It was quite the treck to move from Provo to Houston--1455 miles to be exact. Luckily, we didn't have to move our belongings, only ourselves.
A trailer with all of our stuff left about 5 days before we did. We used a company called ABF. They bring a trailer to your house, you pack it, and they charge you by the foot. Then they take it to a truck terminal where they pack the rest of the trailer with commercial freight. It was kind of funny to pack our stuff into a huge semi, when we only used 7 feet. The driver told us that the rest of the truck would be packed with chocolate. I told him I wouldn't mind if they left some for us. ;-)
Brent's car also made the trip without us--on one of those huge trucks that carries cars (usually either crushed and ready for the dump, or brand new and ready for the dealership). Brent's car was just old and too weak to make the trip for a 3rd time in its life. Brent's parents graciously helped with the cost to move it. It was such a blessing to have just one car to take down and make the long drive together.
The drive takes 25 hours. We decided to break it up across three days instead of two-- partially because my birthday fell on one of the days we'd be on the road and partially because we thought it would probably be our only chance to take our time. So, I planned some fun along the way.
Our first stop: Mesa Verde, Colorado
I had always wanted to visit this national park, but I didn't know much about it until we got there. It turns out that
Mesa Verde is the only national park dedicated to human ruins--an archeological find instead of a natural wonder. I also learned why it is called Mesa Verde: the cliff dwellings are on the edge of a huge mesa topped with green juniper trees. Now, I knew what a mesa was before our trip, but I don't think I really
comprehended what that meant was until we were driving up
the mesa verde. It took us about an hour-- after turning off the highway-- to get to the ruins, climbing switchbacks that led us slowly to the top of the mesa, and then miles and miles across it to its southern edge. I had no idea a mesa could be so huge!!
Once to the edge, we could see a deep canyon that eventually leads to the lowlands further south:
And on either side of this canyon, the ancestral pueblo native Americans (aka Anazazi Indians) built cliff dwellings in natural alcoves in the canyon wall. Supposedly they are hundreds in the area, but the Palace dwelling (the picture in the middle below) is the largest.
If you buy $3 tickets for a tour, you can actually walk around the dwellings, and that's what we did. It was an hour-long tour with a park ranger that included climbing up and down ladders to get to and from the dwelling. The actual people who lived here used hand and foot holds carved into the side of the cliff--not a way I would like to travel. If I had been born in that community, I probably never would have left!
The rest of our trip was fairly uneventful. We stayed in Farmington, New Mexico the first night after a white-knuckle drive through deer country and night. The next day was my brithday-- the day we crossed the boarder into Texas. Brent said it was my official birth as a Texan. That night we had dinner at the Olive Garden in Amarillo (which definitely felt foreign-- lots of boots, belt buckles, big hair, and accents) and then spent the night in the quaint town of Childress, TX (pronounced CHILL-dress). The last day was a beautiful wooded drive through the countryside between Dallas and Houston. I had no idea Texas had so many miles of rolling, wooded hills.
And then we arrived in Houston-- a big, spread-out city with good shopping, lots of restaurants, and plenty of fun things to do. The best part is, I live with the man I love!!
Here's a picture of a neighborhood just outside Houston. It gives you an idea of what the trees are like:
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