The journey begins with a single step

Today we finally wrapped up everything at the house. We were fortunate enough to rent it to a family who we immediately hit it off with. Lu and I consider them not just renters, but also friends. It makes parting with the house that Lu put so many hours in renovating not quite as traumatic. 

Our house has had an echo of emptiness since we've parted with 90% of our possessions over the last couple of months. All we have left are some packed boxes which are stored at Lu's sister's house in Texas and our SUV full of stuff that we packed today.  We even packed up the cat. The cat does surprisingly well with traveling. I think she might even like it. She will ride with us until she can be deposited with family in Texas. So far pet friendly accommodations have been easy to find. 

It was extremely challenging getting the final amount of stuff packed, tossed, or given away. We worked for hours on it and it seemed like every time we opened a door, cabinet, or drawer it was loaded with stuff that we had overlooked. Finally about 5pm we finished and got on the road. 

We drove the Natchez Trace Parkway. It's beautiful, smooth and best of all it sees little use other than bicycles, motorcycles, and "Sunday drivers". It's not open to commercial traffic so there aren't any big trucks.  It meanders through a green belt that is manicured like a state park and surrounded by forest.  We drove almost 150 miles and ended up in Muscle Shoals, AL. 

We are both exhausted, so we ate in our room and each had a glass of vino. Tomorrow we will get a late checkout and explore the town.