9.15.2009

driving to Texas

A week ago today, Casey, Lucy and I headed out on a three-day trip to our new town in Texas.

DAY ONE
Saw a lot of this view:
and beautiful scenery as well:
Our first stop was in the Phoenix area where we met our new little cousin, Gavin. Only two weeks old! What a sweetie.
We met up with Karis and Marty for a Cafe Rio dinner and stayed at their house for the night. Always a fun conversation with those two. Thanks again!

DAY TWO
Slept in, worked on the sprinklers at our rental house in Gilbert, and made our first stop in Tucson for lunch. We drove by Casey's old house on Bear Creek Circle where he and his family lived for almost 20 years. What a cool house. Custom built on a large lot with a pool and a basketball court. The perfect house for 4 boys.
I have never seen so much cacti in my life. I know it sounds dumb. We're in Arizona. But his whole street was just covered with it. Pretty cool looking.
Casey's youngest brother Brady lives there and met us for lunch at their favorite sandwich place, the Sausage Deli. I have to agree, it's quite yummy.
On our way out of town we popped in to the famous Eegee's for a slushie. Casey wanted to buy an extra one to keep on ice and drink later. Not sure it would have lasted. Goodbye Tucson!
This day was exciting because for me, we were headed to uncharted territory. I've made the drive from Calif to Phoenix many, many times. But beyond there.....no idea. Nothing too surprising out there, but the vegetation outside of Tucson did look different than other parts of Arizona. Just beautiful.
We hit some summer storms and saw multiple rainbows (btw, please note that though I did plenty of other un-safe things while driving alone with Lucy I never actually looked through the camera lens for the road pics. I just pointed and shot. Rest assured, I tried to be a somewhat responsible driver.)
That night we had dinner in Deming, New Mexico at the local DQ.
The weather outside was perfect.
Lucy of course danced around for about 45 minutes in her jammies. She got all the energy out...and then crashed for the night in the car.
and just to prove that everything's bigger in Texas.....at our first stop just past El Paso we found these awesome squeegees. Now that's the way it should be!
Since Lucy was asleep we drove pretty late that night till 2am (really 12am to us) and got about 4 hours past El Paso. When we pulled into our hotel though, Lucy woke up and couldn't fall back asleep for about an hour and a half. She was an angel though and just laid there in bed reading books and being quiet while we fell asleep. Two days down. So far, so good!

DAY THREE
West Texas. Everything you thought it would be:
The weather changed our last day on the road from sunny to overcast with constant light rain. That combo sounds like winter-time in my brain so it shocked me every time to step out of the car and realize it was really 85 degrees out there. We drove through multiple small Texas towns, saw lots of ranches with cool family signs, and got our first sight of a the local Texas ice cream chain, Blue Bell. Natives rave about this stuff. I wasn't impressed with it 4 years ago but I'm gonna give it another shot:
and finally that night, we arrived at our house! 1500 miles total and approximately 20 hours of driving.
We had been telling Lucy for days that we were going to our new house. She would reply back, "our new big house?!" Yep! So when we finally got there and got out of the car she glanced over at the two-story home next to ours and said, "is that our big new house?" I pointed back at our one-story home and said, "no, this is our big new house." On the verge of tears she said, "but I need a big house." Oh Lucy just you wait. Anything is bigger than what you knew in Pasadena.
And yes indeed, she's been loving the space ever since. And without our moving truck here yet, we settled in for our first night at home with camping chairs and pop tarts.
Welcome home!

21 comments:

Nicole said...

Love this recap! I am so glad you guys made it safe & sound. Looks like and eventful trip. I LOVE Carnegie Deli. Jeff took me there when we were first married & we went a lot when we would frequent Tucson. Fun to see Brady, the old house & Eegees (sp?). I think their slushes are pretty tasty too, not like the boys do though, they LOVE those slushies!!

Suman Family said...

wow. that is such a crazy long trip. i am so glad that lucy did well. i like seeing the pics from casey's past. that's pretty cool. i also love the pics of gavin! he is such a mini carter. that one of him yawning is to die for. so precious. and i'm laughing about the huge squeegee.
anyways...welcome home!

Kate said...

OY! It's good to have you back...so fun to see the house (i know that house) I had many a birthday parties there, since we didn't have a pool. Their pool was awesome! And I'm so jealous you got eegee's, I've been eating my weight in otter pops and it just isn't the same. can't wait to see all your new adventures.

dietcokegrrl said...

Yeah--I remember how old that highway view in TX gets. And what?? No picture of "The Thing"?? Come on, they advertise that for MILES! haha

Love the play-by-play, as always. Glad you got in some good eats and love the picture with the huge squeegees--and you look great for all the traveling you've been doing. I always look like hell when I've been on the road a few days. Love the hair!

So cute about Lucy and the "big" house.

P.S. my verification word is "sucker" hahaha I've never had a real word before.

the bates motel said...

glad you guys had a good trip. it was fun to see you. thanks again for the pics of gavin. and looks like your last couple days in ca were not wasted! fun times. i'm hoping we'll get to see ya'll (lol) in ca over christmas! can't wait to see more pics of the house!

Leslie said...

oh Dana, Ive been waiting to hear how the trip went, to hear that you were there, and made it....

and you did... yeah. Gosh we have made that drive several times, its a long one.... a real long one.

but yeah for new big houses, Rylan asks for the same thing every day now.. so I can relate.

and blue bell. I honestly just don't get it, and I lived there for years and years, its just like any other ice cream (im sure people are out to get me, just for saying that) but a Sonic Strawberry limemade slush, Im all about that! :)

enjoy, unwrapping that new town, as a gift to your family, as you explore and discover, they will be your new faves.. so soon.

sorry for the novel.. im just excited.

Connie said...

Glad the trip went well! I have only been to the guys' old house once, for Thanksgiving when I was probably five, but I remember how cool that house was. Casey and Jeff convinced me that one of those short barrel cacti in the front yard was a porcupine.

Lexie & Sharrid said...

good post. and btw there's nothing special about Blue Bell, and I had no idea you had a rentel in Gilbert...you should have moved here ha ha that would have been fun but good luck in TX. I was concieved there ha ha

Lexie & Sharrid said...

oh yeah...and I never made it to the boys' house growing up but every Thanksgiving Linda invited me to come and play with her cats and swim in her pool...ha ha I think she wanted a girl to hang out with...ha

Becky said...

can't believe you did that drive with the kiddos -- what did you bring? 1000 princess movies? So glad you guys made it! I lament driving up to the Bay Area, don't know how you did it!

Good luck with the rest of your move, unpacking, etc!

Jean said...

GREAT account and great pictures. I'm glad you guys made it!!! I love that picture of the car at the DQ - get that published somewhere!!

Diane said...

Glad you made it safely. Can't wait to hear more about your new home. We miss you!

lyndsey said...

yay! i'm so glad youre back to blogging :) awesome pics of the trip...way to break up the monotony of the long drive with some fun stuff.

that story about lucy and the house is so cute...haha, apparently the road took its toll on her emotions as well.

Deborah said...

Congrats! I always love arriving at the destination--M and I were just talking about when we got married and I drove 23 hours from PA to GA in the moving truck to meet him, while he was trapped at his job. Getting there totally made it worth it (and Starbucks made it happen!). Glad you're there, excited to hear what your new life will hold for you in the wilds of Tejas!

Jen christensen said...

You have to try Blue Belle cookies and cream. I haven't been able to find any other outside of Texas as creamy. If you're still not impressed then you can safely say you don't like Blue Belle ice cream.

devin said...

Ah yes. Sausage Deli. The Willards freakin LOVE that place. (it is pretty good) and a nice eegee's on a drive is awesome. Honestly, Eegee's saved Coyote a few times. People were ready to walk off and drive back to CA, but you get a nice big eegee's slush and things don't look quite so bad.

Sounds like a pretty fun drive overall. Enjoy TX.

Erica said...

I'm so glad you made it safe and sound. I can't wait to see all the pics of your new house. Even though it will be different here without you guys, I'm super excited for your new adventure. Keep up the posts :)

Camille said...

I love your post! You got some great pics and documented it well. I love the squeegee pic of you and the big sky pic of Texas. So beautiful. Reminds me of my days there. I love that story about Lucy and the big house. hahah. She's so cute. Love that she just read in bed while you guys slept! Also fun to see pics of Casey's old house.

Saunja said...

That squeegee is awesome. And give Blue Bell another try.. I know you weren't impressed. But it is really good. I miss it.

Jesslyn said...

Oh man, I didn't realize that Casey's parents left Tucson probably before you were even married, right? (I'm not sure of the timeline.) Sausage Deli is the best! UofA school paper would have the best coupons. And Eegee's! Italian Grinder, Crinkle Fries and Pina Colada Eegee. Yum!
It was 45 minutes from Casey & Quentin's side of town to mine. If you sped and didn't hit any red lights. With the nonexistant freeway system in Tucson it was all surface street traffic. Hope you guys love Austin! Texas is a great place.
Jesslyn

sb said...

Obviously, I've been looking through your archives. I find it interesting where Casey grew up. My aunt/uncle/cousins (whom we visited often), had a custom home on Bear Claw Way - just a street or so beyond Bear Creek Circle. Does Casey know LaVar and Kathy Jones and family?

We live in Tyler now, and I can tell you that the thing I love about Blue Bell is that they still sell 1/2 gallons for a good price (when it's on sale), and their ice cream is denser than Dreyers or Breyers, so I feel like I get more for my buck (and I do like the flavor too).