Adventures in Moving

Whoever coined the slogan "Adventures in Moving" must have had a sadistic streak about a mile wide, because driving that mile in a Budget rental moving truck is all it takes to convince one that driving in one of these things is awful. If it is an adventure, surely it is one of the worst ones available at the present time, and we will be happy to settle for a less "adventuresome" life after this trip! This truck bounces, squeaks, is truly uncomfortable, and is unbelievably noisy, so we can't even talk, let alone play music. Thankfully, in emptying our storage unit, we found some king-sized bed pillows, so I am sitting on one with my heated, massaging back pillow on top of that, which may allow me to walk at the end of today's drive, IF I continue some kind of drug of choice (that is, IBP, Advil, or Tylenol). You can perhaps understand why, after spending three hours of lifting, carrying, and loading yesterday, and then driving from Omaha to Salina, Kansas, we were so thankful to stop for drinks, dinner, and bed! The guys who were hired to help us for "two hours" counted their driving time in the two hours, so when 10:30 arrived, they were out of there, and the two of us continued the loading of the truck. Actually, we were amazed at our endurance and surprised to be out of the Omaha at 12:30 and to be reaching Salina by 5:00. 1HW is an excellent driver, in spite of this vehicle, but he has decided that bumping along at 65 mph is about the fastest this baby will go. Since it has a diesel engine, it is gulping gas like crazy, and we are getting about 10 mpg. So going faster than 65 would make the gas mileage even worse. So on we plod.

Traveling from Nebraska into Kansas proved to be a remarkable change in scenery. Nebraska seems to still be recovering from winter, while Kansas already shows signs of spring. all along the way, the Kansas farmers had green fields, which we guessed might be winter wheat. As we reached the Salina area, there were newly plowed fields, as well, and as we reached Wichita, the fields were showing the bits of newly sprung plants in the field. Suddenly, it really looked like spring, as forsythia was in bloom and trees were covered with white blossoms. In the pastures, little baby calves are trying to keep up with their mamas and very fun to see. It did strike us that the outskirts of Wichita's "skyline" made it appear as a metropolis, but when we were closer in, those buildings were primarily granaries and mills. Now that we are in Oklahoma, the green continues for miles. Although it was a chilly 26 in Salina this morning, it has warmed up considerably, and by the time we (hopefully) reach Denton or Fort Worth tonight, we expect to be in short sleeve weather.

We plan to reach Kerrville tomorrow, hopefully in time to retrieve Max from puppy camp. Hope he remembers us after two weeks! Happy Travels to all of you!