Sometime in April of 2024 it was time to move into the condo in Minneapolis. I had the place pretty well furnished with stuff I got for free in October from the lady down the hall whose mother was moving out. For the price of a couple of moving guys I had a big ol’ desk hutch, several hassocks, two recliners (one needed work both structural and electrical, which I of course handled in April because I love nothing more than fixing stuff!), a sofa bed, two sitting chairs, a coffee table, two side tables, some lamps and I don’t know what all. Jeff and Raina had filled in the blanks during the winter with FB marketplace deals. A lot of it has been replaced by now but it got me started.

Al and I decided to drive out from California with an 8 seater van – my sewing machines, winter clothes, dollhouse building stuff, kitchenware, books, etcetera, etcetera, ETCETERA. The van was jam packed. We had picked it up at the Orange County airport, packed it up and the next morning the “tires need air” light was on. We topped them all off and left.

Then the light came on again. We stopped for the night somewhere in Utah in a KOA cabin and the next day we found ourselves having to stop every two hours to fill up the tires. We were on our way to our Denver stop. This tire situation started to make us nervous as we had to traverse the Rockies. So before we started our ascent we stopped at Grand Junction as there was a small airport there with a Budget rental office. Unfortunately they did not have a van to exchange and our next option was the Denver airport.

This little time detour (with a stop at Costco for pizza and an air fill) was disastrous. By the time we hit the Vail Pass, the “possible snow” was SNOW. I was driving (because it is safer for all involved under difficult circumstances for me to drive as Al is better at remaining calm in the passenger’s seat, unless it’s Scotland). It was – terrifying. The truckers didn’t seem to mind it, the Coloradans didn’t seem to mind it, I minded it and just drove slowly and prayed. By the time we got to Denver, again, the “possible two inches” was a raging storm. We found our way to the Denver airport and Budget office. Because of the storm, I guess, the line for the rental counter was – I’m not exaggerating – 30 people long. I got in line but Al just stormed up (you see what I did there) to the counter and interrupted the customer. I would never have done this but later he told me he had once been told by a rental car person that if you have a problem like that you should never stand in line – just come up.

Fortunately they had another van for us, but the only place we could transfer everything was in the carport area where they clean the vehicles. The snow was wet and blowing sideways and opening the back door to the new van resulted in a coating of snow almost instantly. We close it and went through the side as much as possible until the end.

It had taken Al and I four hours to carefully pack the van in California. It took us an hour and ten minutes to transfer everything into the new van. True, we had sort of an idea of where everything went but it was mostly that we were freezing. It was a shining example of the kind of mean, lean team Al and I can be under duress it was a foreshadowing of what would occur a year later during our move to South Carolina. I personally think it would make a good reality show. Pitstop: Before your team can proceed, you must unpack and repack everything you are moving into another van in a raging snowstorm. Make sure you take movies of the new van that had clearly been in an accident/sideswiped before you took possession.

We made it to our next KOA cabin which was lovely. When we woke up a total of five inches of snow had fallen. Despite the ugly sideswipe, the new van was much more comfortable than the first one and had the added advantage of not needing to put air in the tires every two hours.

Our next stop was Rawlins, Wyoming where we took a really cool tour of the Wyoming Frontier Prison, the Wyoming State Penitentiary that had been in operation from 1901 until 1981 and didn’t look like much had changed since 1901. To say that it was marginally humane is being generous. Very little heat, cement bed frames, dark. It had an electric chair and we were taken to that room. Lots of ghoulish stories were told by our tour guide. I will say that the cute dog one couple had in their arms had been just pleased as punch to be hanging out with us until we were in the execution room. Once in there it started to growl and bark. I was happy to leave with the owners and most of our small group agree that ghosts exist…

We stopped and spent the night at Mt Rushmore – we’d been there on our honeymoon and it doesn’t disappoint. Also went to the Crazy Horse site on which work still continues and won’t be done in our lifetimes. Stopped at the Badlands and intended to stay in Mitchell SD before the final push to Minneapolis. Although we’d staying in a couple of “super cabins” in KOAs, this one was not and we would have had to schlep our cooler in, get up at night to use the common facilities. We looked at each other and decided we had four more hours in us. We arrived in Minneapolis that night and fell into the hide-a-bed for which I’d gotten a new mattress back in October.

Home at last.