Moving to Virginia

I'm back!  I know it has been a while since I have posted but I have been a little busy.  I recently moved my family across the country to Virginia.  Can I just say that I hate moving!!!!  We used ABF to move our stuff and we drove the mini van across the country.  2200 miles with three kids and a blind deaf diabetic dog.  Woooo hooo!!! Let the good times roll. 

Fortunately we have a DVD player in the car that I refer to as the pacifier or passy for short!  My kids really did handle the trip quite well all things considered.  We left town without making any hotel reservations because I wasn't sure where we would want to stop.  The fastest route to take from Idaho to Virginia is to get on I-80 and drive until you cant see straight then drive some more.  My wife had tentatively planned on stopping in Sydney Nebraska.  We had also planned on stopping in Wyoming for a few hours to visit family.  Little did we know that our family members would be out of town.  No biggie we will just drive on. 

Because we didnt stop in Wyoming, we arrived in Sydney earlier than we had planned so we decided to drive to North Platte.  Another hour and a half or so.  We pull off the freeway in North Platte and see a bunch of hotels so I pull into one and walk into the lobby and ask about a room for the night.  After the lady climbed off the floor ( she was laughing at me so hard she fell down) she told me that there wasn't a room in the whole city.  Is there a convention or something I ask.  Again I had to wait for her to settle down with tears streaming down her cheeks and between gufaws she said, no this is normal for us.  I ask about a hotel down the road and she tells me that when she last checked there was a room in Kearny (with her hotel chain) but the hotel didn't allow pets. 

Grumbling, I walk back to the car and tell my wife the news.  I could barely hear her response over the sound of my kids groaning in the back.  After a quick pit stop at a gas station we are back on the road with the passy playing.  I have my wife start looking on her phone for pet friendly hotels that don't appear to be run by Norman Bates.  Let me tell you they are few and far between!  We call several hotels along the way and even pulled over in a couple towns all to find no rooms available.  Finally we call a hotel in Lincoln Nebraska, they are pet friendly and they have a room.  We will take it!  By the time we arrive it is 3:30 am.  I have been driving since 9:30 am the previous morning.  To say I was tired was the understatement of the year!

I walked into the room and fell into bed and passed out.  We got a bit of a late start the next day but made it to Chicago to stay with my sister.  The rest of the trip was fairly uneventful.  But heed my warning.  If you are traveling across Nebraska and it is getting later in the day, call and make a reservation, otherwise you might end up driving much further than you want to.
That is all