We've made it! (sort of)

The past two days have been filled with snow and slow travel. We did get to go skiing at Lookout Pass on the Montana Idaho border.




Chaining up at the top of Lookout pass.
We bought tire chains for the Uhaul in Missoula and used them three times on passes.
Yesterday morning we woke up to 8" of new snow in Spokane at my uncle's house. From there we limped into Tacoma for the night.
Today we'll get to Olympia!

It might be a few days before I can post again, as we will not have internet access until mid next week.

Foreshadowing

After a great nights sleep we were eating breakfast this morning talking about our plan for the day. SKIING! We talked about how we had managed to pull off our hair-brained plan to ski as we were moving across the country.

Odin and John both are in love with the moving van. I think they will be really sad when they have to turn it in!



As we finished I was going to check the weather to make sure I had the right long underwear combo on. It was then that I noticed that there was a winter storm warning for pretty much all of Montana that we were going to be driving through. Now snow itself is not a huge problem, but snow + mountain passes (with little visibility and possible chain restrictions) + giant moving van is not the best equation. Begrudgingly we decided not to go skiing today. The storm tracking was looking like it would begin in the afternoon and continue through Thursday. So innstead of going skiing we went back to the car and truck. The plan: drive the 207 miles to Missoula. Seemed like a great plan until we got to Homesteak pass outside of Butte MT. As soon as we starting going uphill it looked like this:

and then a few minutes later like this:


It cleared up on the top of the pass and another snow squall hit after we arrived at our hotel in Missoula. We went for a swim, sat in the hot tub (there are 8 to choose from) and had some dinner.
The second part of our new plan is to get up tomorrow morning and drive to Lookout Pass ski area on the Montana /Idaho border. We all really want to go skiing.

We got off easy

Yesterday the reports were of snow and weather everywhere. When we'd stop for gas there was snow everywhere on the streets. I talked to a man at a rest stop who told me that Miles city had just gotten a ton of snow and miraculously cleared by the time we rolled through. He was impressed that we had avoided it so far. The highways were snowy in the passing lane, but one lane was clear. And nearly every car that passed us was covered in snow. But somehow we drove around it and made it from Bismarck ND to Bozeman MT in just under 12 hours. It was 557 miles.


We made it to Bozeman in time to have dinner with Mardell and Jon. I knew Mardell in college and she also lived in Minnesota for a while before moving to Oregon for law school. She lives in Helena MT now and came to Bozeman yesterday to ski and see us!

The truck slows us down a bit as does a certain five year old [who doesn't understand that stops are supposed to be quick (and that an hour to eat a sandwich and get gas is too long)]. He did great all day and crashed when it was finally time for sleeping.

Forward progress

This morning after about 5 hours of sleep we made it out on the road. I was very excited this morning to see that the storm had not yet started. When we left this morning around 9:30 it was snowing very lightly. We made it out ahead of the storm and didn't hit any significant snowfall. We did however experience some wind. The canoe came loose due to 40 mph + sustained and gusting winds. Three times we stopped just to retie the boat, and it was cold and windy... (John here - cold & windy was an understatement. You had to hold on to something while tying or you'd been blown off the trailer)(oh, & Michelle didn't mention those were 40mph cross winds. Imagine putting a canoe on your car cross ways then trying to drive down the road at 40! Not very aerodynamic!)

even this plus bow and stern lines only got us about 100 miles before having to stop and tighten.

We also stopped once so I could tape Johno in the truck. The door has a air leak that made a lot of noise with all the wind. Just a few times over with the packing tape fixed it up for him pretty good.

(my wife gettin' it done. As always!) The tape was not on a dispenser so I needed a knife to cut it.. But I also needed my hands so apply it. . .

All told it was 10 hours traveling today. Odin was asleep almost instantly when he got into bed.
I feel very lucky that the storm did not track as expected. And we both feel so fortunate to have such great family friends and neighbors helping us out yesterday (and in in the wee hours of the morn) so we could get on the road. (yes, I can't stress this enough . . . Thank YOU! We could not have pulled it off with out all of your help)

we're off

Only because of the help of our fantastic family, friends and neighbors were we able to get the truck loaded.. It all fit. We finished after midnight, but it all got done.
The road awaits!

The end is in sight

I can foresee an end to the packing. We cannot possibly have THAT much more to do. Here is what our house looks like tonight.







Not quite what it looked like a few weeks ago.

Flying

Packing is going well. I keep thinking soon we will run out of things to pack. Hasn't happened yet though.
We took the day off (not true for the evening) today and went to the gymnastics center for a little air time.








Then met Jenny and Laura (and Adam!) to go sledding and it was 50 degrees outside! Slush sledding it was but worth every wet snowpant minute.

Sampson was a great dog

It is with a heavy heart that I report the passing of a great dog. Sampson (a.k.a. Samo, bear, D.O.G., batman) passed away on Sunday night. He has been showing his age the past few weeks, and we are not sure if his death was related to his recent anaplasmosis infection or if it was something else.
We played outside on Sunday and he was not quite himself. He wanted to run but spent much of the time outside walking stiffly and then sitting and watching. In the evening he was very unsettled and not interested in anything buy laying down. As the evening wore on his breathing became very labored and we watched him rapidly decline sitting by him and trying to make him as comfortable as possible. In the end think he suffered from a heart attack or possibly a stroke then a heart attack.

He found a good home with us nearly nine years ago. When we found each other he was a little over two years old and had lived at a shelter for almost nine months. John worked really hard the first few weeks teaching him how to play fetch. That led to playing Frisbee and chasing anything that moved.

He was a very willing dog and did not like arguments, loud noises, rain or bugs.
On canoe trips when the weather was less than pleasant he would turn around to glare at John to let him know how unpleased he was. In the years before Odin he especially loved camping because it meant he could sneak up to our pillows while we were asleep instead of staying near our feet. He was always up for any adventure in any season.

Once Odin came along he took to his new role of defender and buddy very quickly. He was wary for a few months, until Odin started learning how to feed himself. Samo was all about picking up cheerios or anything else that may fall on the floor. Odin was so entertained by such a captive and willing servant, that when Odin was eating, I asked Sampson to leave the kitchen.


The past few years Odin and Samo were great buddies. Odin teaching Samo to play hide and seek (it was amazing to see) and their own version of tag. Odin learned to throw the frisbee when he was three because he wanted to play too.

He was a great dog and no we never figured out what breeds he was.

Mischief

Packing packing packing, and just s little playing.

Fun times

Over breakfast the other day I asked Odin what he would like to do the most before we moved. I made a few suggestions, but he came up with the Children's museum, the gymnastics center, and the zoo. On Friday we went to the museum and he had a blast. We met some friends there and the kids had a great time. One of the new traveling exhibit was a medieval Lego room. Complete with a throne,


stained glass window, dragon and treasure


and building tables galore. Oh and they even had a joust area set up ( I didn't think that was such a great idea...).



I really enjoyed the art exhibit where they got to pretend they were in famous art works. He took this picture of me.


Packing continues to go well. But then again I elected to take the night off last night.

Chimpanzee behavior

In the 6th or 7th grade I took a keyboard class. A class that in a different era would have been called a typing class. Mr. Wagner lorded over the computer lab, while my classmates and I practiced typing. It was a full ten fingers on the keyboard, working on accuracy, (and not looking) timed typing tests kind of typing class. I remember not excelling in the class and have impressed myself with age in typing accuracy, speed, and well, all that I was supposed to learn in his class. I did however take away some of his odd typing lingo. When a classmate would get frustrated and start using more force than necessary with the keys he would bellow "Stop banging on the keyboard, that's chimpanzee behavior!". Also if one was using only one finger from one hand and seeking out each individual key he would call that "pecking" (I can only presume he was making reference to a chicken eating.
I think about these things often when I hear people banging on keyboards, and ever more so with pecking, isn't that how one sends texts? Or uses a web enabled handheld device (like our shiny new itouch?).
As I was playing with the itouch earlier, I could hear Mr. Wagner in my head imploring me to stop pecking at the keyboard.

Not going to miss this

This morning it was -8 when I woke up. By the time Odin and I were heading to school it was only -2 degrees. I am wearing long underwear today!
Preparations for the move are going fairly well. I have learned that things take up much less space when on shelves instead of in boxes. We are running out of room to stack. Most of our pictures are packed. I am stalling a little on the biggest ones. It looks so bare already. We are now starting to get serious with packing not just pictures and bookshelves anymore!

Laskiainen

Up North for the weekend. It happens to be the Laskiainen sliding festival weekend. A festival devoted to fun Finnish winter activites, food, music and crafts. After at hearty breakfast of kropsua we did a little sledding (or sliding up here). Luckily it was in the 20's and nice weather for sliding down an iced run onto a frozen lake.

There was also playing in the snow ( a little deeper here). Snowmobile rides and more winter fun.