arrived!

Just a quick post -- we arrived last night at 5pm as planned. All is well at the new place except the water pressure in the shower sucks! However, the half hour walk through our woods this morning made it all better. We have already been given a bag full of veggies and a new birdfeeder by new friends. This morning at 8:15 the previous owner (who is probably 80 and still driving a bright red pickup) came to give us the rest of the keys. He hugged me three times and then said, "Okay. I'm done here." What a funny (and very sweet) old guy.

I'm on campus checking email. Today at noon campus folks will show up to help unpack the truck. Later we will *hopefully* be able to sit and eat a real meal.

more soon!

MIddle Earth!

It is 8am in Minneapolis and I (Amy) am sitting out on a screen porch listening to birds chirp away. Last night we *finally* made it to Minneapolis where we were greeted with smiling, friendly faces and a fabulous dinner. Emily and Elizabeth are gracious hostesses who even tolerate a slightly whiny dog and his overly concerned dog-mama. To protect Ria, the grumpily displaced cat, Buddy and I slept on the porch -- we both slept soundly -- while Rhonda camped out in the guest room.

In a few hours we will be on the road for the final stretch of this trip. It will take us about 6 hours to get to Marinette from here. (We have learned along the way that you add one hour to whatever estimates we have -- a 16' moving truck just moves slower.) We are meeting Carolyn (our Realtor) at our new house at 5pm. A few hours later our new friend (and my colleague) David will come over to help us lift some heavy things. He has stated several times that he *really* likes the challenge of moving heavy things. Okay!

In the meantime, here are some random tidbits that didn't make it into earlier posts:

• Missoula is preparing for their annual "Testicle Festival" also known as "testy festy." You can find out more here: http://www.testyfesty.com/
• Did you know that there are two continental divides? Why?
• As we left Montana around 8pm Monday night the temperature was 100 degrees. The sign might as well have read "YOU ARE NOT IN SEATTLE ANYMORE!"
  
• North Dakota has the highest gas prices we have encountered anywhere. Again, why?
• Hotel Review: La Quinta rocks. AmericInn sucks. LQ = nice high threadcount sheets and a plush windowseat nook. AmInn = old mattresses, less-than-clean room and possible fleas. Friends house in Minneapolis = best.

4 States down...

Today we reached the western edge of North Dakota and are spending the night in a replica old-western town, Medora. Complete with saloon and trading post.

Both we and Buddy settled in a little bit more and we finally got our fm Ipod transmitter working so our soundtrack to the Montana hills included Nina Simone, Bjork, and the Dixie Chicks (nothing like a little "Wide Open Spaces" for the road).

The strangest sight today was a bunch of "meth is death" signs out in the middle of nowhere - guess those ranchers have been having a little too much fun on the side. We also saw the sun setting in the rearview mirror over the foothills of the rockies. Lovely stuff.

Day One

10pm in Missoula.

today was a whole lotta things: long, hot, rainy, exhausting, funny, & bumpy. It was pouring rain as we drove out of Seattle but sunny and warm on the other side of the mountains. I remembered how beautiful Eastern Washington is.

Buddy was really good in the truck (there is a small bed in between our seats) but he would jump into the lap of the person in the passenger seat when things got to bumpy or rumbly.

We made it to Missoula by 7.

I think the best part of the day was finding the Good Food Store in Missoula. We had a dinner that rhonda proclaimed to be "the best road food ever." It was so nice to get through a day on the road and not feel as though we had been dipped in fat and rolled around in salt and sugar. Tomorrow we drive the whole state of Montana. It should take us 9-10 hours.

oy vay!

It is the end of a long day. We loaded the truck today with lots and lots of help from strong & patient friends willing to haul, strategize, and ward off all of the strange people who wanted to buy our stuff. It has been hard to say goodbye to friends, neighbors, this house, and our lives as they have existed for the past 10 years. The house looks so bare and strange now.


We leave at 9am tomorrow. Seattle to Missoula, Montana in 8 hours. That is the goal. More soon.

Last Days

This blog will be the place where we chronicle our move from Seattle, WA to Marinette, WI; a trip of 2,000 miles and tons of cultural/community/environmental shifts. We are going from perennial renters to home and land owners. From urbanites to rural girls. From graduate student to professor. From too-busy to more quiet and calm. It is an adventure that we are excited about -- we hope you will visit us from time to time to see how it is going.


******

We are sitting in the Douglass-Truth public library stealing books-on-cd for the forthcoming trip. As I enact electronic thievery, Rhonda reads out loud from a recently published book on Trader Vic's Tiki culture. It is a strange and apropos way to spend one of our last Seattle mornings...

Anyway, we will be on the road by Sunday morning. Our "crew" will be coming by on Saturday to help load the truck and we will spend one last night (on the futon) in our lovely little Seattle house.