...1.... GO!

We are officially on the road! As I write this I'm eating a delicious and wholesome Super 8 complimentary breakfast in St. Regis, Montana. And when I say delicious and wholesome I mean... well... they had fruit loops, english muffins, donuts, and coffee. Ha ha! Don't worry mamma: I already planned to grab fruit when we stop to get gas before we head out on the road. ;-)

On Monday we grabbed the truck and it was, quite possibly, one of the longest days of my life. I never want to see those stairs leading up to my apartment again. Oh MAN we went up and down those stairs a lot. It's surprising how much stuff you actually have when you start loading it all into a 16 foot truck. We thought we'd have plenty of room, but sure enough- the truck is packed full of boxes. I included just a small peek of the hours of packing we did in the picture. It was a relief to have the truck loaded. But afterwards David and I both agreed we're gonna hate life when we're trying to UNLOAD a few days from now! David's quote was, "I had a really great system going at first as we loaded the truck. But then the boxes just kept coming and coming and before long I was just throwing it all in." Ha ha!

Monday night, after many hours of much appreciated help from mom and dad, we headed back to their house for a little celebratory pizza celebration. Pizza, beer, and a couch never felt so good! Mom and Dad had set up the tent for us outside so we could sleep outside and not upset David's allergies too much before we headed out on our drive the next morning. Plus the idea of camping out on our last night was kind of fun. Dad, being so sweet and thoughtful like he is, went out to my car to use the cigarette lighter to blow up the air mattresses for us before we went to bed. About 10 min later Mom walks back inside and says, "we have a problem." I offered a few suggestions, none of which were the actual problem. Then Mom says, "well... we accidently locked the keys in the car with the keys in the ignition." Oh man... as long as the car and truck were both still in the driveway- any other problem seemed miniscule in comparison. But because the keys were in the ignition with the inside lights on, we needed to get them out that night. So we called out a locksmith car guy (I have no idea what those guys are actually called... maybe you can offer ideas), and he opened up the car at about 11:00pm. All was well and we had conquered our first challenge without skipping a beat. Ha ha!

Tuesday morning we got ready for our departure. Saying goodbye to my mom and dad was tough for me. Ok... tough is probably an understatement. Lots of tears. But I know that it's a blessing that we are close enough that this move tugs our heartstrings this hard. Then it was off to the PENSKE to attach the car carrier to the truck. After a brief hiccup with replacing a fuse to make sure the brake/turn signal lights were working on the car carrier, we were off to say our last goodbye. We met up with David's sister, nephews, and brother in-law's mom for a coffee run and hugs. It was so fun to see the boys. They LOVE Uncle Day Day! It was so much fun to catch up and be able to say we got to see everyone before we left. :-)

Then it was finally time. Driving out i-90 for the last time was weird, knowing that we wouldn't be driving back over for a couple years. Especially after driving the beginning of that stretch every day for the last three years. I waved to Fall City as we went by! Gonna miss that community, those kids, and that school... I will NOT miss that commute though. ;-) The first day of the drive went well. Here are some of the observations and things we learned on our first day of road tripping.

1) The sunshine is literally just on the other side of the mountains, Seattle.

2) There are way too many trucks out there that think they are race cars.

3) There are way too many poorly paved roads (resulting in everything moving all over the place in the back of the truck).

4) Idaho is rustic and beautiful.

5) The first hour of Montana is nothingness... seriously... nothingness.

6) My favorite quote from yesterdays was when a large truck was passing David much too quickly out of nowhere: "Ooooo... just cuz you have a bigger engine and you aren't towing anything... whoopty doo!"

We are planning on making a big push today with driving. I'm looking forward to seeing some different landscapes and some much enjoyed "quality time" in the car. Thank goodness for those CD's some of y'all made for us. I'll write again tomorrow with more!

We're on our way Philly! :-)