Fields of Opportunity

As I continue to mosey along to the finish line I get up Sunday to make my way to our final destination, I - O - W - A. It’s just Lucky and I now. He wants to climb up into the front, sit his front paws on the center arm rest and stick his head out the moon roof. We are on back roads now doing only about 60. But he sticks his head out facing forward filling those big old jowls full of wind and fresh country air. He’s blowing up looking like a blowfish retriever. He’s got his ever present drool raining down on our beautiful new car and me. The car is a total disaster at this point full of dog hair blowing everywhere. It takes us about 3 ½ hours to complete our journey and we arrive at Carrie’s parent’s house in Gilbertville, IA. Ironically my arrival is 9 years to the day that I left Madison to move out to Boston. We are officially back in the Midwest. We only need to brush up on our tractor driving skills.

Carrie, Q, Lucky and I are reunited again in the country just in time to commute the one hour drive one-way down to Cedar Rapids to begin my first official day of work in the office. Lucky has a new friend in a black lab named Odie to run around with and Q was getting tons of attention from his grandparents and a myriad of other Iowa relatives. We all moved in to a one room efficiency in the basement. Quentin is too big for the pack and play at this stage so he’s forced to sleep on the floor. We would bring him in bed with us but instead of sleeping he’s punching one of us and kicking the other. Sleeping he’s not, though. So, we have Q on one side of the bed and Lucky on the other. Carrie and I are in the bed. It’s dangerous to get up and step on someone in the middle of the night but of course with Carrie using the restroom for two she’s up every twenty minutes. One of the joys of having a breached baby this late in the game is that kid is kicking you straight up in the bladder. There is already a ton of pressure but the added drop kicks just adds to the thrill of pregnancy.

It was great to get some home cooked meals and to be a family again, but the commute on top of long days was killing me. So after two nights there I took my sleeping bag, air mattress, Wisconsin camping chair and headed to the new homestead. I was back to sleeping on the floor for a final night in our new house.

The Iowa house is much larger than our Tampa house mostly due to the addition of adding a basement. There are big windows providing an inviting view of the cornfield out back complete with red barn and silo. The windows are equally as large out front giving the neighborhood voyeur a great chance to check out the new neighbors. I must have been quite a sight that first night as I sat right in the middle of a very empty living room sitting on my one piece of furniture, said camping Wisconsin chair diligently typing away on my unconnected laptop. I’m sure the near neighbors were close to calling the cops about the squatter that moved in next door. There are so many light switches in this place you should’ve seen me trying to go to bed. I was trying to turn off the two or three that I had on but the house has such an open floor plan there are light switches on every wall. I looked like I was sending an SOS as I flicked every light on, off, on, off, on, off, on, off trying to get the right ones off. From a distance it must’ve looked like a Pink Floyd laser light show from the 80s.

In case you are counting at home that’s 9 nights in 6 locations and four nights on the floor. The following morning a coworker scheduled a visit with a client. Umm, no. I am sleeping on the floor. Getting a suit on is going to be an insurmountable obstacle. The next day would be move in day.

There is a picture of us rolling across the mighty Mississippi and taking a quick shot to get the welcome to Iowa sign. Poppa Steve dusted off a tricycle for Q to get a ride on. I think this year for his birthday we will give him a big wheel. And then there is the shot of our backyard. All cornfield, all the time. This time of year as the sun sets on the golden hue of the corn it's a pretty relaxing view. I love not having backyard neighbors again, a highlight of our Tampa home. Part IV will be posted tomorrow.

The Adventure

The next morning we got up at 3:30 am to get the car packed and get on the road. We hoped to drive about 800 miles and spend the night in Kentucky camping with the pooch. The drive took us about 12 hours. The speed limit is 70 and there are 6 lanes the whole way so you can drive at your own pace. It’s a pretty drive with lots of beautiful scenery; mountains, jungle, and curvy roads to keep you on your toes. The dog was a freak as usual but had limited space to hide out in. We had to pack him in from the back to fit all our gear so he only had a cubbyhole in the middle of the car that we carved out for him. The satellite radio was a major bonus as was the extra driver for relief and company.

We made it to Mammoth Cave, KY around 4pm which gave us enough time to set up our pup tent and hike around. The park was virtually empty so we could enjoy the wild turkeys, deer, and other wildlife in relative solitude. We ended up hiking down a major sinkhole that was about 2 miles. The way down was fine, but the way back up was a killer. Even the dog was stopping to catch his breath. It was nice to get the blood flowing again after spending so much time in the car but we could've used less of an incline. When we got back to the tent we were all exhausted and looking forward to dinner and a campfire. We cooked up some brats and enjoyed the camp fire all the while eyeing our tent for two. Can't wait to snuggle tonight!

I’ll be the first to admit my brother has a spooning problem. On more than one occasion he has attempted and succeeded climbing into bed with Carrie and me. The first time it happened I seriously freaked out when I realized that scratching on my shoulder was my bro’s beard. “What in the H are you doing dude?!!” According to him it’s a sleep walking problem, which sounds like a likely excuse. As I am enjoying the crackling of the fire my mind continually drifts off to my I love spooning brother. I am trying to figure out if the best idea is to put the dog between us and that way Lucky, well, Lucky may get lucky. In the end we were as snug as three bugs in a rug getting no sleep at all. This was the second night in a row of sleeping on the floor and with fatty (Lucky) in there and me trying to watch my back from Captain Spooner I only caught about 3 hours of off and on sleep. By the time dawn rolled around all of us were itching to get out of the tent and reacquaint ourselves with a little man room. Man room as defined by Webster’s: No more touching each other for at least 24 hours. I am happy to report no animals were harmed or violated during this camping trip

We had 500 miles to go so we gave Lucky a couple mile walk in the morning, packed up and hit the road. Next stop was Lake Geneva, WI. The Midwest is different from the southeast in that the speed limits are lower and two lanes are apparently insufficient enough for the slow paced life. We, on the other hand were climbing the walls. There is so much truck traffic and construction! Does it ever end? It took us a good 90 minutes longer than it needed to to make our arrival in Lake Geneva. Indiana severely needs 3 lanes. Illinois and Wisconsin need to tone down their never ending construction binge. When we were 100 miles out it still took us around 2 1/2 hours to get home and after being in the car so long even the dog is going crazy trying to get out. We had to make an emergency pit stop for Lucky to relieve himself. The last thing we needed was an accident 45 minutes away from our destination. We just pulled over on the side of the road and let him do his business in some unsuspecting yard. Yup, and we are out of here!

After arriving in LG that night we went out to dinner with the family to catch up. I had my first Friday night fish fry in a long time. They don’t use the word fry lightly. The fish was fried. They have fried potato pancakes. I know. What is that exactly? They do expect you to pour maple syrup on them. They have French fries. They had corn fritters, which is a Midwestern way of saying fried dough and they had fried coleslaw. Okay, so the coleslaw wasn’t fried. But man alive I have been here 4 hours and already I have shortened my lifespan 6 months. They did have broiled fish, which I opted for. It, and I am not exaggerating here, came out in a quarter inch of butter with 4, count em’ four, little containers of melted butter in case you wanted to do butter shots. They do love their dairy in Wisconsin. And that night, a bed. I got to sleep in an actual bed – with a mattress and everything. To date that’s 4 days, two nights on the floor and three different locations and one spooning incident for Lucky.

Here are a few pics from the road. There is Lucky blazing a trail and him in the car that I shot while driving. Do you see how he crowds you? I can't tell you how many times I said, "Lay down!!" It never worked so at this point I just let him stare out the windshield. And a picture of our campsite. I'll post Part III tomorrow.

Moving Out

Life is crazy and the simple task of tracking down an hour and an internet connection has been nearly impossible. I flew out to the west coast so I had a long plane ride and found the quiet to write several blog postings about our move. I will post them over the next several days as there was a lot to write. I hope you enjoy reading them. We hope to have more time as we settle in (ya right!) to begin posting on the regular again. Don't give up on the blog and the blog won't give up dispersing all this quality parenting advice!

There were zero fatalities. I really think at the end of the day when one moves from palm trees to corn trees the first thing you should be most concerned about is making an arrival. I made it, my wife made it, my son made it, my brother made it, my in-laws made it and even scruffy made it. We ended up driving around 1,400 miles with a slight turn north to catch a Brewer game. It’s been an interesting ride. I’ve been so busy it took me until Wednesday to realize the Badgers have their opening football game this past weekend. Sheesh!

Carrie, Q and Baby Doe arrived late on Wednesday (8/25) to a parked car (Black Beauty) in the Cedar Rapids International airport’s parking lot full of useful goods for a pregnant woman like baseball cards and booze in the trunk. You know the valuables. But this wonderful wife of mine still took the time at 1o:30 pm after a full day of moving for 8 hours that day, and then got on the plane to fly to IA, to take the car to the new house and unload the stash before taking the one hour drive up north to Q’s grandparents arriving just a shade before midnight. That made for quite a day for Miss Super Mom.

Q of course was a dream. Well, if you can imagine having a dream about a way too tall way too heavy 21 month old kicking the seat of the frequent flier in front of you for an hour or two while throwing the occasional swing at a 32 week pregnant lady, ahem, mom. For the most part he was great. Everyone is going through a lot of transition right now so we are just doing the best we can to cross things off our list and keep what little sanity we have left.

My brother was gracious enough to fly to Tampa to help me drive back. Just to provide some perspective for how great this was. My brother left Wisconsin at 7am to drive to the Milwaukee airport. He flew to Atlanta, took a 90 minute layover. Landed in Tampa. Helped Carrie load her bags on to her plane. Jumped in with me around 5pm. We cleaned up the house, got rid of the goods, had a couple of drinks, slept on the floor after going to bed around 11 pm. Got up at 3:30 am after sleeping in a sleeping bag and drove back through Atlanta to go camping in middle Kentucky. There he slept on the floor of a tent (also in a sleeping bag), woke up at 5 am, drove another 500 miles to get back to his own bed in Wisconsin. Total trip time of 32 hours. Total time in Florida 10.5 hours. Total time in the car? 21 hours. That's a quality brother.

My in-laws drove the aquarium car (Black Beauty) up north a few days ahead and then have been letting the Spiegelhoff clan come home after a day of conquering their everyday lives, a serious challenge as of late, to crash at their pad with Stinky included on the guest list. I can only imagine. My stuff is on a truck. I really miss my stuff. A bed, our own roof and I would settle for one flat screen with an NFL Ticket connection. That’s all one really needs in life.

Before leaving Tampa our roofers showed up at the same time as the movers as did the person building the crates for the real aquarium, TVs and trophy fish on the wall – those will look much more at home in Iowa. So we had a parking lot full of cars and made quite the scene as we were moving out. There was 10-12 people hustling and bustling through our home as little by little our possessions dwindled down out of the house and onto the massive semi parked out front. They used eight foot ladders inside the truck to pack our stuff 20 feet high inside the semi. It’s very much like a giant life-size game of Tetris.

The movers finished at the same time that Carrie and Q needed to catch their flight so in the all the commotion we weren’t even afforded one last final good-bye to our home as a family. I was sad to have missed that as we had so many great memories in Tampa. Carrie was a hormonal wreck on the way to the airport so I was doing my best to keep it together. The poor dog was abruptly left in a totally empty house as he watched his family leave with suitcases. I can only imagine what he was thinking. He was stoked to see me arrive home again 45 minutes later to spend one last night in Tampa.

Upon arriving at the airport my brother had just flown in so as Q and Carrie were getting dropped off he was arriving. Quite the emotional scene he walked into. Q was crying. Carrie was crying. I was trying to get everyone on their way and trying not to think about saying good bye. My brother was very helpful ushering Carrie and her bags to the ticket counter so she could get ready to go through security. He didn’t know what was going on. Q didn't know what was going on. There was way too much going on! Everyone made it and my brother and I settled into a nice evening of cleaning the floors, throwing out any remaining items and sleeping on the floor in sleeping bags like we were 9 again.

Here are a few pictures of us moving out. For perspective, in that first one Q is in front of the truck. He's so small you can barely see him. For scale he is exactly 3 feet tall. I took that pic standing at the back wall in the garage and I still couldn't fit the whole truck in the picture. This will continue in part II tomorrow.