1.1.11

Happy New Year! The Losins are on their way to California and I am now officially a blogger! Anyone reading this knows what we as a family have gone through to begin this journey across country and we owe you a big thank you! Without our family we could have never accomplished all that we did and survived the past 8 months. We love you all!

As for our new life in sunny California, it began this morning at 8:52 AM. We rolled out of Mimi and Gramps' house with tears of joy and sadness. We waved goodbye to Ellison, Mimi, Gramps and the wonderful life we had made in Georgia to begin the 2641.9 mile journey to El Dorado Hills, CA.

Our travels have already started completely different than any I have ever experienced. We are loaded up with 2 iPhones, an iPad, one laptop, a WiFi system, built in DVD player, a Garmin, a Leapster Explorer and Tag Reader. If we have a hard time keeping entertained then w have a serious problem. I remember the days of an 8 track player ( which was a luxury item) and a window. Mimi did offer us the cassette player for us to listen to Bill Cosby but Emma thought that would interfere with her Dinosaur Train under the Sea.

It was a rainy start to our trip. It rained all the way through Alabama and stopped when we hit Mississippi. As most of you know, Emma collects snow globes, so we are on a quest to get one from each state we travel through. FYI for anyone else traveling and looking for a truck stop with tacky souvenirs..... There is not one to be found on US 78 in Alabama. Thankfully we have one from our trip to see the Sassers in Huntsville last year.

Day 1- We drove through Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas. Emma and Gretta are off to a great start. We stopped at McDonald's in Hamilton, AL for lunch. It was conveniently located right next to a prison, so our first sightseeing was of men making their daily laps around the track for exercise wearing the ever so popular white jumpsuit. We ended our travels in Van Buren, Arkansas at our Best western #1. We ended up traveling for about 11 hours. Emma and Gretta both did awesome and we managed to get a snow globe in Mississippi and Arkansas.