We're in Arizona!

it is finally complete. well, actually it has been for almost a week now. julie & i have made our big move to the valley of the sun, phoenix!

we loaded up the penske moving truck at our old house in the nashville area, put my civic on the trailer, and made the 4 day journey via I-40 west to phoenix. our 1st stop was little rock, arkansas. we visited our friends jay & karen and their son quin right after a deluge of rain and had a great (but too short) time visiting them. after catching some shut-eye in little rock, we began our new day's journey that would end with a stop in elk city, oklahoma. never heard of it? that's ok, we hadn't either. after 8 hours of driving, as long as it had a hotel that allowed pets (since we weren't going to leave nashville without our cats panini and squigs), we were ok with the humble town of elk city. the downtown reminded us of the 1950s, with it's small storefronts and marquee theatre.

the next day we drove another 8 hours, which included my 1st time experiencing the state of texas. to me, it was a little exciting. since i had never seen it before. for julie and her parents (who were kind enough to fly to nashville & help us with the drive to phoenix), it was a little dull. we slept that night in albuquerque, new mexico. we were tired of driving by this point, but we were glad that we only had 1 more day left before arriving in phoenix.

we drove through more desert (which was pretty much the scenery we experienced since oklahoma), but after we entered arizona (yay!) we made a slight detour to the painted desert in northern arizona. one word: wow. the desert can be beautiful, and it is there. we drove through much of this national park, and at the end walked amongst the petrified wood. the painted desert marked the end of our 3.5 day relationship with I-40 west, since after that we used a few different county roads to head south to phoenix. it was a bit tricky for julie's dad to drive the penske truck (22 feet plus the trailer with my car in tow) through these 2-lane roads, but in the end he got it through and this exhausted crew of 4 was happy to see julie's parent's home at the end of the day. phoenix, here we are!

we spent the next couple days unloading the truck and generally arranging things. needless to day, it's a relief to have the big move done and to be (for the most part) settled in. it will take me a while to adjust to the heat. as of this week-end, the past 25 days were all over 100. julie & i also now have our official arizona driver's licenses and license plates. she happily purchased an arizona state univeristy plate, and i purchased a personalized plate celebrating my favorite football club, ajax amsterdam.