More on the move. I realized that I forgot a few things in Part I, mainly our last days in Florida. Our last Sunday we spent at the beach, which was really fitting since that was what we loved to do on Sundays. It was an overcast day and ended up raining when we went out for dinner, but we had a great time. Other things we did during our last days – I had lunch with Betty & Marlene, self proclaimed Lucy & Ethel. We took Rowan with us and had a great time. Adam took the kids to see Kung Fu Panda. That was Rachel's first movie in the theater and she did really well, cracked up at parts that no one else did, and afterwards had this little Kung Fu Panda move she did. Too cute! We had a last dinner with the Boyntons which was sad when we left. Rachel talks constantly about Maddie, Jess & Monkey (Mike) now and thinks they are coming over any day. On our last night in Florida, we had dinner with Lois & Ray, our beloved next door neighbors. We had such a nice time and the kids were thrilled to eat a meal with them. We went to Uncle Ernie's, a local place that has been there for years and is right on the water. It was a beautiful evening, the weather was perfect and the meal and company were top notch!
Oh, one thing I have to mention about Rachel…. Rowan is not a fan of driving in the car, he'll start crying and sometimes the only thing that will help is if we sing some song to him. So, one day we are driving along and he is screaming, Russ is trying to give him the bink the bottle, any of the ol' tricks and I hear this little voice singing a song from Cinderella, "Sing Sweet Nightingale". It was so sweet. So, I start singing with her and Russ joins in and sure enough, Rowan stopped crying. She is such a honey.
Okay, back to the move… so we have the minivan, the 4Runner, 3 kids, 2 cats, one baby swing, lots of snacks, we are packed and ready to go. Who wakes up with a cold the day we leave? Rachel. UGH. Our first day, 7/2, Adam had to out-process officially from base and we were on the road by about 11am. I have the 3 kids and Adam has the cats. First stop Baton Rouge, LA! Oh yes, it is just us, no other adult, Jamie met us in Baton Rouge that night (Thank GOD). So, we thought it would be about 6 hours, not too bad. It seemed to take forever to get there. We didn't plan our stops very well and I swear Adam was worse than the kids, having to pee every 30 minutes. We made it, Rowan melted down at the 6 hour mark and our singing couldn't help him. He was done. Russ sat next to Row in the van that day and was such a huge help – feeding Row, entertaining him, doing the bink patrol. What a great kid! But, when Row is that upset, it gets Russ upset and he has a hard time. Six hours plus in the car with a baby is a lot for a 7 yr old. So, needless to say we were all very excited when Jamie arrived!!!! Yea for grandma!!!
The next day we headed for Dallas, TX. That was a longer drive than the day before, but we planned our stops better and it went pretty well. We actually stayed in Grapevine, TX which is a suburb of Dallas. We stayed at a beautiful Embassy Suites, attached to a Bass Pro, very nice and surprisingly crowded. There was a big wedding party and a separate family reunion group. Our room was not far from the elevators and it seemed everyone that got off the elevator would walk down a ways and stop in front of our room and talk loudly at all hours of the day and night. Then a fire alarm went off in the lobby, so everyone was out and inquiring about that and stopping in front of our room to talk about it, loudly. No fire, I suspect a prank. And then a man felt the need to stop in front of room and talk loudly on his cell to his dawgs at about 3:30am. It turns out he was our neighbor and his family was sleeping in their room, so he came out to talk and disturb our family. Nice. We let the kids be extra loud that morning.
So now it is the 4th of July, we are exhausted from all the night's activity and we have short drive to Amarillo. What better way can you spend the 4th than driving thru the great state of Texas??? Well, I think I could think of about a thousand things that would be better! We get to Amarillo, exhausted. I had wanted to get the kids out to do something fun, but that wasn't happening. So we decided to go to dinner at this steakhouse that has been on every food & travel show on TV. I think it is called the Big Texan. It's the place that will you give a free 72oz steak dinner if you eat it in 60 minutes along with all the sides. Otherwise it costs you $50. That was pretty tasty and no, we didn't try the 72 ouncer. We were so tired that Adam, the baby and I crashed – no fireworks for us. Jamie had Russ n Rach in a separate room and they watched fireworks on TV. How sad is that? The other notable about Amarillo is that one of the boilers broke at our hotel, so the hot water was limited. Lukewarm showers at best. That sucked.
Next we headed to Holbrook, AZ. An uneventful drive, we missed all the weather that was headed towards us and we stopped at the Continental Divide. Like I said, uneventful. Our stay in Holbrook was kinda funny. The cheapest hotel we had on our journey turned out to be the best. Hot showers, clean, comfortable beds, refrigerators, quiet and a decent freebie breakfast. You can't ask for more than that on a road trip.
The last day we were making great time, so we sidetracked to see the Grand Canyon. The kids really enjoyed it and I haven't seen it since I was like 10 yrs old. We definitely want to go back and explore more. We made it into Las Vegas around 5pm. The traffic around the Hoover Dam was excruciating. Stop and go for almost an hour and Adam had to pee. I told you, he's worse than the kids! Getting into Las Vegas and the traffic, the freeways, the speeding, it was all a little overwhelming. Especially coming from a small town in Florida where there really aren't any freeways. But, I have managed to adapt and the van and I zip around pretty well.
We got to Vegas on the 6th and stayed with our friends, the Cannys (Jerry, Tracey & Jaime, oh and Benjamin due to arrive 9/26), until the 10th. We hadn't seen them in almost a year, but just picked up right where we left off, like we hadn't missed a beat! Tracey went above and beyond for us – house hunting for us prior to our arrival and just being an awesome hostess. It felt so good to be in a house and not a hotel or TLF.
Jamie's help was priceless on the drive. We couldn't have done it without her. She pretty much had to sit in the 2nd row of the van next to Rowan the entire drive and the other 2 Rs took over the back row. We got to catch up on all things Pricer and she got to catch up on some movie watching in the van with the kids. The thought of doing that trip without the van or Jamie is a bit scary. It certainly made the trip a lot easier.
Wow, so part II is written and next up is part III (duh). Let's see…. part III will be moving in, bargain hunting with Tracey, Adam becoming a 'manny', our new landlords and my Dad, Pam, Adelle & Caleb coming to Vegas in the RV for almost 2 weeks to help us get settled.
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