as promised, here i am. back in charlotte on june 26. i know you’ll all be excited to see me again….right? 
though i should warn any regular readers that i’ll be disappearing again for another 8 days starting saturday as i head to mexico for a week, where internet access will not be a priority…or even available. anyway.
what a whirlwind week and a half! to summarize:
1 trip to the 18th green at pebble beach
1 night in monterey, ca
2 bags of genuine california nuts (pistachios and almonds)
1 box of fresh cherries
3 frantic phone calls to see if the space shuttle might be landing as we passed edwards air force base (we missed it by a day!)
1 night in kingman, az
1,000 cactii in the desert
1 crossing of the continental divide
4,000 feet to the other side of meteor crater
1 night in las cruces, nm
1 3×3 wooden board in the middle of the road
1 very flat tire after hitting previously mentioned board
1 trip to tire store to replace previously mentioned tire
2 miles of walking 800 feet underground in carlsbad caverns
500,000 mexican free-tailed bats in flight
1 very friendly and adopted bat named bernard
1 night in carlsbad, nm
3 laps around the riverwalk
1 night in san antonio, tx
6 flags of texas on display at the alamo
2,400 miles of total driving
1,091 square feet in my apartment
1 trip each to: target, super target, walmart, ikea (!!)
2 trips each to: star furniture, aaron rents, linens ‘n things, state farm insurance
1 new texas driver’s license
4 folding chairs with my dining room card table
4 nights in my new apartment in houston, tx
and now i’m home in charlotte for 3 nights. then mexico. then charlotte. then houston permanently. whew! it sort of makes my head spin, so i’m just living day to day. 
mom’s grand vacation–and my return road trip–was an unqualified success. my apartment in houston is wonderful, i’m slowing beginning to amass a few pieces of furniture to fill it up, i have enough kitchen supplies to get me by for the first few weeks at least, and to top it all off, i am now the owner of the cutest vacuum cleaner known to man. ha.
i took a lot of pictures, but unfortunately i didn’t have internet access set up in my apartment before we left today to come back to charlotte. it will be ready when i return to houston “permanently” in the middle of july, and i promise to post many, many pictures then.
