Goodbye Silver City, New Mexico

It's been a while since I last made an entry. Things took a turn for the better and hopefully I've helped my friends Hal and Ann find a place they can finally feel at home. They moved to Silver City a year ago from Southern California. They found that they weren't truly happy in Silver City with the constant winds, cold weather and not being able to be outside in their garden because everything is almost solid rock. I told them I would stay and take care of their place if they wanted to go and find another place they would rather move to. Hal has a sister that lives in Seguin, Texas and so that's where they went to look around. They found a beautiful home and so the planning of a move began. It's not easy moving twice, to two different states with a lifetime of cherrished items. Ann did almost all of the packing and I have no idea how she did it other than she is an incredible individual.

On Monday, March 16 the moving truck arrived and in one day the house was emptied. They would meet us in Seguin, Texas on Wednesday morning. We couldn't leave until the next day because of final arrangements that needed to be made. It had already been decided that they would ship their cars and we would all make the 14 hour drive together in my car with Motel Miguel in tow behind us.  Little did I know what a great memorable experience that would turn out to be!

We loaded everyone into my car, the three Pomeranians way in the back because we needed access for potty breaks. Ruggie the Airedale would ride behind my seat on his bed, he's a great traveling companion and behaved so well. Oh and I can't forget to mention that we also had seven chickens and eight finches with us!

We started getting some rain after LA's Cruces but it was really coming down by the time we were in El Paso, Texas. The traffic was stop and go through the city and it slowed us down for about an hour. 

Ruggie was great and slept most of the way right next to Ann. 

There were some beautiful rolling clouds on the mountains in Texas. 

Sometime around midnight we pulled over not a gas station in Ft. Stockton, Texas to fill up. We also needed to use the facilities ourselves. Hal went first and then Ann and I went in. After using the facilities I told Ann that maybe we should get coffee to help us stay awake. I asked the attendant which was her strongest coffee to help keep me awake. She made a suggestion and was really nice and cheerful. At this point Ann said to me "I hope you brought money in because mine is in the car" I 

told her I did but then the attendant said "yeah, you better have money or else you're going to have to 

dance for it!"  We laughed and fixed our coffees then headed for the register. There were about five truckers in line and the attendant that helped us with the coffee was just leaning against the counter a few feet away. I jokingly asked loud enough where I needed to dance for my coffee and she turned around and said "right there is fine!"  So I started dancing, Ann probably was so embarrassed to be standing next to me because the truckers turned around to look and the attendant told us that the coffee was free. We had made her day and we didn't think she was serious and told her that she didn't 

have to do that but she insisted we take the coffee. Of course we had to take a picture with Gracie, as 

we found out, even though we looked like we had been hanging our heads out the window the whole trip. She absolutely made our trip and the coffee kept us awake for the rest of the trip. 

We finally pulled into the driveway at around 3:30 in the morning, fourteen and a half hours after leaving Silver City, New Mexico and around 750 miles. Everyone was exhausted but alive and we set everyone up for the night and only had a couple of hours to sleep because the first moving truck was going to be arriving by 8am. 

I only got about an hour of sleep because the extra shot of caffeine in the coffee was affecting me and the rain hitting my car didn't help either. 

The rain stopped as the morning light came out. We welcomed that so that the moving truck could be emptied and not have everything get wet. 

Even though this is already Sunday night on March 22 and the second truck has been unloaded and stuff is everywhere, we are all still very tired. Ann has been emptying boxes non stop since Wednesday, Hal has been organizing the movers and arranging for services and I have been trying to stay out of the way and started walking again here in Seguin. It was a huge effort on everyone's behalf. Would I do this again?

ABSOLUTELY! 

Unplanned adventures like this is what my journey is all about. I hope I have made a difference in my dear friends lifes and they have given me so much to be thankful for. The memories will last a lifetime.