After three days of being on the road, I can report we're alive and well! Actually, things have gone swimmingly. My only complaint would be lack of cell phone minutes. I wanted to chat away the miles with some friends, but we were over by 200 already. Sigh. Here are a few highlights of our mellow days in the van. (I can't add pics now, but will later.)
1. Nebraska is actually quite beautiful. I loved driving across Missouri and Nebraska, reflecting on our time in the Midwest. There were some striking pastoral scenes of cornfields, rivers skirting the highway, and deciduous trees shaking in the breeze. And cows. There were quite a few cows.
2. We stayed in a swanky new hotel in Rawlins, WY. It was completely incongruous with the town. After leaving our granite-countered, modernly-decorated suite, we had a hard time finding a place to eat. The local Thai place was iffy at best, so we settled on Pizza Hut, where we had to listen to the local hostess/waitress tell the table nearby where all of her tattoos were located. And then we got blown away by the wind. Brutal wind in Wyoming! But the hotel was nice.
3. After driving through the more mountainous western side of Wyoming for a bit, Jillian sighed and said "When will we be away from all these mountains??" Spoken like a girl who's lived most of her life in flat places. I wonder when she'll get used to them!
4. The three main industries in Wyoming are oil refining, beef cattle raising, and windmill farming. I find the windmill farms quite beautiful, the oil refineries much like Gotham City, and forget California cows, those Wyoming cows look very happy. The pronghorn deer grazing with them look happy too.
5. If you buy your feuding children a Nintendo DS with five games right before you go on a four-day car trip, and make sure they sit in different rows in the van, and let them eat chips and cookies twice a day, things will go pretty well.
6. We got a phone call somewhere in the middle of nowhere informing us that we officially own a house! I know, you've been congratulating us on lots of stuff lately, so don't feel like you have to say anything, but we are quite relieved. We have a place to go to when we roll into Oregon tomorrow. Welcome to the Pacific Time Zone!
Come visit, please!
Amy
9 comments:
Woo hoo! Can I come tomorrow? (Just kidding, how about the next day?)
Is that an official invitation? I'll come! I was wondering how your cross-country trek went. Good to see you back on the blog-o-sphere.
I've been thinking about you and have missed your blogging presence. :) Glad it all went well.
Question--Did you buy each child their own DS? If not, how did you manage to make them share? Very clever having them in different rows.
And cookies and chips only twice a day? I'm impressed.
Yea! Congrats on making it across the country You're now officially a Westerner!
I totally would have let the kids eat munchies the entire way to keep them quiet. Seemed to work when I went on a road trip with a friend and her 2 kids last summer. Glad to hear that you are doing well and that you own a house! I'm so jealous. Welcome back to the blogging world. We can't wait to see pictures of the trip and the new place.
Now the real fun begins. At least with more space all those boxes don't have to take up all your living space. Where is the treadmill going to go?:)
I always loved driving across the country when I went home to Illinois from BYU. One of my favorite drives was my last one as I drove out to Boston - watching a full moon rise up over Wyoming's wide expanse - magnificent! Glad you made it safely!! Have fun unpacking! Anna in Arlington
So fun! Congrats on being "home owners"! That is so exciting. I am glad to here that you are not homeless anymore. Hey, we are on the same time zone!!! No excuses not to call.:-)
I have finally come to a point where I feel no guilt for completely giving my children free rein over all electronic devices in the car. It's nice to get older and be able to let go of a bit of my preconceived notions about having to try to be a great parent all the time.
Congratulations. One of these days maybe we'll come on out for a visit.
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