A month ago today all I knew about Bloomington, Indiana was it is where the University of Indiana is located. Today I really don't know much more about it other than it's 915 miles from Burleson, Texas and it's about a 16 hour drive. Over the month Ben interviewed for a position, accepted the position, wrapped up his work in Texas, and with a little help from Pa and some good friends packed up his belongings and moved to Bloomington. He is now the General Manager at the Lake Monroe Jellystone Camp-Resort. I think I'll be learning more about Bloomington in the days ahead.
https://www.lakemonroejellystone.com/
I flew out to Texas last Friday night, but I wasn't flying alone. Sarah and Sweet Baby James were on the flight with me to Dallas. They kept going back to California where I'm sure Joey was anxiously awaiting their return. I headed to Burleson where it was time to pack up and hit the road. Saturday was dedicated to loading the truck. Thanks to the help of some good friends we were able to get this accomplished pretty quickly. The 16 foot Penske Truck, and Ben's car were loaded to capacity and then a little bit more.
We left Burleson at 3:30 AM on Sunday morning. Ben and his friend Joni were in his car and Allie (Ben's Dog) and I were sharing intelligent conversation in the truck. Beth would have loved to have been with us but remained in Florida making sure that NaNa was not misbehaving. Sixteen hours later and with our sanity somewhat still intact we arrived at his new home. The last things we packed on the truck were the mattresses which were the only thing we unpacked Sunday night.
Monday we started converting the house into a "home" and I think we did a fine job. After unloading Ben and Joni started concentrating on the "mancave" and his extensive collection of sports memorabilia, while I was organizing the upstairs area. I flew back Tuesday afternoon and Joni flew back to Texas earlier today. While there are still boxes to unpack, it's looking pretty darn good. Especially since Bloomington, Indiana wasn't even on the radar screen a month before moving in!
Oh yeah, one other thing. The Tucker Family NCAA Basketball Bracket Challenge is coming to a close. What's a given is that Ben is going to be the Grand Champion and Beth is going to be the Grand Loser. NaNa rode her Seminole's to a next to last place finish. Sarah and Joey are tied for second but have no teams left in the final four. I can pass them and finish in second place with a Villanova win. It's always fun!
 |
| Texas, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois and finally Indiana! Fourteen hours if you don't need to eat, get gas or go to the bathroom. |
 |
| Just a small part of the Mancave |
 |
| The back upper deck of Ben's house |
 |
| Hanging the first picture in the living room |
 |
| The front of the house............very nice and it's included as part of the General Manager position! |
 |
| Allie could barely contain her excitement when I told her she would be riding with me all the way to Bloomington! |
