With the submission of Emily's thesis in Davis we (Emily Jochen and Ophelia) left Davis and headed out on highway 80 to drive to State College to actually start living as a family.
Our last day in DavisPhoto by Nordstrand
Cat in her carrier
The drive took 3 and a half days to complete. The first afternoon Ophelia was only slightly agitated as we moved drove out of Davis through, Nevada and Utah. Luckily there was little ground cover so the rock sequences could be clearly seen, and driving across the great salt lake in Utah was apparent by the smell of sulfide (everyone's favorite smell). The next day brought Wyoming with her table top plateaus and mountains in the distance, Nebraska, which was rolling hills, green, and lots of cows (not as much corn as either of us had expected), and the Iowa which was dark. By Wednesday Ophelia was pretty bored with the driving and simply slept with very little comment. We passed through Illinois where we finally did see corn (and lots of it), Indiana, where there were lots of large trucks driving fast (Emily was not so comfortable with these driving conditions) and into Ohio where we stopped in Columbus at Emily's aunt's house. Emily saw here first every fireflies/gluhwürme/lightning bugs and we all had a nice rest. Mid morning we left and drove the last little bit to State College. As we entered Pennsylvania it began to rain. This was a bit shocking to a Californian but also very convenient as the water washed all of the bugs accumulated from the long drive. We made it into State College by about 4 in the afternoon. The next day we picked up all of our belongings and sorted out our house. We even discovered that we had a family of Cardinals living in the backyard.
Ophelia much happier
Our new home.
Settled in to our new house
