"We made it."
"Barely."
"We are never doing that trip again."
"With a cat at least.
...and possibly not with all our stuff."
"I guess that means we have to be rich enough to have someone else move it when we leave."
"Ok."
This was our conversation about Missouri.
It wasn't all that bad.
We left Hoffman base camp around eleven thirty Sunday and headed to Eric and Brianna's for lunch. On the fifteen minute trip to their apartment, the trailer decided to weave horribly and was jackknifing us into the other lane. We weren't even going that fast.
Lunch, I must say was awesome. It was the best trip-send-off-meal I may have ever gotten. Thanks so much guys.
After lunch, Danny and Eric repacked some things to try to make it a little better.
We also learned that Naughty can scale a chain-link fence in under two seconds. Remember--she doesn't have claws.
It took us over 5 hours to get to Grand Junction (usually takes just under 4) where my parents met us to help drive us over the mountains. We decided to get something to eat "real quick" at Village Inn. Real quick turned into two-ish hours. Something about cooks going on strike. Roger checked the tire pressure and the weaving problem with the trailer was fixed due to uneven tires--gotta love Uhaul.
Made it to Denver a little later than planned--due to unseen circumstances.
Spent a wonderful day with my mom, doing little things before I left, and shopping for fabric for Jackson's bed. Danny (still pretty sick at this point) watch more movies than he is willing to admit. After a nice traditional family pizza dinner with everyone (Kenny, Meggan, mom, Roger, Danny and I) we got up early the next day and took off for--somewhere.
All I remember is that we didn't get there. We blew a Uhaul tire. No, actually we SHREDDED a Uhaul tire. It was at a point in the freeway that we couldn't go anywhere...so we sat without air-conditioning on the side of the road for over two hours until the Uahul tire-fixer people decided we were important enough to rescue. In those two hours we had three other people stop to help--roadside assistance people...but unless we wanted to pay for it...you get the idea. We did get to see our first lightening-bugs--and got to hear lots of other bugs--probably ones bigger than I wanted to believe.
Motel 6 night one: good. Cool, cat only escaped once, clean shower. Success.
Another day of driving. Because nothing insanely unfortunate happened this day (aside from road construction--is there any state that is "ok" with how they look?), it was pretty successful. We ate lots of fast food, I ended up driving a lot so that Danny could read our book--time went a lot quicker when he read to us--much better than just radio.
Motel 6 night two: not-so-good. hot, ants, small browned shower, cat climbing under beds, sketchy neighbors. I was ready to leave.
Last day! This day was good mainly because we had adrenalin enough to get us excited. The only unfortunate thing this day was the toll road. We knew there were toll roads in Florida--but we picked the worst one. $20 for one road. Don't worry family, we will give you BETTER directions than MapQuest when you decide to visit. Good thing I had a little cash.
We drove in beautiful blue sky speckled with white fluffy clouds (THE SIMPSONS) on very flat roads with lots of green to both sides.
Vero Beach ("Veeeeero" Beach) finally came. We live off of the main road--literally you get off of the freeway and drive for half an hour and we are on the right-hand side.
Yes. The building is pink with turquoise accents.
Yes. There are palm trees everywhere.
Yes. We do have air conditioning.
Yes. There is a Walmart just north of us by a few blocks.
and YES! The beach is fabulous and only ten minutes away. (We went swimming for the first time yesterday at 6:00pm. Great time to go.)
We had Family Night on the beach on Monday and saw our first turtle nest. They stake them off so you don't accidentally sit on them. We also saw a sign saying "No Shark Fishing." Apparently this means there are sharks. We didn't see any swimming the other day--so I think we are ok...
Tuesday we saw an ad on Craigs List for a free black leather couch and loveseat in GREAT condition. No picture and only an address. Even though it was like 30 minutes away--we went to check it out. Yes we got a couch and it is in good condition. Danny has now owned three leather couches. This is my first one.
The COOL thing about this trip was that we saw a bunch of crabs walking on the road. It was hilarious--and yes...I made Danny get out of the car and take pictures.
We are doing well. Most of the stuff is unpacked and in working condition. Danny is still job hunting, we has applied at a gazillion places within the last few days--so hopefully soon we will hear back on some. I am trying to adjust to not having a washer and dryer in my apartment again...and hoarding quarters.
That is all for now! We made a video of our place but it is too big to put on the Blog--I will try to email it to everyone--so you can hear Danny's angelic voice.
Love you all!!!
