Phew...

After a while, you start to feel like perhaps you weren't meant to move to a place. First, our car breaks down. I looked for a van or suv to rent, but on three day notice there weren't any in the price range I found acceptable. so we started looking at vans to buy: since it was our plan to buy a new van in a couple years, it was probably just wise to move up the plans. The first van we looked at looked pretty good to us, but the mechanic highly recommended against it. So we started looking at more expensive rides and ended up buying a Honda Odyssey (2000): power sliding doors, stow away back seats: awesome. It didn't have a roof rack or a hitch, so we tried to take the roof rack off the Passport and put it on the Odyssey. didn't work. Then I made an appointment with Uhaul to have a hitch put on: the bolt threads need to be replaced before a hitch can be installed. Grrr. So we decided to just fit what we could in the car and that would be it. If I had known it would be that way, I would have made different choices packing the truck (because we had to leave behind a lot of stuff I would have liked to take).

We left a day late due to all the hitch issues. I tell you, saying goodbye to my parents was the hardest thing I've ever done. I can't recall if I've ever seen my father cry before. It was so terribly sad and I just don't know how on earth I'm going to make it to December before we see them again. Especially with my kids saying every day how much they miss them. Even Elyas says "Gramma...miss...sad". Enough to break your heart.

Our first day of driving, through Washington, Idaho and into Montana was mostly uneventful save for the hour of screaming from Elyas before he fell asleep for his nap. We drove through Idaho without even stopping. We stopped in a campground in the Rockies the first night and the mosquitoes were ravenous and made quick meal of us. Marley (the cat) was happy to be out of his carrier and into the tent though! There was a heated pool and a playground, so the kids were happy. We got up and headed out the next morning, hoping to make it just into Wyoming the second night to camp there. About 40 miles after setting out we blew a tire. It had looked low the night before when we arrived, so I knew it wasn't going to last. At least we just lost the tread, it didn't blow. Going around 85 mph, we likely would have had a good crash if it had blown. So we had to partially unpack the car to get to the spare and the jack, and sit on the side of the road while Ali changed the tire and then we had to drive at around 35 mph for 30 miles before getting to Missoula, on a road with a good bit of traffic and a speed limit of 75 mph. It was really fun. (/sarcasm). We were lucky to find an honest tire shop that sold us only one tire and said the others were all okay (I thought they always sold you two, and tried to sell you four). They maxed out the pressure on the tires, and the tires made it the rest of the way thankfully. They had those little candy dispensers there and Elyas had his first Mike and Ike, to which he immediately said "like it". :)

Our tire adventure cost us a couple hours though and we didn't make it to Wyoming that night, only to a few miles out of Billings, where we stayed in a campground on the Yellowstone River. Another great campground find, with a heated pool AND spa, playground... and lots more ravenous mosquitos. And lots of motorcycles due to the Sturgis Bike Rally. Elyas was unfortunately scared of them (as they would ride down the road in the campground he would say "coming...worried". :( )

So our third day we had planned to stay with a friend in South Dakota, and in order to get there we had to drive about 620 miles. That was our longest day, leaving Billings early and not getting to Pierre until 8 pm. Even going 85, that still takes all day. Add to that construction and lots of bike traffic through Sturgis and it just took a while. But Leila and Elyas had so much fun playing with my friends kids it was worth the push.

Friday we left Pierre and headed to Omaha to spend the night with another friend. It was a much shorter day, only just over 400 miles. Elyas had a hard time falling asleep in the car though. It was not easy on him. I had to hold his foot so he could fall asleep. :( But again, the kids had a lot of fun playing with my friend's kids, and it was so fun to meet people in person that I have known online for 3.5 to 4 years. And now that we are in the midwest we can meet up again soon! Poor Marley thought we had reached our destination in Omaha and was not happy the last day, though he was well behaved the rest of the trip. So he rode out of his carrier for the last day and was happy.

The last day was an easy day, from Omaha to Iowa City. Just over 200 miles. We stopped in Des Moines for a quick lunch. And then high tailed it for Iowa City. We arrived around 3 pm and got into our apartment here. It felt so good to stop, knowing we wouldn't be getting up and driving hundreds of miles the next day. Today we are going to get some groceries, and find a park and go see a few houses, but take it easy for the most part.

I said to Ali yesterday that I thought the trip would have been a lot more fun pre-kids. I do like road trips, but it's hard to do it and have fun with your car so full and your kids not having as much fun. Thank goodness for GPS and being able to find what you need quickly!