The Big Move

We moved over the weekend. Dani and Whitney took the girls home on Saturday, and Clayton and I started our cross country road trip. Dani said the flights went well. The twins slept for most of the first flight and the car ride home. They spent the whole weekend with the Brandt’s, and apparently it was a good time. Ruby and Cora are so lucky that they’ll have cousins nearby. 

I was dreading the drive to Utah. Clayton had to drive the moving truck with his car towed behind it, and I had to drive the Forester alone with Abe. I loaded up my phone with audio books and music, prepared lots of snacks, and had a list of people that I would call to talk to when I got drowsy. 

Our trip had a rocky start. After waking up at 3 am to get the girls to the airport, Clayton and I finished throwing things in the moving truck and loading up our cars. We had a couple of errands to run and then we needed to go to Uhaul to get the towing attachment. Our plan was to be there right as the Uhaul opened at 7 and then hit the road ASAP, because our first night was supposed to be in Omaha, Nebraska, and that was a 12 hour drive. Clayton wanted to fill up the truck with gas first, and as he was doing so he locked the dang keys inside the truck cab. The guy who could open up the truck to retrieve the keys couldn’t make it to us for 3.5 hours. So we waited and grumbled. Finally he showed up and we were able to start driving around 11. 

The first day of driving went well. Abe was an excellent companion. He laid down and slept the whole day. I took him out every few hours when we stopped for gas and ran him around whatever building were nearby. We had another hiccup though. Turns out when you’re driving a giant moving truck that is towing a car you’re not supposed to drive about 55 mph, even when the speed limit is 80. We didn’t completely follow that rule, but Clayton kept his speed around 65 most of the way. So our 12 hour day ended up taking 15 hours. That was a long day. By 10 pm I was falling asleep no matter what book I was listening to or who I talked to, and we still had 4 hours to go. I did find that constantly snacking help me stay alert, so I ate almost a whole bag of carrots and a whole bag of grapes. I felt like it balanced out the entire tin of Pringle’s and family sized bag of peanut butter M&Ms I’d eaten earlier that day. Balance. After a couple more hours I was out of snacks and couldn’t keep my eyes open. We stopped to fill up gas and bought some caffeine pills. I took one and was totally wired for about an hour. After that I felt a little sick (not sure it was the pill or all the food), but we made it to Omaha. 

We stayed with our friends the Van Leeuwens’s and went to church with them in the morning. We were on the road again the next day by 11 again, this time with a plan to drive to Rawlins, Wyoming. Supposedly a 9 hour drive, 11 with reduced speeds. The day went by pretty quickly. We stopped for dinner at a truck stop in Nebraska, and we could tell that the weather was changing quickly. We had been pretty fortunate to have had clear skies and roads for most of our trip so far, but that night we ran into some weird weather. Almost as soon as the sun went down we drove into a thick fog. So thick that I couldn’t see anything around me, but I could make out the road lines and tail lights directly in front of me so we continued. There was also huge gusts of wind that felt like they were going to push us off the road and some light snow. We made it to snowy Rawlins, a tiny pit stop town off the 80, and stayed at an Airbnb. It belonged to a nice couple with country accents. They decorated they’re house in country decor, which I love, and kept a pot of coffee going making the more house smell like coffee, which I also love. We went in showered and went to bed. No dilly dallying. We both woke up at 5 wide awake so we figured we’d just take off and get a head start on the day. Rawlins was -4 degrees and snowy. 

Our last day was only supposed to be 5 hours. The roads were pretty bad for the first couple of hours. Patches of black ice cause many accidents. Luckily we were not one of them. We did hit a patch of ice while driving around a curve, and Clayton’s truck fishtailed pretty wildly. I was driving behind him and nearly had a heart attack when I saw it. I was sure the towed car was going to break off. But it didn’t and we kept driving very cautiously (slowly). Once we led Wyoming and hit Utah the road we’re completely clear. We made it to Springville a little after 1 pm. Man was I glad to get out of that car.

We had many friends and family that came and helped us unload the truck, and by nighttime we were pretty well settled. I have about 20 thank you notes I should write. We spent the whole next day unpacking. By evening we were exhausted and sick of it. Luckily Marshall had a wrestling match, and Penny had a basketball game, and of course we went to them. I LOVE LOVE LOVE that we can go to every family event now. Sport games, music recitals, talks in church, birthdays, holidays, long weekends, etc. we can be together for everything.