Day 1: Barksdale AFB, LA to Forth Smith, AR

Many people (mostly the younger, newly married couples we know) we shocked that we would even think of traveling on Valentine's Day.  Eh, long gone are the days where Mason is trying to woo-me.  We're an old married couple now.  All kidding aside, I picked the day to move just because it worked out right.  Mason's report no later than date to Minot was (today) February 28th and he wasn't getting home from Red Flag until February 2nd.  So we chose the middle of the month to give him time at home to fly a few more times, outprocess, and help with some housing items before the move and leave a weather cushion during our travel dates so he wouldn't miss the Feb. 28th date.

Who knew we'd be (almost) completely moved in by the end of February.  I forgot to mention in my last posting a little about the move process.  The ideal situation is to do a door-to-door move because then your worldly possessions, stuff, crap only gets loaded on and off the moving truck one time, this should ideally minimize breakable, loss of items etc...However, when you are moving into base housing, you go on a waiting list and then only when you arrive to your next base are you moved up on the list.  When we moved to Sheppard AFB we had to wait a week or two before getting a house and a few days more to get our stuff.  When we moved to Barksdale AFB we lived in a TLF for a month before getting a house.  In Minot the housing (like other places) has a long waiting list, and for a while they actually had a hold on housing and moves because it was a 2 year wait to get on base and then with the flood that problem escalated.  However, from talking to our friends that had moved here recently, they had no trouble getting houses within a week or two.  When Mason was up here for a few days in January he was able to go to the housing office and get us on a list for a 3 bedroom house (which they only give families with 2+ children), so with a doctor's note we got on that list.  We were somewhat relieved to find out we should be able to get a house fairly quickly, but no guarantees.  It was also a relief that our stuff wasn't supposed to arrive until the 25th which would give us a week to obtain a base house and then we could do a door to door move...until the driver of the truck told us on moving day that he was planning to arrive on the 18th, the same day as us!  In the end it all worked out fine.  We arrived in Minot on a Monday (holiday so couldn't do anything), got a house Tuesday and moved our stuff in Wednesday.  It did end up going into storage for a night, and nothing ended up breaking, and we found the items (in the deep freezer) that we thought had been lost. 

Okay...back to Day 1 travels...

Mason drove the Camry (otherwise known as the calm and quiet car), while I drove the Highlander (otherwise known as the crazy, do-anything- to-entertain- Theo car).  Parenting tip I learned on this trip:  when traveling with a small child have 2-3 of everything you think you'll need in the front seat. This allowed me to hand another sippy cup, or book, or pacifier, etc...to Theo when he would inevitable throw these items as far out of my reach as possible and then demand he have them back.  The whole "they'll learn if they keep doing it" goes out the window when you're stuck in a car with a loud child for days!  And by day 5, Theo learned to throw towards the left (where I could reach better) or hand his cup back to me instead of chucking it towards the window.  Thanks kid.  My lifesavers of this trip were his sippy cup, crackers (which got thrown everywhere half the time), his pacifiers, and this Ernie book I got at the Target dollar bin for Christmas.

Our day 1 was supposed to be the longest drive at five and a half hours.  The first hour, basically getting out of Louisiana was a little difficult.  We ran in to some construction along this two-lane country road and for some reason Theo was determined to take off his shirt...I have no idea why.  My guess is that it was a new shirt that I hadn't washed and so maybe it was bothering him, or he was just bored.  So of course his arm got stuck and then he was mad that one arm was out of the shirt, so we pulled off the road before hitting the big highway for a bathroom break and to re-adjust Theo.  I think the first day was hard on him and he was confused as to why he was strapped into his car seat for such a long time.  He slept for about an hour, which in my master plan was aobut 2 hours shorter than I thought he would sleep, but oh well.

It was a really pretty drive.  Northern Arkansas is hilly and beautiful, and I can only imagine how nice it would be in the Spring or Fall when everything is in bloom or changing colors.  We stopped for lunch at a little BBQ place so we could all stretch and let Theo run around for a while outside. 

I feel this is where I need to mention that I taught Theo the song Old McDonald...he picked up on the E-I-E-I-O part really fast and that was what I heard for hours at a time some days...

A good first day of traveling.  It was getting colder by the time we arrived, so not much outdoor time.  We tried to lay down for nap part 2, but Theo wasn't having it.  It was nice that the hotel provided a pack n play, so that was one less thing to take in and out of the hotel and worry about.  We ended up going for a brief swim after dinner, because the water was cold- but it was still a nice distraction.     
  
All in all, not too bad of a travel day.  But many to follow...