Reindls Go West

Well, we made it to the Midwest at least and that's as far as we're going for now.

Since not everyone is on Facebook, I though I would share my recent mobile pictures (translation: cell phone pictures, so not the greatest) on here for everyone to see.

Before hitting the road on Friday morning I snapped this quick picture of our new (old) coffee table. During our time home, whenever we weren't spending time with family we were in my parents' basement cleaning up some old pieces furniture pieces for use in the new apartment. We didn't get everyone done that we wanted (there are still two chairs that I need to cane and finish) but at least we have a coffee table.

We made our icy way down route 287 towards Jersey Shore (for those of you not from Tioga County, Jersey shore is a town in north central PA, not oceanfront property) we drove up upon this little guy racing down the middle of the road. I slowed down and drove a good bit behind him (or her) so that bambi wouldn't veer into my car. After a quarter mile, driving deer-speed became a bit rediculious so I sped up to pass when a giant tractor trailer came in the the opposing lane, forcing the deer to jump off into the woods to avoid becoming road-kill. 

I guess all that ice covered snow made cross-country travel difficult for even the deer.

Here we are crossing our first milestone into Ohio.

Poor Stella (my 1990 Saab) sustained some damage on the highway but as my sister-in-law Laura pointed out, Stella now has a chip to match the chip on Michael's car's windshield.

We stopped off at Arby's for an on the road lunch which was our first fast food meal in a very long time. Tummy aches took up the remainder of the day of driving. 

Thankfully, Susie (Michael's Aunt) treated us to some delicious homemade tortellini soup when we stayed over that night.

Driving was no so pretty or so smooth on day #2. We managed to hit Indiana (and miss the "Welcome to Indiana" sign) just in time for the last of the snow/ice storms. That increased speed limit of 70mph did nothing for our time since we rarely made it over 55mph with all the snow, slush and ice.

Illinois was a little better for us but not so good for others. The bad weather passed for the most part by then but as I noted on Facebook that I-70 was closed in both directions and detoured almost 10 miles while clean-up took place from an earlier multi-car and multi-semi pileup.

In case you needed it, here's some proof of the terrible driving conditions. Please disregard the blurriness, the windshield was so dirty that the camera refused to focus beyond it.

The delay from the detour put us back 2 hours so that instead of arriving to our new city in daylight and having time to explore, we pulled in at sunset, taking this blurry picture of our Welcome to Missouri.

Is it any surprise to any of you that the first thing we did (after picking up Michael's job-supplied rental car) was to find and raid the closest Trader Joe's.

And more importantly: Trader Joe's wine section

 

Our first dinner in the hotel room consisted of Trader Joe's packaged Indian food and a sweet German wine, which, ironically, we were unable to get in Metz, even living as close as we did to a famous German wine region.

 

We enjoyed a bit from home and a bit from our new home during the Superbowl. The old treat in the form of dad's famous mustard dip and the new treat in the form of some delicious Schlafly beer from the local Schlafly brewery. We need to check out the actual restaurant at the brewery, but for now the beer certainly wins our seal of approval.

On Sunday we drove around a bit to familiarize ourselves with the city. We purposefully drove by the iconic Gateway Arch just so we would finally feel like we were in Saint Louis.

For now, there's nothing better than relaxing with a glass of 2-buck-chuck and some pommegranate blueberry sherbet but tomorrow the work begins (for me...Michael started his job last Friday); the movers should show up at the new apartment tomorrow morning (fingers crossed for us please people!) and I'll be busy for a good bit trying to put together a reasonable home for Michael and I to live in.

I'll post an update soon to give you all a view of the new place.