The beagle has landed.

A very busy day... well, several... lies ahead, but I think it appropriate to take a moment to tell you that last night we arrived safely in Loveland. Besides, my preferred title for this post gives me the opportunity, if not obligation, to name my Outback - Snoopea.

Leaving Tarrytown was a ginormous feat. We arrived there in June with everything packed into my Prius. Before leaving, Twila shipped via UPS 6 medium-sized U-Haul boxes back to Loveland; I managed to pack and ship 22 (mostly medium, some small). Then I folded down the seats in the Outback, smiled at the large amount of space available, and proceeded to pack it completely. It was so full that in the event of a front collision numerous projectiles would have flown forward in a terrifyingly hazardous manner. In the end we couldn't even stuff in a small but nifty waste paper basket that both of us fancied, and several non-food items were stuffed in our cooler (which we forgot to ice).

After final jamming on Friday morning, we dropped the keys off at the manager's office and hit the road. Well, tapped the road might be a more apt description. A major artery near us had been closed because of flooding, and the street outside the apartment complex was filled with bumper-to-bumper stop-and-go westbound traffic. Cleverly, we turned east and circled around most of that traffic, only to not-so-cleverly miss our turnoff. Searching for another way around the mess we ended up in Dobbs Ferry, which at the time could more accurately be described as No Man's Land. To cross the Hudson meant a huge amount of traffic in either direction from there, so we adapted by getting lattes.

Finally we did reach the Tappan Zee bridge and our long trip began. It was annoying at first, because the Outback only had 300 miles on the odometer, and use of cruise control was advised against during the 1000-mile break-in period. Being virtually wed to the concept of cruise control, I found having to use my foot to control the accelerator while simultaneously having to monitor speed to be painfully retro. I did get to 800 miles before starting to cheat, though.

We spent the first night in Youngstown, Ohio, and the second in Altoona, Iowa. We arrived in Loveland at 6 PM Sunday, though with the changes in time zone combined with the switch to daylight saving time, it could have been 5 or 7:30 PM.

Hopefully Twila will overcome her blogophobia long enough to fill in some of the blanks. I'm off to rediscover my home.