Whew!

Moving sure is a lot of work! But we did it: we sold our house in New York, packed everything up, and drove cross country to our new home in Central California. We've been busy unpacking, getting to know our new area, and visiting with family.

That's a huge change for us; we had lots of good friends in New York, but no family at all.

Confession time: I still feel like I'm visiting. I wonder how long it will take for me to realize I live here?

Thunderbird, up close and personal

In one of the more amazing coincidences, our hotel in Gallup, New Mexico is next door to Thunderbird Supply Company. I've been ordering from Thunderbird for quite awhile now; their prices are super and they are very reliable and fast. I've ordered small stones from them, but was reluctant to order larger stones without actually seeing them, touching them, and picking them out in person.

Today, I got to do just that!

I walked in, and just STARED. Case after case of stones; turquoise, coral, charoite, and more. Honestly, I was pretty overwhelmed. I went round and round the display cases, and finally settled on several freeform cabs of Kingman and Sleeping Beauty turquoise in gorgeous shades of blue, and two very nice pieces of charoite.

I think I just might go back tomorrow morning, though; I know I didn't see everything!

Enchanting New Mexico

We made it out of Texas today and into New Mexico. Las Cruces, to be exact. Texas had great roads, and very high speed limits, but it was a real challenge not to be mesmerized by the roads. Not a lot of scenery changes from Midland to El Paso; the desert is beautiful and the sky was glorious, but it was an effort to stay alert at times. Needless to say, we made the effort.

New Mexico looks to be a bit more interesting, geographically speaking.

Still trekking through Texas

We've made it to Midland, and seeing a live armadillo running along the side of the road was one of today's highlights. Another highlight was missing a vulture who seemed intent on committing suicide on windshield of my car; I missed that buzzard by inches. That was way too close and personal for my taste!

But here's the best part of the day: our oldest son and his wife, who live in Midland, are taking our two teenagers for the night, leaving my husband and me to enjoy having a whole hotel room to ourselves.

Pure bliss.

Texas Tales

We've passed the half-way point in our journey! Tonight we're in Austin, Texas and tomorrow we'll be in Midland. This is the visiting family part of the journey, so we're not covering quite as many miles per day. It's nice to have a bit of a break in the middle of the trip.

It's been a fairly easy trip so far; the weather has been nice and the roads have been good. Who can ask for anything more?

Walkin' in Memphis

We're on our way to California; we left New York on Monday afternoon. We've made it to Memphis, and tomorrow we'll see how far into Texas we can get. So far, we've had great traveling weather and the drive has been very pleasant. We're about 1/3 of the way to California. It's going to be a long trip, but we're excited about it!