Road Trip

After graduation & farewells were completed it was time for us to road trip out to texas. Fortunately, my parents were kind enough to take Logan back with them to California for a week so we could do the drive without having to stop every couple hours! And then Brent's family took Indiana with them, where he's going to stay for the next year or so until we've got a yard for him to run around in! Logan did great on the trip to Cali with my parents (at least that't what they tell me) & had a blast in california with all of his aunts & uncles who I'm sure spoiled him rotten! Indiana was another ordeal though. Because of weather conditions we had to ship him on Delta Cargo. When we dropped him off at the shipping dock we could still here him howling when we were all the way out in the parking lot (I felt really bad for that pilot & the other animals/living beings on the plane). JB was kind enough to pick him up in salt lake and said that he was frantic but very excited when he was picked up. Pore dog...he's never going to want to do that again. He then got to hang out w/Bryan for a few days until Brent's parents got back into town. Bryan's dog sleeps outside, so they put Indy out with him- aparently that didn't last very long & he was inside for the night snuggling in someones bed (he doesn't like roughin' it). But now he's in doggy heaven running around Utah! Brent & I are enjoying a break from caring for the dog, but Logan really misses him. When he first came home, he walked in the door & immediately starting signing "dog"!!

Anyways, after toddler & dog were shipped off we headed out of town on monday, june 8th & drove all the way to memphis. We actually made pretty good time & the drive through kentucky & tennesse was just beautiful. It kinda stunk though that we had to drive separately (Brent drove the truck hauling the accord & I drove our civic). I managed to entertain myself singing at the top of my lungs though pretty much the entire time; my voice was a little horse by the time we got to memphis. We decided to spend a day doing touristy stuff in memphis before we headed on to Texas. We went & saw Graceland (Elvis' aboad) & the Peabody Hotel. Graceland was...interesting. It was probably had more fun people watching-there are some crazy elvis fanatics out there. It was ridiculously expensive & probably not worth the $$$, but when are we ever going to go to Memphis again.

Brent styling the headphones & recorder for the audio-guided tour!

Graceland

Living room w/green shag carpet on the floor AND ceinlings! I think I'll do that in our next home...that should help with sound insulation, right??

The basement, again, fabric on the ceiling & the walls.

He's got the moves!

PEABODY HOTEL

Ok, the peabody hotel has a tradition of marching it's resident ducks (yes, ducks) on a red carpet from the elevator to a marble fountain in the lobby every morning & then back again in the evening. I won't go into all the history, but apparently it's a big to-do & it was pretty entertaining to watch. I was amazed that the ducks listened. At the end of the day, the ducks are taken up to their penthouse suite on the roof.

Ducks enjoying the marble fountain.

There is a Duckmaster who leads the whole ordeal, & everytime he came near the fountain the ducks would start quacking and following him around.

At the peabody.

The Penthouse suite on the the roof (they probably would prefer there not to be anygates...???)

On top of the Peabody

After a day in Memphis we headed to Dallas to stay the night with our good friends the Whitesides. This drive was not as enjoyable unfortunately. As soon as we crossed the border into Arkansas it was like we had entered into another world. I thought West Virginia had some interesting people....Arkansas definitely takes the cake. Brent even contemplated just stopping & setting up shop right there!!! (Unfortunately, I don't think dental care is high on many people's priority list there). Then as we neared Dallas we could see very foreboding weather off in the distance (Jenn even called to let me know there was a very bad strom going through). But in true Rigby fashion we pressed on and then when we were in the middle of this horrible storm we got stuck in traffic on the middle of a bridge. I seriously thought we were going to die as I watched the ginormous lightening bolts coming down around us, rain coming down in buckets and water blowing up from the river. I was wondering if we should just get out of the cars & run for cover!!! :) Well, after an hour or so of this we made it to the other side of Dallas to the Whitesides. We caught up with them for awhile & then went to bed while the storm raged on. After about an hour of trying to sleep we kept hearing a car alarm going off. So Brent was trying to be the good house guest & was going to make sure it wasn't our car or the whitesides' & as he went outside to check he set off their house alarm!!!! (Sorry guys...at least the kids didn't get up!). It turned out to be a neighbors car...I don't think we'll be invited back anytime soon!! :)

The next morning, still storming, we made our way to San Antonio. We of course managed to stop off at the Ikea just north of Austin to pick up some stuff for Logan's room (I so wished we lived a reasonable distance from Ikea). We finally made it to San Antonio & the sweltering heat (about 102) around 5pm. We got checked into our apartment (unfortunately, we were a little disapointed with the apartment situation-it was definitely misrepresented somewhat; but, the actual apartment is still very nice & it will work just fine for the next little while). We decided that we'd at least get a few things off the truck that evening. Brent went to unhitch the trailor towing the car & immediately threw out his back (before we even touched anything on the truck)!!! So much for that plan; we got a hotel for the night so he could rest & go to his orientation the next morning. Fortunately, his back was nothing too bad & was feeling ok (so he tells me) the next afternoon. We managed to unpack most of the truck that afternoon (again, soooo hot here) & I got sunburned. After a few hours we were dead tired and left the last few items for the next day. Saturday, we managed to finish up (I was very impressed with ourselves though; we got everything off that truck just the two of us, including our ginormous & incredibly heavy armoir- it shockingly fit in the elevator)!

We spent the next couple days resting & then my mom came into town on monday with Logan. I convinced her to stay the whole week to unpack as well...there is no way I would have gotten everything unpacked without her help!! Brent also started his job on monday, which he's tolerating at this point. It's always a struggle to go into a brand new office & start with new staff & work with materials that you're not familiar with. And there's the added pressure to get patients in the door & keep your production up. But, right now it's a job & a paycheck & it managed to get us out to Texas. We'll see where we go from here.