Andrew and I have had so many friends and family members asking for updates on our trip and arrival in Washington that I decided a blog post was in order. This will be a good way to stay connected with everyone while we are on the opposite end of the country for the next two years. So feel free to pass this link along and write comments!
Oh goodness, where to start - well Andrew and I were married last Saturday, September 18 in Philly. It was an absolutely beautiful, sunny day and we loved every minute of it. So many people had warned me that your wedding is always a blur, but it's hard to understand how quickly it really does go until you go through it. I'm anxious to look through pictures so that I can have a clearer memory of the whole day.
We left straight from the reception for the Poconos where we had reservations at a beautiful villa for the night. Well, after about 45 minutes of driving around looking for the office where we could check in with no success (we later found out this office was located on a completely different property across the street), we had to face the reality that we needed to find another place to stay. Although this was initially disappointing, it's hard to be too upset when you just got married less than twelve hours ago and your new room has a heart-shaped pool inside of it. We ended up at Caesars Pocono Palace where two security guards gave us a tour of our room complete with a giant wine glass as a tub, sauna, massage table, small pool and so many mirrors that Andrew and I almost walked through a few walls.
Those pictures are just taken from the hotel website, so that is not Andrew and I snuggled up at the base of the giant wine glass. Needless to say, it was a memorable experience and we didn't mind at all that the original reservations had fallen through.
After packing up what we could of the remainder of our things in Philly and saying goodbye to family, we hit the road around 5 o'clock on Sunday afternoon. We arrived in Niles, Ohio around 10:30 PM and crashed at a Days Inn. Monday we went through the rest of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and stopped at a hotel a few miles west of Minneapolis, Minnesota. Tuesday we crossed the rest of Minnesota, North Dakota and took our lives in our hands by getting on Highway 200 West for over 400 miles across Montana. We passed one car every 20 minutes or so and hit a town (if you can even call it a town) about every 100 miles. The rest of the time we were driving through rolling hills where absolutely no one lived except deer and maybe a couple birds. Apparently there have been more dinosaur fossils, especially T-Rex, found in that area of Montana than anywhere else in the United States. I took quite a few pictures and videos of us on this road, but the movers have my camera cord, which I may not receive for another few weeks. So I'll put them on here as soon as I can.
We drove on the Montana 200 into the wee hours of the morning. Along our drive we saw a grizzly bear get chased away by a cow, a large wolf run right in front of our car, an elk standing on the side of the road, quite a few deer attempt to commit suicide in front of our car and various turkeys and hawks flying around. I think it was around the time when the wolf dodged in front of me that it started sinking in how far away we were from home. It's a very bittersweet feeling.
On Tuesday night Andrew and I arrived in Bigfork, Montana where we stayed at Jack Hanna's adorable little bunk house (thanks to Jack and Kate!!). We had an amazing time staying there through Thursday morning and taking a much-needed break from driving. Bigfork is so small that everywhere we went, we were always the only people there. Everyone there was so sweet and helpful and we got to see some spectacular views. We hit the road again on Thursday morning and crossed through the rest of Montana, Idaho and finally, Washington! We arrived in Silverdale around 8:30 Thursday night and found a hotel about 3 miles away from the base.
Andrew is currently checking in and getting everything set up. It's anyone's guess as to when he'll be back, so I'm just relaxing at the hotel until it's time to go get our housing situation squared away and hopefully start moving in! Prayers that everything goes smoothly with all of that are much appreciated. It's a nerve-racking experience, especially when the military is not the best at communicating what the procedure is for things like this.
Sorry for all of the boring details in this first post. Since people have been wanting to know what we've been up to the past few days I figured this was the best way to let everyone know. Like I said, pictures will be coming soon and we will be keeping everyone up to date on what's happening. We miss all of you very much and are so grateful to have so many wonderful people praying for us as we adjust to this big change. Despite all of the craziness, we couldn't be happier.
