The Big Move

Well...our move is now complete...well we are not even close to being unpacked but we are here in Houma, LA in our new apartment. We left Thursday night at about 10:30 pm after Julian's play and a nap. WE got about 5 hours of driving in before we stopped at a rest stop and got a couple of solid hours of sleep for Jaime. I had tried to nap along the way but was uncomfortable with Julian on my lap. Walker...I feel your pain in regards to the Penske truck. The important thing is that we got around New York City with no delays or traffic which was our plan for leaving at night. As we woke up on Friday morning at around 6:30 am I went inside the rest stop and saw that there was a Starbucks in there. I wanted to kiss the Barista! I ordered up a couple of lattes and we were on our way. We started out dry and ended up in the middle of a freezing rain storm. It was not fun but the driving was not slippery so we kept trucking on. We traveled until about 5:00, making stops along the way, where Julian and I went in to Cracker Barrel for dinner. Jaime took a short nap while we were eating chicken fried chicken slathered with gravy, and pulled pork for Julian. Julian had just woken up from a nap and was not in his right frame of mind until we started playing the little peg game that is signature to the Cracker Barrel Restaurants. If you have ever eaten at one you will know what I am talking about. If you have never eaten at one...you need to! No life is complete without either chicken fried steak or chicken fried chicken. It might kill you but at least you will die with a satisfied tongue and belly. Back to the game...we stared out as a genius and ended up as an Ig-No-Ra-Moose. We were intermitently those titles along with purdy smart and just plain dumb. We were mostly just plain dumb and Ig-No-Ra-Moose. Julian really enjoyed that puzzle. As we were finishing up Jaime awoke from his nap and came in to join us and eat my leftovers. Then we were back on the road. We drove an uneventful few hours before stopping for the night. Julian was worried about leaving the truck unoccupied all night but we needed sleep. No sooner were we in the room and we were sleeping. We were happy to find our truck safe and sound, still full, outside where we left it. We found another Starbucks got lattes, a "cup of joe" for Julian, and some Diesel for the truck and headed out. We knew we needed a good base so we stopped once again at Cracker Barrel, this time for breakfast and got a good belly full of eggs, biscuits and gravy, bacon, homefries and toast. Then we drove, and drove, and drove until we found ourselves in Houma around 5:00 central time. We immediately got started unloading our things. Jaime had a couple of friends come over and we also hired two guys to help us. The two guys we hired struggled with our heavy items for an hour before we sent them on their way. They were not exactly sober but being the bayou and Mardi Gras weekend we were just happy that they showed up and took care of the heavy stuff. For a hundred bucks we were not only happy they had taken care of that but also happy to see them go. We got about half the stuff, along with all the big items, into the apartment before retiring for the night. This morning we got started around 9:00 after finding some coffee. My sister, Jen came down from Mandeville an helped us for the day. What a lifesaver. It was really nice to see her and she brought us some gumbo. Not just gumbo but Commanders Palace recipe gumbo. It was so yummy. We had that for lunch. She stayed until some time in the afternoon and then went on her way to cross the long bridge before dark. We will see her again on Tuesday for the Orpheus Parade in Metarie. Rumor has it Al Roker is in this parade. So that should be fun! Our stuff is about 1/3 unpacked. Julian's bed is put together complete with his new shark bed spread and our bed is ready and waiting for me to jump in. I love that bed so its off to sleep I go. Ta-ta! The first picture is somewhere in either Pennsylvania, Maryland or Virginia (freezing rain through all those states), the second picture is somewhere in Mississippi (almost to the end).