Where do we even start with the story of my trip to North Carolina?
I think we need to go back to last December when my brother-in-law David decided not to renew his contract as a professor at a university in North Carolina. This kicked off a job search that had all my family trying to convince David and my sister Emily to move to their state.
I was doing my best to get them to move to Twin Falls or even Idaho. There was a brief period of time where David, who is a Marriage and Family Therapist, was considering coming to work for the family therapy practice where I work. That didn't work out, but he and my boss are now Marriage and Family Therapist/Play Therapy Enthusiast buddies. My sister Lindsey was talking up the wonders of Houston and Texas. And my sister Hillary was reminding Emily that she's always wanted to live in Utah. Emily and David were also considering Colorado to be near his siblings.
My parents live with Emily and David and the impending move meant they had to start thinking about what the move meant for their future. Would they move with Emily and David? Would they go to live near another one of their children?
And while all these questions were swirling around Emily announced that she was pregnant with their 6th baby. She was due in September which would (hopefully) be after the move.
This is the point I decided to get more involved. I haven't been able to help my sisters with their pregnancies as much as I've wanted too. I'm usually too busy with my kids or locked into a work schedule (mine or Brandon's) to get away from home for an extended period of time. But this time I could see a small window of opportunity where I could step away from my family and go help Emily.
So I told Emily I would come out to visit her at the end of May. I'd be there to help with whatever needed to be done to make the move easier for her. I could pack boxes, help load the truck, and/or watch kids while she ran errands. Whatever needed to be done. I also told my parents I was willing to drive their car from North Carolina to wherever they decided to move. Whether that was Idaho, Utah, Texas, Colorado, or some other place.
I booked my tickets at the beginning of March. And at the time there was no clear idea of what would be happening at the end of May. David didn't know where he would get a job, my parents didn't know where they would move, and no one had any sort of timeline.
But I was still planning on coming. I figured I could help no matter what. I booked my airplane tickets through Southwest Airlines. That way if I needed to change them I could do that easily.
Over the next few months things fell into place. My parents decided to move to a 55+ apartment community in Taylorsville, Utah with a move in date at the end of June. David got a job with a private practice in Davis County Utah with a start date of July 5th. And a realtor met with Emily and David about selling their North Carolina home.
My parents took me up on my offer to drive their car from North Carolina to Utah. So I cancelled the return flight and planned a driving route across the county. I was really excited about that drive. I planned to do it in 3 days and stop at hotels twice. I wanted to drive through Kansas instead of Nebraska so I had my route go through Kansas and into Colorado and then to Wyoming instead of Nebraska to Wyoming.
I'd booked my flight to be out of the Boise Airport on Saturday, May 22nd at 1:00 PM. I'd already had a camping trip to Bruneau Dunes planned for that Thursday and Friday night. Bruneau Dunes is only an hour away from Boise. I figured this was as good a chance to fly out as any. I figured that we could have a nice morning at the campsite, then I'd clean up a bit, we'd take down the tent and we'd take a casual drive up to Boise and drop me off at the airport.
That plan changed a bit when the 1:00 flight was knocked off the plan flight plan. I was moved to a 8:45 flight out of Boise.
8:45 in the morning.
So instead of a relaxing morning at the campsite I woke up at 4:30 so I could take a shower. Then Brandon and I moved sleeping kids into the car and took down the tent. IN THE RAIN! This was not how I'd pictured the morning at all, but it went smooth enough. I did step in a puddle at one point and spent the rest of the day with a damp sock. But we were out of there by 5:45 so it was okay.
I'd packed all the things I'd need for the North Carolina trip in my backpack and purse. I had all the camping trip clothes in a difference backpack that I left with Brandon.
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| I took this picture at the end of the trip. But this is a good place to put it. |
We made it to the Boise Airport around 6:45. I grabbed my stuff and said a quick goodbye to everyone. Then I headed into the airport. Later I realized that I'd never even looked back after saying goodbye. I was so anxious to get into the airport and start my solo adventure.
This was my first time flying since I went to Brandon's Basic Training Graduation in 2012. I was a little nervous about all the ticket and safety procedures. So I wanted to make sure I was there with plenty of time. I checked in and made it through security in about 30 minutes. So then all I had to do was sit at the gate and wait.
It was amazing to just sit. I'd been so busy for the past month that I was looking forward to having nothing to do this day. I didn't even bring a book. I just sat and did nothing.
Honestly, I wasn't just ready for a break from doing things. I was also ready for a break from my family. My kids have been home from school since March of 2020. The last 14 or so months of 24/7 kids have been good, but they've also been hard. Homeschool was also good and hard. I'd been in need of a break for a long time - but it had been coming to a head the last few weeks. Every time one of my kids cleared their throat or sniffed loudly, or the dog barked I'd felt like my soul was getting rubbed raw. I needed this break.
Here I am hanging out at the gate.
Charlotte and Lydia had asked for a video of the plan taking off. So I recorded that. In the past I've felt excited when a plane takes off. This time I felt immense gratitude. Gratitude for the opportunity to take this trip.
Since I had nothing else to do and this was my first flight in over 8 years I spent the whole hour and 45 minute flight to Phoenix looking out the window.
I was watching for the Snake River. I saw it and realized that this was the section by Twin Falls. I could make out Centennial Park by the river and also saw Blue Lakes Boulevard. I could also see the ring of buildings on the College Campus. It was so odd staring down at Twin Falls. It's my whole world on a daily basis, but from up high it just looked like a topographical model.
I'm pretty certain we went over the Grand Canyon, but apparently one of the only pictures I took turned out blurry.
I'd also promised Charlotte and Lydia a video of the landing. So here is that.
We landed at 9:45 and my next flight boarded at 10:20. I didn't have far to travel to make it to my next flight. I went from Gate D2 to Gate D3. (With a stop in the lines for the bathroom and drinking fountain.) I was kind of bummed that I didn't have more time to enjoy Phoenix Sky Harbor. I have history with this airport. This is the airport Brandon and I got stuck at for 12 hours in 2011. I also had a stop here when I flew home after Brandon's Basic Training Graduation. In fact, I was in that airport when Brandon emailed me and told me he'd been assigned to Fort Hood.
This time my only memory of the airport was realizing I was developing a headache and digging Ibuprofen out of my backpack.
Soon I was boarding the flight. This was a full flight and I was in boarding group C. So it was an aisle seat for me. I sat with two teenage girls who were flying home with their family. The mom and dad were behind me with a little brother. When I sat down the girls told me, "We just have one rule. No bananas, the lady who sat by us on our last flight had a banana peel she wouldn't throw away. And it STANK."
I promised I didn't have any bananas.
I did have granola bars and white chocolate pretzels. I was feeling pretty good about my snacks because I didn't have to share them with anybody. But I soon realized that my snacks were nothing compared to some of the other foods people had brought. People had ordered meals at the airport restaurants and brought them on the plane. There were soda pop bottles everywhere. And the family I was sitting by was passing snacks back and forth throughout the whole first part of the flight.
This was a much longer flight than my earlier one. It was about 4 hours and went from Phoenix to Raleigh. And I swear the girls I was sitting by never once opened their window. They were on their tablets watching movies the whole time. The people on the row across from me didn't open their window much So I was basically in a metal tube hurtling through the sky and I couldn't see anything.
On the plus side I definitely got to feel bored for the first time in weeks. First the first time in a long time I had NOTHING to do. Not stuff I was avoiding or putting off. But absolutely nothing to do. It was wonderful.
I did get out a piece of paper and pen I'd brought along and sketched out some thoughts for a future blog post for East Idaho Mom's. And I wrote down some points for a feedback letter I wanted to write for our homeschool program. I went through my phone and read old New York Times emails I hadn't had time to read. I got caught up on my cousins mission emails. I also slept for a while. And I took my sweat time drinking my complementary sprite. It reminded me of the a scene from the movie Date Night where Tina Fey's Character tells her deepest fantasy.
Eventually we started our decent and soon the plane was landing. (And the girls next to me never opened their window to watch.)
I got off the plane and my sister Emily called me as I was heading into the bathroom. I told her what gate to meet me at. I used the bathroom and then went outside. Emily wasn't there quite yet (she'd been at the other terminal) so I sat down and took my socks off. I'd been outside 2 minutes and I was already sweating. I thought about going back into the airport and changing from my pants to some of the shorts I'd packed.
Emily arrived and it was so good to see her. All her kids were with David at a friends house so it was just us in the car. We had fun catching up on the hour drive to her house in Haw River.
When we got to Emily's house I was able to see my parents for the first time in two years. (In person, I've seen them on zoom and marco polo.) They are doing well.
My little headache had turned into a raging headache so Emily had me eat some food.
While we were eating David came home with the 5 kids. They had all grown since last year. Little 3 year old Vance had grown the most. Last year he'd always say "Hi Val" any time he saw me. This year he was talking in sentences and saying all sorts of cute things. Five year old Hazel was excited to see me. She and I would share a room while I was visiting. She liked telling me about all her friends in North Carolina.
The three older boys, Titus, Bridger, and Asher didn't really do much with me that first night. But over the whole time I was at the house I think Titus spent the most time with me. He always seemed to find a reason to watch what I was doing. He's almost the exact same age and Veronica and he reminded me a lot of her in the way he didn't mind talking with an adult. Asher didn't really have much to do with me during my visit. But Bridger and I would end up spending a lot of time together later in the week. But that's getting ahead of the story.
Saturday night was pretty relaxing. The house had had many showings on Friday and Saturday and everyone was just happy to be home after having to leave the house so much. I think this is the night I played a game of Smash Up with David and some of the boys. I'd played this with them 5 years ago at Thanksgiving and had been pretty good at it. This time I wasn't sure what I was doing, but I still ended up winning the game. (Mostly thanks to the help everyone gave me while I was still figuring out the game.)
I was still on Mountain Time so Emily and I stayed up watching Jennifer Fulwiler's Comedy Special "The Naughty Corner" on Amazon. It has some hilarious stuff about traveling that had us laughing so hard. My headache never really went away and eventually I realized I needed to just go to bed. It felt a lot better to hold my head still and drift off to sleep.
In the morning I was feeling a lot better. This was Sunday. It was another relaxing day. I spent a lot of time admiring Emily's beautiful flower garden in front of her house. She's shown it off a lot on Marco Polo, but it was much better in person.
My mom and I stayed home and watched church via zoom while everyone else went to the building. It was really nice to just hang out with her without everyone else around.
In the evening I got to do the first of many sorting jobs Emily had been saving for me. She pulled out a bunch of files of "important" documents from over the years and I went through them all. A lot of things were really old and I was able to help her decide to get rid of them. I also organized her system for saving the truly important stuff.
And I guess this is a good point to fill you in on Brandon and the kids. They were doing well. Brandon took all the kids to church on his own on Sunday and everything went well. Then that evening his parents came up to stay for the week. They would be home with the kids while Brandon was at work.
The kids called me a bunch while I was gone and we sent Marco Polo's. But I didn't talk much with Brandon. Brandon and I are TERRIBLE at communicating via phone. When we were dating we lived 5 minutes from each other so we never really had to do the long distance thing so long phone calls were never part of our relationship. When he joined the military we got a little bit better at phone calls, but honestly most of our communication was either letters or emails or video calls.
After the military was when we realized we really struggle with phone calls. The first time Brandon went to Kentucky for the SKILLS competition I would wait for him to call me at night and then get mad that he didn't ever call. Or he would call me and I would say something really abrupt like, "Hey it's the kids bedtime, I can't talk now." Or "Hey I just started the show on Netflix that I've looked forward to watching all day." So after we had an argument about how we both felt neglected we just decided it was better to not expect long phone conversations when one of us is traveling. Its worked out well for us.
On Sunday night I tried to go to bed early because I had an early morning wake up the next day, but I didn't fall asleep until around midnight.
So when my alarm went off at 5:30 the next morning it hurt. But I got out of bed because I knew this day was important to my dad. My dad has been the Manager of the Greensboro, North Carolina Bishops Storehouse. He's had this calling for over a year and a half and he has truly loved everything about it. He wanted me to see the Storehouse so he'd invited me to come volunteer there.
Emily also got up at 5:30 because she was going to volunteer too. She'd done it several months ago and had wanted to go back at least one more time. It worked out really well for her to do it this day because that meant she could drive us all there. There was no way I could drive the 40 minutes there on the little amount of sleep I'd had.
So we got up and ate breakfast. Then we went out to the car. My dad always talked about the beautiful sunrises that he gets to see this early in the morning. They have a corn field with silos across the street from their house, and yes, there was a beautiful sunrise.
Emily drove us to the store house. My dad has talked about this drive a lot, but somehow I'd never realized that the drive involves about 30 minutes on I-40. Yes, I was very glad I wasn't driving.
If you are not a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints you may be wondering what a Bishops Storehouse is. Basically its a food pantry, but with very specific foods that are available. Instead of relying on donations of whatever food people care to donate, the Bishop Storehouse has food that is produced by church owned farms, canneries, and factories. They also buy some food from local suppliers. People who need help getting food can talk with their local bishops and get authorized for food from the store house. They fill out an order form with the food they need for the next two weeks and then pick it up from the store house.
In places like Utah and Idaho there are many storehouses and so its easy for most people to travel to the storehouse to pick up their food. But its a different story in the East. This Storehouse in Greensboro serves a geographical area that covers most of North Carolina and parts of Virginia. This would be way too far for people to travel to pick up their food. So the way it works here is that the people fill out their food orders and then the volunteers at the storehouse get everything together to send the food to the Stake Centers in the people's local areas. That's what I would be helping with this morning. Here I am in front of the map that shows the area the Store House covers.
The first thing we did was bag produce. This produce was from a local supplier. We took it from boxes and put it into bags based on weight. I helped bag zucchini and cantaloupe.
After the meeting it was time to build a pallet. I was assigned to help with the pallet for the Charlotte Central Stake. Someone in the office had already taken all the orders and combined them into a list of what was needed for the whole stake. We went around with a clipboard and a cart and pulled the correct number of items from the warehouse. So it was like, 8 cans of corn and 3 cans of green beans and so on. It took a lot of work and counting to make sure we had it all. While we were doing that other people were putting together pallets for other stakes.
I also took a minute to admire the art that was hanging up in the building. I was especially impressed by this photograph from the 30's. That's some great photography skills.
Emily had been roped into auditing the pallets and she had finished up the last one. She came in and sat in on the training too. People often wonder how my parents ended up with such driven and productive kids. It's because this is the type of stuff we were exposed to our whole lives.
When my dad was done with the training it was time to go enjoy the farewell cake. Lots of people wished him well. He'd taken the time to mail every single one of them a thank you letter the week before.. The letter had been mostly the same for everyone, but he'd written a personalized paragraph for each person. So many people were thanking him for his Thank you letters. 
No one else wanted to take the cake home so they told us to take it. Emily joked, "Oh, my kids don't like sugar." Then it was time to go.
We drove back home and I was really feeling the effects of so little sleep. When we got back to the house I pretty much went straight to bed. When I woke up it felt like the Bishops Store House had been a really vivid dream.
In the late afternoon we had to leave the house for two showings. I was really impressed at how well Emily's family worked together to do a quick clean of the house before we left. All the kids knew they had to make their beds and straighten up their rooms.
We went to a park with a splash pad for a while and then just drove around the Haw River area. We ended up in a city called Graham and the kids wanted to play the outdoor piano that was set up in the main street area. So we parked and the kids played on the piano. Emily's kids have had piano lessons for years so they were all pretty good.
That night Emily and David decided to accept one of the offers on their house. We were all super happy that we didn't have to do anymore showings.
On Tuesday morning David took the kids to play in a river while Emily and I could get a lot of things done. I helped Emily with cleaning out some large cupboards in her living room. There was a lot of sorting involved and for a long time it didn't look like anything was actually getting boxed up.
My mom went to Wendy's and bought us hamburgers for lunch. After we were done eating David and the kids came home. I went back to work on all the cupboard stuff and was able to get it all boxed up.
Emily checked her phone when we were done and realized that there was a message on their saying they had another showing in 30 minutes! Even though Emily and David had accepted the offer the realtor wanted to keep doing showings until the earnest money was paid. So everyone hurried to clean the house up again. I was so happy I'd finished packing up all the stuff I'd had spread all over the house.
We drove to Walmart so I could buy the treat I'd promised the kids the day before. I ended up picking out Chocolate Fudgesicles. We took them to a park and ate them really fast because they were melting.
We stayed at the park for about 30 minutes and then went home.
There was another showing scheduled for that evening and we didn't want anyone to mess up the house in the meantime. So we logged into my Netflix account and I showed everyone the movie The Mitchell's vs the Machines. Everyone laughed a ton at that movie.
Emily cooked dinner and then loaded it all up so we could eat it at a park during the next showing. I called Brandon and talked to him while we were at the park. I'd made a doctors appt for Charlotte that day and he'd taken her. I was curious how it had gone. It had gone well.
I took this picture of the trees. I was so in awe of the trees. I'd forgot just how close together trees can be.
Here I am.
Here's Emily's beautiful front garden again. It was always so pretty to look at.
In the afternoon, when all danger of showings was gone, it was time to really shift things into gear. It was time to get things out of the attic.
On Wednesday we were all kind of living in fear of another showing. So we were all happy when the realtor said that the buyers were paying their earnest money that day. We cheered when the money was paid. It meant no more showings!
I worked on cleaning out Emily's big walk in closet. There were a lot of random things in there. One thing I did was box up Emily's DVD's. Titus helped me match loose DVD's to their cases. Then Emily pulled out any movies that she was fine sending to the thrift store.
David, Asher, and Titus helped pull things out of the attic. There was a LOT up there because that's where Emily had shoved a bunch of stuff when they were getting the house ready for showings. This was the best time to get it all down because David could hand heavy things to me that Emily wouldn't have been able to lift since she was pregnant.
One reason I wanted everything out of the attic was so everyone could start to get an idea of just how much stuff would need to go on the moving truck. It was time to start thinking about what furniture to get rid of so we needed a visual idea of how much room everything would take up.
Emily wanted me to help go through all the kids clothes and help her pull out things that didn't need to move with them. So we piled all the clothing totes and boxes in the living room. Everything else got stacked up in the dinning room.
I started going through baby clothes and organizing them for Emily. She'd found out she was having a girl so we knew that any boy clothes smaller than what Titus fit was not going to go to Utah. I also wanted to get the baby girl clothes sorted by size. I didn't want Emily to have to dig for any clothes when she was trying to move into her new house in Utah.
Titus sat by me and had fun looking at every single outfit. Hazel was around too and kept saying, "This is for my baby sister!"
While we were going through the clothes I kept seeing things that my girls had worn. It was so fun to see those again. I found the "going home from the hospital" outfits that had been too big for Charlotte and Lydia. I realized that these probably belonged in the twins' baby boxes. I'm not super sentimental about things, but Charlotte and Lydia have been asking about how small they were when they were born. I knew they'd want these outfits as a visual aid. So I took them back. I also took the green onesie that Veronica wore and looked so good in.
We took a break for dinner. David had made home made pizza.
I took pictures because this was likely the last family dinner around this table.
I worked on the clothes for a very long time. In the end there was a whole tote full of size 12 mos to 24 months. Another tote for 6-12 months and another tote for newborn -6 months. That tote also had things like the mobie wrap and the carseat cover. Hopefully this will be nice and organized for Emily in September.
On Thursday evening I went around and took pictures of Emily's yard. I'm sure she has pictures too, but I wanted some. These are the silos across the street.
She has crepe myrtle trees all over her yard. I've missed these kind of trees so I took picture of them.
Emily's pansies are biggest pansies I've ever seen.
Here's the garden bed again. I had fun walking on that path with the kids.
Another view.
Here's the full view of the house.
And calla lillies.
Here's the backyard garden.
And the playhouse Emily and David built.
I had a moment looking at these trees. They are very tall - much taller than they look in this picture. Looking at them reminded me of the woods that were near our house in Alabama. I felt like the trees were telling me, "you'll never forget that you lived in the south."
I was filling another tote with 4T and 5T boy clothes. I thought there'd be plenty of room in the tote for those sizes. But it just kept getting more and more full. I realized that there was no reason to take this many same sized clothes across the country. So I laid it all out on the table for Emily to shop through. there were at least 14 short sleeve long sleeve 4T shirts, and then 14 more long sleeve shirts. There were similar piles on the 5T side of the table. Emily went through the piles and pulled out the shirts she wanted to keep. The rest went into the growing thrift store pile.
There was quite a growing pile of things in the dining room. I kept saying that Emily's kids were probably saying, "That Aunt Valerie is ruining everything. She came here and messed our whole house up." But they didn't seem to mind.
Here I am with the piles.
All through this week Emily and David had been looking online at houses in Utah. My sister Hillary was taking tours of the houses, but everyone realized that Emily should probably also be looking at the houses in person. So Emily told me that she was going to drive back to Utah with me. I'd offered this so it was great that she took me up on the offer.
She would stay with Hillary in Utah for a week and look at houses. Then she'd fly back to North Carolina and finish packing up the house. She'd then drive across the country again with her car while David drove the moving van. She didn't seem worried at all about that much driving. She was looking forward to the trip. She just finished homeschooling her kids this year too. We joked that it's tradition for moms to leave their family for 10 days at the end of the school year.
Emily and David also decided that Bridger should go along with us. The plan was to drop him off in Colorado to spend the next few weeks with his Grandparents until the rest of the family drove out to Colorado. This would help everyone out because it meant there was one less kid that had to cross the country with the whole family. Bridger had kind of the MOST personality out of all the kids so she knew it would help to have him out of the mix.
I was so happy to have the two extra people on my cross country drive. And I didn't have to make any changes to my route. I was already planning to go through Colorado. It was like I'd planned to have Bridger along for the drive all along.
Thursday was the last day before I started driving. Emily realized it was Bridger's last day in North Carolina so she had a friend come over and play with him to say goodbye.
Emily and I also spent the day getting ready to leave. We took a van load of stuff to the thrift store.
I also went grocery shopping for food for the trip.
I made sure to say goodbye to all of Emily's kids before they went to bed. Somehow they all wanted to hear about the cats that I had when I was a kid. So I told about all the different cats we had. The story ends with our last two cats being put to sleep when they got too old. I guess the kid shad never heard about this before so they were asking lots of questions about that. Who doesn't want to learn about euthanasia from their aunt?
In the morning Emily, Bridger, and I woke up around 5:30 and had breakfast. I'd already packed my parents car with the things they wanted me to drive to Utah. All we had to add were our bags and the food. Here's the sunrise as I put things in the car.
Soon we were driving away from the house. Emily drove first because she was more familiar with the area. But we also used the GPS on my phone to guide us. I'd even bought a car mount for my phone. (Brandon would be so proud, usually I just have it balanced on random stuff in my car.)
Here's the view from going up the mountain.
It was exciting when we saw we'd go through a tunnel. 
Here's the inside.
Later we went through another one.
Emily liked to try to hold her breath though the tunnels.
Here's the sign I almost missed when we got to West Virginia.
Bridger was doing great.
We went through 3 toll roads and paid $4 at each one.
Here's a lot of the scenery from West Virginia.
We came into the city of Charleston.
And saw the capitol.
But later it looked pretty.
Really our main problem with Kentucky was the rain. It had started raining in West Virginia and then really started raining in Kentucky. We never found a good place to pull over in Kentucky and so we didn't stop in that state.
Our goal for the day was a city in a town called O'fallon Illinois. It was about 20 minute east of St Louis, Missouri. Our drive would be 790 miles and take about 12 hours. We'd drive through parts of North Carolina, Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, and Illinois.
At first we just drove through "the pine tree tunnel." But around the time we got to Virginia we saw mountains.
We crossed into Kentucky and laughed at what it looked like. I'd been talking about Kentucky always looks like a post card. But this part looked like a non stop factory.
I'm trying to remember if I drove at all that first morning. Maybe I did? What I do know is that Emily drove through all of Kentucky and into Indiana. When we stopped for gas in Indiana the car's trip report said that it had been almost 6 hours and 387 miles since our last stop. It had not felt that long at all. We'd talked, listened to an episode of Baconsale and just had a great time being on the open road.
I took over driving after that and drove us through Indiana and most of Illinois. We got to our hotel around 6:00.
We were at a La Quinta. We made microwave burritos for dinner. The hotel had a pool so Emily took Bridger down to the pool and I relaxed on the bed for a while. It felt so good to be in a bed.
When Bridger was back from the pool we turned on HGTV and watching Lottery winners buy their dream homes. It was so ridiculous. But also fun.
I'd originally booked a room with a single King Sized bed for this trip. When Bridger and Emily were added to the trip I wasn't able to change this room. So we all just shared a bed. Bridger was on one side, Emily was in the middle, and I was on the other side. I think we all slept well, though I was told I snore.
We were up and ready to go the next morning around 6:30. For some reason the continental breakfast wasn't available. (I'm not sure if it was a COVID thing or if we were just up early.) So we had microwave breakfast sandwiches that I'd brought.
We had to go up a big staircase to be under the arch.
It was actually really hard to get a picture of the whole thing. I'd had no idea it was so tall.
Here's Emily with part of the arch.
At the other end of Missouri we had to go through Kansas City. The last time I'd driven through Kansas City I'd been 18 years old and driving with my family on our way home from a road trip to visit my grandma in Ohio. Kansas City had been confusing and busy. I was hoping that things would be better this time.
Well, it wasn't busy, but even with the GPS, Kansas City was still confusing. I made a wrong turn at one point. But with the help of Georgiana (that's what we call our GPS) I was back on the right road in no time.
We crossed into Kansas. Kansas has a toll system on some of the Interstate. They also have rest stops located between the two sides of the interstate. The rest stop had a gas station and a McDonalds. We stopped at one. I remembered this from the road trip with my family. It was fun to see it again.
We ate lunch on a patio by the McDonalds at the rest stop.
There were some pretty flowers.
Here I am.
And here's Bridger. He was a pretty good spot through this whole drive. He liked listening to Baconsale with Emily and me. We listened to the Breakfast episode, two Cereal Episodes, and an episode about songs with the same title.
Our next stop was one of the reasons I'd wanted to travel through Kansas rather than Nebraska. It's a Catholic Church known as the Cathedral of the Plains. (Even through its technically a Basilica.) Back when Brandon and I had driven from Alabama to Utah we'd spent three days in Kansas seeing various things. I'd used a list of The 7 Wonders of Kansas to decide on some of the things we'd seen. This church was one of the wonders but was too far out of our way for that trip. I'd remembered that it was located near the interstate. So when I planned this trip I planned a stop at this church.
I never got a full picture of the church so here is one that I took of this sign inside.
We were able to walk around and take pictures. But I always feel weird taking pictures in churches so I didn't take that many. It was very pretty inside.
Here's one of the many stained glass windows.
Here I am outside the church. I'm glad I was able to stop and see something that has been on my bucket list since 2016.
Then we got back in the car and drove and drove and drove some more. Our goal for the day was Limon, Colorado. All told we would drive about 11 hours and 776 miles this day.
I'm not sure where these next pictures were taken. Let's just say Kansas.
Suddenly there were big hail stones hitting the car. They were hitting the car so hard and I was convinced they would break the windshield. Emily was waiting for them to crash through the roof.
Thankfully the storm didn't last long. And within the hour we were arriving in Limon. This time we were at a Super 8. It didn't have a pool, but I had been able to change my single bed room reservation to a double bed room.
I turned on my phone camera so we could record our final moments in case we died. Or just to so we could remember how loud the hail sound was.
We had soup that came in microwaveable cans for dinner. That's the first time I've tried those and they worked pretty well.
Eventually Emily and I went to bed in Hillary's guest room.
We were pretty road weary this day. We watched maybe one thing on TV and then decided to call it a night. I think I was asleep before 10:00.
The next morning I took a shower and felt like I could make it through one more day of driving.
We were heading to Fort Collins where Emily used to live before they moved to North Carolina in 2015. Her sister in law still lived there and so we were going to drop Bridger off at his aunts house. Then his grandma would pick him up the next day and take him to Colorado Springs for the next few weeks.
Bridger was really looking forward to being out of the car and seeing his cousins. He eagerly counted down the miles to Fort Collins. Yesterday's rain was hanging around and Emily drove through a lot of rain. She did a great job driving.
Soon we were in Fort Collins and driving up to Jennifer's house. Bridger was so happy to be out of the car. We chatted with Jennifer for a while and then were on our way.
Emily drove us into Wyoming. We'd been really worried that it would be snowing in Wyoming but no it was just raining.
Eventually it cleared up. We had a good time driving through that state. It was Sunday so I introduced Emily to the Leading Saints podcast.
The miles seemed to fly by in Wyoming - probably because the speed limit was finally 80. Thanks to that higher speed limit the 602 miles would only take us 9 hours.
When we got close to Little America we decided that we needed to celebrate a successful trip with ice cream cones. We got huge waffle cone ice cream cones for only $1.50 each. Then we walked around the area a bit.
And then it was back into the car for the last bit of the trip. Soon we were driving down Parley's canyon and into the Salt Lake Valley. I drove us to my sister Hillary's house. It was so good to get there and know that we'd made it!
Hillary had a yummy dinner waiting for us. After three days of snacks and microwaveable meals it was great to have something home cooked.
Then she started showing Emily all the cute clothes she had for her. I called Brandon and was actually able to get ahold of him. I went on a walk around the neighborhood while talking with Brandon. It was good to catch up with him. His parents had gone home the day before. They'd had a great time with the kids.
I went back to Hillary's and was standing in her kitchen when I realized my shin was hurting. I looked at my leg and saw two blue spots on my shin. I immediately flashed back to 4 days earlier. I'd been packing and my mom had asked me if I wanted to take compression socks to keep the blood from pooling in my legs. I'd rather flippantly responded, "Mom, I didn't even pack real socks for this trip." And declined the compression socks.
I was regretting that now.
I laid down in Hillary's room with my legs raised up. Hillary noticed what I was doing and asked what was up. I told her I thought my leg veins were freaking out. Then Hillary pulled out a cute pair of compression socks for me. She even taught me how to put them on. I wore them the rest of the evening and on the ride back to Idaho the next day. I think they saved my leg veins from further trama.
I was so tired from three days of driving and just general time zone disorientation. I wanted to go to bed, but I also wanted to hang out with my sisters. At 9:30 Hillary said, "Let me cut your hair. I want to improve the haircut I gave you before I started hair school."
So I sat and had her cut my hair. I very nearly fell asleep during the hair cut. But it turned out really well. Hillary knows her stuff.
The next morning we had a nice morning with Hillary Joe and and their kids. Penny wanted to sit in my lap for a while and she was so cute and fun to hold.
Then I packed my bag for the final time and got ready for the final leg of my trip. This part had always been a little up in the air. I'd toyed with the idea of just driving my parents car to Idaho. Or I'd wondered if Brandon's family would have a get together on Memorial Day in Utah and I'd just meet up with Brandon and the kids somewhere in Utah. But ultimately I just bought a ticket for the Salt Lake Express from Salt Lake to Pocatello and then to Twin Falls.
Emily and Hillary dropped me off at the Salt Lake Airport near the Salt Lake Express. Wished Emily luck on her home buying adventure that week. Then it was time to get on the bus.
I was on a pretty big shuttle bus. I had a row all to myself. I pulled out my laptop and the notes I'd made more than a week earlier for a piece for East Idaho Moms. I wrote for a good part of the trip.
I was really happy when we crossed into Idaho. Of all the states I'd visited, Idaho was the best looking to me.
I was sending my location to Brandon via Glympse. So he knew when I was moving again.
He and the kids went to the Shell Gas station drop off point and were waiting for me when I arrived. They'd been watching my little dot on the map, but I don't think they'd believed that I was really coming home.
They were so excited when I stepped out of the van. Brandon came and helped me with my bags. I gave everyone big hugs. Then we drove home.
I was so happy to see everyone and I was so happy to pull up in front of my house.
After 10 days away from my family and 12 days away from home it was good to be back.
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