DAY 0

<--Nic and Laura, circa 2007.

Pre-departure musings: Why? How? Where? When?

So, why did Nicole and I decide to travel to the Southwest in June? Well, it went something like this: firstly, we both knew we were destined to travel somewhere together. For those that are unaware, I met Nicole my first day at Stonehill College freshman year . We instantly fell in love, but unfortunately Stonehill did not receive that same affection. I transferred, but Nic stayed in my life. We are both virtually the same person (we figured out that our husbands should be male-versions of one another), and figured that we should treat ourselves to some sort of trip together after graduating. We are both pretty low maintenance, free spirited, and adventurous. Our first plan was to work on farms in France, while fitting in a vacation-within-a-vacation to Morocco for a week. Once we calculated our route, looked up airfare, contacted farms, brushed up on our French, and got really excited, we totally nixed that plan and decided to stay state-side.

The U.S. is vast, the U.S. is diverse. It is cheaper; we speak the language. So, approximately a week after we both received diplomas from our respective colleges, we packed up some clothes, two tents (which was smart, because one broke [more on that later], a bin full o' food, a gas stove, maps, a hammer, and a large knife, and headed out to see parts of this country that we had never laid our eyes, nor feet on.

It was great.