After a great vacation in the Mountains of Tennessee, and the ride from Hell in their humble stage coach to Texas, the family seems to be acclimating well to their new surroundings in the Great State of Texas.

Seriously though, after spending a wonderful week hiking and enjoying the Great Smoky Mountain National Park, and surrounding areas we woke up Sunday Morning, repacked the mini-van and headed South West toward Texas. We had a great drive, and we were able to stop in Birmingham, AL visit my little brother's college campus, restock on food items, gas and the very importand DC-9V adapter for the 2nd DVD screen to work to keep children entertained (thank you GOD!) and parents somewhat sane.

We made it all the way to Baton Rouge, LA where we stayed in SUPER 8 motel, which boasted a generous complimentary breakfast that never materialized. I think the shower was more desired than the sleep, although it was neck and neck between the two. I do however reccommend bypassing highway roads in Louisiana, if at all possible...unless you plan on going to the dentist or desire to have all of your fillings shaken out of you, that road is truly memorable. We woke up Monday morning with the intention of reaching our final destination.

Monday (Sept. 29) was a mixture of excitement, and trepidation. For every thing I was excited about, I think I was equally anxious and even somewhat overwhelmed at the prospect of it. For example, finding a home, an area where we would like, a school for the kids...etc...making new friends, missing my old friends, missing family, and growing our own...that being said, after a couple more hours on the roads of Louisiana, we found ourselves at a friendly Texas Welcome Center where the kids promptly adorned our mini-van with "Don't Mess with Texas" bumper stickers, and filled bags with information on a plethera of things to do upon our arrival to our new "home-town". We also met up with my dad, who was in Houston on business, and then another 3-4 hours to our final destination where we found a Red Roof Inn, that assured me the complimentary breakfast would promptly materialize from 6am to 9am the next morning and every morning while we stayed (and I'm happy to report it did). We got in about 9 or 10pm and couldn't wait to get to bed.

That's the jist of the road trip, apart from massive amounts of movies and junk food. I'll have to continue later, because I'm exhausted.