me that I was at least an hour away from when I was stopping.  How long does it take for chicken to go bad? Fortunately ,when I got into the hotel, the fridge was working and the chicken-in-the-box tasted great. 

THE HUMAN COMPUTER

The Quality Inn that I walked into absolutely shocked me.  This is who or what met me at the front desk when I checked out.

A guy checked me in from Richmond, VA.  The checking in process was awful and I got lucky that an employee walked in to rescue me.  Both "human computers" were friendly, but it felt very impersonal.

CHICKEN WITHOUT WAFFLES-FOR BREAKFAST

Chicken and waffles is a very popular southern breakfast.  I'm not a waffle guy at all, but I did taste the chicken from a chicken and waffles meal once.  I started driving with my chicken for lunch around 1 am.  I had some ice in my cooler, but how long will chicken last? About 7:30 am I stopped for breakfast or brunch.  Outside of a Love's rest stop I had a very scenic view below:

And if you thought I was kidding about eating chicken after 7 am., here is how everything looked when I completed my breakfast/brunch.  I was hoping no one asked me where I got the chicken, since it was from a couple states away.

MY LONGEST ROAD TRIP

 After driving to Colorado Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and flying back to Myrtle Beach on Sunday, I arrived to our empty house in Myrtle Beach and started packing up my car.  Driving my car was always going to be our back-up for anything that couldn't get in our pod and I needed every courier skill I've learned over the years to get everything in.  Below is the end result of fitting 14 large bags/items in my car and stuffing a bunch of other things in also.  I made sure I could see through the entire back window and my rear view mirrors too.

MATTRESS BATTLE: Getting a large air mattress into a laundry basket took all the patience I don't have. Here's a picture at the beginning with me hamming up my struggles and finally getting all the air out after maybe 20-25 minutes of squeezing and sweating it out.

After getting 5-6 hours of sleep I put some chocolate donuts, (ok it was a whole box), a bunch of snacks such as food bars and one large roast beef sub from Publix, cut in five.(If you have a sub cut in five, the fifth piece is actually the one that tastes best because you didn't expect it)

My plan was to drive 13-14  hours on Monday and 13 hours on Tuesday.  I took regular breaks, ate donuts, got a 30 minute nap in a rest stop and had a very easy drive through South Carolina, North Carolina, Tennessee and into Kentucky/Missouri.  I did a lot of awful singing with Sirius X radio being a joy to listen to all day long.

Late in the afternoon Monday I picked up some healthy KFC chicken and pulled into a Quality Inn close to 5 pm.  I had a choice of several hotels and I picked the worst looking one from the outside and rolled the dice.  Everything worked in the room, it was clean and I was only awake two hours before going to sleep.

After 13 hours on Monday, I had another 13 to do on Tuesday.  Once again, I woke up early and was on the road between 1-1:30 am.  I'm still not exactly sure where I slept, but it was an hour before St. Louis.  The second day consists of driving mostly on Rt. 70 through Missouri, Kansas, and into Colorado.

I lucked out with no traffic delays for the second straight day.  I got a thirty minute nap and some exercise and enjoyed my KFC breakfast at 6:30 am. (More on that coming-I know you can't wait). I was tired when I pulled into our son and daughter-in-law's house after 4 pm., but I really enjoyed the drive.

WELCOME NEW READERS

Over the last few weeks I have had a number of new readers sign up to get this blog and I wanted to say hello again to all of you whoever you are.  I wanted to give you an idea about what this blog is and what you will see me write about.  

IN THE BEGINNING

At the end of Dec. 2017, my wife and I headed south from New Jersey to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. I started the blog so my family and some friends could read about our adventures "becoming southerners," and also to read about what was happening in our lives.

When I started driving with Uber and Lyft, I wrote a blog at the end of each month about the people I met on the road.  That blog turned into two blogs at the end of each month, my favorite riders of the month and my favorite comments from riders.

Frequently a rider would ask how they could look up my blog and I finally put it on my yearly list of best rider comments which I give to some of my riders.  

WHAT I WRITE ABOUT

There is a very famous quote from playwright George Bernard Shaw that Robert F. Kennedy used a lot: "Some men see things as they are and say why, I see things that never were and say, why not?" To paraphrase that quote, "You may see things and say why, I write about things people don't think (or care) about."

My family knows that sometimes something is said or something happens and, "I feel a blog coming."  For example, you probably never asked yourself how a dog pees in a hurricane, but I did write about that a couple years ago and it was pretty funny.  It did involve a fake piece of grass in our shower and I was in the shower before my dog.

I would like to think that I write about interesting, unusual and entertaining things, but I'm pretty sure not everyone would agree with that even in my immediate family.   When I read something that catches my eye, I like to share it here. Although I majored in political science and I am a political junkie, I have usually only blogged about politics in a presidential election year and it is mostly analysis and predictions and not rooting for one side or another.  I love to read and I read things on all sides.

I usually post a blog twice a week, but on occasion I will post three in one week, so you will not be hearing from me daily, unless you want to.  There are over 800 blogs on here that you can go back to and you will find things you didn't know and others that you don't want to know about.

THE FUTURE

Since I have been a resident of Colorado for two full weeks, I will be changing the title of this blog in June when I have one of my technical advisors from my family to assist me.  One friend did suggest that the blog should be called, "Driving on the Sunny Side A Mile High."  This would refer to my book, "Driving on the Sunny Side With 10,000 Strangers," and also to the fact that Denver, which I live near, is a mile high above sea level.  (Many other places in Colorado are higher.) I have not made a final decision on it yet.

This picture was taken in the backyard of our new house when we saw it for the first time.  The mountains in Colorado are breathtaking.  I'm not positive, but I believe we can see this view from the middle of our backyard and that is our only view.  We may have to set up some stands and charge admission to tourists or possible new neighbors.  You will be reading at least a couple blogs about moving into a new house and neighborhood and you will get to see plenty of mountain pictures.

My book is still on Amazon and Barnes&Noble sites and you can check out my website at https://jeffonthesunnyside.com.  On the website you can see some television interviews and other information. If you're looking to start your Monday with something positive, on my website I have written a "Magnificent Monday" post for every single Monday for almost the past eighteen months.

Thanks for reading and feel free to share this with others.  It is free and as my brother-in-law likes to say, "Free is for me."  You can also reach me by posting a comment on this blog.

I took this picture today while writing this and here it is.  My nine-month-old granddaughter and I were looking at ourselves in the door window.  I think she has more hair than I do!

Neal, Gene, Paula Deen, and Me

 

After driving out to Colorado over three days with my wife and dog, we arrived late Saturday afternoon and I got ready to head back to Myrtle Beach to pick up my car. I scheduled an Uber ride to the airport for 3:40 am and everything went perfectly.

As I arrived at the Denver airport I immediately thought about my last passenger's comments when she arrived back from Italy after being awake for 26 hours.  She said, "Traveling by airplane is not a very good way of traveling." 

I would rather drive, but since I just did that, I would have to fly to drive.  The airport in Denver and the one in Minnesota were both very clean and they are a great place to get some walking in.  Since I had been driving for three days, I walked in both airports to get some exercise.

Everything went perfectly and my plan was to have an early dinner with my two closest friends in Myrtle Beach, Neal and Gene.  For my "last supper" in the South, I picked out Paula Deen's restaurant for some real southern food.

Neal, also an Uber driver, picked me up at the airport and actually filmed my plane coming in.  As I was walking through the airport I took this picture which is what people see coming into Myrtle Beach.

We met Gene at the restaurant and when we walked in I told the hostess that we were here for, "My last supper." She immediately became concerned, but I told her it was my last meal in the South.  Below is a picture of our food and it was very good.

Neal, Gene, and I had a very good time and ate plenty of food.  This was the picture outside of the window looking at part of Broadway and the Beach, the biggest tourist attraction outside of the sixty miles of beaches.

Here's a picture of Gene on the left and Neal on the right.  Neal drove me home and then it was time for the beginning of the longest road trip of my life.

Why Are Chocolate Chip Cookies So Special?

It's definitely the chocolate which is obvious, but there's a lot more to chocolate chip cookies and these are some things you many not know about them:

Americans eat about 7 billion chocolate chip cookies each year and about half of them are homemade. It is estimated that the average American eats 35,000 chocolate chip cookies in a lifetime.  It probably takes all the milk from one cow in it's lifetime to eat those cookies. (I did make that statistic up)

The chocolate chip cookie is almost one hundred years old, having been invented at The Toll House Restaurant in Whitman, Massachusetts in the 1930's. The owner of the restaurant, Ruth Graves Westfield, is credited with the first recipe.  Her Toll House Chocolate Crunch Cookie was free to go along with their vanilla ice cream.

The CEO of Nestle discovered that sales of Nestle chocolate bars were increasing because people were trying to reproduce the Toll House cookie.  He bought the recipe for $1 and gave Ruth Graves Westfield all the chocolate she needed and put her recipe on Nestles packaging for chocolate bars.

She created chocolate chips by using an ice pick to break up chocolate bars and Nestles created "Nestles Toll House Morsels."  Hershey created their own and they called it chocolate chips.  Chocolate chip cookies became a huge hit during World War 11 when they were sent in care packages to the troops.

In 1955 chocolate chip dough was created and in 1963 the first chocolate chip cookie, Chips Ahoy, was made by Nabisco. 

My favorite chocolate chip cookie was at BJ's a long time ago. The chips were huge and we were so disappointed when they changed the recipe or bought them from someone else.

I could use a tall glass of milk, how about you?

 

What Happens When You Kill Two Grapes?

 I know, killing and grapes really don't seem like they go together, but this is an exception.  Moving out to Colorado the first time recently, I was driving my wife's Subaru and she and our dog were fast asleeep.  I was driving early in the morning and I reached into my bag of grapes and picked out one big grape and ate it.  The grapes were really good so I decided to eat two at the same time.

Both grapes slipped out of my fingers and now I knew I had a problem. How do you continue driving for another hour or two when you have two grapes rolling around on the mat below you? I wasn't going to pull over and there was no way of driving safely and picking them up, so I moved my feet very carefully.

I wasn't going to eat them off the mat, really I wasn't. I wanted to avoid crushing them, or killing them. I think it's a bad omen to kill grapes as you start a big trip. I was a little concerned that the mat felt sticky and I knew my wife would not be happy about that.

I put together a plan: when we pulled up to the park my wife started walking our dog.  I waited until she was a distance away and while I was drinking something I pulled out the mat and saw the two dead grapes. This is how the mat looked after I threw water at it from my water bottle.

My wife started heading back my way and I threw more water on it and dried it some and then put it in the car.  It was not sticky anymore and my wife never would have known about it, but I needed to blog about it.  Honey, your mat was clean again despite two grapes being crushed /killed on it.

Who Was Emily Roebling?

I can see Rod Serling of the "Twilight Zone" introducing this blog: "Picture yourself in Brooklyn, New York.  You're standing in front of the Brooklyn Bridge and you're watching the opening ceremonies of the the bridge on May 24, 1883.  Who is that woman who is the first one driving across the bridge and why is she riding with a rooster?" 

This is the front page of a newspaper announcing the opening. President of the United States, Chester Arthur, was in attendance with the Mayor of New York, Franklin Edson. 

Emily Roebling was a highly accomplished woman who was married to Washington Roebling, the chief engineer of the bridge. His dad, John Roebling, designed the bridge.  It took 13 years to build the suspension bridge and the last 11 years were managed by Emily.  Her husband became disabled from decompression sickness while the bridge was being built.  Emily took over all of his duties and completed the project. 

It was the longest suspension bridge in the world when it was completed and the cost was $15.5 million dollars in those days and over $500 million dollars in today's money.  Emily Roebling went on to law school and became of the first female lawyers in New York.  Underneath the bridge tower is Emily Roebling Plaza to honor her.

And what about that rooster? It symbolized victory and the breaking of barriers.

What Happened With My Rider Appreciation Weekend?

My last two days driving Uber in South Carolina were incredible.  On Saturday in Myrtle Beach and Sunday in Charleston I gave 46 rides and spent most of the days laughing with my riders.  I had a guest book and I asked some riders if they would like to write something and they did.  Below are some of their words and I took seven more pictures of riders who I will put up in my car for all my riders to see in Colorado.

This is what the inside of my car looked like with over 150 past riders represented.  I also received two beautiful Elvis socks, a crystal from Costa Rica, and a program from a religious seminar.

I have one Elvis sock hanging on each side of the car and colors look great

"You made my day better by making me smile. Thank you for being a good person. We need more good people in this world."

"Keep up the love up people." (From Iowa)

"Thank you for this beautiful trip to my job. I really appreciate yo to have good memories. I hope yo have a great time in Colorado."  (From El Salvador)

"Thank you for making my ride entertaining.  Continue to do the good that you are doing. Don't let anyone or anything dim your light.  You are awesome!"  (Originally from Jamaica)

"Work hard, be kind, and stay grateful!"  "The truth is in the cake and not the frosting." (Way upstate New York)

This chef loves to drive as much or more than I do.  I wrote a short story on him for the end of the month.

This fun family from Tampa had a nine month old little girl who was talking some gibberish and then the dad told me his wife talks gibberish to her 31 year-old brother.  I recorded her and it makes no sense but it is her secret language and it's hilarious.  I wrote a short story about the family last week.

This woman used to be from Russia and I dropped her off at the airport and picked up another woman who used to be from Russia.  This young woman was delightful and had a great time in my car.

"Coolest Uber ride ever!!! I was having an emotional day but kept a smile on my face.  When I stepped into this ride I stepped into a universe of positive energy!! I loved it!!  Thank you for everything you do."  This woman gave me the Elvis socks which are really stunning in an orange car.

Hysterically quoting Willy Wonka: "We are the music makers, we are the dreamers of dreams. So shines a good deed in a weary world."

"Hey, this is the most impressive Uber ride I have ever had. I adore the energy and vibe. There is so much personality, life and love in this car and in Jeffrey's heart."

"It was an absolute privilege to ride in your Uber. Thank you so much for the interesting ride."  (From the great state of Pennsylvania on their second Uber ride ever)

Flying out of Myrtle Beach Airport this mom and son are from the Boston area and big Red Sox fans.

This Jamaican woman I've driven before and she is pointing to the two new Jamaican bills I have displayed for so many of my Jamaican riders.  

This group was going to Sullivan's Island near Charleston after attending a religious seminar.  The two on the right are mother and daughter and the one on the left was upset she didn't have a bill to give me from her country which is an island in the Caribbean I believe.

My final ride in South Carolina was a short ride of this server from Hawaii who was new to the Charleston area.  She ran into her place to get her daughter for the picture.  If you're wondering what that is in the upper left corner, it is my finger.