This post is coming a little late considering the events contained, and even later considering the last post...
Picking up from the last post, we spent about 15 months back in the 'burgh living our lives. We were going to work, cooking meals, and getting outside when we could. We built upon old friendships and strengthened relationships with new relations. We had a blast.
And then we heard tell of a new REI store currently under construction in Kalispell, Montana. First off, taking part in the opening a new store with REI is a great opportunity to build connections and further one's career. Secondly, if you read back to one of our Montana visit posts, you will see that Karl claims his favorite park is Glacier. This new REI would be a stones throw away. Could we swing it?
After some phone interviews and nervous nights awaiting emails we heard the good news. We had 4 weeks to pack up our lives, find housing, travel across the country before Stacy had to show up to work. To make a long story short, we managed to do all of the above.
So we found ourselves driving across the country and decided to visit ANOTHER NATIONAL PARK. This one was new, having upgraded status from a memorial. It was a wonderful afternoon break from the hours of driving and we had some lovely views.
From Missouri, we headed N-NW into the plains. Driving for hours on end and listening to crappy teen fiction (Divergent (tm) series). A day or so later we managed to visit a friend in Casper WY. Readers may remember him from our previous expeditions. Fun and very strong beers were had, as well as some animal loving.
The following day we set off on our final stint of 700 some miles, and cranked the terrible audiobooks. The day progressed uneventfully until about 1 hour outside of our new home. The excitement of arriving was building and then BAM. Bi. Bambi ran out in front of Ele and we had our first deer-vehicle collision. After three decades of living in the #1 state in the nation for deer-vehicle collisions, we hit one 2000 miles across the country. The car was fine. The deer was fine. Stacy was not so fine.
We arrived at our new domicile with still-wet tears on Stacy's cheeks. We unpacked what we could in the 30 minutes prior to bedtime and passed out almost immediately. It can be unbelievably quiet here. The following days were spent exploring town, the parks, the shops, and the woods. We got Stacy started on her new job training and Karl began the tedious work of finding employment...We went for a few hikes and kept telling ourselves, "This is our backyard now..."
So here we sit, two months later, with the holidays fast approaching. Karl managed to secure employment, and we managed to buy soo much winter gear. Restarting our lives in the wonderful place is both amazing and depressing. We miss all of our friends and family back home. We are talking about getting a cat, we go for hikes when we can, and we anxiously await our first visitors (we have a spare bedroom). We hope it will be you!!
More adventure stories to come as we make them...
<3 S
-K
