Wednesday, June 17th – that fateful day! Ryan and I furiously packed up our lovely Chicago apartment and we move the fuck outta there! It wouldn’t have been a real move if we didn’t have to call our landlord twice to reschedule our move out inspection. Hell, we only left 12 hours later than expected. That’s a big win in my book. Major shout out to my dad, Big Julio, who showed up midday to pack up the old Corolla, to the brim, no less. His help spurred us on to the finish line. Bleary eyed and a little delirious from the days of packing, Ryan and I said goodbye to our first apartment together. We took one last picture in the apartment, left the keys, and walked out…then spent another two hours rearranging the car in the alley. It’s a miracle Ryan didn’t try to kill me. I was dead set on making it all fit, and y’all, I did! We celebrated by cracking open a watermelon in the alley and scraping out delicious chunks of it with our bare hands and dripping just about everywhere. Juicy refreshment after a lot of hard work and planning. We ate it while 2 rats scampered by in the alley. Bye, Chicago! Drove out of town at the crack of 9pm, too excited to wait one more day. Ryan and I started the drive with a little Three 6 Mafia, the only way to start a long car trip, if you ask me. It was a fun throw back to some of the first music we bonded over, waaayyyy back in my first year of college, eight years ago. And here we are, on to the next adventure! Made it to Madison around midnight and got some rest before taking off to the Badlands of South Dakota.

To all our friends and family who’ve been endlessly supportive of our big plans, and provided so much help and good advice – we love you so much. Don’t worry, we’ll stay in touch!