No blog posts for July?! Well I guess I am not entirely surprised given that we had quite the busy July between Izzy's fabulous 5th birthday and preparing for our big move to Washington, DC. I'll pull together Izzy's 5-year interview today and post it, but first a little update from my trip across the country and the family's first week in our new house.
In order to get all of our living and combustible things that couldn't easily go on a plane (two dogs, one hamster, a 1/2 dozen house plants, batteries, matches, C02 cartridges.... ) we needed to have at least one of us drive the car from Tucson to DC. Originally we though we'd all go together, but then the reality of the pain and suffering associated with multiple 10 hour days stuffed into a car together made us reconsider. So a different plan was hatched. I would drive to DC, accompanied about 1/2 the way by a friend who wanted a ride to Kansas City, and Patrick and the girls would fly out and meet up with me a week later. All told it went pretty darn according to plan. I even beat the semi truck full of our stuff here by about 12 hours.
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| In Hatch |
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| Meow Wolf.... |
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| Meow Wolf.... |
Along the way, and especially while I still had a traveling companion, some fun was had. The first day we left Tucson at 6 am with the first stop goal of Meow Wolf in Santa Fe. We had prearranged a kennel for the dogs (who also said they would keep the hamster at the front desk for us) so we could go inside and explore. My cousin also drove up from Albuquerque to meet us and see Meow Wolf (yes it is just that cool) All told we made it to Santa Fe by about 3 in the afternoon (after a stop in Hatch for a chili ristra for my new kitchen) and then after getting a growler of beer from a nearby belgian style brewery hit the road for another 3 hours. The last three hours proved just a bit too much, made worse by a wicked thunderstorm, but we still made it (by 9 pm) to our first stop: the historic Eklund Hotel on main street Clayton, NM. We went 716 miles that first day, and everyone was quite tired at the end of it:
The next day we set our sights on KC, out across a bit of Oklahoma and through the entirety of Kansas, but made a few random stops for the yellow brick road and "Dorthy's House" and for the most random set of metal sculptures in the middle of nowhere you could imagine (it was pretty awesome).
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| It was acres and acres of metal sculptures, some of which were pretty darn offensive... |
After a mere 540 miles of driving we made it to Kansas City by about 6 pm and to my friend's family's house, where we were greeted by a fabulous chaos of children, siblings, and guinea pigs. The next morning I went out to breakfast with my friend's family and then hit the most important strange sight in KC, the larger than life birdies and the glass maze:
It was then on the road solo (well I was now the only human in the car) with a goal of Terre Haute, Indiana and 410 miles. (I was trying to keep it to no more than 6 hours of solo driving each day I was on my own). I mostly just pushed through stopping only for the restroom. But after we made it through Missouri and reached the Mississippi River the girls and I took a break near the river for a bit:
Just in time for the free dinner I made it to the fabulous Drury Inn in Terre Haute. Aside from the pasta with chicken, I am afraid the highlight of the evening was a walk around the block with the dogs... This was my first night solo, so I had to figure out how to get all of the valuables out of the car (including a massive at least 60 lb Tupperware strapped to a platform on the back of the car). I quickly discovered that my best option was to abscond with a valet trolley for the night and slide the Tupperware onto the trolley and then load up everything else (banjo, bag of clothes, cuckoo clock -the essentials) and then leave it all piled on the trolley for the next morning...
The next day we traveled a mere 385 miles to Tridelphia West Virginia. The highlight was a dog friendly lunch stop in Cleveland, Ohio. The rest of the day was less than pleasant, however, due to the hours and hours of traveling in the rain :P
By Friday I was so exhausted I was glad to only have a 4 hour drive to make it to Kensington! But made it I did... by noon... and was greeted by my sister-in-law and wrestling nephews in our big (and vacant) basement!
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