Viva Chicago!

We are half way through our insane (I'll clue you in on that later) trip to Chi Town...this may be long...but it WILL be good for at least a few giggles.

The moving company came and packed us up on Monday and then loaded the truck on Tuesday. More than once we heard them say something to the effect of 'You have a lot of stuff'. Don't we know it. After the truck was loaded on Tuesday my mom came up and helped us clean the house, then we went to a farewell dinner at a great Thai place. (Thanks mom, I really appreciate your help and you not crying...because if you would have, I would have totally lost it instead of just partially losing it)

Winston was really freaked out by the whole thing. He has been through a move before and wasn't sure he liked what was going on. This is where he 'hid' after all the boxes were gone.

We woke up Wednesday morning to snow. Utah wanted to send us off in style!


I was fine until I knew I was walking out of our house for the last time. I had so many hopes for that house. I had planned on bringing a baby home from the hospital to that house, raising children in that house, having many Christmas mornings in that house. To leave without fulfilling those wishes was hard. I love that house. I love my scrapbook room. I love the plaster paint job in the Master Bedroom, I love my flower beds. I am sad that I won't be able to see my Daffodils and Irises come up this year. Nathan was great and allowed me a bit to cry, then gently pulled me out the door.

Unfortunately the storm Utah decided to send us away with caused quite a few problems. We already had the car packed to the gills, on a dolly, hooked to the truck (which was also packed to the gills)...we didn't need to add snow to the equation. We didn't make too bad of time until we hit Rawlins, then it got ugly. We got back on I-80 and shortly after we did, they closed the road because of the weather. We had to SLOWLY (read: So slow sometimes I forgot we were moving) make our way through the ice and snow and wind. They had closed the freeway going West so there was a while where we didn't see another car for almost an hour. It was kinda freaky. We got to Laramie and wanted to push on to Cheyenne for the night, but fate had other ideas. I-80 between Laramie and Cheyenne was closed...which was probably good because the roads were getting slicker and we fishtailed more than once as we got close to Laramie. We got my mom to work for us and found us a hotel that had rooms open and would also allow us to bring our entourage (Besta, Winston and Frank). We got the circus unloaded and went to bed. (This hotel would be the source of much laughing today...the bathroom light didn't work...the shower was VERY testy and wouldn't hold a steady temperature...the front desk person didn't know how to let me connect my Mac to the wifi and I'm sure the floor hadn't been vacuumed in weeks. By the time we got there we were so tired we didn't want to go find food so we ate two left over tacos from lunch...cold tacos. yummy.).

We got up this morning fully aware that we were HUNDREDS of miles behind schedule. Speaking of waking up...this is what we woke up to:
We had wanted to make it to Grand Island, NE the first night...we were 412 miles off. So we took off. What should creep up on us? More weather:


The truck seemed to get slower and slower. It wasn't pulling the load as fast as we'd like. (We were lucky to get to 40mph). I called my dad (who has owned more than his fair share of trucks over the years and so has extensive truck-fixing knowledge) and he thought it was our Catalytic Converter. All we needed to do was punch a hole in the pipe that leads into it. Sound simple? Now factor in that we are in sub-freezing temps, in the snow, in the middle of nowhere Nebraska. We pull off the side of the road, under an overpass (seriously...) and Nathan climbs under the truck with a screwdriver and a rock and works for 30 minutes before he gets one hole. (Turns out there were TWO pipes leading into it...so we had to punch two holes).


He can't get the other one so he climbs back in and we keep moving. It helps a little, so we stop at the next truck stop, Nathan goes in and asks for a hammer and gets back under the truck. He worked for almost 40 minutes, then some random kind stranger asks if we need help. He is a mechanic or something, offers a HUGE hammer and a tool that will punch the hole better. Four swings with the hammer and there is a grand canyon size hole in the pipe and we can now go 65mph. I can't believe how nice that guy was! (Oh, did I mention the side-effect of punching the hole in the pipe? The truck is now LOUD. I mean LOUD, like a truck with no muffler...so conversations in the truck are now not held unless necessary because we don't want to yell)

So we are now in a hotel in Kearney, Nebraska. (I know, where??!?) It is clean, the bathroom light works, it has internet, and a working heater. The dog loves being inside, Frank loves having a new room to discover every night and Winston is doing better tonight than last night. (See Winston under the blanket on top of the pillow? He wormed his way up through the blankets to get himself there...we woke up to find a very interesting lump on the pillow...and that lump turned out to be him)


I am trying not to be frustrated. We are still not where we hoped we would be on the first night...we had actually hoped to be in Chicago tonight...but storms and truck trouble have held us back. I'm not sure when I'll be able to update again. If you're on Facebook, you can keep tabs on us there. I can get on Facebook on my phone. I haven't had time to read any blogs, but I promse to get caught up once I get settled in Chi Town.