Actually, we made it yesterday and I never got around to writing the world. I’ve always been a little behind on this social media thing. Anyhoo, our apartment is turning out to be pretty sweet. It’s in an area of Santa Clara with a lot of things in walking distance, which is good because traffic can be a mess out here. The weather is great and everything’s green out here. Our furniture folks came and set everything up and we got the internet hooked up, so there’s no excuse for me not to work on Monday.

It’s been a few days, but things are going good. I’ll fill in the details later. We’ve either been without internet or too exhausted to update anyone lately. This morning, we hung out in Vegas for a bit and I bet my customary dollar, winning five in return. I know when I’ve got a good rate of return, so I took my newly acquired, but nasty, Abe Lincoln and ran.

Today we drove out of the winter wonderland that is Summit County, down to the west and into Moab, Utah. We went from fresh snow on the roads into the desert. It was in the fifties, so it wasn’t too hot. We were originally going to go to Arches National Park but we’ve pushed that until tomorrow. Today, we ended up mountain biking around the area. Moab is awesome, especially since it lies right by Mordor.

We picked up and drove through Denver up to Summit County today. It was a good day for a drive and a lot snowier than we expected. The temperature kept dropping the farther we got. We went from a scenic little lake like this, to a winter wonderland a few miles up the road. I loved being back up in the mountains. It’s been at least five years since I’ve been skiing up in this country.

We finally got our housing assignment! Now that we have a wifi connection, we’re able to check it out online. It actually looks like a really cool place but I don’t want to get our hopes up too much before we actually get to it. The internet has a way of giving things a false coolness. The housing assistant had trouble finding a place near Palo Alto, so we’re ending up about 18 miles away in Santa Clara.

We’ve made it out to Sterling, Colorado on this first leg of the journey. It’s been about 16 hours and 1,000 miles with a few stops along the way. Whew! We’re in a Best Western which is decent enough for a random road stop. It has the added bonus of having a window view of the neighboring correctional facility right across the street. There’s even one of those, “stay the hell away from hitchhikers” signs just down the road.

Here we go! We’ve got the Jeep loaded to the brim and we’re one sleepless night away from heading west. We still haven’t heard the final word on our apartment and it looks like we’re going to have to leave Piper back home with Melissa. We’ll miss you girl! You’re in good hands. Just don’t forget us!I wish we could! Now I’m just in that anxious mode where I keep thinking over and over about all the things I know we must be forgetting.

This weekend was a whirlwind of family and friend gatherings and getting nothing done. I did manage to get new tires on the Jeep and get the cargo rack up on the roof. After a good cleaning tonight, we’ll start loading her up. I always feel like I’m getting ripped off when buying tires. This time, they told me they were going to have to cut off one of the lugnut bolts because it was rusted on and they couldn’t remove it.

It’s starting to feel a little more real. Jen’s last night at work is tonight, and this weekend is booked with scattered social gatherings where we’ll be saying Hi and Bye to a lot of people before we take off next week. There’s this stress that’s been bubbling up lately, too. We keep going over lists of things we need to get done and things we need to bring for our summer out west.

Last month we received a letter through United Airlines which promised a pair of free airline tickets anywhere in the continental United States if we sat through some presentation. Although the letter came from United Airlines, the presentation was from some other travel agency whose mantra seemed to be, “We’re not a time share.” If you Google their phone number, 866-437-7729, you get a whole set of planted videos that make it all seem legit.