A bitter pill - the kids go to Nana and Grandpas

After much soulsearchng, Julie and I decided that it would be in the best interests of the children if they were to stgay with my parents down in Mission Viejo (southern) California and finish out the school year there. If we were to encounter any more difficulties that further delayed our arrival in Florida - and their re-entrance into school, then there was the distinct possiblity that they would both be held back a year in school.

Therefore, Grandpa drove up early Thursday morning to pick up the kids; meeting us at our hotel in Bakersfield where we were waiting out the high winds.

When he arrived, we all made a beeline for the passport office to renew both kids' passport. To do this, you need both parents plus each kid present - and we realized that this would be the last opportunity for this to happen for us for the next several months.

Realizing that he has a much stronger truck than ours (a Ford F350 vs. a Ford Explorer), and that we were about to be faced with a rather steep grade on the road that lies between Bakersfield and Barstow, grandpa offered to pull the trailer for us up and over the pass into Barstow.

It was amazing how effortlessly his truck pulled our trailer up those mountains.

We made it into Barstow by about 4:48PM. Since the plates on the truck we were driving were technically supposed to have been destroyed (required by the Califoirnia DMV for lien-sale vehicles), I managed to make good use of those twelve minutes by making it to the Barstow DMV and was able to pick up a new set of plates and stickers before we left California for parts unknown.

All in all, a very productive day.

Handing the kids off to Nana and Grandpa was quite a bitter pill - I can't describer how much we'll both miss them; but I think it's best that they get re-enrolled into school as soon as possible.

After we parted ways, Julie and I managed to drive another 321 miles; ending up in Kingman, Arizona around 2AM that morning.