Day Three Starts the Drive

          D and the dogs are nice enough to let me sleep in today.  D's mom makes us waffles to go with leftover sausage.  I ate one as D happily downed 4.  He says they are much smaller than the ones we make at hotels, though, if that changes anyone's predictions.  If you haven't seen them, here's the list I posted on Facebook earlier this week:

1. If we see snow, where will we see it first?
2. Where will I take the 200th picture?
3. What's the most unusual animal/insect we'll see?
4. How many times will we get gas?
5. Who will get there first: the movers or us?
6. How many miles will we travel from the time our trip officially starts to the time we tuck in on our first night "home" (apartment or hotel depending on when our stuff arrives).
7. How many states will we drive through?
8. How many fun/interesting places will stop at along the way?
9. More specifically now, how many of those stops will be at a state or national park?
10. What time of day will we first spot the mountains?
11. How many continental breakfasts will we get?
12. How many breakfasts will have waffles?
13. How many waffles will Don eat?
14. What's the first thing we'll realize and regret not packing?
15. What is the cheapest and most expensive gas we'll buy?
16. Which restaurant/fast food do you think we'll eat at on the way?
17. What "disaster" might we encounter on the way? (Hopefully it won't actually be a disaster, just a minor glitch.)

A couple of these might be answered in this post.

Meet Ed.  He's a scorpio, so that should tell you everything you need to know.

          After breakfast D and I unpack and re-Tetris the car to fit all of his lab supplies.  Thankfully we find his small duffle to hold all our snacks.  Ed sunbathes on the roof while we all work.  Zoey attacks me every trip I take back into the house; I wonder if she knows that something is up.  Perhaps she just really misses everyone now that the house is down to two residents.

 

Good-bye our second apartment together!

          There are many tears with so many good-byes, and now the errands must be run for the trip to truly begin.  A stop at The UPS Store has my fancy new camera off to Samsung so hopefully they can fix it and get it back to us soon.  A quick-ish trip to Comcast has us happily and painlessly cancelling our service.  Working with someone face-to-face is so much better than trying to call a stranger.  We're going to be stuck with Time Warner in CA.  I hope the horror stories are exaggerated.  Finally we make it to the Waterfall Glen management office, and they help us get copies of paperwork that should get us reimbursed for the early termination fee from D's new employer.  The visit is long but we finished what we needed to and we're off.

          Since I put out the trip trivia questionnaire we gas up and reset all the numbers that will record the official numbers for our trip.  With a Speedy-Freeze in my hand, our route westward highlighted in purple on the GPS, I call my mom for a reason I've since forgotten.  I catch her as she just gets home, and she calls back in a few minutes to let me know she found our spare car key and that we'd left our small trash can at the house.  We agree to meet up along our route to pick up our first forgotten items.

We'll be seeing you again around Christmas.

          Seeing our loved ones is always nice, but having to say good-bye again is equally as difficult.  We share a few more big hugs before D and I return westward bound.  It's already dark so not many pictures are taken today.  No good clear ones, at least.  Our first minor "tragedy" happens when D accidentally spills the homemade chex mix onto the car floor.  While he's cleaning that up and salvaging all he can I accidentally squish the ladybug I was trying to coax out of the car.  Hopefully those will be the worst misadventures we have.

So disappointing.

We didn't even make it 100 miles, yet!

The night is young; now I'm in charge of the chex mix.

          I wish I could say that I'm a perfect travel companion, but I get sleepy!  I take a quick snooze about 50 miles outside the Iowa border.  I wake up in time to cross the Mississippi River and manage to stay awake the rest of the trip.  D hits a sleepy wall but pushes through it.  Ed enjoys the dark night sky.  We feel bad that he's so bloated with a balloon in his belly.  Our first gas stop is near Des Moines where we also pick up McDonald's to give us a little more energy for the night.  Mom found us a few hotel choices along the way and we're now checked-in at the Holiday Inn in Omaha.  Tomorrow is another long day, all driving.  I hope you are all enjoying the company of your loved ones and get a fantastic night's sleep.

Healthy dinner: smoothie, burgers, and burritos.

Nighty night!