365 days after my 44 hour journey

It was a rainy early morning on March 26, 2018. My car was full of vacuumed sealed bags with my clothes and I had a full stock of munchies to last me the whole ride— Phoenix, Arizona to Boston, Massachusetts. The longest ride I have ever driven by myself.

An amazing career opportunity had come up and I was willing to move thousands of miles away from my family to a place I didn’t know a single soul to chase my dreams. Although it wasn’t the first time I had done it (I had moved to Wichita, Kansas under almost the same senario), but this was the farthest I’d ever be from all I knew.

Getting to New England was quite a journey, but it came after several months of hardships.

You see, I had lived in three different states prior to my long drive. My job in Kansas was eliminated and I was out of a job in late November, 2017. I took a leap of faith and moved to Denver, Colorado in December for a TV opportunity. This is where I learned to trust my gut— I took this job out of desperation, even though I wasn’t completely sold on it and it turned out to be one of the worst decision of my life. So by mid January I was back in Phoenix staying at my moms.

After being away from my family for several years, I took this moment in my life as a blessing in desguise. It not only gave me time to plan out my next career move, but it gave me an opportunity to spend time with my family when my newest nephew was born and when my aunt passed away in early February.

During this time God answered my prayers and gave me an amazing opportunity- move to Boston and work for NBCUniversal, report for Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra and be able to do stories on NBC Boston and NECN on occasions. This was by far one of the best moves in my career!

So with a gray and gloomy sky in late March, I packed some of my clothes and my two fur-babies and did the 44 hour drive. Although the direct drive was four hours shorter, I had to make a couple of detours along the way.

I met up with my mother and her boyfriend in Amarillo, Texas. That’s where I rested for about four hours and had a amazing meal at a local diner.

My second detour was in Ohio. As soon as I entered the state I noticed how bad the roads were and shortly after that I got a flat tire. I had to stop at a random gas station at 3AM to get help. I know had to fix a tire, but the bolts were too tight that I couldn’t get them off. Thankfully the clerk helped me out!

My third detour was in Dayton, Ohio. Gamez, my dachshund, started loosing mobility of his two back legs. I started to freak out. He seemed in pain and wasn’t moving much, so around 2AM I went to a vet clinic that happened to be open that late. Two hours and several hundred dollars later, Gamez was prescribed some medicine for his pain and the vet said he might have a herniated disk. Since I was traveling across the country, there wasn’t much she could do at that time. I ended up pulling into a McDonald’s parking lot to sleep for a couple of hours before being once again on my way and leaving Ohio. It was definitely the worst state in my journey.

With Gamez’s pain under control, I took one last detour through New York City. I had never been there before and I wanted to get my first glimpse of that amazing city! I don’t even remember what route I took or what bridge I went over as I was in awe, impressed by what I was seeing. Besides almost getting hit my a speeding semi, I felt not that bad driving through the crazy streets of NYC.

I made it to the hotel NBCUniversal had provided me around 1AM. Let me just say I had one of the best sleeps in my life— I was BEAT!

Side note: Less than a week after arriving in Boston, Gamez’s symptoms worsen. One night after coming home from work, he couldn’t walk at all. I took him to a local veterinary clinic and he had to be admitted. He was seen by a neurology doctor the next morning and later that day had spinal surgery :( THANKFULLY everything went well and by the following day the vet called me, saying “he’s running in the halls! One of the best recoveries I’ve seen.” Almost a year post surgery, he’s as good as new! :D Big thanks for my sister Karla for helping me finance his very expensive surgery!! <3