I have arrived

*whew. I am exhausted! 5 days on the road and a day of frustrating phone calls to insurance and doctor's offices will do that to you, I suppose.

The trip was... perfect. I really cannot complain for even one moment. Though we drove through several major cities, we never hit traffic even once. The weather was lovely. We easily found affordable hotels that accepted my 2 dogs every night, and we arrived in one piece. What more could we have asked for?

Our journey went like this: California - Nevada - Arizona - Utah - Colorado - Kansas - Missouri - Illinois - Indiana - Ohio - West Virginia - Pennsylvania - West Virginia - Maryland - Pennsylvania

The last leg of the trip (everything that follows Ohio) doesn't seem to make much sense, but according to my bro-in-law who is Ohio-born-and-raised this is the best route back to my hometown from Ohio taking into account the roads you go on and all of that lovely stuff.

Overall, Colorado is by far the most scenic/beautiful state, though my dad might beg to differ and say that West Virginia is. I told him that's why he lives out here on the East Coast. Kansas was the most BORING state as far as scenery... the wind was crazy there though which kept driving interesting because you certainly needed to keep both hands on the wheel at all times. We saw several major cities, as I already mentioned, and had we not had 2 dogs and a pregnant woman in the car it would have been quite interesting to make some stops to take in the country a bit more.

And when we arrived here to PA? My sister and my nephews were standing in the yard with my mom waiting to greet me. What a lovely surprise! Actually, I had texted her earlier in the day saying we would be arriving in approx. 4 hours, so I expected her to be there waiting for us. I certainly didn't think she'd go ahead and actually do it, so that was quite awesome.

Now the dogs and I are settling into our new home, and it's not too shabby. In fact, the dogs are in green grass heaven. They don't make yards out West like they do here in Pennsylvania, that's for sure!

Today was a trying day, however. My insurance finally processed my enrollment to the East Coast from the West Coast and assigned me a primary care manager. I thought the hard part was over..... until I spoke with my new dr's office and realized they were less than cooperative.

The way my insurance works is that I get assigned a primary care manager and all of my other care needs to be referred through them. So, in order to get into an OB I first need to see my new primary care doctor who must refer me to my OB. The problem was, the primary care office didn't want to fit me in for another month.... after which I would still need to wait for the appointment that I actually need which is the appt. with the OB. After tears.... and stress.... and multiple phone calls... I finally spoke with the office manager who got me an appointment sooner and gave me the information for the OB they would be referring me to so that I could go ahead and make my appointment with them so as not to delay my care any further. *geesh. So it's finally all taken care of and OK, but I certainly had some stress there inbetween.

My insurance is great in that they pay for EVERYTHING. My insurance is not so great in that you are forced to jump through a couple of extra loops that other insurance providers don't require you to jump through.

But... it all seems to be working out now, so I suppose I shouldn't be complaining.

All in all... I'm happy to b here safe and sound with a baby who moves and kicks regularly, 2 dogs who should win some kind of award for easily adapting to major life changes, and parents who will do anything for me.