Once I hit the plains states of smooth roads and 70MPH speed limits, I made some real good time. Right around 10pm that night, I was well on my way into Kansas City. It was getting to the point where, if I was going to sleep, I'd need to stop soon. But I still felt good and I kept on trucking right on into day 4. By 8am, I was driving through St. Louis. I was still doing OK. By 5pm, I was in Tennesee heading towards Nashville. At one of my rest stops, I took a look at my remaining route and I figured I could be in Myrtle Beach by 11pm that night. I was getting really tired. So I tired that I wasn't actually sleepy (if that makes any sense). I felt out of my body at times. But I was fueled by knowing that my new life was only a few hours away. Finally, the last rest stop before the Tennesee/North Carolina border, I took a 45 minute power nap. I made it into Myrtle Beach right around 12am at the end of day Throur. 1900 miles in 38 hours. Those last few hours were rough. I felt almost drunk at times. I don't think I was driving dangerously tired. But it was close.

The cool part was seeing so many states in such a short period of time. The Pisgah Forest and Blue Ridge Parkway in North Carolina was more beautiful than any area on the West Coast I have ever seen. As soon as I crossed into Tennesee, I got a sense that I was closer to home. The only problem was that I still had a long way to go. When I crossed into the South Carolina border, I stopped at the first rest area. The sweet smells and humid air comforted me like a blanket fresh from the dryer.

The new house is not yet ready to move into. They're running behind on refinishing the hardwood floors. We dropped the moving truck off in my driveway and headed to my parent's house. I didn't realize that my Grandmother, her sister, and my Mother's cousin were all visiting for Memorial Day weekend. I said hello to everyone, had a little something to eat and then slept until 2pm yesterday. My Dad and I picked my car up from my house yesterday afternoon where I got to see the house since all the work has been done on it. The transformation is amazing. We took the car back to my parents and my Dad helped me wash it. Since I didn't hadn't had real meal (if you can call them that) since South Dakota, I was craving a nice steak and potato. We went out to a nice dinner and came back home to relax.

Today, I got up a little earlier. I think I'm caught up on my sleep. But I'm still kind of on Pacific time. I just got into my new office today. Despite it's Memorial Day, everyone at 803 is still here and working. Our biggest software job to date is running behind due to my inability to spend any real time on it until now. The client is growing impatient as each day passes. We have 2 weeks to get it buttoned up. Which is good because it will help the time pass while I wait for Jen and her son to arrive.

It still hasn't sunk in that I am living here once again. For the past year, I've been working towards "The Plan". It feels weird that this point around which so many things in my life has pivoted is now upon me. Almost everything I've done has been oriented around moving and getting here. I think once I become a little more settled, I need to do some evaluation and planning to continue on to the next step of my short time on this planet.

The new life begins now...

Oh yeah- the satellite radio didn't work one single second the entire trip.