I'd love to tell you about today, but I slept through it . . .

So we made it safely to Laramie last night, no thanks to mother nature.  We had a real decent nights sleep at the same motel we stayed at in Laramie on our way from Portland to Nashville, 30 months ago . . . enjoyed a really hearty dinner in the old town area, and slept like babies.

We had planned for a potential 24 hour stay in Laramie due to weather forecast, but we woke to the best possible news, the snow had abated and the roads were well passable, so we were up and ready to leave by 6am.

Sadly, our yellow bullet of bliss had other diesel ideas and refused to start.  A quick 800 call to Penske and Terry from Cowboy towing showed up with his crew to solve the problems caused by a 12 degree night.  It took them several hours, mechanic trickery, and some waiting for the ambient temp to rise above ice age temps to get things rolling.

 We lost about 5 hours of good travel time, but the weather was so beautiful and the conditions favorable, with enough sugar cookies and coffee on board, we conquered some ground. . . .

ok, this is where I confess that chronic insomnia and several months of panic and stress caught up with me today and I slept in the car for about 7.5 hours today. . . . and missed some of the most beautiful snow and mountains of this trip, but I feel like a new person . . . JB took some road pics so we'd have some documentation of the day.

Don't know what tomorrow holds, but with fairly favorable conditions predicted, we'll be at least in eastern oregon by tomorrow night and will roll on in on Christmas Eve.  I promise to not sleep all day tomorrow, so more pics and blog to come . . . 

Wow. Today was just . . . wow.

We got an almost ontime start today from St. Joseph, MO.  6:03am.  The goal?  Laramie, Wyoming - 633 miles.

Thought we'd fallen asleep and woken up in heaven . . . 

Put the moon to bed just inside of Nebraska . . . 

Then stared at 500 miles of corn fields and cows.  Not figuratively.  Fer Real.

500 miles of bored to tears, and then two hours of white knuckled winter roadtrip excitement right about at the halfway trip mark.  We started getting calls and texts from Richard and from Robert about the weather past Cheyenne.  We dialed in with the Wyoming DOT to get the report and decided for safety we'd stop in Cheyenne, but when we arrived it was completely dry and uneventful.  A little old snow and some lazy wind turbines.

Even Griffin was bored and wondering what all the excitement was about . . .

My mom asked around the truck stop (insert jokes here) and most of the eastbound truckers advised to get over the pass between Cheyenne and Laramie today or risk being stuck in Cheyenne for 24 - 48 hours.  We pressed on, and within about 15 miles went from clean and dry to near whiteout conditions with 1/4 to 1/2 mile visibility - we were moving about 25 MPH for quite awhile.

 took us a lot longer than it should have, but we hit Laramie safely and were amazed at the beautiful Christmas winter wonderland.  We found an amazing steakhouse brewery for dinner and downed a steak . . .

Steak makes a happy . . .

then took a little tour of the old town. . . 

In spite of reports that we're going to be stuck here tomorrow, we're hoping for another 600 mile day . . .

Cowboy Up...and Cowgirl...And Cowparents...And Cowcritters . . .

Eventful - I think it’s best described as pretty eventful thus far

12/18 Saturday - Thanks to the bubba agent my parents dealt with, the truck rental was aaalllll kinds of screwed up, but got straightened out eventually.  We got to working on more packing, and got driveby love from Emily and Murrell and Robin stopped by for a hug on their way to a mistletoe shoot - don’t ask - I just know it involves a .22 and some crazy country folk.  Mark and Jason did some hauling off of leave behind stuff and Chanel and I packed my office, which is code for cried and drank wine and didn’t get anything done.

 12/19 Sunday was load day.  JB and I got started early, coffee with Brian and Michael then dropping Griffin off to spend the day with the McLaughlin’s, out of harms way.  The movers showed up around 10 and got started hauling everything out to the staging area.  The Langs showed up, Chanel and my mom followed the movers around and as they emptied out a room, they dug in and started cleaning, vacuuming, and Consuela even steam cleaned the bedrooms.  Uncle Robert showed up and worked on burning trash for us, an endless all day job.  Got drive by love from BJ and our Goddaughter Emily, super thankful to get a chance to hug them goodbye.

Things started to unravel after lunchtime as it became pretty clear that things weren’t all going to fit, which we were sort of prepared for - but we reached the stage where hearing my name even one more time or being asked to make one more decision was going to result in bodily harm to myself or others.  So thank you Carrie for the xanax, I’m pretty sure you saved a life yesterday.  In the end, nothing critical stayed behind - the Lang’s acquired some more of our crap, and Granny and Grandpa are the proud new owners of a fancy treadmill.

Richard took JB out for a last beer together.  Robert got us set up with a place to sleep at Granny and Grandpas since they’re out of town, the Langs left with tears and hugs, Brian and Michael stopped by for one more sobfest as well - and a good nights sleep was had by most everyone.

  12/20 Got the pets on board this morning, got coffee in me which does wonders for my disposition.  A tiedown came off the Honda on the car carrier, of course it popped off just as we were crossing the river into St. Louis, so it was several miles of bad road, heavy traffic, bouncing car and nail biting before it was safe to pull over and fix it.  We made it to St. Joseph, MO tonight 635 miles down, 1690 to go - our room looks like a zoo of animals, food dishes, pet beds and leashes, but the kids are settled, the shower was hot and the bed is clean.  Blissful.  Tomorrow, Laramie Wyoming.

GROSS!

There is nothing like moving to remind you what a deplorable housekeeper you are. My dust bunnies have been mating, and then mutating into dust tarantulas and dust tumbleweeds. And I'll go on record with this, I couldn't even begin to deal with the buckets and buckets of half used, used up and yes, even unused product in the bathroom - I made my BFF Chanel do it. Now that's love right there. Had a little time this morning so I evicted JB and Richard to go study somewhere else so I could build boxes for the weirdly shaped dining room dish racks. Success!

Speaking of this morning, we drove Granny and Grandpa to the airport to catch their early early flight to see Shirley in PA. Granny made me cry. Stinker. By the time they get home, we'll be gone. I'm pretty sure she planned this timing on purpose so she wouldn't have to be here to watch when we pull out of the driveway for the last time. She sneaked a couple of treats to Puddles, hugged us twice - and off they went! Super depressing. Took the wind out of my sails a little . . . a lot.

Heading to Vandy to knock out a couple more of my remaining 18 hours as a working stiff. Tomorrow morning JB and Richard sit for their boards, so the next post will be filled with gushing jubilation over their success. Crossing fingers, toes and eyeballs.

Meant to add . . .

I've had a lot of inquiries about Puddles' status.  She is currently very stable, normal, good appetite, playful, obnoxious - in other words, her usual self.  So all indications are she will be making the trip with us and will probably have several good weeks after the move.  Thanks everyone for the love and concern for us and for woofies comfort!

A day late and a lot of dollars short . . .

I had every intention of starting on this blog prior to Jason's last day of clinical (November 24) - but anyone that knows me knows I plan too much . . .

Quick backstory - Jason has just completed 28 grueling and expensive months of graduate work at Middle Tennessee School of Anesthesia and is officially a graduate CRNA.  He is scheduled to sit for his state boards this thursday at 8am.  He has accepted a position at Legacy Health Systems' Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland through a contracted anesthesia group, and barring any complication, will start with them on December 27.

If you were friends with us when we began this adventure, you will remember our VERY eventful move from Portland to Nashville that involved tornados and record setting thunderstorms, hail and rain as we came through the midwest.  You may also recall that Jason's mom and dad accompanied us, blessing us financially, sharing the burden of driving vehicles, caring for pets, dodging weather, and making for comic relief as they sometimes intentionally and sometimes unintentionally do.


This time my mom and step-dad will accompany us - so with the overorganized mom/queen and the incredibly in charge type A principal/king along, the addition of the gigantic 4 legged black child, the terminally ill poodle, the irritated cat, and the likely ill-fated decision to cross the US via the Colorado route in late December, I'm pretty sure this time will be just as entertaining.  Donner, party of five, the hostess will seat you now!