Colorado or bust

Our drive began during one of the big East coast storm systems and sadly (for one of us) the trek to Graceland had to be scrapped for a less icy route. We enjoyed warm temps at our lunch and dinner stop in FL, but after that the outside air was officially not warm. At each restroom break, Teague would ask before he got out of the car if it was going to be warm or cold. He was a bit disappointed when I told him that from now on it's not going to be 80 degrees in winter. 

Despite our route change and lack of Graceland souvenirs, the trek out west was relatively painless. Our pup Memphis, now deaf and senile, did surprisingly well. 

Typically, the radio game & "animal, vegetable or mineral" are played ad nauseam on our road trips, but this time, Sean and I binge listened to NPR's Serial podcast (which is excellent, by the way) and spent the remainder of the drive googling case-related articles.

Our main "attraction" stop was New Orleans. Luckily, it was just after Mardi Gras ended so things were far less crazy. It's a pretty town and the fresh beignets were delish. We tried some Nola dishes, stayed the night and called it good.

We couldn't drive through North Texas without stopping in a little known town called Dalhart. It's actually where we were engaged. Why podunk Texas, you ask? Well, Sean, a cadet at the "Colorado School for Wayward Boys", had travel restrictions on weekends. My graduation at Texas Tech University exceeded his allowable travel distance. He was authorized to drive as far as Dalhart, Texas, though, so with a lot of behind the scenes planning via my folks, he surprised me on my drive back from graduation at the gazebo in Dalhart with a ring and a proposal. 

We hadn't visited since our actual engagement in 1999 and as is typical of teeny one-horse towns, not much has changed. I feel like the randomly installed ginormous arrow was some sort of nod to our exclusive engagement location.

                                                  16 years later...dog, kid, move #8.

                      The ridiculously big arrow gets no respect. Thanks Memphis.

Somewhere along the drive Teague lost another tooth.

                           
Lucky us, we arrived in Colorado few hours ahead of the big storm and quickly settled into a snow-bound routine at the TLFs of hot cocoa and wet snowy everything. 

A few snow days and snow delays later, our furniture was delivered and we are now officially living in Colorado. This was our first conus to conus move in 14 years and I have to say, it's a heck of a lot easier than shipping household goods to/from overseas! What a relief to have an almost seamless door to door move.