Finally in Bemidji!

Whew! That is the one word that finally sums everything up. Even though I'm dead tired, I thought I would get one post out before I collapse.

I thought I had left plenty of time to pack all our gear up (three days), but wouldn't you know that just a few hours before closing would find me trying to shoe horn into the moving van the final pieces of stuff we have accumulated over the years. Oh well, the best laid plans... I did officially run out of room in the van. I ended up donating my charcoal grill to the church in hopes they could sell it and use the money for an upcoming youth trip to LIFE.

Closing was scheduled for Monday afternoon and we duly showed up at the appointed time. Typical of these types of deals, it was hurry up and wait. I was having serious flashbacks to the Marine Corps...Semper Fi! It turned out that the lady buying our house was rolling in remodeling loans and who knows what else, so we didn't get out of the closing until 5 PM. Too late to jump in the van and start the trip. Instead, I decided to just chill with the kids and watch a movie (Happy Feet, which turned out to be pretty good).

Tuesday morning dawned with torrential downpour, which turned out to be kind of a theme of the entire trip. I kissed Beth and the kids goodbye as they stayed behind for another 5 weeks until school is out, and headed north. The time was 7:30 AM and I was right on schedule. Fast forward to 11:30 PM that night. I had stopped a few times for fuel and take out food and managed to make it up to just north of Des Moines Iowa. The weather had turned from driving rain to driving sleet / slush at this point, so I decided to kick back at a rest area to grab some shut eye. I had forgotten a blanket (they were all packed) and found it too cold to sleep. So I would turn the diesel truck on and warm up the cab, then shut it off to sleep about an hour. After three hours, I gave up and kept driving. The sleet had turned to snow at this point (about 3 AM Wednesday morning).

Anyone who has driven at night with heavy snow knows the mesmerizing effect the snow has. Add into the mix the rhythmic whump whump of the wipers and you can imagine the trip. It didn't help that no one else was on the interstate at that time of night. I swear I was the only crazy person out there...due to the weather.

I finally pulled into my parents driveway at 1 PM this afternoon, much to my relief. Bemidji, ready or not, here I am!