technical difficulties...

Unfortunately most of our pictures are on Mikel's phone which is not cooperating right now. The phone is fine but getting the pictures off the phone is presenting a challenge momentarily.

Either way, our trip has been going well. We went from Onalaska/La Crosse, WI to Murdo, SD and then Murdo, SD to Buffalo, WY. Tomorrow we should be in Dillon in the early afternoon.

We have had relatively good weather except for the wind yesterday that caused us to get 6 miles a gallon of diesel (awesome). Here's some of the highlights from my phone. More details and pictures to come!

Wall Drugs...

 Mount Rushmore!

 A mountain goat at Mount Rushmore!

on the road again...

We hit the road Monday morning at 6:30am. Bring and early! We had to drop off our keys at the rental office and Mikel parked so far away (so that we didn't get stuck in the parking lot) that I got some morning exercise in jogging over and turning in the keys. I can't believe it's all over so fast but can't wait to get to our new house and start exploring a new place.

Just when Mikel thought he left Sears and all things lawn/power equipment behind him, we saw a whole train load full of tractors...

 We drove a lot closer to Chicago and Chicago traffic than Mikel was hoping but Rita (the GPS) told us to so we made it happen. It gave us time to reminisce about our fun trip there with my parents and how I had us set to go to the wrong Chicago airport when we were trying to pick them up. Who puts two major airports in one city anyways! However, I am pretty sure I'm the one who noticed that there may be a chance that we were going to the wrong one so at least I redeemed myself...

 The White Sox's stadium...

 I had to take a picture of this... Choice for healthy eating?! If that's true we're in trouble!

 I looked up this hotel before we left and I'm glad we did. It was a sweet place to stay!

 Cool pool (and we utilized the HUGE whirlpool to relax a little)...

 Indoor/outdoor pool...

 Outside

 Me and Shload making the "moose" sign. Don't zoom in too close on my face on thins one, trust me...

 A family picture by our truck (me and Shload)...

 A view of the outdoor part of the pool from our room....

A good restful night and we're off again in the morning!

we have a lot of stuff

But Goodwill must appreciate us because we definitely went through our stuff and made yet another donation before loading up the truck.

My mom was out for our last week/weekend in Michigan and she was a HUGE help packing and loading the truck (trust me, just ask her and she'll tell you how good of a worker she is). It was great to see her in Michigan one last time and it was definitely a life saver to have her there to help us. 

We picked up the truck Saturday afternoon and loaded it all Saturday afternoon and all day Sunday...

 We were actually done loading most everything into the truck by Sunday about 3:45 and then we loaded the car onto the trailer and started on cleaning the apartment. I shouldn't really say started because my mom had helped with that too but we had a lot of cleaning to do in order to turn the place over to our summer subleasers.

 Considering the entire kitchen was packed up and our car was loaded full of stuff and on the trailer already, we ordered pizza in for dinner and ate it on the living room floor...

 This was all that was left this morning...

One box to put the bedding in and a bag for our clothes...

 Empty rooms...

We put that in the car this morning and started driving!

We've had a great time in Michigan and there's more stuff we were planning on seeing and doing with our last year in East Lansing but we are definitely glad to be headed to Montana and taking on the next new adventure!

packing

So many boxes, so much STUFF!

We will be picking up the truck tomorrow so we can finally put all these boxes somewhere...

I can't believe it's almost here and finally time to move. It looks like we have a place in Dillon and subleasers for this summer so we're making progress. Now, the road ahead...

back in Montana

I'm back in Dillon for my list trip before we move here soon. I am doing some recruiting, trying to find a place to live, and getting things ready to move.

I got to my office on the first day and this is what I saw...

They decorated! They are so ready for me to be here full time!