Alright, so, here I sit with a blank page and absolutely no idea where to begin writing. My God have things changed!

We loaded up and left Nevada. Moved all the way across the country even. I have full intentions of blogging my way across the country, but I was so tired by the time we got into each place at night it just didn’t happen. So let me give you a little recap.

We left Nevada late in the evening and spent our first night in Kingman, AZ. We wanted to make it SOOOO much further but after spending the entire day loading the rest of the stuff into the U-Haul and loading the animals we just couldn’t make it any further.  Oh! And the animals! My God I’ll NEVER do that again! We’re here, we’re staying here! LOL

In the Ranger I had: Abby the kitten, Flapjack the snake, three rats, a rooster, a goldfish, and Petunia the potbelly pig in the bed.

in the U-Haul Mr. Smivie had: Scooby, the calico cat, and the two other pigs were in the enclosed trailer.

Night 1: Ranger started acting up (never, EVER take a care that hasn’t run for over two years, get it running and in less than a week take it across the country). One of the rats got loose and started climbing up my leg. And ALWAYS have extra gas cans!

Night 2: We made it from Kingman, AZ to Gallup, NM before the ranger broke down on the off ramp. It broke down a few other times on the way across AZ but, we’d fill it up with gas and everything would be fine. Mr. Smivie started driving the Ranger and I drove the U-Haul, until the Ranger finally quit running on an off ramp less that 100 yards from a Motel 6. Sat there, let it cool down, kept watering down the animals, finally got it running again and limped it into the Motel 6 parking lot. *MOTEL 6 is completely animal friendly* soooo we had a pitbull, two cats, three rats, and a rooster all in our hotel room. The pigs were in the parking lot under the trees, and everything was fine. Looked into the rangers issues and thought maybe the fuel pump was going bad.

Day/Night 3: Got up, bought a new fuel pump for the ranger, unhooked the boat. With the help of a WONDERFUL Navajo cowboy in the Motel 6 parking lot, we got Petunia moved into the trailer with the other two piggies. Pulled the bed off the ranger, checked everything with the fuel pump, found the tank was sucking air and vapor locking due to a bad gasket, loaded up and FINALLY got back on the road around Noon. Drove all the way to Amarillo, TX with zero issues from the truck and spent the night in Amarillo. OH! And swapped with Mr. Smivie in Albuquerque and the Scoob started riding with me!

Day/Night 4: Drove from Amarillo, TX to some tiny little random town in Missouri. OKLAHOMA TOOK FOREVER! Tom-Tom is NOT my friend. We tried to avoid the toll road and ended up going all over the state of Oklahoma thanks to Tom-Tom. Finally got of the road just a little bit before St. Louis. I never knew Waffle House could taste so good!

Day/Night 5: We made it to my parents house at around 10pm on day 5. All the animals were exhausted. Mr. Smivie and I were exhausted. Scooby just wanted to run around. We wanted real food, and a decent bed and nothing else mattered!

 

That’s just the shortened version of everything. That doesn’t include me standing on the side of the road screaming, when Mr. Smivie finally got the ranger running again and he left hauling ass with the U-Haul keys in his pocket. So me and the Scoob got to sit on the side of the road. It doesn’t include me learning how to back the boat trailer up in a truck stop parking lot because some ass hat decided to block me in. The miles of me singing and talking to the dog, pretending he could talk back. Or the rooster crowing when we stopped for gas and scaring the crap out of the old man in the can beside me. Tuna and the two little pigs scaring a guy when his dog decided to pee on the trailer tires. Or the conversations we had laying in bed at the hotels surrounded by two cats, a pitbull, three rats, and a comforter over the rooster to keep him from crowing at three in the morning.

 

Moving across the country was one of the most memorable trips I think we could have ever made. I’m still keeping my fingers crossed that it can be the best decision we’ve ever made. So far, it all hasn’t went as planned, but that just means you change your plans and keep going.