Before we left we took a few walks, the first was around our neighborhood. I wanted to remember the trees and lucky for me some of the Magnolias were still in bloom.
We also went to our favorite park in town so the girls could have on last walk. The flowers were in bloom but I think Chaquita was sad to leave.
In the back garden a brave sunflower bloomed just for us and.....
while emptying our pond, we found Mr. Fish (thought to be lost due to a cold winter.) We released him in the pond at our favorite park.
Then it was time to pack up. This is truck number 1. The crane behind him was installing the sign for the new pizza joint that was moving in across the street (thank goodness that it wasn't there while we were!)
Then we were off. Chaquita was very excited that she could see out of the truck no matter which way she looked ... I was not so excited, in fact I was terrified. We didn't leave Baton Rouge until almost 7 pm and the thought of driving a big truck and towing my car on my own, terrified me. Luckily, by the time we arrived in Houston, I was an old hand and in a much better frame of mind.
After our first stop in Houston (were I met up with Aunt Rose and my goddaughter and of course my brother Matt). The next morning, we went onto San Marcos and had lunch/dinner with Nathan. Then we drove through Lulling, Tx. The city had covered all of its mini-grasshoppers with awesome sculpters like this aeroplane below.That night we stayed in Abiline, Tx (I had many falshbacks along the way to Nathan and I's Rita evacuation) and then drove onto Gallup, NM and route 66
We decided to make our next day an "easy" day and stopped at the Petrified Forest National Park in Arizona. It was beautiful. Unfurtonately it was also very hot and sunny and I got too much sun. We ended up making it a very short day and decided to spend the night in Flagstaff. I'm glad we got a chance to really see and enjoy a park on the way west though. Blow are some pictures:
The next day we made it to Bakersfield, CA and then it was onto Sacramento. We were all exhusted buthappy to be at out new home!