Monday, July 27, 2009

The Move

Let's be honest: blogging is not my forte. I know I saw that everytime I blog, so I think I'll just trust that the rest of you have already realized this and quit stating the obvious. Once again, I blame it on lack of pictures. Actually, we have tons of pictures to post, but I feel lame blogging without them and as our camera cords are somewhere in the stack of boxes in the garage...

What has happened since last I posted? Oh so much! First of all, we left Utah June 19th to begin our first move/trek across the country in Justin's non-air-conditioned car towing a little trailer. To prepare ourselves for the anticipated heat, we bought two little fans and a pack of 18 washcloths to keep damp in the cooler on the ice (for our necks/heads if needed), lots of water/gatorade, and we bought do-it-yourself tinting at Wal-mart. Day 1 was pretty good. The weather was nice, it was driving through Utah and Wyoming and we didn't ever have to break out the washcloths. That tinting CHANGED OUR LIVES. We were doing really good driving-wise, so we ended up driving to Omaha in a long, 14-hr day. Spent the night at a hotel there, but when we left in the morning we realized we were definitely in humid, mid-west country now. The rest of the way to Willard, MO (outside Springfield, where Justin's family lives) was hot, humid, and we were so set on reading Harry Potter that we didn't want to roll the windows down as it would hurt our ability to read out loud and also that it might mess up the tint. Anyways, that was a pretty miserable day. Thank goodness for the wonder that is ice in washcloths, cold beverages that replenish fluids and quench thirst, and the glory that two fans can provide. Plus a loving, patient, thoughtful husband who is more concerned for my own comfort than how hot he might be. That's some serious love. Anyways, got to Willard, took showers, and suddenly birds were singing and flowers were blooming again. Had an EXCELLENT visit there. Stayed Saturday afternoon through early (4 am) Thursday morning. Stayed for Father's Day, went to Andy's custard place, Lambert's Cafe (AMAZING), and the Bass Pro Shop headquarters. SO much fun. Unfortunately, all good visits must come to an end, so we woke up super super early Thursday morning after deciding that we would rather die than drive the 12 hours to Peachtree City, GA entirely in daylight hours. And after chastisement from both sets of parents, decided we'd also roll the windows down.

Oh my goodness, parents are so wise! You know how you go through phases in your life where you say "oh, I'm a college graduate (with two degrees, thank you very much), I'm married, we hitched up this trailer (Justin did), I have a grown-up job, I can figure out what's the best way to stay cool as we move across the country while still being able to read Harry Potter aloud..." Well, then you have a miserable day and realize you should listen more to the adults around you who have been saying something else all along. Yay for humbling, learning moments. Plus they make good stories to tell to future generations, right? My grandkids will say "tell us the story of when you and Grandpa moved across the country without airconditioning" and their eyes will go wide and they'll be so impressed that we had the strength and courage to do that. They'll probably call us modern day pioneers. Cool.

So the last day of driving was bearable. Hot, but bearable. SO glad we left so early in the day. We definitely drove through the Ozarks of Arkansas and saw tons of little po-dunk towns. We stopped for gas at this one place where it literally took 20 minutes to pump 3 gallons. The numbers literally crawled. Funny, but not at the moment. It was pretty scenery though!?

Anyways, so we get to GA and take a shower and eat and enjoy playing with my family. We unloaded the trailer into a nice little spot my mom cleaned out for us the in garage and returned the trailer. Went to the pool with Claire, got fried, then left on Sunday morning for our long-awaited, much-belated HONEYMOON at Disney World!!! Yay! The post on that will be coming next. I need to take a break first.