Yes, the update... long overdue.

The day after my "Time Out" entry... an angel of mercy gave me the strength and the power to do what needed to be done.  The evening of the 17, I informed my DH that I was leaving, and had packed up and gone within a few hours.  Was I upset? Very much so... I nearly turned around more times than I can count.  While DD and Allie snoozed as we made our late night exodus out of sin city, Natasha Bedingfield told me that my life was still "Unwritten" and I drove a little faster, while Breaking Benjamin's "So Cold" brought me to tears (Show me how it ends, it's alllllllriiiiiiiight... show me how defensless you really aaaaaaaare....) and nearly got me to turn around and drive back... All American Rejects told me to "Move Along" and then Hoobastank saved the day with, "With eyes wide open, My new life begins. Without you there to tell me, when, where and how, And you can't stop me now..."

I drove until I was so exhausted that I was driving between the two lanes of the freeway in some sort of hypnotized/catatonic state (many thanks to the trucker who brought me back into the world... I am not sure that my eardrums will ever be the same...) I decided that I should stop and get some sleep. I pulled into a rest stop, feeling a bit worried for DD's safety, then realized that anyone stupid enough to try to get into the car was going to be torn to shreds by Allie the Wunderdog within moments and fell into a coma until the first grey light of dawn brought a stray cat to Allie's attention... nothing like a big dog barking in your ear while trying to scramble out of the sunroof of a very small car to get one up and at-em in the morning!

So the journey continued and as I crossed into Arizona, the sunrise was spectacular and (though I narrowly missed a passing coyote...) I realized that for the first time in my life, I was somewhere no one knew who I was and where no one was expecting me... I was myself, and I was no one... I felt an exhilarating sense of freedom... I was almost giddy with it, but I knew I still had miles to go, and while I enjoyed the feeling... it was tempered by the fact that I had given DH most of my money before I left (to fix my mistake) and I was traveling on a shoestring budget.  I smiled to myself, and kept on driving....
Interesting photos along the way:

  Bye bye Nevada.. erm, Arizona??? erm, Utah??? I can't remember.

 And that my friends... is what FREEDOM looks like! On the home stretch!

 Looking from Oregon into Washington...

I made my way from the Soutwest to the Northwest with a little bit of luck, a little bit of faith and a whole lot of hope... I got to my sister's house in Central WA with a half tank of gas and $8 in my pocket... but we had made it....