When we moved to Arizona a few weeks ago, I drove the U-haul truck, and Julia drove her Subaru. That left my Dodge Ram back in Wisconsin at a friend's place. I could have towed it behind the 20' U-haul, but I just didn't feel comfortable doing so. Plus, it gave me an excuse to take a solo travel trip to retrieve my beloved truck and see some of the country. Spoiler Alert: there are no photos from this trip.
On Monday, I drove to Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix (Julia drove the Suburu back home) and boarded a cheap flight ($120) for Chicago. It was about $300 more to fly directly into Madison. I maneuvered my way through O'hare until I found the regional buses. Eventually, I boarded a Van Gelder bus that made stops in Rockford, Beloit and Janesville before burping me out on the outskirts of Madison, Wisconsin. My step-mother-in-law picked me up and dropped me off at my truck in Lodi.
I finished emptying and cleaning out our storage unit, made a stop at the bank, and was headed to Iowa. In Cedar Rapids, I helped my mom with some business, and then she joined me on the road to Omaha, where she planned to spend several days with her cousin. I continued on and spent the night at a cheap motel in Kearney, Nebraska. On the next morning, I rolled through the rest of Nebraska, a desolate stretch of eastern Colorado, and ended up at an even cheaper motel in Albuquerque.
On the next morning, I had breakfast with Michael where we exchanged stout beers for future consumption and ate some delicious New Mexican food. It was the first time that I've met MFH. While it was a short visit, I hope we get to hang out again sometime.
Then I was back on the road for probably the most scenic part of the trip, driving through the El Malpais National Monument. I made mental notes of trails and campgrounds that I want to take time exploring. After that it was down, down, down from above 7000 feet to the Sonoran Desert of my new home. I was back at home with Julia and Callie by late afternoon.
This morning, with no other remembered entanglements to Wisconsin, we are settling into our house. On this morning's walk through the nature preserve, we encountered a new animal that was kind enough to pose with Mount Lemmon in the background.
3 comments:
WOW!!! What a photo!! Perhaps it's a bit too Californian of me, but I like to think the animals recognize a "friendly" and let themselves be seen. Congratulations!
I too enjoyed our meetup and look forward to another.
I imagin it's a relief to have the move and house stuff behind you! Always interesting wildlife in that area. Cool that you get to see somr of it!
It definitely is a relief. Still lots of transition stuff to do though. Today, I applied for Arizona plates. I still need to get an Arizona driver's license. Good thing I'm retired with time.
Post a Comment