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.