First things first, we had to pick-up the uhaul...the biggest uhaul they had for rent. I forgot to take a picture of it loaded, but just know that it was completely full. We couldn't even bring everything we owned. Who knew we had soooo much stuff?!
We began our move across the country on Thursday, June 28th and headed WEST. This picture pretty much sums up the next 6 days.
And this was poor Mike's view for the entire trip. I'm sure it drove him nuts.
We had with us our 2 cats, our dog, Michael's hamster, and three fish. Some of the pets did not travel in style. The hamster was BY FAR the most miserable of the pets during the trip. He had to leave his large cage and travel in this tiny one. He was fine in the end, though. But sadly, one of the fish did not make it. :0(
We slept at the Gulf Streams KOA just before the border to Alabama at the end of our first driving day. We were beat from loading the uhaul and doing a final clean of the Florida house the night before. That first day's drive was probably the hardest of the whole trip, even though it was only around 8 hours.
The next morning, Florida thanked us for our 15 year visit. How nice!
The second day of the trip, we drove through the entire states of Alabama and Mississippi, and made it most of the way through Louisiana. It was the longest driving day at just over 12 hours.
We slept at the Shreveport KOA that second night before hitting the road for Texas and Oklahoma!
We stopped at the famous Buc-ee's gas station in Texas. It was HUGE!
I thought this was interesting.
We got bbq brisket sandwiches for lunch and they were delicious!
This was only half of the men's restroom!
Then on to Oklahoma, our stop for the next few days.
This third day of driving was around 10 hours. Right before pulling into our destination for that night, we had to stop for a bad storm that came through just west of Oklahoma City. It was a good thing we stopped because it had 70+ mph winds that blew over a semi truck along our driving path and damaged an RV!
Michael hid in the cat carrier during the storm.
The cats were more interested in what was happening with the storm.
We stayed at the El Reno KOA in Oklahoma for two nights so that we could visit with Mike's sisters, brother-in-law, and his nieces and nephew. Michael loved seeing his OK family. It was a great visit!
We had yummy onion burgers!
A tornado siren.
Michael and his cousin were playing in the tornado cellar (it's a terrible picture but the only one I had).
Then, we started our 5th day of the trip which brought us back through Texas again and through New Mexico.
The large open plains had tons of windmills.
And we got our first glimpses of the mountains!
We slept at the Raton, New Mexico KOA for the night. The campground had a beautiful view.
Mike found us an interesting site to visit while in New Mexico. This ended up being our only sightseeing stop along the drive. It was just such a long trip driving separately that we didn't want to prolong the trip. I was so glad we stopped to see the Iridium layer. It was really interesting and the views were beautiful.
If you can't tell from the sign (I think it's time for a new one, New Mexico!), the Iridium layer, or the KT boundary, is scientific evidence that the dinosaurs were eliminated by a massive meteor strike. This layer of Iridium was left behind.
It's that thin, white layer you see in the rocks.
We arrived in Colorado Springs, Colorado on Tuesday, July 3rd!! We are staying in a 2 bedroom apartment until we can close on a house we found to purchase (more on that later in a different blog post!). For now, we are using our camper couch to sit on and Mike mounted our TV onto our file cabinets to give us somewhere to relax. Why unpack and setup when we will just be moving again in a few weeks?! I think Mike's idea was ingenious!
Deer come and visit everyday!
If you look closely, you can see 2 babies!!
Mike's pictures always put mine to shame!
MY RANDOM THOUGHTS:
KOAs are so accommodating. They always found us a place to park the giant uhaul and car hauler and they never once charged us extra to park them.
I will probably never move a long distance driving separately again...it was rough some days.
The weather here is fantastic! We sleep with the windows open every night.
The mountains in Colorado are just breathtaking!
90+ degree heat when dry IS WAAYYY BETTER than 90+ degree heat when humid.
I miss my friends and family in Florida but I am overjoyed with the adventures the Wandering Wrights will be having in the great West!
MICHAEL'S THOUGHTS:
The move was boring but Subway was cool. The end.
MIKE'S THOUGHTS:
It's all worth it since I get this early retirement.
WANDER OFTEN, loved ones!!!
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