When It Hit Laura George Was Out of Office

In Wide-Ranging Interview, Former First Lady Laura Bush Tells Maggie Rodriguez When It Sank In

(CBS)  Seeing George Bush unload his own car is when reality set in for Laura Bush, the former first lady says.

In an in-depth interview with "Early Show" co-anchor Maggie Rodriguez airing Monday, Mrs. Bush says the end of her husband’s presidency sank in for her when she watched him unload their car after moving from the White House to their new home in Dallas.

The interview was conducted at the Dallas Center for Performing Arts.

Rodriguez asked, "Now that you're back home in Texas, does it feel like a million miles away from Washington?”

"It really does," Mrs. Bush replied. "There truly is -- not that I ever felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders, or that George did when I lived there, but when it was gone, I could notice it."

"Because you feel lighter?"

"And there's a great feeling of freedom."

Rodriguez wondered what Mr. Bush said "that first morning that you woke up in Texas and President Bush wasn't president anymore."

"Well," Mrs. Bush responded, "I remembered the first night that we arrived at the ranch, and we could tell things were different when George was out in the garage putting away the -- everything that came off the cars, you know, we no longer had the people that were helping do that."

"No one doing it for him," Rodriguez pointed out.

" (The) next morning," Mrs. Bush said, "making our own coffee and all the things we hadn't done, but it's really, you know, its terrific."