Home Again, Home Again, Jiggity Jig Jig!

We left Houston later than we'd hoped but all crammed into our car and little UHaul trailer Monday afternoon. We stopped just outside of the city to purchase and install a Thule Cargo Trunk on the roof to give us (and the dogs and cats) more room in the back of the car. Then it was back on the road for the longest of our three-day strech. At 10:30pm, after an 8 hour drive up through Texas and half of Oklahoma, we ended up collapsing in a rather nice room in Oklahoma City!

Tuesday we were back on the road bright and......well, after a late breakfast at IHOP so, it was more like noon. A six hour drive lay ahead of us. We didn't know until Wednesday morning that, by some miracle, we had outrun a deadly span of tornados that struck most of the Eastern half of Texas and Oklahoma! We didn't see any rain or experience any high winds or overhear anyone talking of the impending storm! We had no idea what had happened until we saw a map on the news this morning! OMG! Tuesday evening we stopped in Hays, Kansas at the more reasonable hour of 5pm-ish. There, we spent another comfortable night in a muuuuuch cheaper hotel.

This morning (Wednesday) we headed out for the final 360 miles (approx.) of our trip.

Words cannot express the thrill we both felt upon our first glimpse of our beautiful Rocky Mountains! THAT is when we knew we were (almost) home!


We would both like to thank my dad and Carol for getting me a new XM Radio for Christmas! We'd also like to thank the folks at XM Radio such as Dr. Laura, Rollye James, and, our long-time favorite, George Nory on Coast to Coast AM for guiding us through the past 20+ hours on the highways and byways of the mid-U.S.! If it weren't for them, we would've lost our minds many, many miles ago!

Upon our arrival to our house, we were so happy to find little surprises inside! Pete's parents, Frank and Carolyn, had cleaned things up while we were away! And when I say "cleaned things up" I mean that SERIOUSLY! The piles of Stuff we had previously rat-packed house had been moved to more appropriate places, picked up off the floors and packed into plastic see-thru tubs, and generally straightened up all around! It is so much more welcoming to return to a home that's cleaner and more organized than we had left it! Also, they had called us a few days ago to ask us what our favorite cereals are and what kind of milk we usually drink. As we finished our tour of our organized house, we discovered boxes of our favorite cereals on the counter, a fresh gallon of milk in the fridge, and a pan of lasagne, sourdough bread, salad and all the fixings ready to be heated up for our enjoyment! It will all certainly get us through the next 24 hours as we stumble through boxes and bags of the chaos we've brought home! Thank you, Frank and Carolyn, for all of your unexpected hard work around here!

Apparently, there was a leak in some of the pipes in our basement while we were gone. Each of our parents located, tightened, cleaned up and attempted to temporarily repair the leak long enough for us to get home to fully assess and fix it for good. Thanks to all of you for tending to the problem and doing what you could to save the stuff we store down there. The cats especially thank you for taking care of their litter boxes. Meow.

Thank you to Lindsay, too, for stopping by regularly to feed the fish, water the plants, and all the other things you did for us! And thank you, Maggie for keeping me company through the wonders of text messaging yesterday and today -- it felt like you were riding right along with us!

Now it's night time and we're thankful to be home home HOME! As I type this, Nala, Ariel, Scarlett, Dobby, Honey and I are all settling into our sofa and our recliner and counting the minutes until we get to crawl into our dreamily comfortable bed! Brudder is still camping out at GrandpaDave's tonight so we'll get him back home here in the next day or two.

It's great to be home again!