Trip Home from Paducah

Here was our trip home from memory.

Day 1, 843 miles: Finally left Paducah at about 11:30am because it took so long to get all of the snow and ice off of the car and get it packed up and unstuck from the grass of the apartments because we got it stuck. We passed through St. Louis and Kansas City and hopped on I-80 and stayed the night in North Platte, Nebraska. I think I remember getting in about 1 or 2am.

Day 2, 778 miles: Got an early start and took I-80 from there to Pocatello, Idaho making a stop in Twin Falls, Idaho to visit Nicole's grandfather (the only great grandfather left for our kids to visit).

This was what the road looked like from Twin Falls to Pocatello.

In Pocatello we stayed with Nicole's brothers Jed and his wife and Korth's family sans Korth. We had a nice home cooked dinner and got to see family again after not seeing them for almost two years.

Day 3, 524 miles: We left Pocatello, Idaho pretty early and stopped in Pendleton, Oregon to see more family before going home to Pasco. The first picture is the road on top of Cabbage Hill into Pendleton, Oregon. Nicole is looking out the window at my knock wondering what's going on. I recall finally getting home around 7pm. It was a very quick trip home. We drove like mad to get home as soon as we could. It was really nice to be done.

Last week in Paducah

As I prepare to update the blog for France I find that I am woefully behind on posts since leaving Paducah, Kentucky and coming back to Washington state. This was our last visit with David McDowell and his now fiancée Crystal who live in a nearby town in Tennessee. Micah and David had the chance to beat eachother up a bit in Halo. Micah always welcomes the opportunity to play someone at Halo. This was back in January just before we left to drive the family home.

Delinquent Postings...blame it on France!

This post is for those of you who thought we died or just that we were no longer blogging. We are still planning on blogging but we have just been seriously crazy busy getting ready to move to France for two years. The picture below if proof of the list that we had to work off. Nicole thought it would be a good idea to create a giant checklist to work off the items. It proved to be very efficient and we almost have the whole thing worked off now. Here is a brief synopsis of what has happened since I got back from Kentucky in early April:

• I can't remember what we did in April. That's too long ago but I know it was crazy busy.


• May was spent with language training every night after work. That with homework every night kept us busy enough. Oh yeah...we also had a huge yard sale and catalogued all of our books with the help of our good friends the Montgomerys. Thanks guys!


• June was spent going to France on our orientation trip to pick out a house, schools, visit the workplace; selling our home; language training; and moving out of our home.


• Our last month here in the US is being spent finishing up piles and piles of paperwork for everything you could ever think of (including finally getting a will), cultural training, visiting family and friends, language training, picking up our visas, and packing. We leave for France on 7/31.

It has indeed been a whirlwind and I will post more details when I get more time. For now, be entertained by the magnificent picture of our enshrined list. TTFN...et à la prochaine!