The Move

David and I got back from our honeymoon on July 23rd.  We had one week to finish packing up our belongings and visit family and friends before we moved.  We spent a few days in Searcy and a few in Nashville.  David picked up the Penske truck on Friday morning (July 29).  We (with the help of the wonderful delivery boys and Sam from Sowell's Furniture) loaded up the truck with all of our belongings.  It was a close fit.  We put my hanging clothes and bags we needed for the trip in my trunk and back seat.  The truck was literally packed to the brim.

 
On Sunday morning we got in the truck and car and started down the road.  I had my mom and David's mom, Lynn, in my car.  Dad and David were in the big truck.  We said goodbye to David's red truck earlier in the week because David's dad bought it back from us! Yay! So we are now a one-car family.  We started down the highway towards Conway.  When we got to Fayetteville/Rogers area we met up with Ashton and Daniel Goad for lunch.

We then continued on the road towards Kansas City, MO.  The drive was pretty boring.  The corn was pretty, but we felt like we were in the middle of nowhere...which we were.  We decided that we would stay in a hotel in Ames, IA on Sunday night.  So we kept trucking towards Des Moines.  David looked up a restaurant for us to eat dinner at in Des Moines.  He found a restaurant called the Iowa Machine Shed.  We pulled up to the parking lot and walked towards the front door and a tractor full of families pulled away from the front door and took them for a ride.  We all looked at each other..."Did that just happen?"  We walked in the front door and felt like we were at Cracker Barrel, except the worker's were wearing overalls and they gave you a bowl of cottage cheese and slaw for the table.   The food was really delicious, but I was not expecting a place like that above Missouri.  They are proud of their farmers, as they should be. 

 After dinner we drove one more hour to Ames, IA, and stayed in a hotel.  We woke up and hit the road about 8:00 a.m. and pulled into the twin cities at 12:00 p.m.  We went into the office at The Burlington to sign some papers and get the keys to the apartment

Some of David's coworkers told us they would help us move in around 2:00.  So we drove next door, that's right, drove, to Gabe's restaurant.  We drove because a torrential downpour had just started and was not going to be stopping soon.  The 5 of us ate our lunch and waited for the storm to pass.  We then went back to the apartment and some of the Cantus members were showing up to help. The guys unloaded the truck in about 3 hours.  It was amazing! Thankfully our apartment has an elevator and our location is very close to the elevator.  We started unpacking and realized we were hungry about 9:00.  We looked in the packet that The Burlington had given us and picked John's Pizza.

Mom and Dad stayed at the hotel down the street at Bandana Square.  We went to bed satisfied with the amount of work we got done in one day.  The next morning David and I took mom and dad to the airport (about 15 minutes)....I don't like goodbyes, so let's move on...

We went back to the apt and continued unpacking boxes.  We went on a walk around our apartment with Mrs. Lynn to get our bearings about what's around us.  We are about half a mile south of Como Park, Como Zoo and conservatory and Lake Como.  It is a beautiful area.  pictures to follow soon.  David's mom flew back to Nasvhille Wednesday, so we left the apartment and went to the Mall of America and walked around that for a while before taking her to the airport. 

David and I went back to the apartment and continued unpacking boxes and made a Super Target and Wal-Mart run to stock the pantry.  

The next post will be about exploring the city.  stay tuned!