Longest Week of my life.....

     It has been probably the longest seven days in the history of man and I have been very busy in the last week. Last Friday, my family and I packed up both cars and commenced our very long trip across the country and we visited many places. After getting off to a late start because of a certain somebody that will remain nameless deciding to show up all late and shit and ruining my plans, we made it to Kingsport, Tennessee late Friday night. It was a lot of driving and a lot of stops for potty breaks, but damn it we made it none the less. It was really fun driving through the mountains during the night with rain coming down in sheets. My wife piloted through the mountains like a champion. I was oh so very proud of her. I didn't think she could do it, but she proved me wrong. After a short interlude to sleep, roughly seven hours or so, we were up and at it again heading to Appleton City, Missouri. We didn't quite make it to our destination because I was getting really sleepy and I was having issues because I was in the car by myself. My wife was in her van with someone to talk to and children to keep her awake. I made the decision to stop because of safety reasons for everyone involved. I'm the dad and I can do that. 
     So after a nice restful stop in Springfield, Missouri we continued on to Appleton City and visited my wife's Uncle Sam. Second coolest dude I have met in my life. Okay, let me rephrase, 3rd coolest dude I've met in my life. My favorite two Uncles are the coolest people I have met. We spent about an hour or so there visiting because it had been a long time since everyone had seen each other that I didn't mind them catching up. Once we left it was off to Mitchell, South Dakota for the night. We even made it at a reasonable hour. It was around 5 pm when we stopped for supper at this little restaurant. We had such great service that we tipped the guy a 20 dollar bill. We usually don't have that great a service from anybody, but this guy blew us away. My wife's diet coke never went dry and my mother in-law's water remained filled to the brim, with no ice I might add. His name was Seth, I believe, and he was a new hire for that restaurant. The manager even spoke with us because he was just such a good guy that we had to tell other people about him. Anyways, about an hour after supper, we ended up in Mitchell at a nice Hampton Inn. It was right next to a Comfort Inn that had its own indoor water slide. Yes, its own indoor water slide. I tried to talk my old lady into going there, but she wasn't budging. We got a nice sleep in that night. We woke up, had breakfast and we hit the ground running that Monday morning. We had a nice sunny day and very little traffic ahead of us. We stopped in Wyoming, which happened to be the first state sign that my mother in-law finally got a picture of. We were shooting for Billings, Montana and then we were going to evaluate our time and see how much further we could go before we decided to quit for the night. We made such good time coming across that day that we decided to stop in Butte, Montana for the night. We even got there around 8 pm and still had time to relax and have some down time before we made the kids go to bed and got settled in ourselves. 
     Well, 615 rolls around and my wife starts shaking me awake saying that we need to get a move on because the elephants that were sleeping upstairs were awake and making a huge racket. I didn't mind because I was just tossing and turning anyways. So we got everybody up and got going again after a quick breakfast. We traipsed through the mountains and went over the Continental Divide at about 6300 feet and went right on into Idaho. That was a very short trip through that state if I do say so myself. I made a few phone calls to inform my new command that I would be in Washington that evening. We stopped for about an hour or so to visit my youngest sister in-law Katey at her college and had lunch with her and a few of her friends. Then my wife and I packed up the boys in the van and continued our adventure towards the Seattle ferry. If it wasn't for the fact that I got pulled over for speeding just a little bit down the pass, we would have had more time in Seattle to enjoy the view. We did make the ferry that we wanted to make and by Bob it was good to be home. It is an hour ferry ride from Seattle to Bremerton. The boys had a blast on the ferry. Damen loved it a little too much because he cried the minute we told him that we had to get in the car and get ready to depart. He was not a happy camper and he is looking forward to going on his pirate ship to set sail to pirate island. He is a huge fan of Jake and the Neverland Pirates kid show. If you haven't seen it, it's about these three friends who have adventures with Captain Hook and Mr. Smee. For those of you who are old enough to remember these names, then you know the book about Peter Pan. So, he calls the ferry his pirate ship and we don't stop him. The kid has an imagination and who am I to squish it? 
     The next day we met with the housing people and got some houses opened up for us to walk through and decide what we wanted to choose. It took us until the third house to finally decide what we wanted. Thursday we got the keys to our new place and started moving in everything that we had in the vehicles and got those unloaded and ready to be cleaned. We got both of the cars washed. My mother in-law did laundry and I stayed at home with the boys. Friday brought pain and anguish as I decided to trip and let my wife's van seat beat me up. I ended up going to the emergency room because I dropped the damn chair on my left shin. It was pretty painful and it just so happened to be me being injured first. Not only did I get pulled over within six hours of crossing the state line, I went and hurt myself trying to help my wife out. I didn't break anything so you can all sit back in your seats and breathe a sigh of relief. I did too when the doctor came in after the x-rays to ask me how I was feeling. I'm fine and able to walk just fine without crutches or anything. It actually felt a lot better after two Tylenol and some walking on it. It will be bruised and a little sore, but nothing I can't handle. Apparently, all I got was a contusion on my shin. 
     Now we make it to Saturday where we have just spent the day doing loads of fun stuff like going out to breakfast and some shopping for the house and then spending a few hours at the park in Silverdale doing a picnic style dinner on the grills out there. We had a few friends come by and visit and say hello. I made it home just in time to hear the last hour or so of +Chuck Bisbee's radio station that he runs every Saturday. I miss him and +tim kimbrough like crazy and I have only been on the West Coast for a few days now. 
     It is time for me to head out and end this edition of the arena. I hope you liked it and are on the edge of your seats waiting for the next edition to come out on a computer near you.

Later Daze

Wickid