It's about to go down.

T minus ten hours until we take to the open road.

If you're reading this blog, you probably know me (hi mom!) or Sue. In the strange event that you don't know either one of us, here's a little background.

During the next five days, this blog will be our travel journal. We're chronicling our trip because despite knowing each other over 13 years, this is our very first vacation together. Sue and I have traveled together, but it's always been for work...until now. We will be traveling to Mendocino, 10 hours up interstate 5 in California, and then driving down the 101, along California's coast. It's going to be awwwwwsome.


Meet Sue Ellen:

Sue is a hoot and a half. There's a very thin filter between Sue's brain and the outside world, making most exchanges with her hilarious, sad, frustrating, or a combination of the above. The fact that Sue Ellen wears her heart on her sleeve is endearing. Except when she's inexplicably crying over a movie trailer. Then it just gets kinda awkward.

Sue is also a closet outdoors(wo)man. She hikes regularly, but she's never gone camping, so our first challenge is to set up camp at Russian Gulch State Park. We'll see how it goes. I was feeling good about it, right up until Sue asked me if I knew how to start a fire. Which was followed up by, "can I borrow a sleeping bag?" and then by "can you bring a tent?" and then by "will it be cold?" and then by another ten questions in quick succession. The girl is unprepared. Fun times.

Strengths: Reading maps, yelping, scaring away wildlife with her singing.

Weaknesses: Spiders, peanuts.

Super power: Dog whispering.

Meet Sonia (me):

I'm just a girl, standing in front of a boy, asking him to love her. Just kidding, that's an awful quote from Notting Hill. I am indeed a girl, but I'm also the youngest of three, a little bit of a geek, a good friend, a decent cook, a pretty cool roommate, a writer, and a slight nail polish addict.

I'm comfortable with the outdoors and I've done this trip before, so I'm looking forward to relaxing and enjoying the drive and all of its random gems. The first time around, I spent a good hour or two driving in the dark, through the crazy curves of Hwy 1 in the middle of the redwood forest, being closely followed by giant trucks. No bueno.

This time around, Sue will be doing all the driving, which doesn't mean that I won't freak out, but it does mean that I can try to ignore our near-death experiences by doing the quizzes in my lady mags.

Strengths: Picking music, making lists, fighting off raccoons. 

Weaknesses: Karaoke, cute hitchhikers.  

Super power: Creating diversions.

We will both contribute to the blog, so you'll get to know us a little better in the next week or so.

Wish us luck.