ANOTHER U HAUL MOVE

I can hardly believe it but we have survived the last U Haul move and we still like each other! Seriously, moving across the country is very stressful in and of itself but throw in purging and down-sizing thirty years of marriage and it gets a little crazy! Dave once again created a loading diagram for the truck and realized that unlike our April trip, we needed to upgrade from a 20 foot truck to a 26 foot one. Midst all of the packing and protecting furniture, I condensed down my every day household items into three categories: Take to Montana, Donate and Trash. Whatever is left and is going to Montana HAS to fit in the car when we make the final drive in November.

Dismantling the log bed and emptying out our bedroom!

Taking apart the roll top computer desk and setting up the computer on a card table, our decorating style is beginning to resemble "Poor college student"!

Dave quickly determined that, while there were some differences in the way the two different sized trucks handled, it wasn't that much more difficult driving the larger truck. The truck held everything we had planned to take and with room left over, we were able to fit in those items we had been uncertain about.

We left at 3:50 AM on Saturday September 3rd. Dave wanted to make it to Buffalo, Wyoming that first day. To say I was less than thrilled to be on the road for 22 hours would be the understatement of all time, especially when we lost our air conditioning coming through Texas and the floorboard on the passenger side got so hot that it melted my deodorant in my overnight bag! I was miserable! There was also the stress of mountain passes to navigate. As we descended Raton Pass crossing over from New Mexico to Colorado, we pulled over to check the load and discovered that the brakes were smoking! I wondered what that burning smell was!!?

We checked into our room and were in bed by 1 AM and slept for a few hours and were back on the road at 6 AM, bound for Montana! The outside temperatures were much more pleasant and even though we had rain off and on, the second day was better than the first. I convinced Dave to stop at the state line for a picture.

About an hour south of Billings we had an idiot light come on in the dashboard panel. With no manual in the glove box to determine what it meant, I began looking up U Haul businesses in Billings hoping we would make it there. Of course worst case scenarios start playing our in your head thinking of ALL the stuff we had loaded up in the truck and what a nightmare it would be to transload everything into another truck! I managed to view the digital manual on my smart phone and determined that the light was an indicator that it needed an oil change. Dodged a bullet!

The Mission Mountains north of Missoula welcoming us home...

After a brief stop in Polson for some groceries, we pulled into the Mountainview Hideaway before dark, thankful to be out of that truck. Unloading would commence at day break!