On The Road

during

"The Winter Blitz"

Vanessa and I took off on our move 2 days after Christmas, December 27th. Our parents thought we were crazy going out to fight "The Winter Blitz" but we were young and reckless. The day before we rented a nice 15' yellow Ryder truck. And a good truck she was. We packed it up and set off around noon on Wednesday. We weren't in to big of a rush since we were only going to Houston to by furniture at IKEA.

First we went to Eric and Jenny's house somewhere in west part of Houston. I think west. I don't remember it was confusing. So we dropped off the truck and wonderful, nice Eric drove us to IKEA. A place we were as excited to go as New York. I won't go into the details of our shopping experience but we bought a couple closets, nightstand, cabinet for the bathroom and a rug. They kind of screwed us on the closet doors though. They ended up costing more than the closets. After loading up Eric's minivan with many heavy boxes we sent back to his house and loaded the stuff in the Ryder - not an easy feat. That night Jenny and Eric fed us a fabulous meal, great wine and a desert that gave Vanessa great pleasure. After several tequila shots and a game which Vanessa and I Kicked Ass in, we went to bed to get ready for the journey.

The next morning we woke up and started watching the weather channel. By this time we were quite familiar with all the "Weather Experts" and the direction of a Massive storm that was ahead of us and another front that was behind. At this point we weren't that concerned because we were still in the South and didn't have to worry to much about ice and snow. Around 10 or so we took off back down I-10 to Louisiana. Unfortunately we had to bypass New Orleans to give us so extra time and go right into Mississippi. We didn't stay to long in Mississippi and headed into Alabama. When we hit Mobil we were at a bit of a crossroads. From here we could keep driving down I-10 to Florida and drive up the East Coast or head NE towards Atlanta. The drive up the East Coast would be warmer and less chance of snow and ice but it was also an extra half-day drive.

We went north to Montgomery where we stayed the night. The hotel room that night was great. It had a little fridge, microwave, coffee maker, iron, blow drier and a whole separate room with a little couch. Very clean, very nice and very cheap compared to the rest of the trip. The next morning we woke up watched Weather Channel and decided we needed to get as far northeast as we could before we got stuck somewhere. Off we went. We drove through Atlanta, drove through South Carolina and only stopped to take a few pictures (S.Carolina) and spent the night somewhere in North Carolina. So far we had not seen any snow or ice.

We got up Saturday December 30th to drive out last long leg of the trip. We wanted to be in New York by New Years Eve and so far we were on track and a little further than we planned to be by this time. We had no idea where we wanted to stop at the end of the day or if the weather would even let us get by. After we took a few pictures in North Carolina. (N.Carolina) we drove to Virginia and stopped in a town called Fredericksburg I believe. There was a Civil War battlefield and museum in the town so we stopped to take pictures. (Virginia) We hung out for awhile and looked around but it got a little chilly so back on the road we went. Our next stop was Washington DC. I had never been so V suggested we stop and see the Whitehouse and whatnot and take some pictures. So we did. (DC)

We left DC drove through Baltimore where we started seeing signs of snow. We wanted to drive through Pennsylvania just to do it but ended up going straight to New Jersey. Once we were in Jersey everything was white and you could tell it had snowed quite a bit. Fortunately the roads were plowed and salted so we got on the turnpike and drove with no problems. Once we figured out how to get off the turnpike we got a room and new we never ever wanted to go back to New Jersey again. Jersey is a weird and crazy place.

The next morning we slid out of Jersey as quickly as possible and drove up to the apartment around noon. From there we spent the rest of the day unpacking the truck and climbing 3 flights of stairs. Move In We got everything unpacked from the truck and brought in the New Year eating Italian delivery and drinking wine. The next day we would start a new life on a New Year in a new city.