2,000 Miles in the right Direction I never thought that I would be unexpectedly moved half way across the United States. I have lived in California for over half of my life. The change from a big city to a small town in the middle of nowhere is more dramatic than you would think. I always thought going to a small school would be strange, because I had always gone to a school the size of the University in this town. In late November of 2008, we had finally sold our home in California for a grand total of $375,000. That is quite cheap for the California real-estate market. We left in three, long, yellow Penske Moving trucks. I had thought, for being eight years old, that the move would be quick and that we would be cozy and situated in our new home in no time at all. Boy was I wrong… I was completely off of the charts. When I got the news of the time it would take to get to our destination on our commute out of Bakersfield, CA, I became apoplectic with rage at the lapse of time it would take. Well, Confucius once said, “It does not matter how slowly you go so long as you do not stop.” At the rate we were going, we were not stopping anytime soon, and it seemed like we were going two miles an hour from my perspective. From a young kid’s point of view, what was only fifteen minutes seemed like two hours. Once we were out of California limits, there was literally nothing to see anymore. And I thought a drive to Target was boring? Arizona and New Mexico have to be the least scenic states you can drive through. The first night, we spent the night in a Best Western Hotel in Arizona. This Hotel was not the greatest, but was miraculous compared to the other two “top rated by review” hotels we stay in. The temperature was nice since it was almost December. The second night was no better than the first, as far as the hotel conditions go. By noon on the third day, we were in Texas. We stopped for the third and final night around 8 hours from Durant, Oklahoma. We got up early on that fourth day. Texas’s temperature was a different story compared to Arizona, California, and New Mexico. Texas was pretty cold; dry and very cold. We got on the road as early