Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Home sweet home, almost

Well. Here we are.

The drive was remarkably nice, much better than we were expecting. There was a brief snowstorm at the beginning, despite our best efforts to avoid all snow. The weather said snow SHOWERS, and that's what we were expecting. But then there we were, at the top of a mountain in West Virginia, and the interstate was covered with snow. There was nothing to do but follow the tracks of the cars in front of us and hope that we weren't about to drive off the side of the road. The sight of two other cars in the ditch was not comforting. But Torsten was driving, and he's good in snow, and we made it without a problem.


After that small blip, the weather was clear and nice. Torsten and I shared the driving pretty equally, and didn't push ourselves too hard, and we made it 1700 miles in a total of about 27 hours, or two and a half days, with one night spent in Indiana and the other in Kansas. Driving in the midwest is so nice and stress-free: big, wide, straight roads and no traffic. And we actually liked the landscape in Kansas and were not bored at all. Behold:


I'd love to drive through there in the summer when everything is green, although the brown and orange shades we saw were intriguing in their own way. But before that, there are lots of other states near Colorado that we want to explore: Wyoming and Utah and Arizona and New Mexico. And we'd like to head up to South Dakota, too. It's nice to be located within road trip distance of so many interesting places. Torsten, especially, likes driving:


We arrived in Denver at around 3:30 yesterday afternoon, and found a hotel in a nice neighborhood for a good price. We're checked in for two days for now and will probably extend that based on how the housing search goes. We looked at two places yesterday--an ugly, overpriced apartment with a really crappy kitchen, and a really nice house that is definitely a contender. And we have six more appointments today, so hopefully we'll find something soon, and definitely this week.

It's still hard to believe that we're here. The mountains are beautiful, and once I find our mini USB cable I will upload the photos we took with our camera once we got smart enough to dig it out (all the photos here were taken with my BlackBerry). The weather was perfect when we arrived--sunny and clear and about 60 degrees, and we drove around with our windows down. We checked out a couple neighborhoods and went downtown to a brewery for dinner.

I'm still adjusting to the idea that this is where we live now, this is our home and it will really be our children's home. From what I've seen so far, I like it here. I can't wait to explore the whole town and the surrounding area. It'll be nice to have a place to live, an address and some furniture. And a dog. We might have one within a week! How awesome would THAT be?

42 comments:

  1. How exciting! I love the pics already! Good luck and have fun. Looking forward to more updates later on!

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  2. Welcome! It was a great day yesterday, wasn't it?

    And your trip sounds great. I love those big wide-open drives on the great plains, too.

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  3. This is totally exciting! Best of luck with the househunting! I'm sure you'll find someplace awesome.

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  4. I don't know why, but I'm surprised you're there already! Can't wait to hear about the house hunting!

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  5. Thats incredibly exciting!! Good luck finding a place (and a dog!). =)

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  6. I'm totally jealous of this Whole New World thing you have going on.

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  7. A dog by the end of the week?? Ah! Do it!! =D

    Congrats on a successful trek and good luck on finding the perfect place for you two!

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  8. Glad you made it safely! Happy house hunting today :)

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  9. Yay! You're there! (I'm with SLynnRo- envious of all the new and exciting stuff you have ahead of you! Oh, and I casually mentioned it to John and he agrees that Denver is still on the short list, just not for a year or four.)

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  10. Glad you arrived safely!
    I saw that you won the 52 pieces print. How perfect for your new home!

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  11. Glad you made it there. Hope you'll find a place to live soon!

    And a totally unrelated question: which Blackberry is it you have and are you happy with it? (The pictures look like it takes decent-enough pictures.) I'm considering getting one, that's why I'm asking.

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  12. I'm glad your trip was uneventful, and it looks like it was so beautiful, too! I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the housing and dog searches go well, and I can't wait to see more photos!

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  13. Welcome home! Glad the trip was easy (enough). Good luck with the house hunt.

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  14. Yay!! You're here!! I'm so happy the drive went well!

    xox

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  15. I can't believe you're already there! How exciting! And I see you've changed your blog info that you're from CO now. :)yay! good luck on finding a place.

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  16. Glad you made it safely. Good luck with the home hunt!

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  17. Great pics!! I'm glad you made it safely!

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  18. Glad to hear the drive went smoothly! And those are nice pics for a Blackberry :)

    Good luck in the housing search!

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  19. Glad you made it safely. Hate to break it to you, but those brown states are brown in the summer too. In the winter they are dead and brown, in the summer they are dry and brown!

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  20. Gun-shy, you're not. So glad you were able to make the drive with relative ease and are not wasting any time finding a home and a dog. This probably means you'll also waste no time in the trying to make a baby department. Though, at this point, you do have the right to tell me that it's none of my business. hahahaha.

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  21. Wahoo! You've arrived! I am so glad the trip went well. Good luck house/apartment hunting!

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  22. Welcome! Hope everything is going well now that you've arrived. :)

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  23. wow, so crazy! You are here! I could, like, run into you or something! Hope the searching is going well. I'm glad you had some nice weather to ride in on. Should be good today too, if not for the rest of the week.

    Welcome!

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  24. Yay! So glad you made it to Denver safely. Hoping you find the perfect home soon!

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  25. Welcome to the Mountain West. I hope that you enjoy it as much as I have (although I live a couple of mountain ranges over.)

    Best of luck on the house hunt.

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  26. congrats on making it to colorado and good luck on your apartment search today!

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  27. You made it! Congrats! Good luck finding an awesome house.

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  28. sooo gorgeous :) and good to see how happy you are :)

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  29. i'm glad the drive went so uneventfully! the pictures so far are awesome.. can't wait to see the "real" ones :-)

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  30. Hurrah! You made it. I hope you love Denver.

    I think you should add Oregon to your list of Western states to visit. I am biased, though. :)

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  31. Congrats on your new home! I love seeing pictures from other parts of the country. Mostly, because I have anywherebuthereitis. . .

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  32. I'm so glad y'all made it there safe and sound! Good luck exploring your new home!

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  33. I'm so excited for you! I want to say welcome to Denver, except that makes it sound like I live there, which I don't. Oh well, welcome to your new life!

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  34. I can't believe you're there, either!

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  35. Adjusting and making it really feel like "home" will take time, but enjoy the process! Getting to know a new place is so much fun- sort of like the beginning of a relationship.

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  36. This is so awesome to be a part of this journey with you!

    I can't wait to continue reading. :)

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  37. Welcome to Denver! I can't wait to hear/read what you think :)

    Let me know if you need anything.

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  38. Were you on Rt. 68? There's an area (basically from my house until you hit interstate 79 @ morgantown, wv) that is ALWAYS covered with snow. It can be totally fine here and then bam! snow storm! Glad you got there safely!

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  39. I'm so jealous that you get to see mountains every day!!!

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  40. I'm so behind and finally getting caught up! Congrats on finally making it there!
    I'm a wee bit jealous of this 60-degree-weather-in-February of which you speak....

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