2,000 miles later...

WE MADE IT!!!

After a three day trek across the United States, we finally made it to our new city! The journey was one I'll remember forever!

Wednesday June 22, my sister helped Dan and I load the u-haul trailer, the back of Dan's truck, and the back of my car. We had no clue if all of our stuff was going to fit, but thanks to Dan's amazing packing skills we managed to stuff it all in. We then went to my moms to spend the night before we headed out for good on Thursday morning.

Thursday we sad our goodbyes and headed out for our new life. Thursday ended up being what felt like the longest day of my life! After getting through the Atlanta traffic we encountered the TN mountains. Dan's truck did not appreciate having to go up those steep hills while pulling an overstuffed u-haul. We ended up sitting in the emergency lane on the side of a cliff trying to get the engine to cool down. After some googling Dan discovered that if you turned on your heat then your engine wouldn't overheat. Poor Dan had to drive with the heat on in 90 degree weather the rest of the way! We finally started putting miles between us and home and called it a night in Columbia, Missouri.

Friday, while making our way through Missouri/Iowa territory, we saw the most beautiful farms! It seemed to be the perfect day with the blue sky, sunshine, and rolling hills/farms- and it was until we entered the flood zone. We kept seeing farms and houses underwater and eventually the interstate just ended and we were ushered off the exit. We ventured off the exit and drove around this farm land trying to find another route only to find out we made a huge circle and ended up right back at the highway and it was still closed. We eventually figured out the right way and what should have taken 30 min's took us 2 hours with the detour. We drove a little ways to find out that the interstate will have another detour so we used our trusty atlas (that I thought my mom unnecessarily bought us) and figured out a new way to get across Nebraska and into South Dakota.

Saturday came and we were so excited for our final day of these 12 hour long car rides! We were not stopping again until we made it to Sheridan. Words cannot express to you all the gorgeous scenery that we went through by crossing Nebraska, South Dakota, and Wyoming. We saw all kinds of wildlife and the most incredible hills, canyons, mountains, rivers, etc. I tried to take pictures as I was driving but they dont even do it justice. This part of the United States is absolutely beautiful!! (Once I unpack the box that my camera cord is in I'll get some pictures on here) As we were about to cross the border into Wyoming, I called Dan because something looked funny with the tire on the u-haul and before we could pull over to the side of I-90, the tire blew! We then sit on the side of the road for two hours waiting for someone from the closest u-haul place to come fix it. Around 9:30 Mountain Time, which would be 11:30 PM back home, we finally pull into our new town.

Sunday our wonderful friends, Steve and Nikki drove us around Sheridan, showed us where we will be working, helped look at houses, and showed us the town. Monday morning Dan and I decided on a place and the landlord gave us the keys right then and there, and by 2 PM all our stuff was in our new home! Today (Tues), I got to go into my work and meet everyone, fill out HR info, and go to lunch with the people I'll be working with. I CANNOT wait to get started working at Volunteers of America!! I start July 5th (next tues) :-)

For now, I need to go unpack the millions of boxes and see if we have any dishes left after all those wonderful adventures we encountered along the way.

Love you all and thank you for all your prayers as Dan and I made this crazy drive out west!

WE'RE MOVING!!!

The ten day countdown began yesterday to our moving day! Dan and I are moving to Sheridan, Wyoming on June 23rd and the apartment is full of boxes, bubble wrap, and packing tape. Our new life together is about to begin and we are excited, anxious, and ready. The drive is 30 hours long and we plan to make our cross-country trip into an adventure by making stops in towns that we want to visit.

It will be bittersweet to say goodbye to Milledgeville. I moved here in August 2006 and love my 'family' that I've found here! My Milledgeville family has helped me grow and shown tremendous love and support to me throughout these past years!

I can't even begin to type out words to describe my feelings about moving away from my family. Living two hours away in Milledgeville doesn't even compare to how it will be to live 30 hours away! I'm thankful we have things like Skype and Facebook to help ease the pain and keep some of the homesickness away.

The difference between Georgia and Wyoming I'm sure will be enormous. As I sit here sweating from a triple digit heat wave, the weather will be something that I know for sure will be a huge difference. I'll be able to experience real snow in the winter and cooler days in the summer. I know some of these differences will be a challenge but I'm excited to experience a completely different lifestyle than the one I've been living these last wonderful 24 years in Georgia.

To all my friends and family, I promise to keep up this blog and fill it with all the details from our new life! I cant wait to scroll through the pages of this blog and see where this journey has taken us!

We thank all of you for all your love and support!!

~Angela