safe in Ames

Hi everyone! Sorry for the long delay between posts. My last few days at UF were pretty hectic and the past week has been consumed with the move from Gainesville, FL to Ames, Iowa.
Last Thursday a moving van (Courtesy of ISU) came and took most of my stuff. Friday was my last day at UF and my parents arrived from Lexington. On Saturday and Sunday my parents and drove 1300 miles; Sheba rode with me in my car, the cats rode in their carriers in my dad's truck and my mom took turns riding with me or my dad. Sheba is always an ideal passenger and the cats did much better than I expected.
While the drive was quite long, it was also a nice trip down memory lane. On Saturday night, we stayed in our former hometown of Paducah, KY. My parents moved to Paducah in 1977 and lived there until 2006. Therefore, it is my childhood hometown. On Sunday morning we took some time to drive around to all of our former homes and visit old haunts. We even got Red's Doughnuts for breakfast! Sunday's route took us through Hannibal, Missouri (home of Mark Twain). Eleven years ago we made that same drive from Paducah to Hannibal when I worked as an intern at a chemical plant in Hannibal. Strangely, I saw very few places that I recognized.
We spent a lot of time buying stuff for my new rental home. Lots of groceries, a new litterbox, used kitchen table and chairs, some used shelves. The most exciting purchase by far was a used washer/dryer pair. I haven't had free in-house access to laundry facilities since I moved to LA back in 2000. So I'm thrilled with these. I'm actually running my first load while I write this post.
The new house is great. There is much more space than I'm used to. It has a small shed, so I'm looking forward to purchasing a kayak and a bike. There are tons of windows and a nice open yard. I can hear one of the local train tracks and the bell tower on campus. And everyone that I've met so far is very nice. My landlord even had flowers waiting when we arrived.
On Tuesday the moving van was supposed to arrive with my stuff. We were hoping that they would arrive pretty early in the day so that my parents could get back on the road at a decent time. We spent most of the day waiting. And waiting some more. And speculating about why the van hadn't arrived yet. Finally, at 2pm I called the moving company to see if they were still coming. And discovered that the moving van is still in Florida. And it won't arrive until early next week. So my parents went ahead and left so that they could make significant progress in their 750 mile drive back to Lexington. It was hard to watch them drive away. And I went to the mall, because ragged khaki shorts and a t-shirt are not appropriate attire for my new job.
Speaking of the new job, it starts tomorrow. I'm nervous, but also very excited to start this new phase in my life.
There are photos of the moving process and my new (empty) home here. I'll post more photos as I get it set up, whenever my stuff arrives. For now, I have my pets, my laptop and ipod, so I'll get by just fine.