Transition

We spent the month of June on the move. Literally. The transition from Illinois to Arizona has been an adventure covering many miles and filled with many new experiences. We're not done yet.

The last week of May started with the arrival of the moving crew and mountains of boxes. Those boxes were quickly filled will all our stuff and stacked from floor to ceiling. We started learning how to live out of a suitcase.

Four and a half days after the movers arrived, everything we owned except for what was in those suitcases had been successfully compressed into the 54 foot van and headed to storage. We won't see it again until the middle of July.

Whew, that was a busy week!

We spent one night on the floor, a couple of nights in a hotel and then hit the road on Memorial Day. We'll miss our little white house in the forest. It served us well.

Caravan!

We took our time getting to Arizona and made a few interesting stops along the way.

Ice cream treats in Branson Missouri!

We spent a day at Silver Dollar City outside of Branson and had a great time riding rides, eating interesting food (alas, we waited too long to get chips-on-a-stick), watching old-world craftsman work their magic, and taking in a music show.

The crew, after their first experience with a 'real' roller coaster.

We were anticipating longer lines later in the day, so we rode this coaster first thing in the morning. Paxton and Anya really had no idea what they were in for, but we were all strapped in and ready to go before they really had a chance to think too much about it. I think it was a bit of a shock. Paxton is still smiling in this picture, but he was done with the big rides for the day. Anya is smiling because she wants to go again. She did. Every ride. Some of them twice!

The next day found us in Oklahoma at Darryl Starbird's National Rod and Custom Car Hall of Fame Museum. It's in the middle of nowhere, north and east of Tulsa, but worth the detour.

Where else but Texas?

Plum tuckered.

In the dusty little town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico is an attraction called the Blue Hole. Who wouldn't want to stop to see that? Turns out it's a 80 foot deep natural hole in the ground full of clear blue (cold!) spring water and a convenient rock ledge for jumping in.

So we did.

Friday. Welcome to Arizona!

We stopped by the construction site on the way into town and this is what we saw. I guess some progress is better than none, which is about what happened during the month of May, but it looks like we've got a ways to go yet.

Talley so far: 1570 miles and six states. We're not done yet...