Midwest Roadtrip (without pictures)

We did it! We're here and now that we have internet and a lot of the boxes unpacked I can post about our road trip. First off, we couldn't have done it without Donna and Dave. Well we could have but they helped out so much, it would have been hard without them. They helped out financially in a huge way and it was needed more than they probably realize. It's also something the kids will be able to carry with them as they were able to spend the last week with their grandparents as we traveled through the midwest states. My favorite memories with my Grandma Rueckert almost all consist of memories we created while on vacations growing up and now that my kids have that it's pretty cool to think about. With that said it was an awesome roadtrip as we made it from New Braunfels to Fargo. We crossed off nine new states for Danny and I and got here safe and sound. We planned on getting here on Monday July 8th but after a delay in Arkansas we got here a day later on Tuesday July 9th. I'm glad we were able to be flexible with our schedule and paid for a week for the Uhaul to account for any possible delays. We were hoping to have a moving truck moved for us like we did from Utah to Texas but they were quoting us around $10,000 which is insane and something we don't just have to go towards a moving truck. The only option we really had was to rent a Uhaul truck and drive it ourselves. It was still expensive but by far the cheapest option. We got a 28 ft truck which made us a little nervous since neither of us have ever driven something so big before. We also struggled with what to do with our second vehicle because we weren't sure if we would have anyone fly out to be with us so we rented a trailer as well to haul our Prius, making the big truck even bigger. We found out about Dave and Donna coming out about a week before we left but they didn't want to drive our Prius and felt that Danny was capable of driving the Uhaul truck with the Prius behind. So the plan was for Danny to drive the big truck and for me to drive the van and Danny's parents would go back and forth however they pleased. 

Danny was super nervous and stressed about driving the truck and I was nervous and stressed over him being anxious and stressed. It was a stressful time but it all worked out amazingly. So we got the truck on July 3rd and loaded up everything (from help from friends) except for our mattresses which we left out so that we wouldn't have to sleep on the floor for two nights. We used the morning of the 4th to get a lot of house cleaning done and then enjoyed the rest of the day with friends and Danny later picked up his parents that night. 

July 5th - This morning was our first official moving day as we loaded the mattresses and then went back to the Uhaul place so that we could pick up the trailer for the Prius to be attached. By the time we got all that done it was lunch time so we got some Taco Bell and talked about our game plan. The plan was to stop in Waco because I wanted to see the Magnolia Silos before heading to the Ft Worth/Dallas area where we would have dinner with my sister Nilza and then spend the night with my friend Britney. This was supposed to be our easiest day with only a three a half hour driving day. This is why it's good to be flexible on a road trip because our drive was almost doubled with the most insane rain storm we've ever driven in. Before we get to that though Waco was awesome. Very hot but very cool. Makes me wish we could have spent more time there. I know of Chip and Jo but don't know a whole lot about them other than they flip houses. Well I must say they did an awesome job with their creation the Magnolia Market. It was such a cool family friendly place. I didn't take pictures of this but they even had a baseball diamond where families were playing. They had so many courtyards, places to sit and enjoy, stores and all the food trucks you can think of. While at the Magnolia Market I called Nilza and told her that we'd gotten on the road later than we hoped but that we were about to leave Waco and head her way. We were going to drop off our Uhaul truck and Danny's parents in Fort Worth so that Danny and I could go together in the van for our dinner. Nilza pointed out that with traffic there was no way we would make the time work. She wasn't even near Fort Worth. It was a bummer but also almost a relief as we cancelled the dinner because I was feeling pretty anxious about it for some reason. Nilza then messaged me back and asked if we could meet in Rockwall the next morning for breakfast as it was on our way to our next stop in Paris. So that became our new plan as we got back on the road to head straight to Britney's house. That's when the most out of nowhere rainstorm hit us. I was driving the van with Donna in our vehicle while Dave was the passenger in the truck that Danny was driving. The rain was so bad that you could not see ten feet in front of you. I'm not even exaggerating. It was pretty stressful because we were on the freeway and the only way you could see the car in front of you was if they had their hazard lights on. Those blinking red lights were the only thing letting me know if I was even in a lane. There was a point where we pulled off to the side to wait some of the storm out. So many cars were doing the same thing. It was a huge chunk of our time but in the end everyone was safe and we eventually got to Britney's house.  Thank goodness she was super understanding because we showed up so late. She had dinner ready for us (honestly I think it was done an hour before but they were so patient) and it tasted amazing. It was so good to catch up with her and finally meet her husband and kids. They also have five kids. Their oldest is just a month younger than Grant who is five years old. That's right, five kids in five years. Their ages are 5,4,3,1 and a couple months old. Having ten kids under the same roof was so fun. The kids loved it. Britney wasn't kidding when she said they had room for all of us. They were the most amazing hosts ever.

July 6th - When I say that Britney and her husband Scott were amazing hosts I really mean it. They hooked us up with so many snacks for our drive. It felt like a grocery pickup. They supplied us with enough snacks to last us four days driving in the car. They wanted us to stay for breakfast but because of our plans with Nilza we had to decline. They made it known that if we ever make it back to Fort Worth we'd be welcomed there. Britney thank you for being such an awesome friend, I love you so much. Dave and Donna stayed behind for breakfast and offered to take our moving truck for us so that Danny and I can be together for the day. It was so nice of them. We planned on meeting back together that evening in Fayetteville, Arkansas. As things usually go when trying to get somewhere on time we were behind schedule. We ended up missing having breakfast with Nilza but did meet up at Rockwall harbor where we were able to have a quick visit with her and her boyfriend. They chose the coolest place for us to meet at. The weather felt bearable and not like the heat in the part of Texas we've been living in the last two years. It felt so nice in comparison. It was also nice to introduce Nilza to my kids. The last time we've seen each other I think was when Grant was a baby and she flew in for our Uncle Mike's funeral. It's been five years. Being late was probably best case scenario because our kids behaved so much better in an area where they could just run around instead of sitting inside a fancy restaurant. The only downside was that Danny was looking forward to the food but because Britney had already loaded us up with so much food we were just fine. It was good seeing Nilza and hopefully we can make it happen sooner than another five years.

After Rockwall we left for Paris, Texas. I really only had three places on my list of things to see/do during this trip and the first two were in the first two days. It was Waco, Paris and Sioux Falls. Grant and Addie also really wanted to see the Eiffel Tower in Paris, TX because it has a cowboy hat on top. There's not much else to do in this town but we were able to stop for lunch and get a family picture by the only Eiffel Tower we might ever see haha. It's a cute attraction and the kids enjoyed it as much as I did.

We left Paris and finally got into our first state of Oklahoma where we drove through Choctaw Nation and was surrounded by the greenest forests we've seen in awhile. It was completely different from how I pictured Oklahoma to be. I know this is just a part of Oklahoma but it was absolutely beautiful. Danny pulled over and the two of us took a quick picture which then prompted Hudson to get out because he wanted one as well. We'd love to see more of what Oklahoma has to offer one day.

Dave and Donna took their own journey through a different route in Oklahoma and got in Arkansas about a half hour after we did. They were so kind to find us a hotel for the night and paid for it which was extremely nice of them. They had to park the Uhaul truck directly in front of the hotel because it was so huge and wouldn't fit anywhere else. We then walked to a restaurant just across the street because we saw that it said kids eat free on their window. It was good food and their live music added a nice touch. We ended the night doing something we normally don't do but something that we'd end up doing almost every night during the trip - let the kids have a night swim way past their bedtime. 

July 7th - Our next morning did not start the way we'd hope. Everyone had eaten breakfast and we were quick to get our things together so that we could get an early start on the road, only to find that the van would not start. We spent the next several hours trying to figure it out. We had three different people try to jump our call to no avail. Dave and Danny then left with the van battery to see if they could find a store open since it was Sunday morning and most of the places around were closed. What ended up happening for us we're going to count as our personal miracle. Danny and Dave found an Auto Zone that was opened where the man working there is a full time traveling mechanic. The Auto Zone gig was a second part time job for him. This man also spent many years working at a Honda dealership so he was very familiar with Honda vehicles. He could see that our battery wasn't the issue and thought it could be our start plug (I might be saying that wrong, I know nothing about cars and their parts). He told us that he got off work after noon and could head to the hotel we were stranded at with the parts he felt we needed. Danny left our battery with him so that it could completely charge while we waited. This whole time I was with the kids in our hotel lobby because we had already checked out of the room. There was really no place for us to go. At one point the kids played hide and seek outside while we waited for the guy to get off work and head our way. The man asked for a portion upfront and there was a time where I was really skeptical of it all. I was thinking of worse case scenarios. I thought the man took our battery, part of our payment and wasn't going to show up. To be fair this was after five hours of waiting in the hotel entrance lobby with five kids and no car. For lunch while we were waiting we walked over to the McDonalds which the kids were happy about. Unfortunately this McDonald's didn't have a play place which could have really helped with the wiggles and waiting but oh well. Long story made shorter the guy did come and was a huge help to us. He replaced our starter thingy (again I don't know cars) and fixed it all up. Danny was the one who pointed it out to me how it was a miracle we were able to find someone on a Sunday who just so happened to be a Honda knowledgable traveling mechanic. This was an expense we weren't prepared for and the fact that Dave paid it was another tender mercy. Seriously we're so blessed that Dave and Donna were with us through this all. We got on the road around 3:30pm and our new goal was just to drive three hours to Kansas City, Kansas. Our original plan was to make it there for lunch and then continue on to Omaha but now we were happy if we could just make it to Kansas by the end of the day.

We cut through Missouri and drove through Joplin before entering the state of Kansas where we finally got to Kansas City for the night. While on the road Donna found us a hotel for the night. We told the kids that since we had a late night the night before that we would skip the swimming at this hotel so that we could go to bed on time. We knew that wasn't going to be the case the second we pulled up to the hotel we'd be staying at. Danny and I were in the van together and we just turned to each other and said "oh no". There was a huge water slide that went outside the building before entering back in. We knew there was no way we wouldn't be letting the kids have another late night swim. And that's how we let them stay up way super late again but they had the time of their lives.

July 8th - Thankfully our day started off great unlike the day before. We left Kansas and headed back into Missouri (St. Joseph area) before entering Iowa. Out of all the states we probably spent the least amount of time in Iowa. We weren't there long before cutting into Nebraska where we stopped for a picnic in Omaha. It was so beautiful. Honestly this whole stretch of the drive from Oklahoma to Nebraska was so pretty. Especially the parts of Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, and Missouri that we were able to see were so green. Iowa was a little more flat but they had a really cool blue bridge that we went through that was actually called the Mormon Bridge. I think there's a lot of church history in this part that I'm not really familiar with even though some of the names ring a bell like Council Bluffs. If we didn't have that delay the day before it would have been cool to incorporate a detour to Independence Missouri since it wasn't that far from where we were but we needed to make it to Sioux Falls by a certain time because Dave and Donna had a rental car to pick up. We did make it to Sioux Falls but unfortunately it was ten minutes after the rental company closed for the day. That was kind of a bummer for them but they arranged to have something to be picked up in the morning.

July 9th - While in Sioux Falls we wanted to see the waterfalls there. So after breakfast we headed the falls. It was pretty cool to see if in person. The mosquitos here though were insane. Everyone of us was covered from head to toe in mosquito repellant but there were still so many surrounding us. I've never seen so many mosquitos before and it worried me into thinking that North Dakota would have the same problem but thankfully that hasn't been the case. South Dakota might be remembered in our minds as the headquarters for all mosquitos but the waterfalls were cool. After this we split up where Donna went in the truck with Danny and I drove Dave to the rental where he picked up his car. Then I continued onto Fargo with the kids. I thought for sure Danny and Donna would get there first because they had left before us. But the kids and I were the first ones by almost forty minutes. We made it to Fargo and the kids were so excited to explore the house for the first time.

July 10th - I'm just adding a bonus day since we entered Minnesota on this day. We live ten minutes away from Moorhead, MN and I'm sure we'll have plenty of exploring that state while we're here.

We've now been here six days and Danny went to work for the first time today. Dave and Donna headed back home on Thursday (July 11th) and arrived in Utah yesterday. We're getting settled and so far we really like it here. I remember when we first got to Texas there was definitely an adjustment period and maybe it's the fact that this is our second time doing this now but I'm feeling really good and even excited to discover all this place has to offer. It was an adventure getting here and it's going to continue to be an adventure for the next two years. We're excited.