18 Wheels Of Love

Yeah, I'm pretty much a badass now. I'm a trucker. I drove a 26 ft Penske Truck across five states. Let me tell you what that means. Not only do you pull up to truck stops to fill up with gas, you pull up to the TRUCKER side of the truck stop. You go in the TRUCK ONLY entrance and you fill up with DIESEL. The joke's on you commoners because those big diesel pumps fill a 50 gallon tank in 30 seconds flat...with no spillage. Once I finished with the tank, I pulled up a few feet so some of my new found brethren could pull in and fill up theirs. I swear to you if my wife ever lets me grow a mustache, I'll be bona fide. Truckers get me man. I'm pretty sure they wanted to hangout with me and have arm wrestling matches. I was talking trucker strategy with guys named Buzz, Bull, Grizzly, Cletus and a guy that looked like my old ice cream man named Judd. They kept telling me how cool I was because I had a visor on and they looked up to that. I just let them know that even when a visor is turned backwards, it's like flipping a switch and you go over the top dude. If you don't get that, find out what it means. Then learn it, live it, and love it. I'm thinking of moving from a Penske on up to a Peterbilt but that might have to wait on the mustache. We'll see...

Glad That Part Is Over

It's just now 8:45pm and we've been loading that truck since noon. This truck is gigantic and driving it first thing this morning freaked me out. I'm not used to not being able to see behind me. I made it though and even got the thing backed into the driveway which was a chore because one side of the street has a pretty good ditch.

My parents offered to help load in the morning but I didn't want them doing any heavy lifting. Our good friend Ross Patrick came over and really helped out a ton. We could not have done it without him. My parents came by afterwards and I thought the worst part was over since we had most of the big stuff loaded. I'm absolutely shocked that we got all of the boxes on. My mom and my wife are packing machines. They were perched on top of mattresses in the back of the truck stacking boxes for 2 1/2 hours. We cannot get one more thing in that truck. Real glad we got the 26 footer. Now I just have to drive it to South Carolina.

Kristen, my mom, and my sister are in the living room watching Grey's Anatomy. Dad and I went to grab a sandwich and just talk. I'm really going to miss my family but I'm really excited. Once we get there and unloaded, I should relax.

Winding Down On The Way Back Up

I have to admit, sitting in the middle of packed boxes with empty rooms all around is really making me sad. To make it even worse, there are severe storms all around. To make it totally suck, I'm typing this on my wife's desktop which is possessed by some demonic jerk of some sort. I had completely intended on posting pictures marking our progress but this thing will not let me. I would describe the mounds of boxes and disarrayed furniture but that would be boring and pointless so I will let you use your imagination. Make it something cool...with ninjas.

We had dinner with my parents tonight. Nothing special but a nice little trip to George's Grill. As far as diner food goes, it does not get much better than that. And if I can start my own little Shreveport Civil War, I think their pies are 1000 x's better than Strawns. Beat that with a stick. We are not going to actually say goodbye to my parents until tomorrow night so I'm not too terribly sad but I'm pretty sure I will be. That's okay though. We are so excited about this change.

I pick the truck up at 7:30am tomorrow. I was told to get more boxes from the Penske place. I am not allowed to just stack stuff in the truck, I must have it packed away nicely. Not a problem. I am also going out to Comcast to have the cable turned off so I probably will not be updating until we get out there. Kristen and I are not sure if we're spending the night here tomorrow night on the floor or spending the night with my parents. This could be the last night in our house. As my wife would say, I am a downer debbie.

One Thing After Another

Moving really is overwhelming. So often it feels like you take one step forward and two steps back. I posted last night and set the laptop down without the a/c adapter connected. I woke up this morning to check my email and the computer was acting funny. I called tech support and they told me that basically I needed to reformat my hard drive. That's always great news. Got even better when the reformat failed so tech support (Indian dude named Joe) told me that I'd have to ship it back to the manufacturer so they could take a look. In other words, my hard drive was done. Two laptop hard drives fried in three months. Lookout Apple, the Nolands are coming.

Kristen packed up the dining room today. Between the echos of the hardwood floors and the stacks of boxes by the garage door, it's really starting to hit me. I'm excited about moving on to this new phase of our lives but it's still sad. I've been in this house for almost four years. We've had our battles (oak trees and plumbing) but sometimes its hard to say good bye. I am still absolutely shocked by how much moving away from my parents and sister is affecting me. I have surrendered my man card at least seven times in the last eight days just thinking about things. My wife calls me Susan now which is kind of annoying but dad conditioned me to take it for most of my life.

Tomorrow it continues with lots of items on the checklist including returning the cable modem, taking back library books, etc. All of that in addition to the rest of the packing before finally picking up that big truck that's been haunting my nightmares. The adventure continues...

Overwhelming

Life changing events are afoot. My wife Kristen and I are packing up and leaving Shreveport for the east coast. We are headed to Charleston, South Carolina and hopefully we can document the ups and downs that come with such a big move. To be sure, we are nervous but at the same time incredibly excited and optimistic.

We flew out there a couple of weeks ago and found a house to rent while we get a feel for the area before we settle down and buy. According to Kristen, the house is adorable. According to me, it has a fireplace and a big yard which equals totally sweet. We own our home in Shreveport and have it on the market. We are hoping we can sell it quickly since it's no fun paying rent and a mortgage a thousand miles away.

The actual move is just a couple of days away. We rented a 26 ft Penske truck that I'll be driving across the country. I can't say that I'm remotely excited about it but I will be fine. Just stay out of my way because I have the aviator sunglasses prepped and ready and Maverick will have nothing on me (insert favorite Top Gun quote here...except the one about the need for speed because I'm pretty sure there's a governor on this truck). We were going to tow my car behind the moving truck but I truly was not crazy about the idea. My dad had an airline voucher he had to use so he let me take it. I'm flying back next week to grab my car and drive it over. My wife thinks I'm crazy but I love driving and I have some cd's that I have not gotten the chance to listen to in a long time.

We are stressed but making do. Once we started packing, things started to flow. Just having the entire thing hanging over our heads was the most intimidating part. Right now we're just having fun and looking up pictures and articles on our new home. We cannot wait and hopefully can share a little bit of this journey with anyone who is interested.