Sheep Guarding Llama

We are still on the road.  We started today (at midnight, eastern time) in the mountains of western Virginia on Route 81.  Our route is roughly the NY Palisades to the Garden State Parkway to Interstate 78 to Interstate 81 which will take us all of the way to Knoxville, Tennessee.  After today I will have driven every inch of i81 which is a very long north south run from the Canadian border to the deep south with a very long curve along the mountains.

For several hours this morning we had no email or Twitter communications with the outside world because of the Blackberry outage.  BB came back online around three thirty and we started Twittering again.

We entered Tennessee from Virginia at roughly four thirty this morning.  We can’t believe how cold it is here.  We stopped to refuel right over the border and it was thirty one degrees!  There is snow everywhere as well.  We talked to the lady working at the gas station and she said that thousands of people here in Tennessee and north in Virginia were without power and had been for days and might not have power restored until after Christmas.

We were unable to find a bathroom in Tennessee due to the power outage so we went to Perkins which is open all night as Liesl needed to be changed and we could all do with some time out of the car.  Definitely time for a good stretch now that we are twelve hours into the trip.  So we stopped for breakfast.  We were the only people at Perkins when we arrived but when we left the place was full of the contract electrical crews in from out of town helping to get power restored in the area.

Dominica took over for her first turn driving while in Tennessee.  She drove us down to and through Knoxville.  Knoxville is the first real city on this trip that I have never seen previously.  We are now farther on i81 than I have ever been before.

We crossed into Georgia just minutes before ten in the morning.  We are making good time, overall, but are incredibly far behind our original schedule and are nowhere close to Texas at this point.

Once we were in to Alabama the sun was out and the temperatures shot up.  The temperature difference between the Upland South and the Deep South was really noticeable today.  It was gorgeous down in Alabama and we enjoyed great driving conditions.  Sixty six degrees in Fort Payne when we came through.

I drove us through Alabama and Dominica took over and drove us all of the way through Mississippi with Mississippi being the only state that Dominica drove in its entirety during the entire trip.  We stopped in Meridian, Mississippi to eat at Waffle House there.  That was our last real stop on the trip.

In southern Mississippi, just before crossing into Louisiana, we ran into our first rain of the entire trip.  Not a lot of rain, but enough that our car top carrier is getting tested.

We crossed into Louisiana at a quarter till six in the evening.  The temperature was into the seventies while in Louisiana.  This is very encouraging.

At eight this evening we stopped for our final fuel stop just before crossing into Texas.  Then it was on to our final stretch.  We are so exhausted.  I can’t believe that we are still moving.

We arrived in Bayou Vista, Texas at Joe and Britt’s house on the salt marsh overlooking Tiki Island at half past midnight.  Thirty two straight hours from Peekskill to Bayou Vista.  We were seriously tired.  It had been raining most of the way from southern Mississippi but no serious rain during our drive.  We made out great as far as the weather was concerned.

It was straight to bed for us.  We were pretty much asleep before even getting in to the house.  Joe was waiting up for us but we only did the absolute minimum to get in and to get in to bed.  We are exhausted as we can be.  We’ve been up working hard for forty one hours now and we need to be functioning so that we can celebrate Christmas Eve with the family tomorrow.

Dominica and I were exhausted when we woke up today.  There is so much to do yet and so much driving that has to be done.  It is overwhelming just to think about it.  We have no choice but to leave today or else we will be unable to make it for Christmas Eve in League City so one way or another we are done with the packing today and the house remains in whatever state it is in when we decide that we absolutely have to leave.  This is going to be awful, one way or another.

We packed and cleaned like crazy all day.  So much to do.  We got one or two BMW loads done and out to the storage unit before we did the final packing of the BMW for the trip out.  An even bigger job was to pack the car top carrier which we have never even been able to test before because we have not had the car available to us since we got the carrier last week!

My biggest task for the day was cleaning up the unbelievable quantity of CAT5 and CAT6 cables strewn through the basement.  What a job that was.  Maybe even an hour of work all on its own.

We finally reached a stage where we felt that we could leave Peekskill at four in the afternoon.  Four o’clock!  Almost exactly an entire day late.  Now, after nine hours of crazed cleaning and packing we have to drive more than sixteen hundred miles down to Houston.  This is going to be insane.  We hadn’t even eaten a bite before leaving either – there just was not enough time.

We were on the road and on our way to our new life in Texas.  We were starving too and decided to stop at the Burger King on the Garden State Parkway near the NY/NJ border to get some food.  We stopped there and ate quickly.  Unfortunately because we left so late we got stuck in the NYC rush hour in North Jersey.  We lost almost two hours sitting in practically stopped traffic just getting through the Newark area!  What a horrible way to start our really long drive.  This is not boding well at all.

Once we finally got past the Delaware Water Gap traffic started moving just fine and we were able to really get moving.  We made a quick pitstop at Barnes & Nobles in Pennsylvania to pick up some books on CD so that we would have something to which to listen in the car.  We got Sue Grafton’s latest release “U is for Undertow” as well as the Janet Evanovich’s “Plum Lucky” which is much shorter.  Our total drive is almost thirty hours of car time so we need quite a bit to listen to potentially.

We decided that the delay in New Jersey was so significant that it pushed us back to the point where we could not make it to our hotel in Birmingham, Alabama before we would need to check out in the morning.  So we called and canceled our reservation.  Crappy.  Now we have no choice but to drive straight through the entire way.  This is now officially awful.

It was extremely cold for all of the drive that we did today.  About thirty degrees in Peekskill dipping into the mid-twenties in Virginia.  Today was all driving by me.  Dominica stayed awake pretty much the entire time and we only just began listening to “U is for Undertow.”  It is looking like it is going to last us the entire trip.

The beginning of the drive was pretty bad but we made good time for the rest of the day.  Liesl and Oreo are both doing great, just sleeping away.  No issues at all.

All of our Twitter posts ceased around seven this evening as global Blackberry service is offline.  So no updates for a while even though we were writing them and attempting to post.

Today was supposed to be our moving to Texas day.  This is going to be rough.  I was up at seven thirty this morning getting some work out of the way so that I would have more time to focus on getting ready.

Brian and Tara were up super early this morning and actually drove up from Philadelphia at like six thirty and arrived in Peekskill at half past eight – way earlier than we were expecting them.  Dominica was only just getting out of bed when they arrived.  We were very thankful to see them as we desperately need their help today.

The entire day was a crazy packing day.  Tara watched Liesl while Dominica, Brian and I packed like crazy.  Throughout the course of the day we were able to take several large, dual truck loads out to the storage unit which really got the house cleared out.  We are so thankful that we don’t really have to take care of the furniture.  That would just be impossible.

Katie came by with her empty Baja this evening and picked up the recliner that she was taking as well.  So that helped a bunch too.

Brian and Tara stayed until very late. What a day.  This was, by far, our most productive day, though, and we got more done that we have done in the whole of the last two weeks.  But there was no way to leave for Texas today.  We worked until around midnight and then decided that we just needed to get up tomorrow and continue or we would be so tired that we would never be able to drive at all.

We have an emergency update from the Ralstons in the Republic of the Congo today on Laborers for the Harvest.  Impfondo in the ROC is not embroiled in war but is sitting right on the border with the DRC where there is a rebel insurrection underway and gunfire is being exchanged over the border and refugees, as well as soldiers, are being accepted by the hospitals in Impfondo.  ROC military helicopters and ships are having to be used to deliver relief supplies to Impfondo.  Things are apparently getting really rough over there although Michael seems to think that the war is pretty cool and interesting.

If everything goes to plan, we are supposed to be moving tomorrow.  That does not seem possible at all.  We are not even remotely ready and without having any car we have no idea what we are going to do.  This is really bad.

I had to work today so that took a chunk out of the packing time.  Additionally, we don’t have the minivan this morning so we have no way to get a load ready.

Around one this afternoon Katie drove me down to downtown Peekskill to pick up the Sedona that was still stuck in a snow bank on the side of the road.  It took me more than ten minutes to work that car free of the snow so that I could drive it out to get fuel and then home so that we could pack it.

There was so much going on and so much to do that once we had the minivan back we were only able to get a single load out in it this afternoon.  We are not being nearly as productive as we need to be.  We are starting to move into panic mode here!

Katie left this afternoon so it is just Dominica and I tonight worrying about how we are going to get this all done.  Brian and Tara are coming up tomorrow morning to help us for the day.  We have to return the minivan first thing in the morning making it almost completely worthless for us to have gotten this weekend – it didn’t even serve as an emergency vehicle since we were never able to get to it when we might have needed it.  Brian has a Chevy truck that we are going to use in addition to the BMW for hauling stuff over to storage and Tara is going to watch Liesl so that Dominica can pack as well.  There is so much to do, we have no idea where to start.

The original plan for today was that we were going to hold a large “drink all of our booze in our empty apartment” party.  The theory being that the apartment would be pretty much empty at this point with nothing left except for the furniture.  Unfortunately, as we were stuck without vehicle this week that did not happen at all.  So the apartment is still as full as it was when I left on Tuesday.

First thing this morning I got a ride down to Enterprise Rent A Car and picked up the Kia Sedona that we are renting for the weekend.  We got that home and shortly thereafter Katie arrived to help us get ready for the party tonight.  Katie helped put down the seats in the minivan so that we were able to fit a ton of stuff into it.  The Sedona will be awesome for moving things to storage.  Each load in it is three or four loads in the BMW.

We got the Sedona loaded and then Katie and I ran down to storage to drop off the load.  That was a super productive trip – the best one of the entire process thus far.  So far, Dominica and I are liking the Sedona much more than the Grand Caravan that we rented in Texas a few months ago.  Sitting in each is about the same but driving the Grand Caravan is terrifying to drive as it has no control and slides even on hot, dry pavement.  The Sedona felt solid and safe.  Considering that it is less expensive and has a better crash rating it is clearly a better choice.  We are definitely going to be considering getting one of these once we live in Texas and have lots of kids to drive around.

That one load with the Sedona made a huge impact on the house.  You can completely see that the house is much more empty now.  It is a relief to see some progress actually happening on the packing.

There is a huge snow storm, a big Noreaster, predicted for today expected to hit our entire area so our attendance for the party tonight is rapidly dwindling.  We had a few cancellations yesterday and all morning more and more people have been contacting us to tell us that they can’t make it or feel that they should not because of the weather.   Katie arrived way before there was a hint of snow so we didn’t have to worry about her and Ryan was coming via Metro North so he doesn’t have to worry about snow either.  Brian and Tara were leaving Philadelphia when their dog sitter canceled on them due to the inclement weather that they were expecting down that way so they had to cancel as well.  So our party of ten or more dwindled to just four (including Dominica and I) in no time.

Katie and Dominica prepared for the party most of the day while I did some work for the office and some packing.  Not a lot of spare time today.  Ryan came up around six thirty, if I remember correctly, we had been clear all day but the snow started a little while before Ryan came so when I drove down to the train station to pick him up the Kia Sedona slid a significant way down Hudson Street which is very, very steep.  It was a little scary driving out there even though there was not very much snow.  They are not plowing the streets yet which is rather a problem on these crazy Peekskill hills.

We had our small party which was fun.  It was nice to get to see Ryan for the first time in more than a year since we moved out of Eleven80 in Newark.  Ryan is the only one of the “old gang” left at Eleven80 since Kevin and Pam bought a house recently.  Ramona is still living in China.

After the party I drove Ryan down to the train station so that he could begin his long trek back to Newark, NJ.  After I dropped him off I quickly realized that I had no way to get back home.  With it having snowed quite a bit more than my last time out driving and still no plowing having happened I didn’t even have the slightest hope of making it away from the train station.  I started sliding backwards down Hudson as soon as I tried it.  Very scary.

After some experimenting I was able to get around to downtown Peekskill and made an attempt at getting up the hill on Maple rather than Hudson which is less steep and less likely to have me slide out of control backwards into heavy traffic.  On Maple I actually made it fairly far, but never to the steep part of the hill, but lost all momentum because someone was stuck sideway in the road (and then, when they got unstuck they drove straight at me like crazy people even though they knew that they had trapped me in the middle of the road.)

I spent a good thirty or forty minutes trying to get the car someplace safe.  I was stuck going down the hills backwards as I could control the car enough to turn it without it becoming stuck mid-incline.  Eventually I managed to get the car stuck in a snowbank downtown where I got out and began the long trek, on foot, from downtown Peekskill up to the house in Chapel Hill.  It was very cold and the roads were so slippery that I was almost unable to walk up them.  No wonder the car wasn’t able to make it.  I was actually considering whether or not I would have to crawl up the hill to be able to keep moving.

It took almost an hour of walking in heavy snow uphill to get back to Chapel Hill.  Katie and Dominica were still waiting up for me with hot coffee when I walked in the door.  Boy was I exhausted.  I was pretty frozen too and my right ears had a piercing pain in it (which is still bothering me a week later as I write this!)  It was pretty much time for bed after I arrived home.

So much for our packing plans.  Now, once again, we have no car at all but now we are paying $175 per day for it!  This is really bad.  We couldn’t possible have worse timing for this level of automotive disaster.