Sweet Home Oklahoma

Renting an unfurnished apartment for such a short amount of time just plain SUCKS. But, what can you do? It was either suck it up and buy/rent/bring some cheap furniture for the five-month stay or pay $2,500-3,000/month for a furnished rental. So needless to say, we packed the trailer full of essentials and smaller furniture. Essentials plus things like: a waffle maker that is still in it's original box from our wedding registry (you never know when you might wake up one day and have a hankering for homemade waffles), All my at-home exercise DVD's (just in case I feel like starting up an at-home exercise program in the next five months), and a small box of books that I MAY just want to re-read on a rainy day sometime. You know, the ESSENTIALS.

Packing procrastination at it's finest.

My mom took off work last week to help me pack this stuff up, load up the trailer, and drive it to Oklahoma- our stopping place for a week or so before we head up to Colorado Springs. Once again I wonder how I have gotten so lucky with so much help from family?! I could not have done that without her! Okay, to my credit, I probably could have, but it would have taken a couple WEEKS longer. Before she got there, Kaden thought it was a fun game to unpack the whole suitcase or box that I had just packed. So fun.

Our motley crew (minus mom) all smiles before leaving. We had VERY different expressions about 15 hours in. Sorry Al Gore, this gas-guzzlin' puppy got an average of 10 mpg. A PRIUS just wouldn't pull a trailer!

We left Thursday around 11:00 am. I had to stop at BuyBuyBaby in Tampa to get Kaden a new car seat, plus I wanted to run by a Best Buy to get a new Garmin. Soooo we ended up getting out of Tampa around 2:00 pm-ish. Not the BEST start to a long road trip, but oh well. We decided down the road a little ways that we would just stay in Pensacola and get a good night's sleep. I called the Marriott Rewards center so I could just pay for the room using points, and I got the most delightful customer service agent to work with, Jean W. from Omaha. We had a 22 minute conversation, and I found out all about her five grandkids, her dog that lays at her feet while she works, and the fact that she is based out of Salt Lake City and works from home. (Note to self: check into Marriott Reservations jobs).

I conveniently left the pics out of Kaden screaming around the 3rd hour in the car every day.

Macy was by far the most comfortable one in the car.

When we got to the hotel, I found out the "small" pet fee I was told about ended up being a $100/night pet fee. What the...? They ended up working with me since we lived in a Marriott Residence Inn ALLLLLL last summer, but it made me wonder who the heck would pay a $100 pet fee. La Quinta Inn and Suites are just as nice and are free for pets. Macy never made a peep and was just as good as she always is. My son, however, was a terrorist. He cried for about an hour before he finally went to sleep and the next morning he sprinkled toilet paper all over our room. If you ask me, they would probably be much smarter to charge a baby fee instead of a pet fee, but I'm not complaining of course.

The next day, my brand-new GPS got us lost in Mobile, AL. We decided to just eat lunch there, and ended up being there for about three hours total. When we looked at our trail on our GPS, it was the funniest thing, because we had done a complete circle around the city, plus many other turn-arounds. We couldn't stop laughing. Laughing turned into pure ticked-offness when it started to get dark and we were in Nowhere, Louisiana. We decided to shoot for Dallas, but we got so bored that I was even having my mom Google things like "shark gets into man's shark cage" and "how many sharks are in the ocean". If you don't know me, you should probably know that most of my conversations eventually lead to sharks at one point or another- I'm pretty obsessed.

Random shark pic for your pleasure. He is smiling. Silly shark.

In Dallas, the GPS told me to get in the HOV lane, and being subservient to technology like I usually am, I took her instructions. BAD IDEA. About a quarter mile after entering the lane, I became walled in! I felt like the wall on my left was practically touching my truck and the wall on my right was practically touching my trailer. I had a small panic attack for the next seven miles, because I was oblivious to the fact that entering the HOV lane was such a commitment. I had no idea you couldn't enter and exit at your own discretion. The line of nine cars behind me was probably just as upset about my decision as I was, because the "regular" freeway had NO traffic, and all those cars were zooming past me at what had to have been twice my speed.

All our state lines. Looks like I need to show the picture-taker how to properly crop on the iPhone. Also, she was sleepy when we crossed into Texas, so the Dallas sign will have to work.

Trash bags in front of state line? Reeeealllll classy, Oklahoma. Still proud-a-you.

We finally made it to Oklahoma City Saturday afternoon safe and sound. I hadn't watched the news or even been to a news website in over a week and I was surprised to learn that our government almost shut down, Manny Ramirez retired, and Pia got voted off American Idol. What the crap?! Anywho, SMILE today!

Thought I would share a couple Florida pics that make me SMILE! :)