Still behind in these posts, but a lot has been going on, so please forgive me. Where I left off last month was with Lucy's high school Graduation. A few days later, the packers showed up and put all of our stuff that we hadn't unpacked last August back in boxes in preparation for this guy to show up and transport it all to San Diego. Hope everything makes it in one piece (or rather no more pieces than when it was packed 🤞).
The mini mini started its journey west a little bit earlier than we did. Originally the plan was for us to rent a car mover trailer and pull it behind Jim's car. But cooler heads prevailed and it was actually cheaper to let someone else do that! Every move is a learning experience.
We still had a few days left in Falls Church and the air mattresses were already getting old, so we transitioned to the hotel portion of our move just in time for Ben's last day of 10th grade! I couldn't talk him into letting me drive back to the house for the final picture so the uhaul background would have to do. I wish we had seen this LOVE sign earlier cause I would have made him stand next to it! We said our goodbyes to Falls Church. We weren't there very long but we did make some good memories!
Here is where things get interesting. Lucy is heading off for a Senior Beach Week trip. Originally she wasn't able to go since the houses were all full, but as the senior year progressed some plans changed and a spot became available, so we decided we could make it work after all. We were leaving Friday afternoon, but her beach week didn't begin until Sunday. So we left her in Falls Church to stay with friends, while the rest of us began the journey south. Jim and Ben in one car and the animals and I in the other. First stop was to meet up with Mamama and Gaga for dinner in Roanoke Rapids! It was a short visit for me and the pets, since I couldn't leave them in the hot car. So I basically got a few hugs and kisses and a sandwich to go and continued on to Swansboro. Jim and Ben got a longer visit and arrived in Swansboro later that evening.
The plan was to move out of our Swansboro storage unit (one of our many storage units), so I would have the opportunity to go through the boxes and make some tough decisions. There are also some precious items from when the kids were babies that I don't want to get rid of, but we are so tired of moving all this stuff from place to place. Hopefully we are getting to the end of this constant moving, although we have been at it for almost 21 years and I keep telling myself this EVERY MOVE.
Jim and Ben stayed with us in Swansboro for another day and then headed off on their drive to CA. Lilly needed to be picked up from her dorm by the end of the week, so they didn't have time to waste! The pets and I got to hang out for another week in Swansboro while Lucy was living her best life at the beach in OBX.
So, Jim and Ben take off on their way west. Jim had kind of given me some potential stopping points along the way, but he wasn't really going to be strict about it. There were a couple of places that were going to be non-negotiable, namely Balmorhea and "The Thing". Balmorhea was an unexpected find for us the first time we moved to Yuma in 2003, just a few days after our wedding. We nearly ran out of gas in West Texas, which is never a good idea. Coasting into the only gas station we had seen for hours that day, we learned about the two things that town is known for - The world's largest spring-fed swimming pool and the Bear Den. We experienced both. The Bear Den was a restaurant that seemed more like someone's house - delicious Tex Mex. The Pool is actually a Texas state park that has a swimming pool fed from the San Solomon Springs. Every day about 15 million gallons of water flow through the 1.3 acre pool. It is 25 feet deep at its deepest point and the temperature is in the mid 70's year round. Of course, Ben and Jim couldn't resist stopping there. Sadly they couldn't stay on the grounds because the cabins were being renovated. Instead they drove took a pretty significant detour and stayed in a really cool hotel in Marfa, TX, where the movie "Giant" with Elizabeth Taylor and James Dean was filmed.
They made it to San Diego with time to spare. Not a land speed record by any stretch, but still impressive. The next day they drove up to UCLA to grab Lilly. Jim was amazed at how much stuff Lilly and her 2 roommates were able to cram into that tiny room!
Jim, Lilly, and Ben spent the rest of the week getting oriented in San Diego and driving to different nearby beaches in the afternoon where they would have a late lunch and check out all the sites.
Meanwhile, Lucy and I hadn't even started our trek out west. Lucy and her housemates decided to drive from Corolla down to Nags Head to check out Jockey's Ridge their last night, so I told her that would be a perfect opportunity to let me pick her up. From Swansboro it was about a 4.5 hour drive up and we met at Jockey's Ridge and then had some ice cream and turned around and drove back to Swansboro. This was perfect because orginally we had planned on leaving from Corolla and now Lucy gets to see everyone before we start our drive.
The next day we took our time leaving since we were only driving to Asheville. At one point we had toyed around with having Lilly fly out and meet us but that ended up not being feasible. Worked out in the end, because the rooftop bag didn't work out very well and was SUPER loud. So, Lucy and I reconfigured and were able to fit everything inside the car. It was tight, but doable. Only thing left to do was start the drive!
We rolled into Asheville around 7pm. Checked into the hotel and walked into town and found a really great French place. While there we figured out we were pretty close to Thomas Wolfe's house and a giant flat iron sculpture. Apparently it is in reference to the nearby Flatiron building in the city's historic district. We did what everybody else does when they see it - posed.
Meanwhile in CA, Jim and Lilly dropped Ben off at the airport so he could fly back to attend the USNA Summer STEM Week. He got in a day early and our friend Wendy picked him up from the airport and took him back to her house and proceeded to spoil him rotten! She dropped him off the next day at the Academy where he had a fabulous week. It really strengthened his desire to apply to an academy for college.
Last summer when the girls and I got stranded in the Denver Airport, we started doing research on things to do and see at the Airport. #1 on the list was Blucifer. Our brief internet search gave us the impression that the 32-foot blue mustang was in front of the Airport. Well it is, but it also isn't. We thought it was RIGHT at the entrance, turns out it is out on the road before you even get to any of the parking lots. To give you a tiny bit of background, the sculpture is said to represent the wild, powerful freedom of the wild west, but most people remember that the sculptor Luis Jiménez was killed when a section fell on him. Since we were staying nearby we thought we would finally go check him out. Below is what we were expecting to see and what we actually saw. A little bit of a let down.
Undeterred, Lucy and I pressed on. Driving through CO was kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision so we shouldn't complain too much about our Blucifer experience. The real treat was yet to come. Driving through the Rocky Mountains was INCREDIBLE! I have driven from Denver to Aspen in the winter before, but this was my first time during the green season. WOW! We wish we could have stopped by Rocky Mountains National Park but since we had the pets that was a no go. We did have a short break in Glenwood Springs - it was hard to get back in the car.
After Colorado, we drove to Utah. I know, kind of out of the way, but Lucy was going to spend a week with her best friends from Yokota (Sam and Annie) and we decided it was "on the way" enough to merit the divert. It was a quick pit stop. I had the opportunity to catch up with Annie's mom, who was my soccer teammate in Yokota. I continued on for a few more hours after dropping Lucy off in order to have a shorter drive day on my last day. Utah is BEAUTIFUL people! Of course from there I went through Las Vegas, a tiny bit of Arizona and then eventually California.
After a week in the car Wesley and Yoshi found their "spots". Yoshi was much more content than Wesley. He begrudgingly stayed on the nice comfortable bed I provided for him instead of constantly trying to get on the floorboard like Wesley.
We had a week of living in the Marine Lodge after I linked up with Jim and the kids in San Diego. Jim and Lilly had already spent a week there, and Ben was due back from the USNA the day after I arrived so Jim and I drove down to pick him up at the airport. The following week was full of figuring out the new base at Miramar and the immediate area. I think we are going to like it here!
Before we left Yuma back in 2018, we took Wesley to San Diego one weekend and we tried to get him to go into the water at the dog beach on Coronado. He wasn't having any of it. However this time he did much better! He would run into the water and then right back out again. Baby steps I guess.
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