An Irishman, Israeli, and Vermontian.

Big apologies for leaving ya'll for so long! Not for lack of good intentions, promise.

SF - to - New Hampshire

1667 miles down, 1396 more to go.

I had grand ole plans to get so much done with the obscene amount of passenger time as we take the 80 freeway straight across the northern part of the U.S.A. from San Francisco to New Hampshire (obviously, not thinking things through):

• Blog like a madwoman - with what internet connection?
• Take loads of pictures - super shaky truck leads to super blurry photos
• Catch up on phone calls - so loud!
• Tackle our wedding thank-you cards (way overdue in my book) - see "super shaky" comment

While these may all sound like excuses to just sit idly while accomplishing nothing, my grandiose intentions have been totally schooled by unconsidered factors. Most dominantly, the moving truck is powered by diesel gasoline which is terrific*, but omgosh, so rumbling and loud and it takes effort to shout conversation to Jamie and effort to comfort the dog and effort to...well, you get what I mean. 

besides, it all kinda looks like this.

Don't get me wrong, we're having a decent time of making this move:

• Jamie has become a pro-trucker, complete with a foot blister from keeping the gas pedal on the floor and steering wheel calluses from keeping the 22foot truck on the road. It amuses me to no end.
• Hudson has been relatively comfortable in his makeshift car seat; really only getting restless when it's about time for us to stretch our legs and allow our eyes to focus on something other than the road. He's pretty no-nonsense about requiring driving breaks and I think it's helping our overall sanity.
• I got to follow devon's pre-labor minute by minute and converse with Christine and Holly the whole time! It was so neat to bond again with dev's bridesmaids over such a joyous occasion. 
• We've seen so many cornfields, a few bi-planes, barns and silos, TRACTORS!, loads of different kinds of cows/horses/donkeys, etc. I've had John Mellencamp songs running through my head for 4 days straight ("ain't that america", etc.).
• I'm sure there's more, but it's almost midnight in Omaha and we're heading out as soon as we can wake up in the morning. Next stop, CHICAGO and I have some serious incentive to get there as soon as possible:

BABY LARKIN IS FINALLY HERE!

7lbs. 10oz. 

no name that we know of yet.

but i know she's just dying to meet her auntie leslie.

I'm on my way, little one!!!!

*Diesel engines have a higher fuel efficiency rating than do gasoline engines. Because the MPG is higher on diesel trucks, you can save more money over the long haul. -penske.com

**And while the title of this post may be confusing, I wanted to point out that we had an incredibly diverse crew loading our possessions into the truck. The variety of accents in our place was epic.