Minnesota Barlows: Philly or Bust!

Our Uhaul pods are packed full!

One hot day in the middle of July, Jon and I packed all of our possessions into two UHaul pods. For the most part, the packing went well, with the exception of "Mattress Gate" and "Box Gate." Mattress Gate entailed Jon and I trying to move our king size mattress out of the basement into the pod by ourselves. I was on top, Jon was below. We basically had to fold the mattress in half to fit it up the stairs. Unfortunately, we still managed to get the corner of the mattress stuck on every step. It was too heavy for me to lift it up off the step, and Jon just kept pushing forward. I suppose he thought the forward momentum would be helpful to me, but it wasn't. I ended up getting my foot caught under the mattress which was stuck on the step, over and over and over again. After about three or four times of this same thing happening, Jon ended up just pushing and lifting the entire mattress up himself! Ha!

Box Gate happened when we were driving between our two storage units. We had to empty one of them, move several boxes from both of them into the pods, and put any left over things that we didn't need for the year into our second one. We had the pick-up truck piled high with boxes. As we were cruising down Highway 63, a pretty busy two lane highway, one of the boxes floated off the back and landed in the middle of the road. So we quickly turned around and parked on the side of the road, as cars swerved, honked, and whizzed by the box. Eventually, Jon was able to dangerously frogger his way out there to pick up the box. He literally shoved it in to the passenger seat on top of me. It was uncomfortable, but at least everyone survived Box Gate 2013!

The next morning, after a few previously forgotten errands (bank, post office, gas station), we hit the road for our 20 hour drive to Philly! Our caravan included our car with Jon, me, Kylie, and Brooks, and my mom's car with my mom and Mia, and most of the stuff we would need for the three weeks we would be without a home!

I need to back up for a second...Over the weekend, our car's battery had been giving us signals that it might be on it's last leg. Of course, on Sunday night, it became clear that we would need a new battery asap! Instead of waiting around Stewie on Monday morning, we jumped the car so we could start driving. A few minutes into the drive, Jon called the Farm and Fleet in Madison, WI to see if we could get an appointment. They had an opening at 12:30pm, which fit perfectly into our driving schedule. After a quick bathroom break in Mauston, WI (in which Kylie yelled, "We're in Philly!"), we arrived in Madison at exactly 12:30pm. While our car was being fixed, we ate lunch at a Mexican restaurant. By 2:00pm, the car was back in tip top shape, and we were on the road again!

We managed to only need to stop every 2-3 hours on the first day's journey. We drove through Wisconsin, Illinois (via Bloomington), and part of Indiana on day one! We stopped in Indianapolis for the night.

Miss Kylie taking her afternoon nap in the car!

Swimming at the hotel at our stop in Indy!

The next morning, we were on the road by about 8:00am. We really wanted to try to make it all the way to Philly that night so the kids could have their own space to sleep. We pushed it even a little more the second day, stopping only every 3-4 hours for bathroom breaks. The kids were amazing. Brooks slept on and off, ate in his car seat, and was generally happy. Kylie became a vegetable and watch a marathon of movies, but you gotta' do what you gotta' do to survive a road trip like that. That day we drove out of Indiana, through Ohio, and all the way across Pennsylvania! We arrived in Philly around 8:30-9:00pm! We stayed with our friends, Joe and Catherine, at their home for the three weeks that we were homeless! They were awesomely accommodating, giving the kids their own room, and us our own room! They even cooked many meals for us! We are so grateful for such wonderful friends!

When we arrived in Philly, they were experiencing a major heat wave.

The temps were in the high 90's/low 100's each day.

Taking a dip in my mom and Mia's hotel pool was just what we needed!

My mom and sister stayed in Philadelphia with us for two more days. We enjoyed exploring the city, going out to eat, and hanging out with them. We stopped by our apartment (which we weren't moving into for three more weeks). We walked around our new neighborhood. We visited the Liberty Bell and Independence Hall. And we went to Atlantic City to walk along the Boardwalk. It was a lot of fun, and we will miss them so much this year!