1551 miles later

• Left Stony Point at 5AM on Monday.
• Pro: I might arrive early to my cousin's and be able to visit a while before I sleep!
• Con: I didn't get to bed on Sunday night till 11PM.
• Dropped Katie off at Newark Airport.
• Pro: One last hour with my beloved Katie before she went to Chinook, MT!
• Con: I had to say goodbye to Katie.  
• Pro: I didn't have to feel bad when that Jack Johnson song I like played.
• Stopped at Wawa in Phillipsburg to enjoy both Wawa and having my gas pumped for me one last time.
• Pro: WAWA.
• Con: I was so discombobulated by the time of day and early onset exhaustion that I don't think I got to truly enjoy the experience.
• Stayed in Kentucky with my wonderful cousin Bekea and her awesome family.
• Pro: THEY ARE AWESOME.
• Pro: They know what it's like to do that drive so they prepared a light dinner which was delicious and perfect!
• Pro: Ainsley is wonderful, smart, helpful, sunny company.
• Pro: Eben is hilarious.
• Pro: Bronwen's smile. Oh my goodness. So contagious.
• Pro: Bekea and Dan are awesome people who I don't get to see much in person.
• Pro: Kentucky Bourbon Barrel Stout
• Con: I had to leave.
• Crossed into Central time in southern Kentucky.
• Pro: This is when it hit me, that all of this is really happening.
• Con: This is when it hit me, that all of this is really happening.
• Waffle House for lunch.
• Pro: hash browns, scattered
• Waffle House for dinner.
• Pro: grits
• Pro: I have no shame. Yes I did just have Waffle House two meals in a row. I don't care what you think.
• Con: I stopped in rural Mississippi for this one, and couldn't understand a word they were saying to me.
• Hit the Louisiana border on I-59 just before 10 PM Eastern time.
• Pro: SO CLOSE!
• Pro: SO EXCITING!
• Con: My heart started racing.
• Arrived to my new home about 9:30 Central time. 
• Pro: Done driving!
• Pro: I'M HERE!!
• Con: Aforementioned racing heart finally slows down and I crashed HARD.

Google Maps, which usually serves me very well, is a lying liar. I was promised two days of 11 hours of driving, but instead had 14 hours on Monday and almost 14 hours yesterday. I did not take three hours worth of stops! I didn't. It started to feel like this, which actually happened when I backed up my hard drive before leaving home:



It was mostly just frustrating to me because I love roadtrips and adventures, but I had no time to stop and smell the geography. It's difficult to really get to know a new place from the interstate. It was neat to see the overall landscape change, but frustrating that I really had to just. keep. going. 

Because I arrived well after dark, I have few impressions of my new place, but I can tell you that our house has an awesome front porch and seven other cool ladies, that I have no clue how to pronounce anything around here, that it smelled like low tide at home as I drove through the wetlands approaching Lake Pontchartrain, and that I'm pretty excited to settle in and get started down here.