We’ve Arrived!!!

The night before we left, we made sure to say goodbye to friends and family one last time.  First up was my neighbor and good friend, Val.  I will miss my symphony companion greatly!  We’ve had some great adventures with our kids over the years, and I will miss her very much.

My brother and his wife came over to take us out to dinner.  We hadn’t seen them in quite a while, and I was so glad we got to spend time with them one last time!  We went to our favorite Mexican restaurant, Mi Casita, and enjoyed a lovely dinner.

When we got back, we realized that while we were gone, our beloved 2+ year old hamster, Cookie, escaped from the travel carrier and was killed by our dogs.  So sad!  With an empty house, there was nowhere for him to hide.  We were heartbroken.  We loved him so! 

At around 8 PM, my long-time friend of 25 years and former co-worker, Roslyn came over and treated me and Haylee out to a mani-pedi!  It’s my first time ever getting both, and my nails were in sad shape from all the packing and cleaning, so it was a perfectly-timed girls’ outing!  My aching body and sore feet welcomed the massage, too!  That was a lot of fun!  I will really miss her…my partner in crime.  She loves to travel, and she promised she’ll come and and visit me in the next of years.

After a couple of weeks of working tirelessly with friends to pack up and clean out my house, we finally got on the road on Sunday morning.  We drove from Virginia Beach to Newport, TN and stopped for the night to stay with our good friends, the Nall family.  It was so nice to see them! 

Lilly, our big yellow lab, was really freaked out by her chickens, though, and not only got the gate to the dog run open and escaped briefly, but she also broke my dog harnass!  That meant we had to run out first thing in the morning to buy an extra heavy-duty one so we would be able to stop and let the dogs out at rest areas along our journey.  We found a really good one at Wal-mart and got on our way the next morning!

On Monday, we left Newport, TN and headed for Germantown, TN, just outside of Memphis.  There, we stopped for the night to stay with our old church friends, the Howard family.  They had a nice big yard so the dogs could run around, and they even let our dogs sleep in the house that night, which really helped them to settle down a bit.  They basically turned over their upstairs to us, and we all settled in for the night. 

  

In the morning, we had an early breakfast and got on the road as soon as rush hour traffic to Memphis died down.  We had our longest day of driving…about 10 hours.  We drove in one direction (west) for so long on I-30 that I got wickedly sunburned down my left side from the sun bearing down on me through my open car window (no A/C).  It burned like fire!

At last, we made it to our new home shortly after 7 PM on Tuesday night.  Yay! 

BURGESS FAMILY REUNITED!!!