Iced or hot…..either way it is still tea

So, one of the interesting things that we have come to see over the last weeks is that when you think that you are going to get one thing, often it is a not exactly what you would expect. A classic example is the tea situation. Today while we were dinning at the Gahan house (http://www.gahan.ca/) enjoying some very excellent fish and chips, Nancy ordered tea for us as we settled in to await our treat for the week. In a very short time, the glasses or ice water arrived, and then shortly after this, two small pots for hot tea. We were a bit taken about, but continued and enjoyed a very good small pot of tea each. It was not what I would have usually ordered to go along with fish and chips, but that was alright.

We have noted some other things that are equally fun to experience. There is the previously mentioned issue with French fries. Specifically if you are fries on the island, then you will be warned about getting them with the works, which means that you will be getting fries with brown gravy, ground meat, and peas. Now I am not sure why anyone would ruin good peas by combining them with ground meat, gravy, and fries. Also, the entire snack chip industry here is a bit off.

When you look along the aisles of the supermarket or any convenience store, the snack chips are present in abundance. Although present, they are all in flavors that are unusual to the southern pallet. You can enjoy a nice bag of Ketch Flavored or Roast Chicken Flavored chips if the mood strikes you (as long as the mood for Fritos does not strike).

Another interesting thing that has become more obvious is the sorting of the garbage. You see, since we live on an island, a landfill is of necessity a limited thing. We do not have the abundance of land that we were familiar with back in Texas. On the island, land is at a premium. However, people still generate a lot of garbage so something has to be done in order to keep from filling the landfill quickly. The island answer is intensive recycling. In order to make this work well, we have to sort things at the source as opposed to sorting at the destination (which would also be nasty). So, we sort our garbage. Now recycling is something that we did in Texas, albeit at a lower level, but we have taken it up a notch since we arrived. We have four separate containers we use to sort and recycle everything that we can. Under the sink is anything that can ultimately be turned into compost. In our previous trashcan is our blue bag #2 into which we sort cans, glass, and plastic bottles. In blue bag #1 we place newspaper, pressboard, junk mail and other white paper. Into our waste goes most everything else except for cardboard which must be broken down and placed on the curb for pickup. We have two garbage cans, one black for waste, and one green for compost. The waste and compost alternate form week to week as to what is being picked up from the curb, and if you get it wrong you get a gentle reminder. Apparently 60% of the waste stream is recycled which is not a bad deal if you think about it. If you are curious about this head to the IWMC for more details (http://www.iwmc.pe.ca/).

Oh, by the way, the guest bedroom painting has been completed. Just a bit of touch up work on the master bedroom and we will be done with the painting for a while…….Now if I could just figure out how to heat the house this winter…….

The wool mill around the corner

It appears that some folks reading the blog have become curious if all that is taking place at the new homestead is the steady drill of painting, unpacking, sleeping and repeating. Well I can assure you that nothing could be further from the truth. In fact there has been a great deal more taking place than this simple four step cycle represents. There has been grocery shopping, the eternal quest for Fritos, trips to the barn, work with horses, setting up an office, painting, deciphering the mandatory recycle system, searching for Fritos, sleeping, unpacking, going to the hardware store, painting, and of course, sleeping.

In all seriousness, the quest to get everything important unpacked, as well as finishing the painting so that the rooms can be organized has occupied a significant amount of time. However, we are venturing forth to explore the surroundings as we make our way north and south across the island on the regular trips to the barn and clinic. Today we ran into a most amazing place which we have passed several times, but today decided needed closer inspection. It is the MacAuslands woolen mill and it has been in operation since 1870. The building itself is newer having been rebuilt after the fire in 1948, but the mill itself has been operating on this site since 1870. We have driven past it several times as it is on the way from O’Leary to the Kent Hardware (think Lowes or Home Depot). Today we popped in and took a look around (Link to flickr photos). It was fantastic. The equipment is wonderful, and the women who were working away on it moved with a sense of finesse and grace as they ran the spindles that created the yarn. We talked with the owners for about half an hour prior to taking our leave. They put me in touch with a lady who knits wool sweaters and I will be visiting her soon to get a few in my size.

This weekend we are hoping to head to the northern and western most point of the island to the town of Tignish to see a beautiful Catholic church and enjoy the sites. Also, since we now have a reliable internet connection at home I will begin uploading more photos of the travels.

In case you are curious as to the multiple mentions of Fritos, we are having great difficulty finding these chips in Canada.

Has it already been a week?

Let’s review the latest happenings.
Eight days ago we arrived in our new house having passed through customs without so much as a long glance. We spent the first night on the floor, and then slept in hotels until our mattress and other household goods arrived on Tuesday the 19th. We have been painting furiously, although it amounts to two rooms, they each required several coats of primer and two coats of pain in order to cover the colors that were there previously. We have unpacked kitchen stuff and are finally cooking instead of eating out, and the horses arrived on Wednesday the 20th and seem to have settled in to the new routine. Since we are new in town, we have established our electrical service, a new bank, received our Social Insurance Number (i.e. Social Security Number) and been treated to lobster for four separate meals.

So what is left to accomplish?
We have our internet coming to be set up in three days. Currently we are poaching the internet form our neighbors across the street that thankfully have a G-band wireless router that is unsecured, and an unobstructed view of their house. We still need to get Nancy set up with cellular service, and the hospital has been kind enough to supply me with my service (although I do not yet have my permanent number). I still need to apply for my malpractice insurance through the medical society and I have yet to receive my billing number from the government (although I am told it will be ready by Monday). There is some cleaning up from Texas that still has to happen, specifically I need to contact the state medical board and let them know that I have moved (same with the drug enforcement agency and with Medicare). That will pretty much clean up the loose ends from the states, and we will be free and clear professionally to jump into work here.

What are the differences?
Prices are higher for some things, lower for others. For example, in Texas it cost roughly $100 to fill up the Suburban if it was below a quarter tank. It costs more like $125 to accomplish the same task here. The costs for soda are marked up about the same amount, as are some other staple food items. The biggest differences that we are seeing at this point are the people. Things here move at a slower pace than they did back in Texas, and it feels like that mythical place called Mayberry RFD. People do not lock their houses, they leave their keys in the car at the store, and think nothing of letting their kids run around the neighborhood playing all day.

More people are walking or biking, especially in the small towns where it appears that everyone walks to lunch or to run their errands when they are at work. The tellers at the bank already know our names, and when we go in we do not have to have the deposit/withdrawal slip already completed, they do all of this for us while chatting about the latest news from around the town. We run into people we already have gotten to know when we go to the local store so every trip turns into a social visit.

Litter does not exist as far as I can see. There is no rubbish on the sides of the streets, no junk in people’s yards, no plastic grocery bags floating down the streets. People seem to take a great deal of pride in their yards which are al neat, tidy and full of flowers. The same holds true for the local parks and green spaces. They all look as if they have been freshly planted and mowed, and rarely do we pass the local cemeteries without seeing at least one that is being mowed and clipped. Speaking of which, every little church has its own local cemetery, if not right next door, then usually only one or two lots down. The churches themselves are an entire blog entry and once I have some photos of them I will be writing about them in depth.

Grammatical oddities……
Civic address= home address
Hydro= Electricity as in hydroelectric
You people= Ya’ll
Never hear tell of it = I haven’t every heard of it
Dairy Mart = Ice cream shop
Licensed (sign in restaurant window) = they can serve liquor
With the Works = indicated that the meal comes with brown gravy and peas
I will try to post more of these differences as they become known to me through my work as I am sure they will once I am in the clinic.
Finally, once the internet is up and running full time, I will post some photos from the house, and the surrounding area for all to see. Also, I hope to set up a web camera that will provide some real time glances out our front window so you can get a sense of what the weather is like and how the apple trees are doing. Remember we are two hours ahead of you time wise so you will want to look at the live photos before the sun sets out here.

Our stuff is here…..where are the horses

Well, the household stuff arrived today and it is a welcome sight. We were able to cook in the kitchen without having to improvise measuring devices (those little plastic sandwich containers work well in a pinch) and we no longer have the limited choices of sitting on the floor or standing in the kitchen when we have dinner. The guys who unloaded our stuff worked very quickly and got everything off the truck in about four hours. Thus far, the only damage we have found was a dent in our metal trashcan.

In other news, the painting is progressing albeit a bit slower than I would have liked. In the perfect world we would have completed two rooms prior to the arrival of the household goods, but since our world is anything but perfect, I have just finished the second coating of primer on the master bedroom. With luck, I can paint the whole thing tomorrow and we can move most of our furniture out of the other rooms and into the bedroom. That would mean we could sleep in our house, on a bed, how cool.

The arrival of the household goods is not without a hitch. The staircase that leads upstairs is a bit narrow. The house is 100 years old, it is an old New England style farm house, and the stairs are narrow. Come on, it is 100 years old, and beds were smaller then. Our bed, a queen size, was unable to successfully navigate the stairs. The mattress made it alright, but the box spring got stuck, and since we are renting, we did not feel the comfortable pushing it through. So, we have a mattress upstairs, a box-spring in the garage, and one more item on the “to do” list.

Medical News
Now that we have arrived on the island, I am beginning to get the last minute in person details finished in order to legally work, and receive compensation for that work. To bring things up to date, the process of getting a license to practice on the island was far easier and more straight-forward that things were in Texas.

The process involved completing the application for the College of Physicians and Surgeons PEI since they are the licensing authority. This was pretty straight-forward and did not require any complex actions on my part. Much to my surprise, it was relatively efficient, and not too expensive. The attitude of the College is trust but verify, so I have been granted a temporary license until all of my credentialed are verified by the Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates (ECFMG) for PEI.

Again, this was pretty straightforward. I had to complete an application, send some money, and await the verification process to be completed. In less than one week I had received an e-mail from the ECFMG folks telling me that they had received my application, and that it would be reviewed and processed in three weeks. Once this is complete, I am fully licensed.
With all of that rolling along smoothly, we arrive at the last minute details that cannot be completed prior to arrival in Canada. These include things like the application for a billing number, malpractice insurance, and training on the computers at the hospital. The one thing that is currently outstanding is the acquisition of a Social Insurance Number (the Canadian equivalent of a social security number) and we are applying for these tomorrow, as well as squaring away our insurance.

Not bad for a couple of folks from Texas. Now if only our horses would arrive things would be great.

It ain't home till you strip the wallpaper and paint the rooms

C+3

Today we began the repainting process. It seems that no matter where we go, we immediately get involved in the process of repainting the house. Today was no exception, we bought paint yesterday along with all the equipment needed (brushes, paint, tape, drop cloth, rollers, pails, etc). Today we put those to use and began taping off the master bedroom as well as stripping off the wallpaper in the other bedrooms. You would think that we would have gotten quite a bit done today with the painting, but we had social obligations that came first.

Dr Dickieson and his wife wanted us to have brunch with them at the local golf club, and brunch turned the house so they could look it over and render their opinions. So, the noon brunch ended around 3:30 and we began to tape the bedroom and strip the wallpaper. However, we were not to get too much done because at 6:30 we had a dinner date with Pam and Jim at their house and by 11 pm we were back home to gather our things to go to the hotel for the night.

“Hotel for the night? I thought that you were in your house?”
Well that would be correct, we are in the house, but our household goods will not be arriving for another two days, and so we spent last evening at a hotel, and we will spend the next two nights at a different hotel.

“So that is Saturday and Sunday night in hotels, what happened Friday?”
Well Friday we arrived at the house and got things set up in the home (including the movement of the fridge etc) and then we settled in to fall asleep. The trick to the sleeping was that the only bed in the house was the dog bed. Granted it is a nice bed, but it is not a proper bed. As I mentioned yesterday Nancy had the bed and I had a yoga mat. Well everyone insisted that we could not sleep on the floor again, and so they put us up at a hotel. We had the best night of sleep that we have had in several days. Needless to say, when they offered to continue to put us up until our stuff arrived we took them up on it without question.

So, today was wonderful with a series of meals and conversations. We did not get as much taped as we would have like to do so, but we did get some “work” done. Tomorrow we get the last of the customs papers completed and fax off the last of the paperwork for the horses. Also, we will get some painting done.

A dog's life....

We are on now on C+2 (that is Canada day 2) and things are falling into place. We have some internet connectivity so it is time to catch up on everything that has happened over the last several days. When our adventure was last updated, we were in Keene New Hampshire and enjoying a brief respite from the daily grind of loading, driving, and unloading everything. The animals seemed to enjoy the break almost as much as the humans.

Thursday August 14th
We got up and drove to the last US town prior to the Canadian border so we could get an early start with the border crossing escapade being well rested. As we headed further north we came to realize that there are some very desolate places in the United States, and northern Maine is one of those places. We stopped briefly in Augusta Maine to talk with the barn where the horses will board until the Canadian Transport can pick them up for the final leg of their journey. The barn owners were exceptionally grateful, and they had some very good advice before heading further north, stock up. We took the advice and are very thankful, because northern Maine does not really have any stops for gas or anything else once you head out from Augusta. We made it to Houlton Maine and spent a nice evening getting everything together for the morning.

Friday August 15th
06:00 We get up
07:10 Everything is loaded
07:40 Breakfast on the go and entering the ramp headed north on I-95
08:20 Arrive at the border
08:30 Finish the preliminary chit chat with the border guard
08:35 Begin work on the temporary worker visa
09:15 In the car headed north on Transcanada Highway 2

They did not check any of the contents of the vehicle, nor did they check any of the pets, not even the bird. This was far easier than we had thought it would be and the answer lies in the fact that the initial work visa is a one year visa. In the eyes of the Canadian government we are simply visiting for an extended period of time.

Well, that left us ample time to drive across New Brunswick and over the 13 kilometer bridge to Prince Edward Island and allowed us to arrive on the island at 2pm. After a quick stop at the visitor center to get a free updated map, we were headed “Up West” to Alberton to check out the new house.

Home Stinky Home OR Where is my Bed?
Well the house looks exactly as it did in the photos we had seen before, but there was a strange smell in the kitchen. It smelled of old fish and mold, and good lord, it is the refrigerator. It was apparently a refrigerator that was used to store old fish and the drip tray for the condensation had a nice thick layer of mold. It was clear from its condition that it had to go, so out comes the dolly, the restraining straps attached, and the fridge is out in the garage (but not without leaving a trail of slime across the floor). It took two rounds of cleaning before the smell was exorcized form the room. Well, one piece of furniture that we will need is a new refrigerator (put that on the “to do” list for tomorrow).

As we wondered through the house it became clear to us that certain rooms were going to have to be repainted in order to match any of our furniture. Additionally since three of the rooms had been painted specifically for children, they were going to have to be repainted on general principles.
As renters, we need permission before we alter the property so before anything was unloaded from the vehicles, we spoke with the owners to make sure we could make some changes to the property. Thankfully they felt the same way about the paint scheme, and had no real attachment to the fridge, so everything is going well.

As we settled in to sleep, we got a call from the driver who will be delivering our household goods and the arrival date has moved from Sunday the 17th to Tuesday the 19th. Well that is not so bad, but we do not have anything to sleep on except the floor. Wait, we do have a large dog bed form Orvis, and since the floors are all hardwood, that thing is starting to look pretty good. However, it will only sleep one comfortably, and so it goes to Nancy while I get the thin yoga mat. It was a pretty good night, we were both so tired we did not notice any difference between these beds and anything else we could have had, and we woke early (the sun comes up at 5:30) and started our day.

C+2
It has not been as eventful as yesterday but we have been out to see the stables where the horses will board, and we made contact with the driver who will be bringing the horses across the border. We also had the time to get into Charlottetown to get the new washing machine and fridge. As we were out running our errands, we got a call from the folks here on the island to make sure that we had arrived alright and that everything was in order. They were a bit shocked that we had slept on the floor overnight, and so by the end of the day they had set us up with a local hotel gratis until our household stuff arrives. I guess it is a dog’s life overnight.

Well, tomorrow starts the painting……

My God this is beautiful…..

So we have arrived in Keene, Hew Hampshire to spend some time with friends (Alli, Jesse, and Aaron Lewis), and I now understand why folks from the Northeast say Texas has no trees. This place is a forest and it is overwhelmingly green. The temperature s in the sweet spot as well with highs in the upper 70s to low 80s, and evening temperatures dropping into the 60s. If I were back in Texas I would say it feels like football weather but I am told this is simply the end of summer and not yet the fall.

New Hampshire also represents a stop in the action for us for the next several days. We have heard from our driver and he will not be to PEI to deliver our household goods until the 18th so we have some time to hang out and be cool. We will be leaving for the border on the 14th so we can cross without feeling rushed.

In other news, Nancy is adapting to being without the horses, she does not seem crazy, nor does she seem to be going through withdrawal, but it is still early. She did try to wear some high heeled sandals yesterday and that was a sight. She has not really had a need for such footwear for the last several years (horses and heels do not mix) and s she had to re-learn the art of walking in heels. This was complicated in part by the presence of many small rocks in the parking lot of the restaurant which caused her no end of trouble as she tripped and wobbled her way inside. By the end of the day she was doing a bit better and could walk with a minimum of stumbling.

Finally we had had our first casualty of the trip, the loss of the martini glasses. Alli had wanted us to bring the martini set so she and Nancy could have a few drinks while we were here, and we packed the glasses in with the other stuff we were bringing to Alli’s house (stuff to make Gumbo). Anyway, at some point during a hard stop to avoid cell phone chatting situationally unaware drivers from colliding with us, some heavy things fell over on the box and crushed the glasses. Thank god the shaker is made of stainless steel or everyone would have been sad. So it is off to the store today to find a couple more glasses which we will leave with the Lewis family for our return visits.

Link to the interview with the CBC.

Arriving before Sunset is so cool.....

Today we arrived in Harrisburg Pennsylvania and did so prior to the setting of the sun. It was wonderful to be able to drive in and see everything as we did, and to get here early. We had a good drive today and saw a great part of the United States, the Blue Ridge parkway.

So, we got out this morning from Charlotte North Carolina and in very short order we were in Virginia. We headed north until we hit interstate 81 and headed north until we got to Pennsylvania. We crossed through West Virginia and Maryland to get here, but really not enough of either of these two states to take much notice. The drive through the hills of the Appalachian mountains was very beautiful and the weather obliged us with just enough cloud cover to make it pretty, but not so much as to make is dark.

This is a part of the United States that Nancy and I have never seen and so alternated roles as driver and scenery observer frequently throughout the day. It was a slice of Americana, the typical and classical farm houses, the silos, the dairy cows. It was wonderful and we are very glad to have seen all of it.

In Harrisburg, we are staying again with the La Quinta chain and since we arrived early enough we were able to head across the street to have some very yummy calzones from Salvatore’s pizzeria. They were very good and we were exceptionally hungry having eaten light today because we were focused on making good time to our destination.

Being Interviewed…….

So, to follow up on yesterday, let me go back in time to Wednesday, the 6th of August. While we were in deep east Texas the phone rang and it was Brendon Elliot form the Canadian Broadcasting System wanting to speak with me about an interview. I am still not clear how he heard about me coming to the Island (Nancy says it just indicates how size of the island), but they had contacted Herb (the doctor that I will be working with on the island) and he gave him my phone number. So we set up a time on Thursday to speak when I would have access to a land line so he could get a good recording of the interview. The gist of the interview revolved around why a doctor would move from Texas to PEI. Nancy listened to half the interview (my answers) and she said it made good sense to her and that I did a pretty good job answering his questions about how we came to choose the island and the reasons behind the move (which are outlined in my prior posts). I will be curious to see what it ends up sounding like, and when I get to the island I will ask for a copy or a link so I can post it for anyone who might be interested (or exceptionally bored).
I will say that all the education that I had in Texas through the Texas Academy of Family Physicians really paid off during the interview. I felt comfortable and I remembered to allow for small silences instead of providing the very nervous “Uhm” that I am prone to use to fill in the gaps. We shall see what it sounds like after the editing. (Listen here)

Tomorrow we are off to New Hampshire ( a short drive through mountains) and then a few days with Alli.

Atlanta's highways make me crazy.

We have arrived in Charlotte NC after crossing through Mississippi, Georgia, and South Carolina. We headed out much earlier today than yesterday, that is at 11 AM and so we arrived in North Carolina around midnight. The day started nicely with breakfast which represented the first time that Nancy has ever had grits. She likes cheese grits, much less like grits than like a casserole, but never has she taken the opportunity to have grits. Since we are traveling across the US we are taking the opportunity to eat the various local favorites, and so in Mississippi that meant sweet tea and grits. She actually enjoyed them.

With breakfast on board, we fueled up the vehicle and headed east to Georgia. We did encounter a bit of rain and storms today but for the most part, we were able to dodge the big storms all day. We really enjoyed the drive through Mississippi, it was much lusher than we expected as we drove through the national forests that lined our route. We rolled into Georgia listening to the Dixie Chicks singing about old Earl and it was outside Birmingham that we hit the rain.
We were lucky and we hit Atlanta at 7 pm so we completely missed rush hour and man am I relieved. I cannot imagine hitting the middle of Atlanta and the interchange of I-20 with I-85 that threw us for a loop. Literally, we missed getting into the correct lane and had to exit, take two of the sharpest hairpin turns I have made to date on a freeway system and then we were off on 85 to Carolina.

Not much to report as we blasted through the Carolinas and we are bedded in for the night. For those that are interested, the dogs, cat, and the parrot are all traveling very well. We shall see what happens as day three starts.

Finally, the strangest event of the entire day was a telephone interview I conducted with the Canadian Broadcast System Radio Division on why a Texan would choose to move to PEI. It went really well (according to Nancy) and I must say that it was by far the last thing I ever expected to happen.

Why wait till the last minute?

The adventure has moved into the travel phase, but not without those popular last minutes action items.

Monday August 4th
So we have been packing our stuff in two general batches, stuff for the moving company transports and stuff for us to transport. Things seemed to be going pretty well until Monday night when we looked hard what we were planning to transport ourselves (using the horse free horse trailer). In order to get a better understanding of the size of the load, we put everything in the master bedroom closet that we planned on carrying ourselves. The closet was really full and we realized that a lot of this was going to have to go with the moving truck. This realization also meant that some things in the outbuilding were going to have to be repackaged for the movers. Several hours later we had everything re-arranged and we went to bed.

Tuesday August 5th
We knew that Tuesday was going to be a busy day for many reasons, not the least of them because we were taking the horses to the vet on Tuesday. We had originally planned on taking them on Monday but the weather has been so hot, they would be in paddocks with limited shade, so we thought it better to wait one more day. We expected cooler temperatures since Tropical Storm Eduoard was bearng down on the Texas coast with the promise of cloud cover and rain. The second item on the for the day included taking the dogs to the groomers for a little clean up. We had decided that we could not travel 2400 miles with stinky dogs, so they had to go for a bath. Finally, we had to pack the trailer before the end of the day so that we could get up and get out of the house with maximum efficiency Wednesday.

Well, the packing of a trailer always takes longer than the unpacking of a trailer, so we spent many hours in the evening loading the trailer. It seemed that as we packed, more stuff was magically appearing around us and none of us could figure out where it came from, but it kept growing. It reminded me of Tribbles from the old Star Trek series, multiplication was definitely occurring, matter was appearing de novo from pure energy. Despite this, we got everything into the trailer and we were ready for the start of the new day, our last day in Texas.

Wednesday August 6th
The day should be easy enough, get up feed the horse (Bronte is the only one left on the property) and then head to the Fountain of Beauty so Nancy could get her hair done prior to our travel (just a wash and blow dry to look nice for the trip). It all began with an especially good last breakfast of kolaches from the Kolache kitchen, and then we headed off to get the hair done. We got our call form the moving company with the final cost, whoa, a bit more than expected, but still reasonable for moving a household that far. Off to the bank to get money, a check for the movers, and then back to the house to get on the road.

We go the last minute items loaded onto the trailer and put the trailer onto the hitch. The Suburban sank low, then lower, then too low for comfort. It appeared that we had way to much weight on the tongue of the trailer. It also appeared that the right rear tire on the Suburban was a little low, so several things had to happen, we had to unload the trailer, reorganize things, and leave a bunch of heavy stuff at the house (old paper files for taxes), then move a lot of the weight back so that it would ride over the trailer axels and not so far forward. Just in time for the unload/reload, here comes a light rain to increase the humidity for us (as if the temperature was not enough). Ghaaa, Texas is getting in her last licks, and we were both dripping sweat by the time everything was reloaded, so much for that fancy hairdo. Thankfully it turns out that the tire was not losing air, it just needed a little more and so after much gnashing of teeth our early start got us out of the door at 3 pm. We rolled out the door with the GPS system on and the Bulgarian good luck charm sitting on the dashboard.

The drive across Texas was wonderful as the GPS routed us across many smaller roads until we got to US 79 and that took us right to Shreveport. The ride from Shreveport West to Shreveport East was lousy, and for the next 20 miles the interstate highway seemed to have been neglected by the state of Louisiana (not something all that new to anyone who has traveled that road for the last 25 years). Thankfully some of the casino money did go to repaving some of the road and so most of the trip was one good blacktop.

Thankfully we made very good time and by 1 am we had arrived at the La Quinta in Jacksonville Mississippi and everyone was bedded down for the night. I will say that the night desk clerk gave us quiet the look when she saw us walk through with two dogs, a cat and the bird.