Knoxville: Half-way There!

Hello from Knoxville, Tennessee! I'm halfway to Cranberry Lake: 2 days down, 2 days to go.

So... The last week in Houston was hectic, to say the least. I spent last weekend packing (of course) and washing every piece of clothing I own, to either be put in a box for storage or to come with either me (now) or Dad (in August). I cleared out my bedroom and was just down to the 'random crap', which is always left at the end of any move, by Thursday night. I got as much of my work projects finished and wrapped up as I could. I crossed all the things off of my Texas Food Bucket List (barbecue, Mexican, Kasra [Persian], and Cafe Lili [Lebanese]). I got my field pants hemmed, bought extra toiletries and coffee. I communicated with the graduate student already at Cranberry Lake about logistics. I turned on Find Friends on my phone so that my parents can follow where I am (if I'm still in Mississippi after 3 days, something has gone HORRIBLY WRONG). I had one last dinner with Mom, one last dinner with Dad and Linda, and one last lunch with my coworkers. I cuddled my kitties. Well, I cuddled one of my kitties. The other kitty knows what boxes mean (she's been around that particular block a few times before), so she hid under the bed and wouldn't look at me. 😢

On Tuesday after work, I took my car in for pre-trip oil change, etc. I needed the dealership to rotate the tires because the last time I tried to get the tires rotated, they said one of the bolts was stripped and they weren't sure they could get the nut off without breaking the bolt. So I had the dealership break the bolt and then give me a new one... $135 later, my tires are rotated and I can once again change a flat myself if necessary. My windshield wipers also started doing weird things, so they had to replace the wipers (not just the blades, something had gotten bent, so the intermittent setting was just normal speed, not actually intermittent), $90. With the oil change and 2 new filters (there was grass and bug bits in them, I've never seen my filters that gross AND my AC wasn't blowing as much air as it usually does, which was explained by the bug bits since it's back to normal now), I was out $400. Good thing I was ahead on my savings plan. Ughhhhh. 😒

Saturday, I got a lazy start to the day, got the car packed up, and got on the road around 1pm, a bit later than I wanted, but still fine. With stops for gas and dinner, I made it to Laurel, Mississippi by about 9:30. There were little pop-up thunderstorms everywhere thanks to the tropical wave down in the Gulf, but I managed to miss all but one of them. Still pretty hot and humid.

Today, I got on the road around 10am, and landed at my AirBnB here in Knoxville around 6:30 (now in Eastern Time, as of Georgia, so the day was shorter than the arrival time would indicate). The scenery started to get forest-y and hill-y partway through Mississippi and just got more-so into Alabama, a tiny corner of Georgia, and now Tennessee. Both yesterday and today were surprisingly easy, especially as the scenery started to improve late yesterday. Temperatures fluctuated today as I went in and out of little cloudbursts (I caught 2 directly today and side-swiped 2 more), and it was in the upper 80's when I came into Knoxville this evening. Much drier than Houston though, and as soon as the sun went down, the temp started down too. It's now rather pleasant at 75, with the dew point at 67 (still quite humid by normal-people standards, but downright lovely by Houston standards). Supposed to be 68 first thing tomorrow morning and it's embarrassing how excited I am about a temperature under 70.

Tomorrow is the long day. 7.5 to 8.5 hours, depending on what kind of traffic I run into, which will depend on where I end up come rush-hour time (since tomorrow is Monday). I'll get an earlier start and hopefully land in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania around dinner time. Tomorrow's drive should be quite scenic as well, since I'm well into the Appalachians at this point. Audiobooks are going well, as is the solo vocal concert featuring ME. Y'all all missing out, seriously. 😉

I'm looking at the weather for Harrisburg, PA. It's normally quite nice: highs in the 80s, lows in the 60s. Of course, the evening and morning I'll be there, it's doing its best Houston impression: high of 95 (dew point at 72, so heat index above 100), low of 77 (again, super humid, so feels like 85). Ughhhhhhh why. 😣 It looks like most of the eastern part of the country is gonna be gross on Monday, so I know it isn't personal. And luckily, Cranberry Lake on Tuesday afternoon is gonna be 70-ish, low that night around 50. Yes please!

Ok. Going to bed now, even though it doesn't feel like 10:15... gotta adjust to the new time zone. I passed a Panera Bread on my way here from the highway, so I'm thinking bagels for breakfast! Unless I see my host tomorrow morning and can get a coffee shop recommendation.

Minor update because ughhhh

Best-laid plans and all that...

For Memorial Day weekend, I went out to Brenham to hang out with some friends and relax for a few days. Which means I didn't do any packing that weekend. This was right after my Fort Worth work trip (4-hr drive) and I left Brenham to go straight to Baton Rouge (5.5-hr drive) to teach all last week. While I was in Baton Rouge, we had to do a last-minute instructor switch because of a medical emergency... so I'm writing this from Tallahassee, Florida where I'm teaching this week, instead of teaching at my home office. I flew into Jacksonville and drove 2.5 hrs to Tallahassee. And after this, I'll fly to Dallas to play a concert at a handbell conference on Friday and then ride home with a friend (4.5 hrs) LATE Friday night. This means I don't get to do any packing this week either. Definitely wouldn't have gone to Brenham if I'd known. Also, I really didn't want to start my epic 4-day drive while already sick of cars and driving. Oh well.

On the bright side, my hotel is 5 minutes from my classroom site, and Tallahassee is actually quite pretty. More Georgia-ish than Florida-ish, heavily wooded, rolling hills. And it was only 65 this morning and is only supposed to be 88 this afternoon. Still humid, but better than the 95 it's supposed to be in Houston today. That's a win right there.

But, I got the last little bit of the garage stuff sorted and packed up, got a bunch of extra field guides from Mom to be packed, and got all of the Going But Not Field Stuff clothes washed. Really all that's left is the rest of the laundry, actually pack the clothes and shoes, etc., and finish packing up my bedroom. So I think everything's on-track, but still.

Also, my friends threw a going-away party for me on Saturday night, which was lovely (lots of Cards Against Humanity and sangria and AMAZING fajitas).

Still to do (random stuff):
 - Car things (oil change, tire rotation, alignment, etc.)
 - Cats to the vet for car-ride drugs
 - Book AirBnB's for trip (didn't happen last week amid frantic travel arrangements for this FL trip)
 - Finish laundry and clothes-packing
 - Test-pack the car