Even the Best-Laid Plans...

So remember how back in March (on the 18th, to be exact), I went into detail about our road trip? The one that Travis (my brother), Matt (his best friend), and I were going on?? Well, I think God's enjoying messing with us. I can see it now..."You silly humans think that just because you say something's going to happen like 'this, this, and this,' it'll just magically turn out that way? Ha, let me show you how little control you actually have over even the tiniest of details! Hey, St. Peter, come watch what I'm about to do!" Yea. I doubt that's quite how it's going down, but you get the picture. Here's how it's gone:
-Me, Travis, and Matt? It's now just Travis and I. Matt can't get out of work.
-Driving through Yosemite (versus around it)? Now, due to snow causing road closures on the only paved road that goes the route we need it to, we're actually going through Fresno (AFTER camping out at Yosemite for several days-so we're not actually missing the entire Yosemite experience, just the "driving through it" part).
-Taking Trav's car? Something about driving a vehicle through 4 states (that's if you count AZ) while it's got a cracked radiator and a severe oil leak just doesn't seem like a good idea. New plan: We're taking my car instead (thank goodness we had it for back-up, or we'd be SOL).
That's it (so far). Just found out about the car thing today, and seriously feel like taking bets on what'll go wrong next. Not that anything's gone seriously wrong (i.e. Travis breaking his leg-not like that would ever happen, and being the loving sister I am, I definitely wouldn't laugh about it if it did [haha, Travis...haha]), but it should be interesting to see how things end up panning out.
The good side:
-Matt not coming means we have more room in the car for luxuries (including a camp stove for cooking) that we definitely couldn't have fit in there had all three of us been going.
-The detour around Yosemite means that we'll get to stay at our stepdad's friends' house in Fresno (queue fanfare in celebration of hot showers and warm beds).
-And my car instead of Trav's...well, I haven't found the silver lining in that one, other than how happy I am that we (he) discovered this now, rather than mid-trip (the repairs are about $650 total, minimum). It saddens me, as the Zune can connect to a cassette tape to play music on the car stereo (would've worked in Trav's car), however my car only plays CD's, it doesn't have a tape deck. So that's out the window. I suggested to Trav that we could each take one headphone and keep the Zune on the console between the driver and passenger seats...but we'll probably end up just bringing a bunch of CD's (not terribly bad, but that means less space for packing other stuff, since CD's do take a lot more room than the Zune).
Anyways, there's the update on our road trip plans. I probably won't be able to blog for most of the trip (except the first night-when I won't have much to tell about yet). But believe me, when we get back (May 31st), I'll probably have at least 5 posts dedicated to it (I'm thinking one post per site we visit). So, again, brace yourselves! I'm gonna go picture crazy. :)

Zunerooni

I got a Zune a few weeks ago, and I love it! It makes me feel a little old that I don’t really know anything about MP3 players, but that’s only because I’ve never had one. I would’ve bought a cheap one long ago, if I’d had a computer to use for loading songs onto it. So I have (access to) a computer now, and I’d wanted to buy an MP3 player sometime anyway, but decided now was the time since we’re preparing for the road trip. Two weeks, two/three people (as Matt may or may not be coming), and many miles means we’ll definitely need some musical entertainment. And, since I broke Trav’s MP3 player a couple of years ago (and he hasn’t bought another one), I went on a quest for one. It was pretty easy, though, Travis said “Get a Zune,” so I did! It was more expensive than I expected, but I’m very happy with it, so I think it was worth the price. It also has several games on it (including sudoku), which is awesome. I loaded a bunch of music (emo and country, mostly), and Trav put a bunch on as well (techno, of course). We have a pretty good mixture, and tried to keep it even between stuff that I like (but Trav doesn't), stuff Trav likes (but I don't), and stuff that we both like (neutral).
Anyway, I'm so very, very excited! There's less than a week to go (we leave the 13th, and will be returning the 31st). When we get back, you'll have to brace yourselves for large doses of scenery pictures. Travis even bought an extra memory card for his digital camera, as I expect to fill up the card he already has pretty quickly. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it to a maximum of 100 pictures per day, as that will work out almost perfectly with the amount of memory his two cards have. I'm very much looking forward to it! :)
A pic to get you ready for the onslaught of photos I'll be posting:

Yosemite Falls, at Yosemite National Park

Seriously?

(seen at the grocery store)

Things I love about living up north, versus in Phx:

-Looking forward to any time spent outside rather than dreading it.
-Taking walks whenever I want.
-The way my whole body will be warm, but my face (esp. cheeks and nose) is cold…I LOVE that!
-Never hearing “high pollution advisory” on the news.
-How everything moves slower.
-The abundance of plants that aren’t dead.
-Being able to wear beanies!
-The sound of the wind in the trees (my whole life, I think my favorite place in the world has always been my grandparents’ cabin outside of Flagstaff, in the middle of the forest where all you can hear are the animals and the wind in the trees).
-How it can be raining/storming and cold, but there’s tumbleweeds rolling along the ground.
-How you can totally see a million stars in the sky at night!
-The people are nicer (drawback: this is because they're older...which also means they drive well under the speed limit on a regular basis).

That's it for now, but when I think of more, I'll let you know!