Update

It's official - we're Tennessee residents!  Shortly after I finished my earlier post, Joey finally appeared.  Apparently I had given him the wrong directions (I got them from the website, which I suppose I shouldn't have trusted after the documentation issue) so he drove around for an hour and a half before actually finding the station.  Then it was just a matter of waiting while the middle-of-nowhere, Tennessee-tri-state-area folks took their time processing everyone.  After he got back it was my turn.  Two hours later, we were on the road again.

Our drive today was pretty easy.  We're staying in Harrisonburg, VA tonight, which is about 2 hours east of DC.

We stopped along the way at the "Natural Bridge" and were going to take the dogs on the trail (it was allowed) but it cost $18 a person and we decided that you should have to pay $36 to see a natural rock formation and that if we were going to pay that much we'd rather do so when we didn't have to worry about the dogs.  So we climbed back in the car and here we are at our hotel for the night. 

Add this to the weird category.  See the person?  Up close it looks like he's hanging himself.  Joey and I both stood there, dumbfounded, until we realized that we had really been found dumb - he was made of wax.

Joey's out picking up pizza - I figured since it was the last night of our trip and eating like crap (I had a Hardee's Little Thickburger and curly fries for lunch and Gobstoppers for dessert), we might as well cap it off with pizza.  Tomorrow after getting everything out of the cars, I'm heading to Whole Foods and cooking dinner.  I can't wait!

Waiting...

Joey left over 2 1/2 hours ago to go to the TN DMV...they opened at 7 and our hotel is only about 10 miles away so I'm dying to know what is going on.  Especially since he left his cell phone in the room. 

In the meantime, I've showered, blown my hair dry (a first in several weeks), and applied makeup (a first this week) - hey, drivers license pictures are inherently bad - I might as well do my best to mitigate that.  The boys and I had a nice surprise during my shower when the fire alarm started screeching.  I called the front desk who sent up a repair man - as I stood there in my towel I thought how the hell am I going to keep the dogs off him and my towel on me - and the alarm stopped - thank God!

Since I've had some downtime, I got to really read my friend Lauren's blog - on it she has an amazing quote that I think describes how I feel today, only one day from finally moving into DC:

"Twenty years from now, you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”
- Mark Twain

 

Some pics from lately

Everything all packed up

The view of the top of the waterfall

The craziest caterpillar I've ever seen - it looks like a Yorkie in a vest and sunglasses.  This was only one of many, many bugs encountered in the wilderness.  I was very brave.

We went on the brewery tour during our stop in St. Louis on our way home from Nashville.  I seriously still can't get over how many people thought it was acceptable to bring their completely unruly children on a brewery tour.  Seriously, beer and screaming kids shouldn't be paired together.

Tennessee

Joey forgot to mention on his blog that he was so excited about his new cowboy boots that we had to find a mall so he could buy jeans to wear with his new boots last night.  After driving the 6 miles to the mall (which featured stores like Tiffany, Louis Vuitton and Stuart Weitzman), going to three stores to try on jeans (it must be an Italian thing where finding jeans that fit is just about impossible - Joey would have been perfectly happy in the baggiest pair he could find but I'm a pain in the ass and make him wear jeans that he considers a pain in the ass), buying a pair of $100 pair of jeans that weren't too baggy and weren't "constricting his legs," I decided he should have packed jeans in his "carry-on" (aka accessible bag taken to and from hotels along the way) and that we didn't need to drop $100 on jeans that he already has - in the car - and so he didn't get to wear his boots last night.  As I write this Joey is downstairs in the parking garage digging through the car for a pair of jeans he already owns so he can wear his boots today.  And on our way to St. Louis we are returning the jeans.

Our two days in Smithville were wonderful - relaxing, rejuven- ating - I  mean after hiking through these gorgeous woods for an hour we find this 90 ft waterfall with a private swimming hole and since we were the only guests on the property we had it all to ourselves.  Amazing.  It was easy to forget that we'd just left our entire lives behind us and are just treading water in limbo land.  Unfortunately you can't stay under a waterfall all day and once we got on the road to Nashville it was like somebody turned the stress switch back on, which, unfortunately for my husband, also means the bitch switch.  Hence the drama over blue jeans mentioned above.  Over a fabulous dinner last night we agreed to stop nitpicking each other and actually be the support system to each other that we promised to be. 

Joey just emerged from the bathroom all dressed for the day - in his jeans and cowboy boots.  "What do you think?" he asked me - I responded with the same question.  His reply? "I think they're awesome!"