Wyoming, Kansas and OKC oh my!!

Yesterday saw us driving through much of Wyoming, all of Kansas and part of Oklahoma. It was a perfect day to be driving, not a cloud in the sky when we departed Greeley Wyoming at 7am. We traveled on the outskirts of Denver during rush hour - seeing a part of downtown and a tiny portion of the refinery Jason was involved with acquiring a couple of years ago.

Wyoming is very much like Saskatchewan - extremely flat! It was this characteristic that led us to believe that we were traveling through Kansas for at least a couple of hours when in fact we were still in Wyoming. We saw numerous fields of sorgum - a kind of soybean used for ethanol and there were some beautiful crops of sunflowers. Custer's last stand - Little Bighorn - was clearly marked, however we did not have time to stop. That would've been interesting to see.

Once you cross into Kansas there is a noticeable change in the environment - mainly all the billboards advertising the Oz museums and the likes. My father asked if we traveled down the yellow brick road - unfortunately we didn't see it but it had existed it would've had a mammoth sign devoted to it :) We did pass several signs indicating historical landmarks, I think there was a presidential museum of sorts at one point.

I was surprised to see how they've embraced green energy - or at least the desire for it. We saw alot of Prius's and there was a gigantic wind farm that puts the Sunbridge farm (south of Ft Mcleod) to shame. Speaking of energy - we happened to be listening to CNN while the kiddos were zoned out with one of their movies and they were discussing a 'sleepy little town' that has hit liquid gold in Alberta. Ha!!! I've never heard of Ft McMurray referred to as that. I've heard it referred to in many ways, but sleepy and little is not one of them, lol!!

After a very long journey through Kansas we finally crossed the state line into Oklahoma around 6:30pm to be greeted with huge thunder clouds and billboards for oil tycoon's mansions (seriously!! Ponca City...). My sister-in-law had warned us that there were warnings for some good storms with possible hail - thankfully the major storm skirted around us. After trying to check into our reserved hotel only to find out that they really don't accept animals (but they were very sorry about it) we found a room at the Best Western next door that was cheaper, had bigger beds and a cheaper pet deposit. Our cats were just about at their limit yesterday. This has been a very trying trip for them. As I sit here and write this, I'm wondering whether they'll clue in today that they'll need to be locked up in their mini-prisons only once more...

We managed to pop over to my sister-in-law's mother's house last night to meet our nephew - Ian. What a cutie!! And the hair! Angee already had it styled - parted on the left, much like a mini business man :) Ian woke up near the end of our visit but otherwise slept happily while I toted him around.

Today sees us driving straight through to The Woodlands. We have an appointment at 3pm to take possession of our house. Hopefully rush hour luck is on our side this morning as we pass through Dallas.

I hope everyone is doing well. I'll post pictures tomorrow when we get our internet/cable/phone installed.

Tara

Montana and Wyoming...

Today started early… too early – 4:16am to be exact. Unfortunately our hotel room last night sided onto a lit walk way which illuminated our room so much so that Ben was up several times in the night. At 4:30am we thought it was futile to try and sleep longer so we got a head start to our destination for the night – Greeley Colorado. It’s a good thing we got such an early start as stopping for breakfast in Helena took much longer than anticipated.
The scenery throughout southeastern Montana is very beautiful. Lots of large rolling hills that were masked slightly by a beautiful haze today. After many, many, many hours of driving we finally crossed into Wyoming around 1pm or so stopping in Sheridan to have lunch at a BK so Ben could collect their Pokemon toys. It’s a much different terrain – very similar to Drumheller with the badlands and in some spots I would’ve swore we were in Saskatchewan! Both Jason and I have been trading off driving duties while the kids have been completely engrossed with their movies which means Jason and I have been able to listen to all the NPR, CBC and CNN we want with no worries about the kids hearing something they shouldn’t.

We finally reached our hotel in Greeley – nice little town. Kids are happy, cats are happy so it’s all good!

Ben's birthday AND moving day!!

Kids in front of the moving truck

We started early after a birthday breakfast of McDonalds (yes, that is really what he wanted!!) – we finished packing the van and cleaning and waited in anticipation for the moving truck. It arrived at 8:45am. Sadly, Jason and I, for whatever reason thought it would be a fairly quick process – WRONG!! They spent an hour alone taking Ben’s bunkbed apart. I am so happy they were doing it and not us. 109 Rubbermaid bins and other assorted loose items later, they finished loading and completing paperwork and after saying goodbye to the house we were finally on the road at 2:35pm. It looks like we should have all our stuff either next Thursday or Friday which they will then unload and assemble. We are one of three families being moved on this trip, two of us going to the Houston area and one going to Austin.

The first leg of our trip had us in Great Falls for the night. We weren’t entirely sure how long it would take at the border. After a grilling by the border guard we went in to import the van and we were done within 15 minutes. The drive to Great Falls was easy and uneventful, punctuated by Loki’s constant meowing. The ONLY time she wasn’t meowing was when the van was stopped. I could say that Juno is handling the drive well but perhaps she’s just paralyzed into a catatonic state of shock? She did come round once we were at the hotel.

sunrise in Montana

Texas bound

This site has been very quiet for a long time. I've been pretty busy working on making a dream come true. About 2 1/2 years ago my family was vacationing in Orlando, and decided to make it our long term goal to move somewhere like that, so we could live on vacation. This spring has afforded us that opportunity. I spent several months trying to get interviews with companies in Texas, Florida, Arizona and California, but my foreign status plus the general downturn in the US economy was making it difficult to get interviews, let alone sponsorship. I expanded my search net a little wider and discovered that a local company whom I'd considered offers from twice in the past was hiring in Houston. I approached them and while they initially seemed interested, a month went by without an offer. However in the interim I had managed to schedule 3 interviews in Austin and scheduled a little vacation down there.

Literally days before I was leaving for this vacation and these interviews I got an offer from the local company, but it was for a local position! I let them know that the offer wasn't quite up to par with my expectations, and told them that I couldn't accept it in the time frame suggested as I had some interviews scheduled in Texas. Within 4 hours I had an offer for Houston that met all of my expectations and I accepted it immediately.

I went on my vacation, and instead of a job hunting expedition it became a house-hunting trip. And it was FUN. My wife and I met a couple of wonderful realtors and had a great time exploring the different neighborhoods with them. We toured an elementary school and were totally impressed. Our son goes to a great school now, but I think that this will be at least as good (really - I think it is better!). Plus the neighborhood we selected seems built for us - very family oriented, values that match ours, similar economic situations, a perfect match.

Except that my company recently moved their office from this area to one about 30 miles away - an hour + in typical traffic... That really isn't significantly more than my current commute though, so it isn't too bad, and everything else is so superior to our current situation that I am absolutely convinced that this is the right place and the right time to make this move.

Right now I am in between jobs, have 5 days to finish packing before the movers come and then it is off on a mighty road trip to drive 3800 km from Calgary to The Woodlands, hopefully arriving before our furniture does!

Unfortunately I'll only have a few days before starting my new job to get settled in, but I've laid the groundwork, and my wife should be able to tie up most of the loose ends.

Hurray! Time to get back to the packing...