Day 1: The Last Leg of Our Journey

Day 1 - geography lesson
Originally uploaded by radioflyer007

Well, today we began the last part of our migration to Southern Cal - a journey that began in January 2007 when we first started the process of contacting realtors to sell our Green House.

SAYING GOOD-BYE
We said our most difficult good-byes this morning. My sister and her family (with two young boys) came over to my mom’s place where we had been living for the past few weeks. ‘Shroom and Lolli had seen their 4-yr old and 1-yr old (“Juicy Boy” as we call the little guy) cousins almost every day since we’ve shacked up with my parents after we sold our Green House. Yes, it was hard to say good-bye and tears were shed. It still doesn't quite seem real to me that we're leaving . . .

THE BLACK HAWK
With the help of my brother-in-law and father, Air Boss packed up the Black Hawk. It was like playing 3-D Tetris (for you older folks like me, I’m sure you’ve wasted many productive hours playing this popular ‘90’s computer game). All in all, everything fit with even a bit of room to spare. And I'm happy to report that even with the sluggish acceleration and the AC running, the Black Hawk managed to crank out close to 25 mpg.

THE KIDS
Well, for those of you wondering how long it would take before the kids would break down and ask "are we almost there yet?", it took 1 hour and 45 minutes. It was 'Shroom. They thought we were going to spend tonight in a hotel in LA. Oh dear - the geography lessons aren't quite sticking. Lolli has been particularly challenging for me. Her incessant talking, questions, and "mommy, mommy, mommy!" have left me rather short-tempered. The girl is always talking! Man was I glad when the afternoon sleepies won her over. For those of you ever considering taking your kids on a looong road trip, ask me in a few days. There were parts in the day where I wondered if we were going to make it through this first day.

THE FISH
Omigee is one unhappy fish on a hunger strike. The blue guy hasn't eaten anything all day. I've feed him on three separate ocassions today and eventually had to scoop out the soggy food pellets that he's refused. I've even "upgraded" his hotel accommodations from a one-star Motel 6 (Dunkin Donuts large ice coffee cup) to a two-star Econolodge (the original container he came home from the pet store and then a large disposable Ziploc plastic container). I'll have to let you know how long this hunger strike goes . . .

Well, as you can see, Lolli and 'Shroom will track our driving progess at the end of each day by placing little stickers along our route. They now know the states of Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. Time for this tired momma to go to bed.

Until next time, ciao!