Hit the road, Jack!

 

(This is a picture of my friend--Chris'--truck before we unloaded everything on Sat afternoon.)

Well, my name isn't Jack (you get the point) ... but I sure did hit the road this weekend...

Off to a little bit of a late start, we (my friends and I) packed up my car, packed up a pick up truck, and rolled out of Leesburg VA at 10:00PM on Friday 26th (my last day as a Virginia resident /sad face).

It was such a beautiful night to be driving. The sky was a dark blue-grey and there were cotton ball clouds in patches all over. The moon was almost full and the stars seemed super bright! I LOVED IT. Especially driving through the mountains, it was SPECTACULAR. While on the peaks you could look down (uh, WHILE paying CLOSE attention to the roads of course....duh!) over the valley and see the town below, the houses looked like little toys! And while in the valley you could look up and see the silhouettes of the mountains peaks against the sky, it was breath taking. I could get used to driving for hours on end with this kind of view!

And then, West Virginia happened.

All of a sudden (LITERALLY) we realized it was snowing pretty hard (with about four hours of driving already under our belt). Not even thirty minutes after we hit the snow conditions (right after we crossed into West Virginia) did we realize that we were driving right into a BLIZZARD. That's right folks, a blizzard. We were crawling at a painful 30-40 MPH on the highway, visibility (due to the blasting winds and heavy snow fall) was minimal, and the highway was covered with inches of snow (you couldn't see the pavement). We drove in this all through beloved West Virginia from about 2AM to 5AM. Finally, we decided to pull off the roads and take a nap in hopes that the weather would lighten up. We rested for about an hour and hit the road again around 6AM. Unfortunately it was still snowing bad and the roads were in the same (horrid) condition, but on the bright side we weren't far from being out of West Virginia.

Finally around 7:30AM we hit better weather (rain) and clear (well, clearer) roads. We drove in the rain from about 7:30AM to 9:00AM. And then arrived in Louisville at about 11:00AM. A 9-10 hour car ride turned into a 13 hour drive. Mother Nature, why did you have to pick that night? Didn't you know I was moving? Sheesh. BUT we did arrive safe and sound, horray!

I would like to give a HUGE thank you to Chris and Lyndsay for making the drive with me and helping me move. I have no idea what I would have done with out you and I'm SO LUCKY to have you both in my life. I am missing you tons already and can't wait to visit!!! So THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU, times a million. You don't know how much it meant to me!

Oh, and thanks Lynds for kicking my butt and making me organize all my stuff (even though I didn't want to). I feel like I have a LOT less stress about unpacking and settling in because of that. You're the best mom-friend I've ever had. LOL! :) *HUGS*

While I'm in the 'thank you' section of my post, if you ever read this Mrs Beneigh, the casserole was AMAZING! Thank you SO MUCH for making it for us. It was so thoughtful and sweet of you. We all absolutely loved it. To all the readers-- Mrs Beneigh (my boyfriend Dave's mom) made a casserole, garlic bread, and salad, for all of us (my friends and I) after our arrival so that we wouldn't have to worry about cooking, etc. =) I told you, Louisville has the most amazing people!

Moving on....

Lessons Learned for Long (Long, Long, LONG ) Road Trips:

• Sunflower seeds and Gum are amazing at keeping you awake.
• My GPS is my best friend in the world.
• I want to give a huge hug to the person who invented Cruise Control. 
• Goofing around with your friends in the other car via walkie talkie is entertaining, hilarious, and must for road tripping with multiple vehicles. My call sign: Bobby Sue. (By the way Chris, I'll mail that back to ya, it's still in my car....) 
• I really dislike driving in snow. Oh WAIT, I already knew that. But thanks again, Mother Nature, for that surprise blizzard!
• Gas stations in West Virginia ALL close down if it snows (Chris almost ran out of gas in his truck because we couldn't find an open gas station. FINALLY we found a Shell that was open- thank goodness!!)
• Check the weather before leaving.

....well, I think that's all folks!

Again, I'm now in Louisville and LOVING it. PJ and I absolutely adore Jeanette and the kids (Camille and Ian) who we now live with. Over the next few weeks we'll both be very busy settling in but you bet I'll be blogging to keep y'all updated along the way.

Love,
Nikki