Texas or Bust
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Murphy's Law

Circumstances fell right into place for me to move to Texas. My boyfriend (and now husband), Kevin had received a wonderful job in the area, and I have a lot of family in central Texas, too. The whole plan seemed like it would work well in theory, but as Murphy's Law would have it, there would be significant detours along the way.

I should have known things would get out of hand. The entire week before the move had been so busy saying bye to friends and wrapping up things. It didn't help that I kept working at my full-time job until the day before the movers arrived. In fact, I worked 2-3 hours later than usual on my last day trying to finalize some projects. It had been a long time since I put in that kind of overtime, but that's another story altogether.

So the mad packing rush, having had a terribly late start, continued into the next day while movers packed the truck we had rented. They did a great job even if we weren't ready for them. We had planned to leave relatively early the following morning. But as with all plans involving Mr. Murphy, it didn't quite work out that way.

On The Road, Day One

We sure had a lot of STUFF - those "little things" we thought wouldn't take that long for us to pack up did in fact take all day. And when did my apartment get so dirty??? Last minute things and cleaning really through a wrench into our plans. We didn't get on the road until nearly dusk.

The last to get packed were our 3 cats. Jenni and Joey shared a large dog kennel with their favorite blanket, and Sabrina's carrier was secured on top. The pet carriers were placed in between the bucket seats and made the truck's cab quite crampy. I could only see the top of Kevin's head over Sabrina's carrier, and I'm sure the scene was very comical to all who saw us.

To further placate Mr. Murphy, a missed exit took us through the heart of Washington, D.C. Little did we know that the difficulty of driving a 25' truck through D.C. traffic would not even compare to the driving challenges we would face along the way.

We drove for a few hours then finally stopped for the night. As we lay there in total exhaustion and with the bewildered kitties, we realized DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME. Another precious hour lost.

On The Road, Day Two

Part of our plan was to "swing by" a very old family burial site in Kentucky. I had been too busy to take the trip back when I began my genealogy search, but the recent death of my grandfather rekindled the desire to visit the area. It was something very important to me.

As navigator, I directed Kevin to the appropriate exits. However, no map indicated that these particular country roads would be so narrow and winding! I thought for sure the truck would crack a gasket in those mountains, but it turned out to be THE LITTLE TRUCK THAT COULD.

Although the mountain scenery was beautiful, our MPH and gas mileage sucked. We spent hours and hours driving, and it took twice as long to travel the distance. As it got later and later, we could see we were making very little progress.

Mr. Murphy continued to cheer. My heart sank. Several times I suggested that we scrap the idea of the cemetery visit and just GO; we were running so far behind schedule already! But Kevin knew how much this meant to me, and he would not give up despite all the Murphy attacks.

I guess this angered Murphy all the more, because we had such a hard time finding the cemetery site. I had been told to look for it at mile marker #4 on this particular road. Sure enough, there was a cemetery there, but it looked totally different from when I had seen it nearly 15 years ago.

As we investigated, we couldn't find the names we were looking for, and a frantic call to a relative confirmed that I was not in the right place after all! We continued on the road only to find ANOTHER mile marker #4 a good distance away.

By the time we found the right mile marker, it was nearly dark. My nerves were shot by this time because I had thought we would never find the spot. Now here we were, but it was dark. Kevin stopped for a flashlight, but the weak little light was not a help at all. Add to that the fear of being shot by some landowner...it was kinda like a scene from the Blair Witch Project.

Being the thoughtful and caring person he is, Kevin insisted that we stay in a hotel at the nearby town and restart our search in the morning. I felt bad because it was relatively early to be stopping for the night, but it took very little arm-twisting for me to agree with his wonderful plan. Damn Murphy and his delays.

On The Road, Day Three

We headed back to mile marker #4 -- the right one this time. As the heat and humidity climbed, so did we. We spent a couple hours hiking over the local "hills," but couldn't find the exact spot. I tried to convince Kevin that it would be okay to give up, but he said he would not have us be this close and not see it through.

Finally, a local man, who had been watching us suspiciously, pointed us in the right direction. So we huffed and puffed as we hiked up yet another steep trail. This time, we FOUND it. All I could do was be grateful we didn't forget the video camera.

Even Murphy must have had some pity on us because the rain held back until the very minute we returned to the truck. Eventually we made it to a real highway, and storm clouds unleashed their fury on our truck. Kevin and I had to communicate with a mixture of sign language and yelling. The incessant howling of unhappy kitties added to the noise level.

If that weren't bad enough, we soon realized there were a few leaks into the truck's cab. Thankfully, the video camera did not get wet although my jacket and pillow weren't so lucky. Have you ever tried to take a nap in a bouncy truck, water dripping on your face and leaning on a damn pillow propped up to a cat carrier? It was definately an experience.

On The Road, Day Four

Clear sky, warm weather, and uncontrollable excitement. This was our longest drive yet - 15 hours! It might not have taken so long if we didn't have to stop for gas every 300 miles or so. Needless to say, we spent more on gas than planned. Score another for Murphy.

But all in all, we had fun despite the delays and sleep deprivation. Now that we're finally settled in our own place, the real fun can begin: unpacking. And Murphy isn't welcome here.