First Long email
June 13th 2008
Hey Everybody!
We arrived in San Antonio around 3:00 PM yesterday (Thursday) Sherry said the mileage was close to 1700 from Baltimore. The trip started Saturday morning and we stopped in Charlottesville till Monday. We had a great time there. Sunday was David Christopher’s 5th birthday. That seems so hard to believe! Saturday night we had a gathering of the Virginia part of the family. We got to see Rich, Sally and the girls briefly. Mary, Danielle and Heather stayed for the evening. David and Kristen stopped by after Dave got out of work. Judy stopped by after her work also. So with all of us gathered we had a lot of fun. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to get the promised group photo. I think that the unbelievable heat had something to do with that. My goodness that was one miserable day weather wise! Kinda’ sapped the energy out of me by 9:00AM just loading up the cars for the trip.
We left Baltimore with 2 cars loaded with stuff, 2 dogs and one cat. When we left C’ville we had a little less stuff and only one dog. PQ has been on her best behavior ever since. By pre arrangement the cat went to Dave and Kristen. While we were all together on Saturday, Sherry talked to Danielle and Heather about Tibby and they agreed to a trial night before deciding to keep him. Tibby seemed to do all the things we warned them about and for some reason they decided to keep him anyway. So minus a 100 lb dog and fat cat in a carrier we had some room in at least one car.
Our next stop was Roanoke to say goodbye to Sherry’s dad and step-mom. We left after a couple of hours on our way to Knoxville, TN. Sherry’s brother Bobby let us stay overnight as long as we promised to take everything we came with.
So Tuesday morning we hit the road with some serious mileage to get through. We pulled up to Slidell, Louisiana around 6:00PM Central time. What I observed on this leg was the USA is boring on Interstate highways. We drove from Roanoke to just outside of New Orleans and essentially drove though woods that looked like I-195 in NJ. I am serious! If you really want to see the country you have to get off the Interstates. If you check my Flickr site I posted a few photos from the driver’s seat. One thing I enjoyed a lot was the clouds. In Baltimore and surrounding areas it is very rare that you get a clear view of clouds on the horizon especially in warm weather. This trip, the sky was full of those fluffy clouds and it was a pleasure to see clouds and blue sky on the horizon. On Wednesday we headed out of Slidell with one addition. We picked up Sherry’s granddaughter Patience. We’ll have her till around mid July. She’s a precocious 4 year old.
Fortunately for me she travelled with Sherry. When we stopped for the night just East of Houston, Sherry’s first words were “ I need a break!”
OK, an observation from that leg of the trip. Bayou country in LA is very impressive. Even on the interstate. If you take I-10 west of the Mississippi River you will be on the longest elevated highway I have ever been on. It is at least 20 miles long. I had been told about this just last week by Sherry’s former neighbor in Baltimore. He said when the tide is out it is wet lands but when the tide is in, it is all water. We drove over water the entire time! I was so impressed I called Jennifer’s cell and spoke to Chris about it while I was still driving over it. Despite that I only saw one narrow corridor of these famous swamplands. I have a whole new respect for the Cajuns and those who inhabit the area.
We finally arrive at our new home in the afternoon and all we really wanted to do was sleep but as we have no refrigerator we had to do our hunting and gathering with that in mind. We also bought a new refrig with a Saturday AM delivery. Sherry bought us a flat screen LCD TV and accessories also but that won’t be delivered till next week. Our household goods are scheduled for next Thursday.
So with all that done we finally went about inflating our mattresses and settling in for a good sleep. About 5 hours into that I was rudely awakened by what I at first thought was Kidney Stones!!!! My 2 brothers have given explicit descriptions of their experiences and it felt like that. So around 6:30AM we headed off to the ER at Lackland AFB. The Doc’s all leaned toward a flair up of my old buddy epididymitis. Even though I had NEVER experienced such pain from that but apparently I did not exhibit enough kidney stone symptoms. For instance, I was able to talk coherently. They got me an Ultra sound and did a very though check over gave me some Cipro and Vicadon and sent me packing. Sherry’s good friend Penny is the nurse in charge of the ER and told me next time I want to see her to try and be a bit less dramatic. She didn’t know we had arrived in SA till she saw Sherry in the ER. Oh, the Docs got me a Urology referral also. The vicadon seems
to do the trick which also makes me think it wasn’t kidney stones.
So I spent my first full day in this town either in the ER or sleeping. Sherry took great care of me this morning and spent the afternoon getting all the things done that one needs to do when you move into a new town. Post office, keys to the neighborhood pool/playground and more hunting and gathering. So far the heat here has been the “dry” type but nonetheless hot. I’ve been writing this in the evening (it is now 9:20PM) sitting outside on our little patio. There is a delightful breeze and the sky is clear, just a beautiful early summer evening. A few more vicadons and I’m sure the grass will start talking to me but I better save them just in case.
So while I am very sad to leave the East coast and living geographically in the middle of my family, along with leaving all my friends in Baltimore, to say nothing of my beloved Camden Yards, this new adventure will be a great experience….Texas…..me…makes me laugh!
Ya’ll take care,
Joe
PS : Saturday morning 6/14 we came across our first scorpion! It had attached itself to a towel Patience had brought outside. When Sherry brought it inside the house the bug fell off much to Sherry’s dismay. If you call dismay screaming throughout the house.
Hey Everybody!
We arrived in San Antonio around 3:00 PM yesterday (Thursday) Sherry said the mileage was close to 1700 from Baltimore. The trip started Saturday morning and we stopped in Charlottesville till Monday. We had a great time there. Sunday was David Christopher’s 5th birthday. That seems so hard to believe! Saturday night we had a gathering of the Virginia part of the family. We got to see Rich, Sally and the girls briefly. Mary, Danielle and Heather stayed for the evening. David and Kristen stopped by after Dave got out of work. Judy stopped by after her work also. So with all of us gathered we had a lot of fun. We didn’t take advantage of the opportunity to get the promised group photo. I think that the unbelievable heat had something to do with that. My goodness that was one miserable day weather wise! Kinda’ sapped the energy out of me by 9:00AM just loading up the cars for the trip.
We left Baltimore with 2 cars loaded with stuff, 2 dogs and one cat. When we left C’ville we had a little less stuff and only one dog. PQ has been on her best behavior ever since. By pre arrangement the cat went to Dave and Kristen. While we were all together on Saturday, Sherry talked to Danielle and Heather about Tibby and they agreed to a trial night before deciding to keep him. Tibby seemed to do all the things we warned them about and for some reason they decided to keep him anyway. So minus a 100 lb dog and fat cat in a carrier we had some room in at least one car.
Our next stop was Roanoke to say goodbye to Sherry’s dad and step-mom. We left after a couple of hours on our way to Knoxville, TN. Sherry’s brother Bobby let us stay overnight as long as we promised to take everything we came with.
So Tuesday morning we hit the road with some serious mileage to get through. We pulled up to Slidell, Louisiana around 6:00PM Central time. What I observed on this leg was the USA is boring on Interstate highways. We drove from Roanoke to just outside of New Orleans and essentially drove though woods that looked like I-195 in NJ. I am serious! If you really want to see the country you have to get off the Interstates. If you check my Flickr site I posted a few photos from the driver’s seat. One thing I enjoyed a lot was the clouds. In Baltimore and surrounding areas it is very rare that you get a clear view of clouds on the horizon especially in warm weather. This trip, the sky was full of those fluffy clouds and it was a pleasure to see clouds and blue sky on the horizon. On Wednesday we headed out of Slidell with one addition. We picked up Sherry’s granddaughter Patience. We’ll have her till around mid July. She’s a precocious 4 year old.
Fortunately for me she travelled with Sherry. When we stopped for the night just East of Houston, Sherry’s first words were “ I need a break!”
OK, an observation from that leg of the trip. Bayou country in LA is very impressive. Even on the interstate. If you take I-10 west of the Mississippi River you will be on the longest elevated highway I have ever been on. It is at least 20 miles long. I had been told about this just last week by Sherry’s former neighbor in Baltimore. He said when the tide is out it is wet lands but when the tide is in, it is all water. We drove over water the entire time! I was so impressed I called Jennifer’s cell and spoke to Chris about it while I was still driving over it. Despite that I only saw one narrow corridor of these famous swamplands. I have a whole new respect for the Cajuns and those who inhabit the area.
We finally arrive at our new home in the afternoon and all we really wanted to do was sleep but as we have no refrigerator we had to do our hunting and gathering with that in mind. We also bought a new refrig with a Saturday AM delivery. Sherry bought us a flat screen LCD TV and accessories also but that won’t be delivered till next week. Our household goods are scheduled for next Thursday.
So with all that done we finally went about inflating our mattresses and settling in for a good sleep. About 5 hours into that I was rudely awakened by what I at first thought was Kidney Stones!!!! My 2 brothers have given explicit descriptions of their experiences and it felt like that. So around 6:30AM we headed off to the ER at Lackland AFB. The Doc’s all leaned toward a flair up of my old buddy epididymitis. Even though I had NEVER experienced such pain from that but apparently I did not exhibit enough kidney stone symptoms. For instance, I was able to talk coherently. They got me an Ultra sound and did a very though check over gave me some Cipro and Vicadon and sent me packing. Sherry’s good friend Penny is the nurse in charge of the ER and told me next time I want to see her to try and be a bit less dramatic. She didn’t know we had arrived in SA till she saw Sherry in the ER. Oh, the Docs got me a Urology referral also. The vicadon seems
to do the trick which also makes me think it wasn’t kidney stones.
So I spent my first full day in this town either in the ER or sleeping. Sherry took great care of me this morning and spent the afternoon getting all the things done that one needs to do when you move into a new town. Post office, keys to the neighborhood pool/playground and more hunting and gathering. So far the heat here has been the “dry” type but nonetheless hot. I’ve been writing this in the evening (it is now 9:20PM) sitting outside on our little patio. There is a delightful breeze and the sky is clear, just a beautiful early summer evening. A few more vicadons and I’m sure the grass will start talking to me but I better save them just in case.
So while I am very sad to leave the East coast and living geographically in the middle of my family, along with leaving all my friends in Baltimore, to say nothing of my beloved Camden Yards, this new adventure will be a great experience….Texas…..me…makes me laugh!
Ya’ll take care,
Joe
PS : Saturday morning 6/14 we came across our first scorpion! It had attached itself to a towel Patience had brought outside. When Sherry brought it inside the house the bug fell off much to Sherry’s dismay. If you call dismay screaming throughout the house.
posted by mckora | 1:51 PM
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