On Tuesday morning, at 5:30 am and before the sun was up, our moving adventure truly began. The kids and I were all loaded up in the car and said goodbye to Kevin. And to our house and neighborhood.  And the second we pulled away, the tears that had been buried inside me came pouring out. I cried and cried. 

And after I cried, I brought out a special Texas playlist to play for the kids, beginning with the song from an old Backyardigans episode that we have loved since Lily and Derek were tiny, “Texas, Here I Come.” 

Yee-haw, Texas here I come
Yee-haw, yee-haw, yippie-yi-yo, Texas here I come
Once I cross that Rio Grande, I’ll find me a piece of Texas land
And play in a Texas hip-hop band, Texas here I come!
Yee-haw, yippie-yi-yo, Texas here I come!
Yee-haw, yippie-yi, yippie-yi-yo, Texas here I come!
The sky is wide and the ponies strong
The boots are pointy and the trails are long
I ride and I rope and I sing my song, Texas here I come!
Yee-haw yip, yippie-yi-yi-yo, Texas here I come!
I’ll build a coral that’s wide and flat and raise up cattle, big and fat
That’s where I’ll hang my Texas hat, yee-haw, yippie-yi-yo!
Yee-haw, yip, yippie-yi-yi-yo, Texas here I come!
Yee-haw, yippie-yi, yippie-yi-yo, Texas here I come!
Yee-haw, yippie-yi-yo-yo, Texas here I come!

We played the song and sang along, and suddenly, we were all excited and happy.  We were headed to something new and wonderful. Then I followed it up with one of Derek’s favorites, “Texas Time,” by Keith Urban. It turned everything around.  And then we listened to the audio book of “Howl’s Moving Castle” as we drove through the Appalachian Mountains. 

At one point, when the exhaustion of the past few weeks, as well as getting up at 4:30am, caught up to me, Lily was awesome and took over the driving. Even though I never actually got any sleep, it was such a blessing for her to take a turn so we could keep going.  She really did a great job, but between the semi trucks cutting us off, and all the slowing for road construction, I was too wired to sleep. She did great though.

We were also blessed with pretty amazing weather, and only had a few small rain showers, which made for a beautiful rainbow.

We made really good time, mostly because, miracles of miracles, we missed the worst of the DC traffic driving through Maryland and Virginia because we got through Washington DC early enough that the traffic wasn’t bad.

The first day, our destination was Nashville, Tennessee to stay with Pamela and her family. We had dinner, talked, our kids played, we got them to bed, and then stayed up late and talked again.  It was such a tender mercy to spend that first night away from PA with one of my best friends in the world. And since by the time we remembered to get a picture, it was late and we looked worn out, we had the best time playing with filters to get our selfie – it was awesome. Oh, how I love her!

The next day, we were up and out of town by 6am, because we had a 14 hour drive ahead of us. And this was the day that took us across the Mississippi River, which is always a fun adventure. We have moved back and forth across that river a few times now.

About 8-9 hours into our drive, we made to Dallas, and then we felt like we had really made it to Texas.  And as we drove through Waco, I was so sad that we couldn’t stop and go to the Magnolia Silos. But hey, I will only be about three hours away (I think). As we made our way closer and closer to San Antonio, we were so very excited. and then, as we were in the middle of downtown Austin and rush hour traffic, Arthur told me he had to go to the bathroom.  Seriously, it couldn’t have happened during a time or in a place we could actually stop. Luckily, he is a little boy, and so I handed him an empty water bottle for him to pee in.  Good times.  And the funniest thing, was that my mom was on the phone with me the whole time listening and laughing. Glad we could provide some entertainment- ha ha!

The best part of our drive on day two, other than eventually making it to our destination, was when we stopped for gas and dinner at Buc-cee’s. It was the kids’ first time there, and they loved it just as much as we thought they would. Definitely the highlight of our day.

By 8:30pm, we finally made it to our Airbnb in Northern San Antonio, and we were so incredibly relieved to be there.  We worked together to quickly unload the car and get settled for the night. Once the kids were good and in bed, I had such good intentions of getting a little more unpacking and organizing done, but the adrenaline that had kept me going for the past couple days, weeks, or probably months, finally wore off.  I felt like my bones had turned to Jello, and I couldn’t even move. Guess that meant that everything else would have to wait. But we made it – we made it safely – and now the real adventure begins.