We started out from Fresno on Monday, August 1st around 10am. My family came over and so did Daniel's parents. We were finishing the last loading of our cars (my SUV and his pickup truck) but we couldn't get everything in there. We severely underestimated how much room the last bits of our house would take up. In the end we just started chucking stuff to the garbage or gave to our parents (bathroom accessories, a giant box of all the condiments, buckets and baskets, etc, etc). But finally we got going, gassed up at Costco, and got on the 99 to get to the I80.
We drove north past Sacramento and after that, the road was all new to me. I never realized Tahoe was only like 3.5, 4 hours away from home; I always thought it was nestled a lot deeper into the Sierra Nevada. We stopped in Sparks, Nevada, right past Reno, for lunch at In N Out, probably our last meal there for a long time. Whenever we stopped, we let Belle (our dog) out and kept the cars running so the cats inside the cars stayed cool. One of us would stay with Belle and the cars and the other would go inside for food. We got back on the road and headed to our first stopover in Elko, Nevada. Google estimated it would take over 9 hours to get there from Fresno but we made it in like 8 hours (not including our lunch break). We stayed at the Red Lion and it was my favorite hotel of the trip. Just a nice room on the lower level with a balcony directly facing our cars (since they were so obviously loaded down with stuff, I was wary about leaving them too far away from us). 
The next morning we started out, our end goal to be in Rawlins, Wyoming for the night. We stopped in Salt Lake City, Utah to take a picture of the capitol building (we're trying to visit every single one in the U.S. after we had our first date in Sacramento, our first out-of-state trip to Denver, and have made road trips that would stop at several other capitols like Oregon's and Washington's) and then had peanut butter sandwiches in the WalMart parking lot in the Kimball Junction area (between Salt Lake and Park City, Utah). Arrived in Rawlins ahead of schedule as well. We stayed at Days Inn there...it was kinda run down but the people at the front desk were really nice and they allowed pets. 
The next leg of our trip would end in Lincoln, Nebraska. This was my hardest day on the whole road trip, but I use "hard" loosely. I just got sleepy and fatigued 4 hours into the drive instead of not at all like the other days so we stopped early for lunch. (Subway was my lifesaver on this trip so I didn't have to eat fried fast food all the time...didn't even know they carried spinach leaves so at least I felt some semblance that I was healthy lol). After that, it was alright for awhile and then massive thunderstorms hit. We could barely see 800 yards in front of us and you almost didn't need windshield wipers since the rain was coming down so hard, so fast, and with such big drops that it cleared the glass. Driving in the rain was fine though it was slow going and Nebraska drivers are already a little ridiculous. (Insert rant here: Nebraskan drivers don't seem to be aware of the interstate highway code of move the f-- over into the slow lane when there are faster cars behind you. In fact, when you are in the slow lane and someone is approaching in the fast lane, move in front of them in the fast lane to pass someone very slowly, forcing said someone in fast lane to brake and drop their speed 20 miles an hours, which is irritating, unsafe, and bad for your mileage. Also when passing someone, pass them at 5 miles under the speed limit so it takes you over 5 miles to pass them because now you're just going the same speed.) We finally got to Lincoln but I was so pissed off at the whole state I just stayed in the room not even venturing out to get dinner. The next morning we decided to drive by the capitol to take the quick pic since I'm pretty sure I'll never go back and then we set out. Driving through Lincoln and Omaha was hell and then we got to the Iowa border. Thank goodness! Anyway, today would be a short day, only about 5ish hours of driving before arriving in Davenport, our new home. However we checked into a hotel since we wouldn't get the keys until Friday, the next day. We stopped in Iowa City for some Chipotle (big college town so figured they would have one and now we're getting one here in Quad Cities!) then arrived in Davenport about 45 minutes later. Drove by the house and met our landlord, who was in town overnight straightening up a few last minute things at the house before we moved in. First impression was super small town (which has been rectified somewhat as I'll explain another time).
Overall, the 2000 mile/30ish hours of driving wasn't too bad. I enjoyed most of the scenery, with my favorite being the stretch between Salt Lake City and Rawlins. Gorgeous rock formations, rolling hills. The salt flats in Utah were pretty cool though that stretch lasted so long between the mountain ranges that it got really boring; there were even signs about "driver fatigue kills" all along the I80 there. I didn't know Wyoming was going to be so high in elevation (for comparison, most of the state was above 7000 ft and we are only about 700 ft above sea level now). Nebraska was as flat as can be; I've never seen anything that flat before with no mountains or anything jutting into the background. Iowa is super pretty with its rolling hills and beautiful clouds =).
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