The road goes on forever

After twenty eight hours of near non-stop packing, James and I climbed into the U-Haul truck and hit the road.

The first part was also the worst part. Northeastern Colorado is flat and empty and the roads are raggedy.

After three hours of that, we were both relieved when we crossed into Nebraska.

A lot of my hobby friends were also on the road that day, heading to Lexington, Kentucky. I snapped a picture of the sign for the Nebraska Lexington in solidarity.

A few minutes later, I waved to Margaret as we rolled past Kearney.

The original plan was to stop in Omaha, but after our extremely late start, there was simply no way. We found a decent roadside hotel in Grand Island, and called it a night.

The next morning we were right back at it. We powered through the rest of Nebraska and crossed into Iowa.

It takes five hours to drive across Iowa, but the time passed quickly.

I waved to Prairie Meadows, where Carol and I stayed during another road trip back in 2016...

and we both oohed and aahed over all the pretty rainbows.

Hello, Wyoming! What are doing out here?

As we neared Dubuque, the skies grew dark and stormy.

Sure enough, it was raining as we drove over the Mississippi River...

and into Wisconsin.

The skies cleared as we drove through the limestone bluffs. 

The last part of our drive was dark and wet.

We were exhausted by the time we reached the trailer drop-off point.

As much as we both wanted to push through to Madison, we decided safe was better than sorry. We found another hotel, and checked ourselves in for the night. The next morning, we made the short drive to James' new home and spent the rest of the day unpacking and getting settled.

In contrast to the first twenty eight hours, I really enjoyed this part of the week. Aside from a bit of rain at the end, the weather was fine, the conversation lively, and James did a really good job of driving. I can be a bit of a nervous passenger, but I was completely comfortable riding with him.

But here's the thing I haven't told you: It wasn't just James and I in that U-Haul.

The other members of our party were Guppy/Kimmy...

and Mercury.

And let me tell you, traveling with a cat and a snake was a whole new experience for me!

To be continued.