As we left Troy’s mom and stepdad’s town, we had a little tiny bit of rain. That was probably the most precipitation we had on the whole trip. Considering that we made this cross-country drive in February, during one of the snowiest winters in recent history, I think that’s pretty amazing.

My mom liked the palms lining this stretch of the highway along the Gulf coast.

Can you tell I was bored? Cameras make the best toys on long road trips.

Cell phones make good toys too. Annalie was typing in a text-message box on my cell phone. In case anyone is getting a headache trying to figure this photo out, I’ll explain that I took this photo by angling the camera at the visor mirror above the passenger seat. That’s why it looks like Troy is driving on the wrong side of the car. Unless you’re Sarah or Lauren, in which case this photo didn’t even make you blink.

I mentioned my geekwear on Twitter, including my Orange Orange t-shirt and one of these pins. Anyone get the references? The pin on the right (a gift from Sonja) could have a couple of geeky meanings.

Another self-portrait born of boredom.

In Texas, the bathrooms are bigger and fancier!

Here is proof that our other cat, Lily, really was in the minivan with us. She doesn’t like road trips and tends to stay in her carrier the whole time, only coming out to eat or drink or glare at us accusingly.

Louisiana sky. I never get tired of taking pictures of the sky and clouds.

Bridge over Lake Charles.

Sunset and a semi.

Sunsets may be larger than they appear. Although these rearview-mirror shots are pretty cool, it’s much easier to photograph sunsets when we’re driving west.

When we were at Tom & Carol’s, my mom was looking at Carol’s cookbooks and found a recipe published 1965 that called for “one 29-cent bag of Fritos.” We all had a good laugh about that, joking that it would be awfully hard to find a 29-cent bag of Fritos nowadays. So when we saw these 35-cent bags of Fritos at a gas station today it cracked us up. I bet this bag is a LOT smaller than the 29-cent bags in 1965 were.

I liked the packaging on these Hubig’s New Orleans Style Pies so much I bought two of them. I guess they’re a New Orleans institution, and no wonder—they were pretty good!

Poor Katy, she gets manhandled a lot by Annalie. She doesn’t really seem to mind, though.

I took this from a moving vehicle, so it was pure luck that I caught the sun shining off a serendipitous lake and that green flare/reflection over there on the right.

Alabama sunset. When I took this we were about one minute away from the Target where we met Bex & Jo.

Annalie in her Hello Kitty jammies + a kitty on her lap = happy Annalie.

Annalie the strawbender! She has done this for as long as I can remember. When she is drinking from a non-bendy straw, she creates a bend in it.

Snowy hills in Virginia. The first snow we saw on our trip was on the side of the road in Tennessee, but that wasn’t very much. This was the first sizeable amount of snow we saw.

I think these are the Blue Ridge Mountains. Any Virginians care to confirm or deny that?

This rest-stop drinking fountain at a rest stop seemed funny to me with all that snow in the field behind it. It doesn’t really seem that funny now, though. It’s entirely possible that I was a bit loopy at the time from a week of traveling.

When I took this photo we’d driven over 3,000 miles (5,400 km) across the country. We’d spent 8 days and 7 nights on the road, for a total of 54 hours of driving time…and yet these last two hours seemed to last longer than the entire trip.

One last rearview-mirror sunset shot before…

…the exit to our hotel. We made it!

I know you guys want to hear about the new house, and see pictures, and all that good stuff. But because of all the moving-day craziness (being locked out, the previous tenants leaving stuff here including their very sweet cat, etc.) I didn’t get to take the photos I’d envisioned taking. [Edited to add: Yes, the previous tenants did come get their stuff and their cat that same day. It all ended about as well as that situation possibly could have.] The photos I got aren’t inspiring me very much. Honestly, you might not get to see many photos till after Brenda has the house whipped into shape in a couple of weeks.

The good news is, you’ll get to see photos in a couple of weeks instead of in six to eight months. Usually when we move our goal is to be completely unpacked by the following Christmas, but next week Brenda (and Bug) are coming to visit and help us unpack! I’m very excited about it, which is a first for me. I hate unpacking. I get overwhelmed trying to think of where I want everything to go, so I do nothing. Well, not nothing. I unpack and organize the kitchen right away, and then I stall on the rest of the house.

Given all that, you can see why it was SO COMPLETELY AWESOME when Brenda house-sat for us a couple of years ago and asked if we minded if she unpacked a few boxes while she was there, and then went and unpacked and organized the entire house for us. I told her that I would fly her to all our future homes if she wanted to help us unpack them all, and she enthusiastically accepted. That is why she gets free birthday cakes for life, people. Well, that and being one of my best friends. You know what I mean.

I’m sorry you won’t be seeing pictures of the house just yet. I’m sure I’ll get some of the “before” photos up on Flickr eventually, so keep an eye on my Flickr stream. Meanwhile, here’s a conversation that took place this morning as we were driving around trying to find a McD’s with a PlayLand:

“I guess there’s an election tomorrow.”

“On a Wednesday? Where did you hear that?”

I pointed at the election signs clustered on the median. “It says ‘Vote March 2nd’ on those signs right there.”

“That’s today. Which makes sense, because it’s Tuesday.”

“Oh. Oh! In that case, happy anniversary!”

Troy laughed. “Uh, happy anniversary to you too!”

Annalie piped up from the backseat. “What anniversary? What are you talking about?” I explained that it was the fourteenth anniversary of the day we got married. “Oh. Uh, Mom?”

“What, sweetie?”

“I’m sorry, but I didn’t get to buy you and Daddy an anniversary present.”

“Aw, thanks, but that’s okay. It’s been kinda crazy with all the moving and stuff, hasn’t it?” Annalie agreed. I winked at Troy and said, “Besides, I’m sure Daddy has a fabulous anniversary surprise for me. I can’t wait to see what it is.”

Without missing a beat, Troy said, “What do you mean? Isn’t the 14th anniversary the McDonald’s anniversary?”

Happy anniversary, Troy! Fourteen years, eight moves, six states, one Canadian province, two years of grad school, three cats, six years of parenthood, and countless remote controls…and you’re still the one who makes me laugh. Thank God for that!

p.s. New banner! What do you think?

We were assured by the owners and the previous tenants that their final walk-through would be at 10am Sunday. The tenants (who were very nice, and quite gracious when we unexpectedly showed up at their house to check it out last week) told us it would be fine for us to stop by this afternoon to show the house to my mom before she flew home, even though we wouldn’t officially take possession till Monday. The keys would be in the mailbox for us, they said.

The keys weren’t in the mailbox. We could see through the open windows that the house wasn’t empty yet. No one was home. It was a bummer.

Even though we couldn’t get in the house, we walked around back so my mom and Annalie could at least see the yard and the deck. You can see about half the backyard in the photo above.

We drove back by the house that evening after we took my mom to the airport, just to see if anyone was there. The house was still locked up, with all the same boxes and furniture inside, no keys in the mailbox, and no one around. It made us a little nervous. How could they have had their walk-through if the house wasn’t empty and clean? It’s not like we could call anyone and complain though. It wasn’t our house yet.

I guess maybe the tenants underestimated how much time they’d need to pack up and move all their stuff. Maybe they’ll be working till 3am to get everything out of the house. That sounds like something I might do, honestly. We just have to hope they are done and that the keys are there tomorrow, because the movers are coming bright and early to start unloading our stuff.