It's been a long, long time since I've given an update, and a whole lot has happened since then! I'm trying to get motivated to write about it all, but it seems like the farther behind I get, the
more difficult it is to push myself. So, here goes nothing.The biggest change from the past few months is that Josh and I moved across the country! We are now back in my hometown, Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. It has a huge and terrifying decision to make, but we really felt like it was the best thing to do. Some really great
opportunities opened up, and we went for it!
The drive was. so. long. SO. LONG. About 36 hours. I felt gross-road-nasty after 2. Before we left I was so terrified to drive our moving truck. It was about 15 feet long and then had our car behind it on a trailer. As it turns out, driving it wasn't too bad...but Josh was an angel and drove about 26 of the 36 hours anyway. He said he couldn't really relax or sleep or anything while I was driving because he was worried. No complaints here if it got me out of driving.
And can I add that the mid-west is super boring to drive through? Nothing to see...just field....after field...and stinky cows...and fields. And one awful mishap. While we were on the freeway, we got pretty low on gas and decided that we needed to pull off. So we trusted the GPS and went off a random exit. It led us onto a straight, tiny road right into the boonies. Where there was nothing. It was dark and the roads were bumpy with nowhere to turn around in that huge truck, so we had to keep going farther and farther away from the freeway. It was so sketchy, I just knew someone was going to jump in front of the truck to stop us and murder us at any moment, but we had no choice but to keep going. So we trusted the GPS that had already led us astray to try to get back to civilization. After many white-knuckled minutes (of course, I was the one driving at the time...) we made it to a suspicious gas station that was situated on a service road off the main road. After we filled up, we pulled out of the gas station onto the service road to head back and....dead end. On one side of us was a hill that was small but rose steeply, and on the other side was a big field. We spent probably a half hour trying to do a three-point-turn in that massive truck to get back. But the side of the trailer would just keep crunching into the side of the car and we would have to stop, pull back forward, and try again. In the end, we decided to just try and drive it though the field a little ways. We wanted to avoid this for fear of getting stuck, but as it turns out, we were fine. Hopefully the field wasn't operational and we didn't do damage or anything. If we did, a big apology to the farmer is in order. Hopefully he takes comfort in the fact that if it weren't for his field, we would still be trying to do a three-point turn in that dang road.
The plus side of the mid-west was that my Mom's best friend, Buda, was nice enough to let Josh and I come stay the night. We really enjoyed meeting her family and getting to know her better! We really wished we could have gone to Omaha and seen my mom's side of the family, too, but it would have put us hours out of the way and we would have gotten there super late. Hopefully a trip to Nebraska will be in our near future.
When we got to Missouri we broke up the monotony by doing some brief sight seeing at Church History sights. The first stop was Liberty Jail, where the prophet Joseph Smith, his brother, Hyrum, and a few others were held for several months on false charges. Seems depressing, but it's also a place where so many inspiring revelations were received, so it's very special. Anyway, I hadn't been since I was a kid, and I loved seeing it again as an adult with a little bit better
understanding of what I was looking at. It is TINY. In the area where they were held, the taller of the prisoners would be unable to fully stand. There were thin, small, barred windows that were dug down to on the outside, so there was barely any natural light. They said in the winters, it was ridiculously cold. But these men had strong faith and never let their testimonies waver, despite their trials. What a great example to us!
We were also able to see the outside of RLDS temple (or is it Community of Christ? I have a hard time keeping track).
Then we swung by a church history museum and (one of the coolest parts) we got to see the future site of the Independence Missouri temple.
For good measure, Josh with the St. Louis arch in the background.
We debated on whether or not to take an extra day and see some other church history sites, but decided we really needed to hit the road and make good time. We listened to the DaVinci Code on tape while we drove (note: why is everyone so obsessed? I didn't care for it...poor writing), and that helped the time go by faster.
Going through Nashville was difficult. I have a not-so-secret obsession with going there and I really wanted to stop. But with a huge moving van and trailer, we wouldn't have been able to see the city the way I wanted to. So we drove on, with me begging Josh to take me on a mini-trip there in the near future.
Crossing the South Carolina border was such a relief! At about 11:00 pm we rolled to a stop in front of my parents house where my family kindly waited up for us.
