I thought that I may as well write about this, in the event that anyone still reads this thing. 🙂
I wish I could provide you with some video footage or pictures, but in the million details of packing up an entire house, while packing for a trip, I ended up grabbing a few, but not all, necessary cables for recharging, and downloading images. O well, I’ll put them up later.
Well, here we are, at the Comfort in and Suites in Goodlettsville, Tennessee. Spending a day resting, after many days of packing and then driving. And boy do I mean driving! I’m talking “up at 7:00, breakfast, pack and on the road, two dogs, 3 parakeets and a canary, fed, watered, and neatly packed in the little Ford SUV. Then drive, drive drive until your eyes are going bleary, stop for the night, unpack luggage and God’s little creatures into another hotel room, then up at 7:00 to do it again!” For 5 days. Count ’em – 1,2,3,4,5! Good grief. Even my dogs, who absolutely LOVE car rides and road trips, were starting to get a look in their eyes that had me concerned about their mental health. The birds, remarkably, seemed to simply relish every moment of it! They’ve never seen so much excitement in their entire lives! This was an event to be enjoyed for them! We drove every single mile with a symphony of canary songs and parakeet squawks and chirps playing in the car, sometimes so loud that we gave up trying to hold a conversation, nevermind a phone call. But we made it. Everyone safe and sound! The dogs are in a deep afternoon nap, while the birds, still singing, sit up on top of the hotel’s tv armoire, not missing a thing. And here we will sit until tomorrow, when we pack up (again) and move our entire entourage to our new residence in Hendersonville, Tennessee, just 2 miles down the road, where Mike and I will try sleeping on an air mattress for a week until our household (and bed) arrive. I’m really wishing that I had some video to share, since pictures are worth a thousand words.
The trip itself, was pretty boring. When we got to Arizona, we hit strong winds that stayed with us until the Arkansas border. We saw a few trailers that had been blown off the road and smashed to pathetic piles of destruction on the side of the road. I looked and said a little prayer that no one had been seriously hurt. If anyone is considering buying a little Ford Escape SUV, do it! This little car drove through it all like a trooper! Every stop for fuel, or food was a battle with the wind. It became un-fun real fast and we were shifted into “let’s see what you’re made of” mode.
When we hit Arkansas, it was unseasonably chilly, but peaceful and still. Gosh, Arkansas is beautiful! It’s like a big beautiful garden! That’s when we heard the first news of all the tornado devastation that had been going on for the past couple of days. The little town of Mesa, Arkansas, where Mike’s sister lives, was hit by one of them, and 5 people lost their lives in it. Also, Murfreesboro, one of the communities that we had considered settling in, was hit badly…. so… welcome to Tennessee, Nachtigals! Tornadoes;…wow.
The full brunt of losing my home in Vista hasn’t hit me yet I don’t think. We left it full of boxes and furniture for the movers to pick up for us. I never even had a chance to clean it up and do it justice. My backyard, and all the plants, that I had one by one, lovingly planted when they were only little tiny things, was left behind to fend for itself. That may have broken my heart more than anything else about the house. All the indoor plants were carefully adopted out to good homes where I knew they would be loved and cared for. I’ll have to start a new garden at the new house. Bloom where I’m planted!
There go the birds again. Well, back to my day of doing nothing and recuperating. Tomorrow we’ll be in the new house