Day One

The ABF "pup" trailer with all of our worldly belongings was picked up late yesterday evening by a driver. It will make its way across country as drivers going East are available and we'll store those goods in a storage center at no-charge in Newton, NC which a generous donor has allowed us to use for a few months at no charge until we secure a home. We'll be living with Teena's mom in Lewisville, NC for the time being and camping out there.

We left Benicia at 4:55 am this morning after spending the first half hour repacking and getting rid of excess boxes that wouldn't fit. We put things in every cubby hole we could find in the trunk and back seat of the Bonneville. It was tight but we made it with room for one 12-year-old very confused Scottie dog named Jackie.

Jackie whimpered slightly in protest as we made our way down the Benicia hills, positively certain we were going to the vet or the groomers. It took her about 4 hours to figure out that maybe we were just going for a very long ride. On our first pit stop after just having made comments about traveling without having to worry about the hassle of kids, Teena gave Jackie some water and Jackie promptly puked on the sleeping bag in the back seat. So much for not having kids.

"1 state down, and 7 more to go" - is what Jeff told Teena when we crossed the Colorado River on I-40 into Arizona. We were amazed to see how the terrain changed and as we passed through the Mojave desert Teena was surprised to see it wasn't a Sahara white sandy desert, but rather one consisting of scrub brushes and very odd looking pine trees which looked as if they couldn't make up their minds as to whether they wanted to be a cactus, palm tree or pine.

After 765 miles in .5 of a full day, we arrived at our motel in Flagstaff, AZ with below freezing temperatures, a biting wind and crunchy snow underfoot . Not exactly what we imagined taking the "southern route." We're glad we took it as we can't imagine what systems we could run into going over the Sierra Nevadas, the Rockies, and through the heart of the country at this time of year. Jeff checked the weather ahead and it looks to be very much in our favor.

Rachel and Noah will leave Parker, CO tomorrow morning at 5:30 am and we will leave here at about 7:30 am so we can meet in Albuquerque to spend some time together. However, there is some snow in CO as we speak, but it is supposed to tapper off and pass through tonight and be partly cloudy tomorrow. Hopefully the roads will be cleared ahead of them.

We'll post on how our day and time go tomorrow..