Day 3: Reno to our new home

We don't have any pictures of our new home, yet. This was taken in the Sierra Nevadas. As you can see, we encountered a couple insects on our journey.

Final tally: 2,250 miles (give or take), 32 1/2 hours in the car. Three pissed off cats.

The movers are delivering our stuff tomorrow morning. After that, we'll take pictures of the house and the neighborhood to post here. We already miss all of you. Come visit. We have an extra bedroom (though not an extra bed, yet).

Nevada

A mountain in Nevada in the middle of an otherwise empty plain. We thought it was cool.

Day 2: Laramie to Reno

This was a huge wind farm we saw in western Wyoming. We thought it was neat. Far more interesting than anything in Illinois, Iowa, or Nebraska, that's for sure.

Wyoming in general was very interesting. Certainly we're not used to space that is that wide open, and where you can see all of it because of your elevation.

Utah was also very pretty. We were pretty impressed with just the variations in topography and the starkness of the surroundings and terrain. Definitely a big difference from both the city and the deciduous-heavy Midwest.

My brother demanded a picture of the Bonneville salt flats. If you can't read the plaque (which was erected by Goodyear), the Measured Mile is about 7 miles straight ahead.

Because I'm such a good brother, I got him two pictures.

Day 1 was through Illinois, Iowa, and Nebraska. We stopped for the night in Laramie, Wyoming. This picture was of a bright orange sunset over western Nebraska. It was the only picture all day worth taking. Seriously. I mean, my god, people. At least put a giant corn statue or something along the side of road to break up the monotony.

We did about 1,050 miles in 15 1/2 hours. We stopped only when necessary.

Cats in the car

I do not like it in the car.
I do not like it going far.

I do not like to share my space.
I do not like you in my face.

This Dr. Seuss inspired poetry is brought to you by the cats.

Actually, the drive went surprisingly smoothly. Given how much they whine about a ten minute trip to the vet, there was surprisingly little complaining on this trip. We're not sure if it was the fact that we got them a big dog crate and filled it with their stuff, or the tranquilizers the vet gave us, but we were pretty thankful either way.

They seemed to adjust to life in hotels pretty quickly, too. The first night they all spazzed out, but the second night they managed to find Animal Planet on TV and clear out the mini-bar.

Packing - before and after.

It is amazing how much less empty your place feels when all your crap is stacked in the dining room.


But after the movers take it all away, you can't help but wander around and think, "Where the heck is all my stuff!"

Goodbye Chicago!

Over the next few days, we're going to post about our last few weeks in Chicago, the defense, packing, the drive, etc etc etc. Chicago was our home for 7 years, and we will really miss it and all of our friends. However, we are excited to explore California as well. Sad little Danger wondering where all his stuff went and what the hell is happening to him pretty well sums up how we felt last Thursday. Actually, we still kind of feel that way.

For about six months or so after our wedding, we would occasionally look at each other and go, "Heh heh. We're married. You're my wife." You have to do it in a Beavis & Butthead voice to really get the full effect.

We've been doing that here, only now it's, "Heh heh. We're Californians." It still seems very weird, but we've only been here a day. We assume that pretty soon, just like being married, being a Californian will be second nature. And occasionally kind of annoying.

Welcome to our blog!

We're starting this blog as a way to stay in touch with all of our friends and family as we start an exciting new adventure in our life together! We'll update with pictures and notes about our big move to California and our new life on the West Coast.

Love,
Jeremy and Kate