Yeah, I know, it’s been a long time since I posted anything. Rest assured though that I have not been out lollygagging around or sitting and eating bon bons. The last four weeks have been busy…VERY busy, so allow me to catch you up.
A couple years ago we sold our house and escaped the People’s Republic of Communist California and moved to the free state of South Dakota. The last two summers we have spent the majority of our time in Ennis, Montana and absolutely love it there, and last year we bought five acres of land just outside of town. The original plan was to spend part of the year in South Dakota, part of the year in Montana and part of the year at my mom’s in Oregon. However, last spring my mom passed away so that eliminated part of the equation. On the flip side the part of the proceeds we received from the sale of her house enabled us to purchase the land in Montana. Would still rather have my mom back, but it is what it is.
Although we liked South Dakota, my wife was adamant that a three day drive to see kinds/grand kids was too much. As it happened, the day we got back to South Dakota last fall we received an offer to purchase our house there for more money than we had in it, so we accepted that offer. The buyers had
to sell their house first and we gave them six months to accomplish that task. Two weeks before the end of that time period we received a call saying the buyers has accepted a full price offer on their house and the purchase of our house was full speed ahead. The closing date was to be May second which meant we had to get our stuff out…and then the snow storm came. In one day our town received twenty seven inches of snow thereby delaying our trip out by a week.
With the delay it gave us two and a half weeks to go from California to South Dakota, get our stuff out of the house, move it into storage in Montana, and then get back to California so I could finish my last month of work. In my younger days that would have been a difficult thing to do, but at age sixty it was monumental.
We took off early one morning and headed to Montana with our dog Si. Evidently Si had been eating sticks. No big deal for some, but doing that gives him the runs and just outside of Sparks, Nevada Si had a blowout in the back seat. Yeah, it was great. After pulling over and cleaning that up we continued on to the fifth wheel at the RV park in Ennis, Montana. After a nice seventeen hour drive we finally arrived safe and sound. The next day we unloaded the truckload of stuff we had brought into storage and then started putting the fifth wheel in shape for the summer. The following morning we left at 0 dark thirty and headed for South Dakota. Fourteen hours later we arrived. Over the course of the next three days we packed up everything out of a four bedroom house and loaded it into to trailers and the back of the truck with stuff left over in the garage. On day four we headed to Montana pulling the first trailer.
The day after we arrived in Montana we unloaded everything into the storage unit and took the trailer to the RV park. Then we worked on getting the fifth wheel ready again. The next morning we headed back to South Dakota. The day after we got there we loaded the back of the truck in a driving downpour then hooked up the second trailer. The next day headed back to Montana. A friend in town was nice enough to haul what we left in the garage over to his barn for pick up at a later date. When we got to Montana we unloaded the much bigger trailer and the back of the truck into storage. We then spent the next couple days finishing getting the fifth wheel ready before starting back to California. As a side not, halfway to Montana on that trip we decided to get new tires on the trailer as the original one were starting to wear. Good move as the new stronger tires made a world of difference in the ride. However, the parking lot of the tire center was very unlevel and we drug the trailer hitch jack which cut the electrical cable in half. Luckily there was a mechanic there who patches us back together. Just another one of life’s magic moments.
On the return trip to California we took two days, stopping in Elko, Nevada to break up the trip. To recap, in two and a half weeks we drove six thousand miles over ninety hours and moved everything out of a four bedroom house into storage two states away. It was awesome.
But that wasn’t the end.
When we got back we had to move our stuff from where we had been staying into a small park model trailer in Yreka, which we did. But, it wasn’t over. My wife had agreed to help a friend move from California to Michigan, so yesterday we loaded all her stuff into the truck, and this morning my wife started off on that adventure.
I may not have felt old before, but I sure do now.
Oh my. I’m tired just reading this post. I’m not sure I could have pulled this off, but I’m closer to 70 than 60. What we once could do with ease we can’t do now. We are still on the right side of the dirt though.
I’m sorry about the passing of your mom.
Have a fabulous day and weekend. Get some rest. 🙂
I’m still tired. LOL! Next year will be busy as well with the new house construction. The contractor will build the structure, put on the roof, put on the siding, install exterior doors and windows, do the interior wall framing, rough plumbing and install the electrical…I will do everything else up to and including building all the cabinets. This house is going to have some serious sweat equity.
Wow you have been busy! I was exhausted just reading about it! 🙂 Best of luck!