Welcome to California

This wasn’t the easiest picture to get. Yesterday afternoon we drove into California and, not finding a welcome sign at which to document our entry, back to Yuma, Arizona.

“You’re in California. Nobody cares.” I said.

When we drove back across the one-lane bridge, there was no sign saying we were welcome in Arizona, either. We took a different road, and there was this sign. But no shoulder to pull off onto. So we turned around again and parked the entire rig right next to the I-10 on-ramp. We put on the hazards and made our way across the four-lane road to get to the sign.

This was the last time we’d be entering a state in which we were married–it was important.

We took several pictures, rejecting each one. My teeth looked too large. Frances wasn’t looking at the camera. Ami wasn’t smiling. Then the camera lens retracted and the display said, “Battery exhausted.” That was it. We had to go with what we had.

So here it is, folks, our final return to our legal marriage.

We became legally married when we entered Iowa from Minnesota. Then unmarried when we got to Illinois.

We remained unmarried until we made it to Washington, D.C. Entering Delaware, we left our marriage at the border. Picked it back up on the George Washington Bridge entering New York. We stayed married through Vermont and Massachusetts until we got to New Hampshire–in which state, had we taken this trip after January 1 2010, we would have remained married.

Back in Massachusetts we were again bride and bride, stayed that way through Connecticut and New York, and again lost our legal standing at the border to New Jersey. From Maryland to D.C. we became married again, and later that day, entering Virginia, we were again “roommates.”

Through eleven states we traveled. Girlfriends in North Carolina. Partners in Louisiana. Just friends in Arizona. And yesterday we returned to California for the first time since we left last August, legal, binding marriage certificate in hand.

Yesterday we found ourselves married again. Yesterday we got recognized. Yesterday we once again occupied the same physical location as our marriage.

We have been married all along.

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