The Move to Texas

This past week has been a whirlwind. The conformation of my license threw the packing and moving process into full motion. Two days later, my truck was packed to the hilt with the essentials like clothing, cookbooks, cake decorating and scrapbooking supplies.

The truck was topped with clothes because there was no more room for boxes, so we just stuffed clothes in any wholes within the bed of the truck. After the truck was packed mom and I headed for bed to wake and hit the road early.

At 0530 mom and I pulled out of her driveway to start the journey and to beat the traffic. We took a different route, we decided to take the 15 south towards San Diego to catch the 52 east to the 8 east which dumped us onto the 10 east. I started the drive and drove for three hours to then stop for a quick stretch and bathroom break. Mom took over for the next two hours while I took a nap. I was ready for another bathroom break and took over so mom could nap. By 1430 we crossed the New Mexico border.

A few hours later we crossed into Texas and made our way closer to El Paso. El Paso borders Mexico and it was evident when we came into the city of El Paso because the hillside south of the freeway looked just like TJ. Mom and I didn't stop when traveling through and I am glad we were informed by others not to. I was driving and continued to drive until we got into Van Horn where we decided to call it a night because we had been traveling for fourteen hours. A long day of driving created two extremely tired women who lacked the energy to even stop for dinner and ended up eating apples and cheetos. Lets just say it wasn't the healthiest dinner we have ever had, but we needed something.

The next day mom and I woke up before the sun, repacked the car, grabbed the complementary breakfast, topped off the tank and headed for Tyler. Mom started off driving and we switched every two hours. The countryside of Texas was beautiful. We went through the City of Big Springs, which was the town that my Papa and Aunta Betty lived in when they were little when they were making the move from Oklahoma. Let me tell you it's a small town now, I can only imagine what it was like then.

By 1730 we drove into the driveway and I honked the whole time. Watch out Tyler, Ashley is here!! I was beyond excited to be here and even more excited that the drive was over. We drove 1522 miles in two days. Myah (the ten year old daughter of my friends I am living with) made me a Welcome Home sign with balloons. The unpacking of the truck started between the seven of us: Mom, me, Tanya, Bryan, Caleb, Myah and Dave my new pastor. The truck was unloaded in no time and I was constantly reminded of how many boxes I have of scrapbooking essentials. A girl needs her doodle time!

After the completion of unloading the truck, mom and I began to sort and organize my new room. But not for too long because we were starving and needed some true Texas BBQ, so we hit up the Bodacious BBQ to have some wonderful briscet and tea. We returned back to the Runyan's home aka my new home with full stomachs and pretty much completely unpacked, organized and made a list of what we needed at the infamous Walmart.

On saturday morning Mom and I slept in and just relaxed before we hit the Antique Market in downtown Tyler. We found a bathroom organizer and a wire rack with baskets to be used as my "dresser." The rest of the weekend, mom and I just chilled, went to church and watched football. A great mother, daughter bonding. Monday morning came and we were back in the car for Dallas to drop mom off at the airport. Dallas is a little less then two hours from Tyler and is the closest city to us that has In-N-Out, so we grabbed a burger and took mom to the airport. Dropping my mother off at the airport was not has hard as I thought it was going to be, and the only reason why because we have such a wonderful relationship and nothing is really going to change except that I have to get on a plane to come home. But she is wonderful because she knows this is what I want and supports me in everything I do. Thanks Mom for being so wonderful and taking a little road trip with me as I start this new adventure in my life.