::monstrous move day 4::

Day 4 and FINAL!

We started out in Oklahoma City. We were glad to get away from the stinky warm room nice and early. It's also pretty easy to get up ridiculously early when you're at least and hour off, time zone wise.

We weren't too far from Texas.

You'd think the sign would be bigger, I mean it's TEXAS, right?

Our bottoms were tired. Our backs were tired. We were all tired of the car and driving and stuff like that. But at least it was the last day. And I worked it so that Max got a few new entertaining items each day--like a new hotwheels car a new book one day. A new (used) gameboy game and some sort of movie another day. It kept him excited and gave him something new to think about each day. We also brought the DVD player, but only let him use it after lunch. That was nice because he would (try) to entertain himself in the morning, and by after lunch when we were all getting worn out he could veg out for a while.

The time change worked once again in our favor today, and we gained another hour as we drove into......drumroll please.......
New Mexico!!!

(Cool sign, huh? Much cooler than that Texas one, I have to say.) The sky in this photo is so New Mexico to me. Blue blue blue with fluffy white clouds. Beautiful.
Here's a much lamer sign. What's with the random chilis?


Because of our early start, our quick lunch (we can't take very long to eat when the dog is hanging out in the hot car) and the time change we got in at about 3PM. So early! I'm pretty impressed with us for making such good time across the country. We went straight to our new house on the way into town--we didn't expect to be able to get in and show Kris, but he at least wanted to see the outside. The landlord was there though, it turned out, so we got to do a quick walkthrough. I think it'll be really nice once we're all set up there.

Then we came into town, found ourselves a relatively comfy hotel and sent the boys swimming again. After that we found ourselves some yummy mexican food (I actually think it was NEW mexican food, but whatever). It was so good.

And we're SO tired now. Gaining hours is all well and good, but when it feels like 10PM at 8PM you know you're in trouble. At least it means Max falls asleep deceptively early.

We'll be at the house bright and early tomorrow morning--we'll get the keys at 7:30AM and the movers are showing up at 8AM. It's time for another busy day! We're getting closer to done now though, and I'm looking forward to a little relaxation--down time--rest--whatever you call it. I need some right about now.

We made it!!!

::monstrous move day 3::

We started out early. Really early. Sultan got us up before 6. Or maybe it was me needing a bathroom visit? I don't know, anyway, we were up and at 'em.
It was already steamy outside. I took a couple of pictures of Max while Kris was filling up the car before we got going and the lens kept steaming up. Even after I cleaned it off.

See how steamy? We were glad to get going and have the car AC blowing on us.

Here's Max holding the compass that we got for him--I got him a cruddy dollar one for our last NM trip that ended up falling apart. He was totally fascinated by it though, and checked it constantly. He hasn't been quite as addicted to this one, but at least it's been a good distraction.
In that picture you can see his CTR ring on his finger too--we thought it was lost long ago, but we found it in the car, much to his delight.

We went from the western part of Tennessee to Arkansas. Did you know that part of Memphis is in Arkansas? I had no idea!

Anybody know why Arkansas can count itself more "natural" than any of the others of us?

We had to cross the Mississippi river--it was the state line between TN and AR I think. It was very imposing.

I don't think that this picture gives you a good feel at all, but oh well. The Mississippi river is fun to see at any time.

Here's Kris talking to his mom on the phone:
Thank goodness for cell phones so we could chat with family and check facebook. How else would I know that we now have a new niece??

We took a pause at a rest stop in Arkansas that was just gorgeous. It was like somebody's own personal garden, beautiful flowers everywhere. I was so impressed I took a picture of it while Kris and Max were on their way up to the facilities.

This was just after I startled (badly I think) a carful of Asian tourists by accidentally leaning on the horn. Whoops.

In Arkansas we also stopped for lunch, specially, at one of our favorite sandwich places, Jimmy Johns. Mmmm, that place is delicious. We prefer it over McD's so much that we stopped shortly after 10AM for lunch, just so that we could eat there.
(It doesn't hurt that we were all on Eastern time still really, none of this silly Central time nonsense.)

Kris and I usually split one of the big wheat bread sandwiches and come away full. Man those things are good.


Then we went on into good old Oklahoma. Lots of fields, lots of farm machinery. Lots of nice people wearing cowboy hats.
We pulled up at the hotel we had reserved in Oklahoma City right at the deadline for cancellation. We took one look at the location and the state of the hotel and realized this was definitely NOT the place for us. I quickly and luckily got the reservation cancelled and we left that place to enjoy itself.

We headed up north of OK City to our #1 favorite Midwestern sandwich shop--PLANET SUB!!

Yes, when we were planning our trip we checked the P Sub website to see if we could hit a location on our way. And this one was the only possibility.
And boy we were glad to eat there. It's just so delicious. Good thing we're not near one or we'd go back to eating there at least once a week (sometimes a lot more times) and that's just not good for the waistline.

We all worn out by the time dinner was over.

We found a local hotel and committed to it. It was fine besides the fact that the AC didn't really work and we boiled, and there were construction workers in the walkway outside our door smoking all evening, so it stank. ICK.
But oh well. Max & Kris swam. We slept. That's all that really matters.

::monstrous move day 2::

Day two was WAY more boring than day one in some ways. But less stressful in other ways.
We started in Virginia and ended in Tennessee. That means we only saw one new state. It was hard, since we got spoiled with day one and it's amazing eight state span. Crazy, right? I mean, only in New England could you drive through eight states in one day.

Anyway, probably the most interesting thing we saw were a ton of crazy state troopers and sheriffs with people pulled over left and right. So we drove the speed limit.

We did about an nine hour day and made it through most of Tennessee. When we got to Jackson and stepped out of the car we almost died. It was SO incredibly hot and humid. We're grateful for hotel rooms with AC, however cruddy they may be.

Max swam and we tried to recover from another long day and not think TOO hard about how there are two more to go! At least we were a little more than halfway.

Kinda boring, but there you go. Just another day on the road--quick stops for meals and getting on our way!!

::monstrous move day 1::

Sunday was the first day of our monstrously huge drive across the country--from Warwick, RI to Santa Fe, NM.
Its a total of about 2200 miles and google maps thinks it would take about 26 hours to go the whole way--no stops. Crazy!

We left early in the morning--Sultan saw to it that we were up. Well, it wasn't too early, just about 7AM.
Starting with Rhode Island we went through about a billion states. Or that's what it felt like.
Check it out:
Connecticut

New York

(a little ways into NY we had to stop urgently for the bathroom--unfortunately we ended up somewhere in a cruddy part of the Bronx and got messed up trying to find our way back to the freeway. It was a little intimidating!)
New Jersey

Not our favorite state--at least the parts we saw of it.
Pennsylvania


In PA we stopped to eat lunch. We found a little park by a river and it was really nice, although Max was super cranky. And it was hard to keep Max and Sultan out of the river of course. Both were prettymuch captivated by the ducks.
The little river reminded me of a UT river, really. I'm sure out here they'd call it a creek or a stream, never a river!

We ate PB&Js, carrots and some stuff that a mom of one of Max's friends from school kindly sent for us to munch on. (Mmmmm, calzones).

Then we got back in the car and powered on. More states to see!!

Sultan's always ready to go.

Maryland

We just crossed through a bit of it, it hardly took any time, but it sure counts!
West Virginia

"Wild and wonderful" it was I guess.
Virginia! My namesake state!

We drove all the way to Christiansburg, where we were going to stay. We drove about 11 hours total.
It was a long day. It got hotter and hotter as we drove south west. Muggy, hot and yucky!

We were glad to get to the hotel. Max got to swim in the pool and we all got to rest a bit, which was much appreciated.
I'll leave you with a picture of Kris brushing the hairy beast outside the hotel room so that maybe he wouldn't completely fuzz everything in there.

We're all in it together!
Right now we plan to make Santa Fe by the evening of the 30th. We'll keep you posted.

::HAPPY::

It's sweet Kris's birthday today and we're on the road. I even forgot what day it was this morning and felt like a bad bad wife.
We got to have some fun with Kris's parents' when they were in town this weekend for graduation and did a little partying, presenting and celebrating then. We'll have to do more later once we get to our new home.
In the meantime?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KRIS!!!!

I love you more than ever.

::our last day in RI::

(this is looooooong, with lots of photos)
After graduation Kris and I ran back to the house to do a bit more cleaning up while Max (the lucky dog) got to go back with Grandma & Grandpa and have a sleepover at their hotel.

I was EXhausted.

Then we went to stay with our dear friends here in RI that were putting us up for friday and saturday night. So so much nicer than having to stay in the empty, semi-dirty hot house. They even watched Sul for us all day friday. So awesome.

Anyway, we went over there and got a little sleep. But Sultan woke Kris up so so early. Like 5AM and he couldn't go back to sleep, so he just headed on over to the house and finished the cleaning. Then he came back and got me (best husband ever, right?) and we met the landlord, exchanged keys and deposit and were done with the house. Phew.

Then we were about to get busy having FUN for our last day when our car, all full of luggage and trip accoutrements, made a bad clunk. Then another bad clunk. I was about to die.
So we went to the hotel and called the Subaru dealership and luckily they squeezed us in right away. Even more luckily, Kris's parents had rented a car, so we weren't left high and dry. The dealership fixed our clunk by mid afternoon and did a once over on the car so we were comfortable taking it on the long haul.

After we dropped it off, we headed out to Newport to have some fun. We wanted to take the parents out to fly kites at the kite park as a last hurrah before we left.

It was hot in Newport, but the kite park was awesome as usual, with the coolish breeze coming in off the water. And boy were there kites there.

Isn't that snake amazing? Even Kris's dad who HATES snakes admitted that thing was cool. I have no idea how they get it up in the air. It looked like a real snake up there, slithering in the wind.
And there were lots of other colorful things blowing around up there.

We got three kites up in the air and had fun flying them.

There's just something about flying a kite, way way up there in the sky that feels good.




Eventually we got too hot, and so we left to have lunch at the Barking Crab, a yummy seafood place in downtown Newport. It was basically Kris's birthday dinner.
Their food is really good. I had a crabcake sandwich that was totally delicious.


After that we went back to the hotel, Kris picked up the car, Max swam with the grandparents and we watched the US lose in the World Cup.

For dinner we grabbed some fast food and went to one of Max's favorite parks--we call it the Scripture Scouts park because the playground reminds him of the Scripture Scouts' treehouse.


It's beautiful, on a rolling hill right by the water. We can always see lots of boats, and the trees on the coastline farther down. It's a neat place.

Sultan was really glad to join us for dinner. All the moving weirdness had him a little freaked out, so riding in the car and hanging at the park was just the remedy he needed.

We tried to get Max to actually eat, but it was a struggle. And who can blame him, with that treehouse calling his name the whole time.

Poor Kris gave himself a brainfreeze.

Sorry, but that picture cracks me up, he just looks like he's suffering, doesn't he?


It was so fun to get to spend time together. We're so glad Kris's parents could come out and spend our last fun day with us and help us out.

That was the end of our fun day. After that we had to make Max somehow fall asleep and then get ready for the big long drive.
Off we go into the wild wooly yonder!!

::graduation::

Kris graduated on Friday. Yay!!
But first the movers came and packed our stuff onto a big van.
Well, not big enough evidently since they had to spend hours strategizing how to squeeze things in. I guess the guy that came and gave us our estimate underestimated. That's great for the wallet, not so great for making sure there was enough space in the truck.

They were supposed to be done by about 2PM so we could get ready for the graduation at 5:30. At 2 they were nowhere near done. Nor at 3. I kept telling them I had to leave at 4 and they said it was going to be NO problem at all. At 4 they're still working on it. At FIVE? Yep, still working on it. Finally we just had to make sure they had the rest of the stuff out on the lawn and we locked the door and we left.
I was planning on having some time to get ready, but had to settle for 10 minutes. Remind me never to load a moving truck the same day as graduation again--whether I have to do the loading or not! I was exhausted by 5.

But oh well, because we were so glad it was finally Kris's graduation day!
It's been a long time coming. We've been to two other St. Joe's graduations, so we knew pretty well what to expect. There are only four residents, so the program is nice and personal. A few important people get up and say some things, then the program director speaks and he usually speaks specifically about each resident, gives them a bit of a hard time and praises them for what they did well over the two years. It's really fun.
And this year didn't disappoint, I really enjoyed it.

BUT I didn't get to sit by Kris which was annoying. I did sit right behind him though. The above is a view of the program director talking over the heads of the residents.

Thank goodness for games on the phone. Most of the speeches didn't captivate Max, to say the least.


Kris with his fellow residents and program director in the middle. Kris will miss getting to work with these guys, and we'll miss getting to hang out with them.

Graduation was held at the Biltmore, a nice hotel downtown. We were right up at top and the views were spectacular.



Kris's parents came out for graduation, and it was so nice that they were there to support him and hear all the nice things that people had to say.


I'm SO proud of Kris and glad we made it to (and through) this day! Now off to the next adventure, deep into the unknown. We can do it, we've done it before.
Love you Kris!!!!!