Thanks, everyone for their comments. We made it home yesterday about 6-ish. The kids worked off some steam by riding their bikes, we had dinner, baths, books, etc. Then I was going to write up our days adventures, but instead I printed off the room confirmation for next weekend and my wife jumped my bones for an hour of wild monkey sex, or I fell asleep. You decide.

Let’s see, I’m not as punchy as I was Saturday night so apologies that this isn’t funnier. I think it fitting to borrow some lyrics from Zeppelin:

We come from the land of the ice and snow,
>from the midnight sun where the hot springs blow.
The hammer of the gods
Will drive our ships to new lands,
To fight the horde, singing and crying:
Valhalla, we are coming!

Yes, it really helps to pretend you are a mighty Viking or at least on some kind of epic quest. Instead of accepting that you are just hauling furniture around.

Mellow is the man
Who knows what he’s been missing
Many many men
Can’t see the open road.

Yeah. Something like that. I saw a little too much open road this weekend (just under 1,000 miles combined Saturday / Sunday). So am I mellow now?

Yes, there are two paths you can go by
But in the long run
There’s still time to change the road you’re on.
And it makes me wonder.

Okay, just to fill in a bit on why all this was necessary. We have been talking for a long time with my in-laws about swapping some beds around. They had a trundle bed they didn’t really want/need, and we had two box springs and frames in closets and getting tripped over. Twin size. In our van, we have three kids in car seats, so there isn’t just a whole lot of cargo room. If we left it to others to bring stuff down to us, it would never happen. In addition to the bed stuff, there was a recliner in storage that belonged to my father in law, and some prints my mom had framed for us, and we bought my son a fisher-price power wheels thingy (pictures soon, I promise) that is pretty big for his birthday (actually we called the place up there that had a used one and my dad went and picked it up in The Van on Friday but we knew we had to get it back home somehow).

We were going to rent a truck but there were none locally – lots of college types moving around. We found one in Dallas but they wanted $800 for it and we’d still have to get it back to Dallas so lots of driving. The van was a logical choice.

And if you say to me tomorrow,
Oh what fun it all would be,
Then what’s to stop us, pretty baby,
But what is and what should never be.

By the way, driving down on Saturday night I saw three U-hauls broken down on the side of the road. Three. One – the trailer came off the suburban pulling it. Two others were big trucks, probably full, sitting in the dark with their flashers on while the driver discussed things with a tow truck. Not a pretty site.

Been dazed and confused for so long it’s not true,
Wanted a woman, never bargained for you.
Lots of people talk and few of them know,
Soul of a woman was created below. yeah!

Um, no, I didn’t really sing this very loudly when I was driving along, thinking that there were about a dozen different ways we could have accomplished the same objective. No.

You need coolin’, baby, I’m not foolin’,
I’m gonna send you back to schoolin’,
Way down inside honey, you need it,
I’m gonna give you my love,
I’m gonna give you my love.

It’s lyrics like this that drive my wife insane. She was very, very glad I got my Zeppelin fix while she was busy chasing after three kids. She does not miss the days when people talked like this.

Sweetest little baby
Daddy ever saw
I’m gonna give you lovin’ baby,
I’m gonna give you more.
Bring it on home,
Bring it on home,
Bring it on home,
Alright.

It was so nice to get home. I called my dad to thank him for use of his van (I returned it to his house and left the key while they weren’t home). He laughed and said “I bet you’re tired, it’s not like driving a Honda.”

Pictures to follow. When I find the camera. Thanks for reading.