Arizona Time

Sorry it's been such a long time since I last posted! Life is returning to a state of normal we haven't had in at least a month, maybe two! We are getting ourselves unpacked and it's starting to feel like home!

Our trip here was full of unexpected "fun"! It all started with the load up at the house. We realized all of our things would not fit in the rental truck (the biggest one we could rent - do we have too much junk???) and spent an entire afternoon trying to figure out what to do. Finally we decided to get a U-Haul trailer and have the van set up with a tow assembly, etc - $1000 later we were back on track but a day behind!

Even with the trailer and the cars packed as tight as was possible we were just barely making it! Of course the day delay meant all my work getting hotel reservations (that included the dogs) was out the window. We made several calls and modified our route to get rooms at the last minute! On Sunday (almost evening) at 430pm we finally took off and drove to Salina, KS.

Here's where things really started getting interesting :) It was getting dark and it was here that we realized we had no tail lights on the Penske truck! We stopped in the middle of nowhere and called the emergency number for Penske. After an hour of waiting we finally heard that it would be at least 2 hours to get the lights repaired. This was around 930pm...we were already looking at a 5am arrival in Colorado Springs, with the delay it would be more like 8am - what's the point!?? Danny decided to try turning on the lights to the Honda (which was on a carrier behind the truck) to see if that was enough lighting to drive and be seen. It worked great and we kept driving for another hour or two.

We decided it was a good idea to stop and sleep if we could find a place, the hotel in CO Springs was basically a loss at this point and we saw a sign for a room in Quinter, KS. They were very nice, clean and PET FRIENDLY (for only $69)!

The next morning, we headed out again but decided to take KS 40 to Santa Fe. This was a beautiful drive through old farming communities and a lot of farmland...not a lot of gas stations though. Now, for the record...I have only run out of gas one time in 14 years of driving (a few months ago in the dead of winter!)...of course with the trailer on the van my gas mileage was almost nothing! I misjudged how far I could go on a 1/4 tank and ran out of gas 1 mile from the next station. Oh, but they are OUT OF GAS CANS! Thankfully Danny, the smart guy that he is, packed the gas can in the trunk of the Honda just in case! After a brief delay we were off again!

The drive from KS to Santa Fe was pretty easy, except for the push through the mountains in Trinidad (I don't recall if it's CO or NM). The van was not made for trailer hauling in the mountains. It was a beautiful drive but a little unnerving ... there were several times I didn't think I would make it up the hill (especially only going 25mph). Once again, it was nearing nightfall and we switched on our lights to find....the trailer lights were shorting out! Since Danny was behind me most of the way and we weren't encountering a lot of traffic, we just kept driving...all the way to Santa Fe.

We stayed in our intended room for the night and headed out again as early as is possible with two kids and two dogs! I think the last day was smooth, no troubles and faster than the other days. We made a few extra stops for geocaching and dove through Payson, AZ (it was beautiful and not like anything you'd expect to see in AZ, it was 64 degrees and lots of trees). We arrived at 930pm Tuesday evening and it was 100 degrees!

Here are some pictures of the house - we are still unpacking some rooms and organizing things...and have yet to put up any pictures but it's starting to feel more like home everyday!