Sunday, February 25, 2007

We made it! New to the St Louis area!

We arrived finally. Of course knowing the Gilbert's, nothing could really go smoothly. We left about 8 hours off schedule and this was late. WE decided to stop in Terre Haute, IN to rest in a hotel, but it began to snow very hard so we ended up in Cloverdale, IN just off of I-70. We stayed at a dive of an EconoLodge and I wouldn't even let the twins crawl on the floor (gross!). WE slept all of 3 hours and then got back out on the road. I in the van with the twins and 2 cats, and John driving the 26 foot Uhaul. It was snowing and sleeting very hard. We got back out on the road and John and I were conversing on the cell phone and were discussing on whether or not we should really be driving. We had already passed several vehicles that spun off the road. We were talking to each other and just passed a rolled-over van and another stranded vehicle when I said to John "I sure hope that isnt one of us". I no sooner got the words off of my tongue when the van began doing a series of 360 turns before landing backwards in the median ditch. I was screaming in the phone and John watched us spin in his rearview. I began crying. We were all OK. Babies never knew what happened and the cats were meowing loudly. John went on to the next exit (which was a one-gas station town) to call for help. He got ahold of a wrecker, but they had shut the freeway down due to the # of accidents and were not allowing any tows. Luckily I had a full tank of gas. We sat for 45 minutes and an Illinois state trooper came to rescue. He asked how many were in the vehicle and I told him, myself, my twin infants and 2 cats. He looked and me and said "I'm not taking the cats, ma'am". this cracked me up. I stuffed blankets around them to keep them warm and we headed to join John. 2 hours later, they opened up the freeway again and allowed the wrecker to pull me out of the ditch. The van was OK and we got back on our Journey. It was scary and the wind was very strong and snow still blowing. We drove slower than the speed limit, so the final leg took us about 4 1/2 hours. We finally made it and there was blue sky and sunshine.
Korrie, Mom Deb, Diana, Jor, Alanna and Trevor were all behind us by about 3 hours. Our movers had cancelled, so we stayed in a hotel that night and I was relieved to stay somewhere with a soft bed and a nice shower.
We got up the next morning and the movers came about 1pm. They were done by around 6pm.
We have been here a week now. All 5 of us have been ill with a cold or the flu or something nasty. We are recovering. It has flown by. I just cannot believe how quickly it has happened- us moving here and all. We went exploring today and are in shock and awe at the amount of shopping around us. All of these new malls and shops to venture to. It is exciting!

I want to Especially thank MomDeb, Korrie, Diana, Jordan, and Alanna for making the journey here to help us move and unpack. We couldn't have done it without you! (well, we could have, but we would not be alive to tell it).
Pictures and updates to come. This is the first day we have had internet.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

So, today the boys were playing and Hayden said "Ok Simon, you play Trevor. Now let's go play cars." I guess brother really is no substitute when you miss your favorite cousin. I had to chuckle.

Missyou!