Well, here is the long journal entry from our move. It was quite an adventure getting to Texas.
Sunday evening we had an added element to our move. Doug turned up the heat a degree before he
went bed and noticed that it didn't turn on.
He tried lots of things – googling heater questions. He found out that the heating element had
burned out. Then he went about turning
on our gas fireplace (we had never turned it on because of the girls). Then he was worried about Carbon Monoxide
gases if he left it on all night, so he turned it off. So he put an extra blanket on everyone and
came to bed, by this time it was 2:00 am.
The girls joined us about 4:30 and then we got up around 5:30. Poor Doug.
He went to Home Depot first thing Monday morning to see if they had the
part we needed, but of course they didn't.
A while back my friend had needed her furnace fixed and I had asked her
for the guy’s number. So I looked up
that text and Doug contacted him and he had the part at his house so Doug went
over and bought it from him and fixed the furnaceJ. That was one extra headache that we didn't
need, but I was grateful that Doug was able to fix it.
So the movers were supposed to come before 10 but because is
was snowing they didn't get there until around 11:30. I dropped the kids off at a friend’s house
and I did a few errands. I had a few
more farewell cards to deliver and some items to return to people. The kids stayed until lunch and then I
realized that we really couldn't go home so I set up more play dates. Damon went to Dalton’s one last time and
Tyler went to Blake’s. The girls and
Chris went to the Reynolds. I stayed and
visited with them, then picked up Damon and Tyler around 4:30. My friend Ashley brought us dinner that night
which was so wonderful. It was super
yummy too; I’ll have to get her recipe.
The movers were still there packing up but they finally finished around
7:30. We still had our beds up, but
everything else was boxed up – except what I had packed in suitcases.
Tuesday morning a different moving team showed up around
8:00. They started wrapping things and
putting cardboard down and tape on the stairs. It was still snowy so they
didn't want to track in slush. I took
the kids over to the Reynolds again and they stayed there all day. We are so grateful for them and all they
have done for us. Our kids will miss
their family so much. I went back to the
house to help Doug. I stripped beds,
took apart the crib and toddler bed, took apart the storage shelves downstairs,
and gathered up other miscellaneous items.
We ordered pizza for the movers and ate lunch, then I drove into town to
return our DVR to Comcast and I dropped off the toddler bed to a friend (the
girls will be sleeping in a queen bed in Texas). The one main inconvenience about packing up was the weather, it was snowing on and off and it was so cold, around -3 most
of the day. We had the door open a lot
of course so we turned the heat off (yeah so glad we fixed it) so it was
pretty cold in the house. If you were
working it felt ok, but some of the time I wasn’t moving enough and my feet
were cold the whole day.
We were planning to drive to Colorado Springs for this
night. We were going to have to sleep in
a hotel anyway and this way we could make a head start on our driving. I didn’t want to drive in the dark so I was
hoping to leave before 4. We realized
that the packers were not going to be done before then so we asked if we could
leave before they were all loaded. They
said we could so we loaded up the van and the truck with the things we were
bringing. The moving company couldn’t
take liquid things and our gas cans and other things – so we had a few things
like that in addition to our clothes and food items.
I managed to fit all our freezer and fridge
food in our 3 coolers. I had been
trying to eat up all of our freezer stuff so we did pretty well.
We went and picked up the kids around 3:45 – it took a while
to load up and say good-bye, so hard to leave friends. I think we finally got going around 4:30. I had Damon and the girls with me in the van
and Doug had Tyler and Chris in the truck.
It was starting to get dark and it was still snowing L. In the beginning the roads were ok, but after
Denver it was so cold that the water was freezing on the windshield. I couldn't see very well. I tried to use the washer fluid, but that
almost covered the whole windshield in ice.
It came off a bit, but I only had a small opening to see through. I don’t see as well at night, so it was a
stressful 2 ½ hours for me. Damon was a
good helper and they all just watched a movie.
I was very glad once we got to our hotel.
Doug had booked us rooms in the residence part of the Marriot
hotel. This way we had two bedrooms with
a little living area and kitchen. It
worked well, and only Chris had to sleep on the floor. That first night was pretty hectic getting
all of our stuff in and settled. Then
Doug ran to McDonald’s while we had baths.
I think we ate at 8:00pm – pretty late for us. But we were in good spirits and the kids went
to bed ok.
Wednesday December 31, we really remembered why we don’t eat
out very often with the kids. At
the breakfast buffet at the hotel it was crazy.
Just imagine trying to balance at least 3 plates while getting orders
from 3-5 kids on what they want and cooking waffles for all of them and getting
juice and fruit and cereal and syrup and bacon and eggs . . . . It was chaos.
We found a spot a little away from the main group so we wouldn't annoy
people too much. The kids don’t eat well
in public places – and the girls really don’t eat well. Then of course Chris kicks the table and
sends Tyler’s juice flying through the air getting Tyler and others all wet and
sticky. Doug and I were already getting
frustrated with things. It took a while
to load up the van – I had brought a lot of snacks and food so that we could survive
on the road – so there were a lot of bags.
Damon and Tyler were good to shuttle the bags to Doug so he could load
them up. We finally pulled out around
10:00. We were driving to Amarillo,
Texas for this leg of the trip.
About 10:30 I did the math and realized that I didn't have
enough gas to get us to our lunch destination, so we had to pull over in Pueblo. Doug wanted to fill the truck tires with air
and was frustrated when the one at the gas station was broken – so we had to
drive around to find another one. We
finally really got on the road and made it to Raton for lunch. We made the mistake of eating at a Denny’s
for lunch. We thought it would be nice
to sit and eat, but it really just took too long and again – our kids don’t do
well in restaurants. This time Jenna
decided to take a drink of my lemonade and proceeded to dump the whole thing
down her front. Most of the kids also
had to use the restroom twice and they only had two waitresses so it took so
long to get our food. The girls really
didn’t eat much and I had to send my chicken sandwich back – it was too pink
for me and I didn’t want to get sick. So
again we finally got back on the road and made it to Amarillo around 6:00.
We stopped at KFC and ate in our room, that worked much
better. Then we all got on our swimming
suits and headed to the pool. The water
in the big pool was FREEZING, I guess they think it’s hot most of the year so
they don’t bother to heat it. So we
stayed in the hot tub most of the time.
Damon, Tyler, Doug and I ventured into the big pool for a bit, but we didn't last long. I had bought some
float rings on clearance at the end of summer and those worked perfect for the
girls and Chris.
Then it was time for bed – we put the girls down on our bed,
then transferred them to the pull-out in the main room when we were ready to go to
bed. It worked pretty well. Most of the nights all the kids slept well, but
the first night the girls had a harder time and I had to sleep with them for a
bit on the pull-out.
Doug and I didn’t really have time to watch a movie or
anything – in the evening I would clean things up and then get stuff ready for
the next day’s travels (snack bags etc.)
No we did not stay up to watch the ball drop for New Year's Eve.
Thursday January 1, 2015!! Happy New Year! Learning from our
past experiences I went downstairs and loaded up a bunch of food for us all to
eat in our room; everyone ate much better that way. We left a bit earlier today around 9:30 and
were headed to a city call Vernon for lunch – about 2 ½ hours away. The roads were wet and there was spray from
cars on the road. I followed a bit
further behind Doug so I could see better.
Damon had been asking if he could ride with Doug, but it really was
better if Damon stayed in the van to help the girls, so we decided that Doug
would drive the van today and I would drive the truck.
About 10 minutes before we got to our lunch stop we had some
excitement. I was following Doug and
getting ready to pass a semi. When I was
right at the side of the truck I noticed he turned his left blinker on (turns
out there was an accident up ahead and he was trying to get over to give them
some room – I hadn’t seen the police lights).
So I sped up a bit to pass him quicker so he could get over, but because
of the lights up ahead Doug slowed down, so then I had to brake. All this time I was edging closer to the side
of the road because the truck was moving over – I felt like I was going to get
pushed off of the road. The roads were
very icy in this area, so when I hit my brakes I started fish-tailing. The back of the truck went to the left, then
right and then when it went to the left again we slid off the road. I thought at the time that the truck had hit
me, but now we think the bump I felt was just the result of the truck going into the
grass. So while we are fish-tailing and
sliding out of control I am thinking: “wow this is really happening, I am going
off the road in a car accident.” Then as
we continued to slide we got close to the other road with oncoming traffic. For a second I thought: “oh no, this could be
it, we are going to get hit and die,” but then I saw that there weren’t any
cars coming and we continued to turn and ended up back in the median facing 180
degrees from where we started. As we
went off the road I said “hold on to the boys,” but I don’t think they really
knew what was happening until it was over. Here are my ruts.
After we had stopped I asked the boys if they were ok and
just sat there for a moment. I’d never
been in this type of situation before, I wondered if I needed to call the
police, but I just called Doug and of course just got his voice mail on his
phone and his work phone. While we were
waiting there we saw another car slide off the road just in front of us. The car did about what we had done, but then
kept going and got back up onto the road and pulled over. It was a grandma – she walked around her car
to check things and then went on her way.
So then I realized I could probably just go too. So I put the truck in 4 wheel drive and
backed up a bit, but then couldn’t really go anymore. Then Doug called me and asked if I was
ok. I sort of laughed and said we were
ok. Doug asked where I was – he couldn’t
see me following him and then we realized that he hadn’t noticed that I had
slid off the road. So I filled him in. He was of course surprised and concerned and said he was coming back to us. It turned out that as he was trying
to turn on an emergency turn around spot he started sliding and he went into
the grass to slow down, then got back on the road and turned around at the next
one.
After I had talked to Doug he told me to try to drive out,
so I edged forward to the left side of the road- heading back the way we had
come. When Doug got there we checked the
truck and didn’t see anything – so we slowly headed back onto the road. I got over into the right lane thinking we
were going to take the first exit to turn around. Then I see Doug flashing his lights at me (I
was in the lead) and I realized that he wanted me to turn left at one of the
emergency turn around spots. So I had to
quickly get over and slow down. I was
going a bit too fast because I didn’t realize I would be stopping soon, but I
made it ok, grateful that I didn’t slide again.
As we drove those next few miles into Vernon we saw at least
8 cars off the road. There was a jeep
upside down and a big Semi on its side with lots of food scattered all over the
place. I was very grateful that our
little incident was not as bad as those.
We ate at McDonald’s then got back on the road. I think I was in shock at first because I was
feeling ok, but after eating I really didn’t want to drive again. I told Doug to go slow and we went about 60
for quite a while. As the roads got a
bit better we sped up a bit –but it was not a fun drive. It was still misty and the roads were wet and
there was more traffic. As we got into
Fort Worth there was construction and the roads were a spaghetti bowl. Other cars got between Doug and I had hard
time following him. We had to take some
quick exits and there was lots of merging (I really don’t like this type of driving) and
it was still splashy and hard to see. I
was in tears at the end. I was very glad
to get to our hotel and was dreading the last drive the next day.
We got settled and played some games; Doug went and got
Panda Express for us for dinner. We
didn’t get to swim this time since it was an outdoor pool and it was cold and
rainy. Doug and I spent a lot of time
getting ready for the next day after the kids went to bed. Doug was going to leave early with Damon so I
was going to have to load everything up and get the rest of the kids ready by
myself. So we packed as much stuff into
the van as we could in the evening so it would be easier for me. Doug was going early so he could meet the
movers around 10 to start unloading our stuff.
It seems like we went to bed late then Jenna got up early in the morning
and slept with me and then we had to get up an hour later – so we were
tired.
Friday January 2, Doug and Damon got off ok, around
6:00. We were making our last stretch
today. From Fort Worth to Spring it measured
to be about a 4 hour drive. I got
everything packed quickly and was ready to go at 8:45, but then I let the kids
finish their show they were watching so we headed out the door around 9:00. Then by the time it took to buckle everyone
and get the DVD player started and get the google maps navigation working
through the car it was almost 9:40 – a much later start than I had wanted.
I had looked at our route and wanted to make a bigger
stretch before lunch and try to make it to a town called Buffalo – or a rest
stop near there. But because we left
later I knew we probably wouldn’t make it that far. Well it turned out that we had a different
adventure in store. As we were driving
through the south part of Fort Worth there was a sign saying that the left two
lanes up ahead were closed and traffic was backing up. I knew I needed to exit left soon so I stayed
over thinking that my exit would be just after whatever was causing the lane
closures. Well it turned out that there
had been a big accident with a Semi-truck carrying a propane tank and they
closed down the exit I was supposed to take.
I had actually seen the news footage of this accident at the hotel when
I was getting breakfast, but it hadn’t been on the road I was taking so I
wasn’t worried about it. Well they had
to block this road too because they were concerned of a possible
explosion. So I was very grateful for my
smart phone rerouting me since I couldn't go the way I had planned. When
I was told to exit I pulled over to stop and look at the map to make
sure this new way looked ok. It was a
bit longer, but it would get us there.
The kids were being pretty good and both girls napped
early. We stopped at a small town called
Mexia. Kaylee was pretty upset for the 20 minutes before we got there. We just had a bathroom
break at a gas station and I let them each pick out a small treat. I had made them lunches so I wouldn’t have to
do the McDonald’s thing on my own. So
they just ate their lunches as we continued on.
Soon we got onto I-45 which is the main highway that goes into
Spring. I was getting so tired of
driving. The detour added an extra hour
to the drive and I just wanted to done.
It was still rainy, but it was warm enough not to be icy. The traffic wasn't too bad, but there were
some areas with heavier rain that made it hard to see. I couldn't see past two cars in front of me
because of the splash.
Finally we took the Rayford Road exit. I knew I just had to stay on this road until
it ended at our subdivision. It was
great to pull up to our house and see Doug.
I picked up Damon and took the kids to a neighbor’s house. I love the RS for helping us find places for the kids to play. I helped Doug put beds together and direct
the flow of boxes. The kids ate dinner
while they were gone and we had another friend bring dinner to the house so
Doug and I had something.
The movers finished in the evening and we were officially into our
house. I didn't sleep well that first night. There were new sounds. When the heater turned on
and off there were some flaps that made a pretty loud sound as they opened and
closed. A train woke me up as well and then Jenna
and Chris both got up in the night – not much sleep happened. But we had made it and that was a huge accomplishment!!
