Welcome to the Jungle .... er, Forest

This blog is long overdue! In a nutshell, here is how we got to New Jersey safely, & what happened along the way:

We had packed up & cleaned the apartment by Thursday night (August 21, I believe). We spent hours loading the Uhaul trailer, loading the remainder of Jonathan’s things from his parents’ house, & back to the apartment to clean up. Friday afternoon, we turned in our apartment keys & headed to the Bahrami house in Frisco to spend our last night with them. The Uhaul needed to be unloaded & re-arranged, so we thought it’d be a good idea to back the trailer (attached to Parisa’s truck) into the garage, so unloading & re-loading would be much easier, & we’d have the garage light in case it got dark. We pulled the truck into the alleyway, & Parisa got out to direct Jonathan to back the trailer into the driveway. Well… we ended up striping the hitch holding the trailer to the truck & popped the hitch and the bumper. We were left scrambling at 7:30 pm on a Friday night trying to find a new trailer hitch. Luckily a Uhaul store nearby was still open. We got a new hitch, unloaded & reloaded the trailer, & loaded the back of the truck. Our “relaxing” night with our family didn’t even begin til 10:30 pm. We watched “The Strangers” & ate great food Parisa’s mom prepared, & didn’t go to bed til about 2:30 am.

Because of staying up so late, we also got a late start in the morning. Instead of leaving at 5 am as planned, we departed at 9 am. We had to stop about 2 hours into the trip to get bungee cables to re-enforce the tarp covering our belongings in the truck. With that taken care of, we were on our way again.

It was a loooong trip. We drove through Texas, Arkansas, and almost all of Tennessee on the first day of driving. Our plan was to make it to Roanoake, VA the first day & drive a shorter distance on the second day. Unfortunately because of our late start, & the fact Tennessee seemed to be the never-ending state, we didn’t make it to Virginia. We stopped at a hotel off the highway in Tennessee & restlessly slept a few hours. We got up on the second morning very early & after a Starbucks trip, we hit the road. We drove through the remainder of Tennessee, then Virginia, West Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania & finnaly New Jersey. Although the route was very long, it was simply gorgeous. The abundance of trees & scenery was just breathtaking!

We got to Madison about 10 pm on Sunday night. We headed over to the Public Safety office to pick up our apartment key, as the main office was closed. After about a 20 minute encounter with a very unhelpful Public Satefy officer, we finally had the keys to our new home- and a second wind. We decided to move forward with unloading the back of the truck, and the entire Uhaul. We were both getting very tired & it was very hot, so Parisa went out to get some drinks.

Well, we learned the hard way that small town life is MUCH different than Dallas life. As in, nothing is open here on Sundays, let alone at 11 pm. This includes gas stations. After a 45 minute search, Parisa finally found a rinky-dink gas station to buy water at… only to discover she’d left her wallet at the new apartment, & had Jonathan’s phone with her. Not ideal.

We’ve basically spent the past 2 weeks getting settled. We bought dark red & khaki paint to paint the living room, & rustic earthbrown paint for the bedroom. We have made many trips to Home Depot & Target for shelving, storage units, etc., as the “closet” we have in our apartment is barely big enough for even Jonathan’s clothes. The small living space is a HUGE change from what we’re used to (our kitchen is so small it doesn’t have a counter or dishwasher) especially in terms of storage & shelving space, but we’re taking measures to make it work. Regardless, this is our first real home together & we’re very excited about making it our own & creating a “home-y” environment. Plus, our apartment is in the middle of the woods & right next to a playground, so you can’t beat the view.

All in all, we made it to Jersey safely, & are slowly getting more familiar with the area & the different way of life here. It's definitely an adjustment period, but we're in love with our new surroundings :)

With love,
Parisa & Jonathan