Stopped At A Motel 6 on the Way To Missouri

Hello from Sidney, Nebraska!

Saturday was a bit of a hard day with Branden and I both stressed and snap-ish. We decided to leave behind our couch- something Branden didn't want to do- but there's NO way we could have managed to fit in all that stuff AND the couch. As it is, our mattress is strapped on top of the things filling the bed of Branden's truck. This wouldn't have been quite the case except that U-Haul has redesigned their trailers in the last couple of years and they are now shorter in height... Which means that, while you can still stack to the ceiling, the ceiling is about 6 inches lower than it used to be. It used to be possible to fit a king sized mattress in a U-Haul trailer but it isn't anymore! So we made some decisions about what had to go and what had to stay behind.

Katie and Sharon were great inside helping me get the rest of things in boxes and getting boxes out to the trailer. Katie even cleaned my bathroom! Branden and Rick packed the trailer. Rick's amazing attention to size, shape, etc., was the only reason we got so much in there. That trailer is PACKED. Abby was the best! She feels like she didn't do anything, but she kept Josh busy and happy all day- not an easy task once nap time has come and gone- which freed everyone else to focus on packing. Chantelle and Jeremy came later in the evening and Chantelle helped me get everything out of each room systematically. Jeremy was great about lifting and moving anything. Thank you, everyone who has helped us move these last few weeks and especially Saturday. Things wouldn't have gone so smoothly without you!

Sunday we finished the cleaning, packed the last few things into the trailer, took two loads of garbage to the dumpster, packed my car and the bed of the truck and then I had to direct Branden in backing the truck up to the trailer. Let's just say that I'm really bad at it and, after a VERY long day, neither one of us had a lot of patience with me. It didn't help that the sun was pretty much set before we were trying to do this and that I didn't have much light... But I would've been bad at it in broad daylight. We left last night just after 9 PM and drove only as far as Evanston, WY. Yes, it was only one hour from our house, but it was better for us to just get started than for us to sit at the house for one more night. We spent the night at a Super 8... Not the nicest place but we're moving on a budget so... We're ok with not the best.

We left Evanston around 9AM and drove for nine hours today. We've decided that it would be best to reach St. Louis mid-day on Wednesday so we're not killing ourselves to make it there tomorrow. We've been getting better-than-anticipated gas mileage (my car is getting over 30mph!) so we're feeling pretty ok. Also, the cats are doing really well with both of them sharing one crate! We figured that the worst thing that could happen from this experiment would be that they'd fight and we'd have to separate them. So far, it's been mostly the best-case senario: Very little whining and yowling, a little hissing, a lot of sleeping and cuddling. :) SUCH an improvement over past moving experiences which involved listening to "crying" the whole trip... Yes, Jiminy will cry for over twleve hours straight if he's riding in a car.

So far, we're doing ok. Oh, we're tired and sore. Last night we were snapping at each other and didn't get to bed before 1AM. This morning we were in much better moods. Tonight, we stopped before we got to that point and have been getting along quite well... On the other hand, that COULD have something to do with the Vivran I took around 2 or 3PM. Yes, I will admit to taking caffine pills on occassion. They were essential to my making it through culinary school. I'm not going to bother with trying to defend it. I rarely take them- it's been about a year before today- and they help me when I do. Period. Think what you will.

Now I'm going to take a shower and get a great night's sleep. Tomorrow is another long day... But I think we'll make it through just fine.