After waiting for this moment for seemingly half of forever, the car was packed well beyond the comfortable point. We headed out of Virginia Beach for the last time. Check out this blog post on our decision to move from Virginia Beach to Idaho.
Like the pioneers once plodding down the Oregon Trail, we didn’t feel as though we REALLY were heading west until we crossed the Mighty Mississippi. The first major landmark that we couldn’t wait to spot from the car window was the St. Louis Arch, a.k.a. the Gateway to the West. After 1.5 days and 16 very long hours in the car, there it was …
Moving Challenges
Of course, when you move, things rarely go as planned. Our move and subsequent journey west were no exceptions. We had left Virginia Beach the day before five hours later than planned, due to unforeseen nitpicky situations to wrap up. We were already going to arrive at our hotel in Kentucky much later than we would’ve liked. And that was before traffic soon came to a dead stop on the interstate due to a major wreck … and remained that way for over an hour. Finally on our way again, dinner consisted of snacks from the car and potato chips from a gas station because we certainly had no time to stop anywhere. Our hotel didn’t come into view until 1:30 a.m.
For the second day, the original plan had been to leave our Kentucky hotel fairly early. We would arrive at the Arch in plenty of time to take in the documentary and spend ample time inside the Arch itself, including its fabulous free museum. We might perhaps even enjoy a riverboat cruise.
Leaving a hotel room “fairly early” when you only arrived in the middle of the night just isn’t going to happen, however, when you have kids in tow. Plus we grossly underestimated how long it would take a repack a fully loaded car each morning. Saying we were moving at a snail’s pace would have insulted the snail.
At Least We Saw the Arch
By the time we were closing in on the great city of St. Louis, we were fighting time to even make it to the infamous Gateway to the West before it closed its doors for the day. Figuring out where to park and walking to the Arch from our parking garage were other challenges to throw onto the pile. As it turned out, we managed to secure the 4:50 p.m. time slot (last slot was 5:00) to take the ride to the top. However, we completely missed our chance for the other offered activities. Still, while sad about what we were missing, we considered that at least a partial win given our circumstances.
Once beyond St. Louis/St. Charles, we were now “officially” moving west. We were searching out a new life much like the pioneers of the 19th century. (With a few obvious differences, of course.) Having missed the museum at The Gateway Arch, we listened to an historical account of the Lewis & Clark Expedition in the car. As the miles passed, we shook off the stress of our move and began to look forward to the new trail ahead.
