Oh so much traveling--Part 1 (North Carolina/Ohio)

I typed this in Word and it was 5 pages so I decided to break it up into 3 posts. Sorry in advance for being so long-winded. I just had so much updating to do!

We made one last round of visits to our families before the big move. Mike out processed from Little Rock on Thursday, February 6^th. We had already loaded the van and the U-Haul we rented at our house. We also had the dogs in the van ready to go. We left the base at a little after 10:00 headed for North Carolina. The U-Haul was just a small trailer that had some things in it that we were leaving at Mike’s parents’ house for storage while we are in Japan. We planned on stopping for the night at some point between Little Rock and NC. We stopped twice for food and gas and to walk the dogs. I started feeling ready to stop about 10:30. We were supposed to get off I-40 fairly soon so we decided we would just stay at a hotel at that exit. Unfortunately that exit was completely devoid of civilization. All we had were mapquest directions, so continuing on 40 was out of the question since we had no idea how much further it would be before we got to an exit with something at it. (We would later find out that staying on 40 for another 30-40 miles would’ve only added 9 minutes to our trip—the definite better choice!) So we continued on this 2-lane road for 2 ½ hours. The whole time I was still searching for a hotel. By the time we finally saw one we were only 45 minutes from Mike’s parents’ house. We got there about 1:30 am (14 ½ hours after we started). It was nice to not have to deal with the dogs and the baby in a hotel, but man was that a long drive! I don’t know how Mike did it. He had planned on changing into civilian clothes since he had to out process in his uniform, but he was so anxious to get on the road he skipped that step. I figured he’d change at a stop, but he never did. So he drove all that way in his uniform (and boots!). Yuck!

North Carolina was a good visit as usual. The dogs got along really well. Of course Wendy had already met Penny and Sadie before, but it had been a while. And Lexi gets along with everyone. Jada came for a day and brought her dog, Tipsey. Five dogs makes for a pretty crowded household! Jackson had fun playing with Grandma and Grandpa and getting spoiled rotten.

He had a hard time sleeping since his room didn’t have curtains, but he made it.

One day, Mike and I took him to a nearby playground. He had a BLAST! I did have to be mean to some girl that chose the swing right by where he was standing instead of the swing next to it, then decided to kick him. But other than that, he was great. He loved the swings, the slides, and the DIRT.

We left North Carolina headed for Ohio on Thursday, February 12^th. We left the U-Haul in North Carolina so we could go a little faster, but it also meant all the suitcases were in the back of the van and the dogs had less room. We stacked them on one side to keep them from trying to climb up front. Lexi was fine but on the way to NC, Wendy kept trying to get into the second row with Jackson or up front with me. They had about half of the back of the van to lie down on their beds and were pretty happy for the ride. This drive was m

uch shorter, only about 9 hours. Jackson had a rough time since he doesn’t sleep well in the van (or on planes…) but we made it with no real problems.

Our time in Ohio was pretty busy! Mike and I had to get new driver’s licenses on Saturday. We were there when they opened but we were still there forever! We spent a lot of time with Mimi, Grampers, and OSheila.

Uncle CamCam even made a few appearances. One night, we watched Camden play basketball.

Uncle Don showed us a bunch of his stuff from when he was in Japan 10 years ago. We had dinner with a friend on Saturday night, which was great food. We spent all day Saturday at Don and Sheila’s house. Their niece, Julie, has a son, Tyler that is 6 weeks older than Jackson. They always have a lot of fun when they get together.

As usual, Mike spent a lot of time doing two things: golfing, and playing cards. He doesn’t get a chance to play cards very often, so when he’s around my family he makes the most of his time with fellow card players. And golf, well, that’s just par for the course. (Like my pun? =) One day in Ohio, he even golfed in the SNOW. Yep, I am NOT making that up!!

I convinced everyone to play hand and foot one day. It’s my favorite card game (thanks, Jennie!), but it requires 6 decks. So while we were busy putting decks together from the infamous card basket, Jackson was “helping”.

On Sunday we drove to Kentucky. We had a good visit with Grandpa,

Grammy,

and PaPa.

We hung out at Grammy and PaPa’s house for a while. Jackson was kind of roaming around with Mike behind him. At one point, he found a bowl of apples and picked one up. Before Mike could stop him, he took a bite out of it. They came into the living room and Mike was like, “Umm… can Jackson have an apple? Because he kind of already helped himself.” He didn’t put it down for the rest of the visit.

We left our van with my dad to sell for us. That involved getting some stuff notarized (on a Sunday) which turned out to be a much less painful process than I anticipated. After lunch and notary we headed back to Ohio.

We got to visit with Mark, Christine, Ben, Amanda, and MoMo on Monday night.

Unfortunately, Christine and the kids were out of town and by the time their plane got in, Jackson was already asleep.

It was a little sad to say good-bye to everyone (in Little Rock, North Carolina, AND Ohio/Kentucky), but we knew we’d be back for visits (Jackson and I more so than Mike) and we were all so excited it was hard to be sad for long.