One Long Road Trip = One Very Long Post

After 3 long days in the car, we finally made it to the bluegrass state. The trip was definitely an adventure I'm in absolutely no hurry to repeat. I tried to take pictures along the way so those of you who don't make the drive out to see us (and I have to say I don't blame you for not wanting to drive) won't feel like you're missing out. Our trip of course started in Idaho Falls which was so cold for June. My mom and brothers helped us pack up and we all shivered in our sweatshirts trying to pack up our extremely dusty/dirty belongings into our U-haul.

Side note that you can feel free to skip unless you are thinking of renting a storage unit in Rexburg: NEVER rent a storage unit at SAFE-T-STOR in Rexburg. We were incredibly frustrated to find all of our stuff caked in a coat of dirt when we opened our unit after renting it only 5 weeks before. When we confronted the manager about it he didn't take our side for a minute. He said storage units get dusty and no one else has complained about and he was not willing to give us a discount or do anything about the matter whatsoever. Talk about bad management, I have used storage for a few summers now and I have never had a problem with my stuff getting dirty.

Anyways, back to the cold of Idaho- we packed our stuff hitched our impala on the back and waved goodbye to the beautiful town of Rexburg (yes I'm calling it beautiful and I'm not being sarcastic- I really feel that way about it). It didn't take us long to realize that we (and when I say we, I mean Keith) grossly underestimated how much gas we would use, especially climbing the mountains in Wyoming.

Western Wyoming was beautiful and our favorite part of the trip. Eastern Wyoming was a different story altogether. Let's just say that if you miss going there in your life, you're not missing out. Keith was pulled over for going 12 over in some small town. We had to laugh about it because it was first time in hours that he had been able to get the U-haul up to speed. Luckily, the cop was in a good mood and let Keith off with a warning. Our next delay occurred at a gas station where we stopped to get a new fuse for the GPS Rachel and Heath lent us. Unfortunately we ended up staying there for about an hour until we could contact U-haul and find the right fuse to replace and when we did, the GPS still didn't work. Long story short, our 7 ½ hour drive turned into 10 hours and thanks to Keith's Aunt Linda, we were able to collapse into a king size bed at the Marriott in Laramie around midnight.

The next day we didn't roll out of bed until 9:00 and didn't get on the road until 11. It was a shorter drive that day to Lincoln, Nebraska where we stayed with Keith's old roommate Devin and his wife Breanne. We had a lot of fun with them (why couldn't you stay at BYU-I?) and I even had the privilege of cuddling up with their little boy Alexander until he fell asleep.

We were so tempted to stay and hang out for another day but Keith decided to be ambitious and drive the rest of the way to Kentucky. I hope I don't offend anyone from Nebraska but man, Keith and I both hated that part of the drive. The scenery didn't start getting pretty until we hit Eastern Nebraska and then Missouri. The cornfields in Nebraska are really pretty, and Missouri is beautiful with its green trees.

We drove late into the night safely with only a couple of occurrences:

1. We turned on the GPS while driving through St. Louis because we had a few minutes of battery left. For some reason it told us to take an exit which ended up being in the ghetto. When I say ghetto I mean thugs and bums all over the streets, rundown abandoned buildings everywhere and no other vehicles on the road except those that were ripped apart. We were pretty freaked out trying to figure out where we could turn the u-haul around and get back on the freeway.
   

   
    

2. We were driving the back roads in Kentucky and Mackenzie had a messy diaper. Since we didn't have anywhere to pull off onto the side of the road and no idea of how soon our next exit would be, I decided to change her in the car. For some reason, the doors in a u-haul can be locked, but opened from the inside (there is a warning posted on the window). Well, when I turned around to sit back down after changing Mackenzie (with her in my arms), my belt loop caught on the door handle and the door flew open (my heart is beating hard just thinking about this again). I hung on to Mackenzie and luckily grabbed her carseat which saved us both from tumbling to the road. Let's just say I've never had a bigger adrenaline rush in my life and for the rest of the trip I didn't get Mackenzie out of her carseat while the truck was in motion.
   

We were happy to roll in about 2 AM Kentucky time. The next morning we had wonderful moving help from a few guys in our ward. We LOVE our apartment. It's bigger than our last two apartments put together- maybe not quite that big but it feels that way. We have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a laundry room and back patio which is really nice because we have a beautiful backyard with playgrounds and picnic tables. We feel so blessed to be living in such a nice area and are thankful to those dental students who referred us to our complex.

We have already fallen in love with Kentucky. We're surrounded by really kind people, green shrubbery and beautiful country homes. I'm convinced our location could not be better. At church on Sunday we were greeted by so many people, there are a lot of young couples in our ward and a good number of dental/medical students. We're very grateful for the opportunity Keith has to attend dental school and we wanted to thank everyone who helped us in any way to be where we are today!