The Trip Across the US

Loading the Truck

Well, this is a little backwards and should have been before the other one, but I didn't have the time to put the pictures on my computer! I will try to stay in order from here on out!

We left California on Tuesday afternoon and drove to St. George, arriving there at 2 am. I planned to arrive there around 6 or 7, but had severely overestimated how fast we could travel with a 26' truck and 3 little girls! The next day, we headed out to Montrose, CO to visit some friends there. On the way, we got caught in a very good thunderstorm in Eastern Utah. By good, I mean a lot of lightening, high winds and rain so hard you can barely drive. That was fun. Kate saw a fire above the road in a bush that was started by lightening. She was pretty excited about that!

Just before Leaving Colorado

After a relaxing 2 night stay in Colorado and we headed out once again. This time, we had to cross the Rockies to reach our motel an hour east of Denver. Travel was slow, but ironically, this was the best day for mpg. The worst day was the next day for mpg as we drove through flat Nebraska! Go figure! For the whole trip, we averaged 7.5 mpg. There was a computer in the truck that kept track of that for me.

We stayed with friends in Fremont, NE and once again enjoyed a good thunderstorm. From Nebraska, we drove to Mascoutah, IL. The next morning we were entertained by yet another thunderstorm. As we were packing the car, we noticed the rear tire on the van was low. We filled it with air and decided to find a tire store because the only reason it could have lost that much air was if there was a hole in it. At the tire store, they found a nail on the inner sidewall. Praise the Lord we didn't just air up and take off down the highway! That would have been a bad blowout! It was an hour delay, but we arrived in Louisville on Monday afternoon around 4.

We were very blessed by my uncle coming down from Indiana to help us unload and unpack. Several of our new neighbors also came out and helped us unload the truck. Since the Lord knows how much I dislike heat, He provided the hottest day of year (so we were told) for us to unload the truck in. Nothing like 95 degree weather with 875% humidity! We unloaded about 2/3 of the truck when.....you guessed it.....another big thunderstorm. So, we stopped there for the night and attempted to deal with what was in the apartment.

View of the storm from our front door

It seemed pretty hopeless to cram all that was in that 26' truck into the apartment, but thanks to the creativity of others and the instillation of multiple shelves, we managed. Now, the apartment is nearly finished and the last box has been unpacked. Praise the Lord!

Well, that is all for now.

Blessings,

Shane