A Stranger In a New Town

Today I'm going car shopping.
I'm not excited about it. I should be, but I'm not.  I just keep thinking about how excited I was when I bought my Toyota. I was so excited to drive that thing across the country.  I planned to have that car forever...I was so excited...I mean look at me. 

Ignore the old water mark...It's from my old blog. 

And now, here I am. Shopping. Again. 
My car and I have been through a lot together.  I took it with me when I moved to Las Vegas.  It made 5 trips back and forth between Salt Lake and Las Vegas.  It took me on a weekend trip to Flagstaff, Arizona for a bluegrass music festival.  It took me to Los Angeles for a weekend for the Marine Corps Ball.  It took me to 29 Palms multiple times to see my friends...I put about ten thousand miles on it in less than a year.  
And now I have to take something different on a cross country road trip to Kentucky.  It makes me sad. But maybe I'll buy something even better... 
You can see from my past year of travels, that I have a bit of wanderlust inside of me.  I love going new places.  Being a total stranger in a new town is exciting for me.  Traveling around the west has been fun, but I am so excited to travel around a new part of the country I've never really had the chance to explore. I've just seen so many beautiful things, I can't wait to see more. 

I'd be okay with seeing a few more of these firey sunsets across the country.  I caught this one on the California freeway. Stuck in ridiculous traffic...But I didn't even care. 

I have all sorts of other places that I want to go.  I have a list a mile long. And that's just in the US...

Well...here's too...new road trips, new adventures, and new fun in a new [to me] car.

Parked In a No Parking Zone

So...I guess it's time to divulge the gory details of my car accident.  On Saturday, I was leaving my unit picnic/barbecue thing we were having and heading to my boyfriend's place (oh yeah, btw, I have a boyfriend...weird right?) heading north.  I was driving through an intersection when I saw a car coming from the west that didn't seem to be stopping.  Their light was red and I was really confused. I tried to react in time to avoid the accident, but obviously, that didn't happen. the other car ended up hitting my back end. I luckily, I saw that they were coming and I did have a reaction. I sped up a little and kept the other car from hitting my door.  This was the end result.  That metal thing you can see underneath my car? It's a sign...I was 'parked' on a 'no parking' sign...I didn't hear it, but apparently the cop made some dumb joke about how he should have cited me for parking ON a "no parking" zone. ha. ha. So funny.  Currently, my car is sitting in a tow yard.  It's filled with half of my dorm room from when I moved back.  It's my lil baby. It was the first thing that I ever financed. I bought it all on my own. I paid on time and extra each month...I drive carefully.  So carefully that my whole family makes fun of me.  And yet...I wrecked. That just goes to show that it can happen to anyone I guess. I'm just so very lucky that I saw it coming, I reacted, and I caused less damage and no real injuries. It could have been so much worse.  If you know me personally and you're just finding out about this accident, chill out, I'm fine. 
Now, I'm driving a Nissan rental car that is way too nice for me.  I'm so glad I have insurance with full coverage...If I'm lucky, I'll get a nice new car out of this super sad and horribly unfortunate accident...
Drive safe, folks, and wear your seat belts