It is a relief to finally be in our new home. We are now nestled into our cozy house on the East Coast. It is very temporary, as we should be returning to the west coast soon. It is amazing to live somewhere we've lived before. Things have changes a bit, but it's nice to know where the good grocery stores are, be familiar with the local chains, and at least have an idea about where I am when we move to a new home.
We spent ten days in the truck traveling across the country. Have you ever spent ten days in a truck with an 8 month old and a three year old? It makes for quite an adventure!
We stopped in Las Vegas to walk the strip, do some people watching and eat at one of the buffets. After that, the real trip began. Up early, and driving late, it still took us ten days. Between stops for restrooms (gotta love being just past potty training!), nursing breaks, and plain old sanity breaks made the days go by quickly.
Some highlights of the trip:
- Las Vegas, and Treasure Island show: "There will be no pillaging of this booty tonight boys!" A show not meant for kids.
- 10 rest areas between Monterey CA and the eastern AZ border. 2 were open.
- I-10 in El Paso, TX is so close to Mexico, that one of our iPhones decided to go ahead and join the Mexican Cellular network. It only costs about $20/mb to send and receive data.
- Three solid days of rain. Rain at night. Rain during the day. Rain. Rain. and more. RAIN!
- Trying to hit up every Cracker Barrel possible for those oh-so-good biscuits and southern comfort food.
- Flooding! Flooding! Flooding! As we were getting ready to leave Texas, the roads started to get a bit waterlogged. We found that they had closed the interstate minutes after we passed because it was covered in water.
- We experienced the most complicated interchange on I-10 in Houston, TX.
- Driving through the swamps of Louisiana was an experience. Have you ever driven down there? That is definitely a new experience. We were grateful to have passed through BEFORE the Superbowl AND Mardi Gras.
- Stopped in Northern VA in the snow and let Little Monster throw snowballs. His first time being old enough to play in it!
After all of those, we hit DC and Baltimore. Two days after they were hit with three feet of snow. Pulling the fifth wheel. Imagine if you will, the worst washboard road you can think of. Then multiply that by 1000. We had a hitch haul, carrying the generator and an air compressor on the back. Note, the word "had." As we pulled into Connecticut for the coldest night of our lives in the camper, we were very grateful that we had made it without incident. The hitch haul had cracked and broken, but had managed to hang on until we stopped for the night.
We could tell we were on the receiving end of many heartfelt prayers, because we didn't have any car trouble, and despite all of the adventure, we all managed to keep our sanity, and most of the time our sense of humor.
The snow in RI held off long enough for us to park our fifth wheel at its new home a few blocks away from our house, and the ABF trailer to arrive. But, the second we opened the trailer to unload, the snow came down. We got nearly a foot of snow while we were unloading, though we were lucky enough to have several neighbors come out to help.
As of right now, we are mostly moved in, and enjoying being on the east coast. The person who enjoys it the most? Probably our daughter who got her first taste of Dunkin donuts and a jelly filled munchkin:
