Tuesday, February 18, 2014

Belated Hello from Beautiful Santa Fe

This great sculpture downtown just says "Hooray, I'm here"  IMO
Here I am in Santa Fe.  Finally. Reunited with Mr. SBQ and the cats. Surrounded by boxes. But I'm here.  It's taken me awhile to get back to blogging.  No sewing posts at the moment as I haven't unpacked the wall fortress insurmountable  numerous boxes labeled "quilt room."


I thought I'd give a quick recap of the trip in this post.














My beloved Dodge Dakota "Xena" on her way.
My dad, who I cannot thank enough, flew down from Michigan to Georgia to load up the last of the stuff, load up Xena the truck, close up the house, and drive across the country to NM.

By some sheer luck and karma, I planned this move the week between two crazypants weather events in metro Atlanta (an epic 2-inches of snow snowstorm and a shutdown-the-city-for-2-days ice storm).  With all the crazy, unprecedented winter weather across the country, we decided to take the southern route to NM on I-20 through AL, MS, LA, way too much of TX, and head north to reach I-40 in Amarillo.  We left Thursday, February 6th.

Mississippi River in Vicksburg, MS

Glad we took the "southern" route (and that my dad is an expert winter weather driver) as we encountered snow in Meridian, MS of all places and generally freezing cold weather everywhere else.  Snow flurries and horrendous road construction was the highlight of our drive through Dallas, TX.







View of the most boring road in America
We drove on the most boring road in America for approximately an eternity plus 8 hours.












beautiful sky through a very dirty windshield


After two long days of Dad driving and me commenting on how cold it was every time we stopped, we crossed the state line into New Mexico on Saturday, February 8!!

(Bad through-the-windshield photo courtesy of the city of Amarillo, who had approximately 2 inches of salt brine solution on the roads which covered our truck and Xena to the roof.)




 Starbucks boxes are great moving boxes (perk of working there!)



Mr. SBQ and the cats were very excited to see us; we were very happy to see them and arrive safe and sound; and Dad was happy to be done driving.  After getting everything unloaded, we took Dad sightseeing for the two days he was here before he returned to Michigan on Monday, February 10th.  We went up the mountains, drove along Canyon Road, walked around the Plaza and shopped for souvenirs, went to a fascinating cowboy exhibit at the New Mexico History Museum, and ate lots of great New Mexican food.

The remainder of the week, I ran errands, got driver's license, etc. and started unpacking all the boxes.



The cats are very happy to have both their humans to boss around. They are also happy to have their sofa and comfy chairs.  I am unsure of my position in the rankings versus the furniture.



11 comments:

sunny said...

So glad to hear you've made the trip safely. What a great Dad! Hope you get warm soon, maybe with the help of some furry little lap warmers?

Susan said...

Glad to hear you made the trip safely. Hope you'll get to rest up for a bit.

Anonymous said...

Happy to hear that your journey to the new home is finally complete. Have fun in New Mexico!

ytsmom said...

So glad that the 'fam' is all together! Hope the cats aren't giving you the cold shoulder for being away from them so long.

Gari in AL said...

So glad you made is safely and that you had your dad drove with you. It is nice to know you are back with your family, I know you all are happy.

June said...

I am so happy to read this post and to know that you all made it to NM safely. Fathers are wonderful, aren't they? Hope you will enjoy your new home! Looking forward to more photos!!

Unknown said...

Glad you are there safely and the family is back together.

Linda said...

So glad to find you in my blog list today...can't believe I had not looked for 2 days. Your travels are always an adventure...glad you were safe although bored and cold! Cannot believe you scheduled between the storms in Atlanta...THAT was very lucky and you deserve some luck when it comes to storms! Looking forward to hearing about your new life adventures.

Donana said...

Wow so glad you made it!

Sarah said...

Glad you have made it to Santa Fe! Your Dad was a wonderful help to you. My parents help me out like that too. Bet you'll be glad if you never have to move that far on your own again. PS I think we have that road in Australia too. The most boring road that never ends, flat and straight. If there wasn't snow in the photo it could have been Australia!

Sherrill said...

You're lucky Amarillo had that stuff on the road or chances are you mighta been a couple of days late!! We were in Amarillo a few years back during a horrendous blizzard and we stopped overnight. Just the drive from Amarillo to NM line took us ALL DAY!! It had taken us 10 hours to drive from DFW (where I live) to Amarillo, the snow was that bad.