On June 1, 2009, after a morning in court in Las Cruces, our family of 6 people, 2 dogs, 1 lizard, and 1 turtle left Deming, New Mexico and headed north for Gillette, Wyoming in a 4 vehicle caravan at approximately 4:00pm. Here's a "picture perfect" blog all about it.....
After leaving the house, we said 'goodbye' to GMK, Grandpa Nute and Grandma Beth...
Notice part of our "caravan" here and the most curious German Shepard in the truck... Oh, his nose just knew something was up!
Along the way, Rufus the Box Turtle and
Grizz the Bearded Dragon were also most uncertain.
We stopped in Hatch to pick up Nathaniel who would be spending the summer with us in Wyoming. We had to wait about 30 minutes there for him.
Delay, delay, delay...this was our 2nd setback of the day!
A couple days before we left Deming, Craig had noticed his eye getting a bit red and irritated.
However, being a man on a mission, he refused to go to get it checked out.
We began our 1000 mile journey north. Unfortunately, day one of our journey would
end abruptly when right around Socorro (2 1/2 hours from Deming),
Craigs' eye would get far, far worse almost
instantaneously.
After stopping several times along the road, we made it to Socorro (barely) and to the ER there. Really, really bad eye infection (let's just say.....PINK EYE)! BAD!
So, by the time we left the ER it was late. Too late to continue and we were absolutely BEAT!
So we spent the night in Socorro... Craig, myself, Nathaniel, Matthew, 2 dogs, a lizard and a turtle in one room and Michael and my Mother in another. Even though the dogs required 2 "outs" in the night-time, they were angels and very well behaved.
We woke up early the next morning and started again....
As we headed north, the scenery changed. It clouded up a bit and go quite a bit greener.
Michael did a great job on his first really long drive. He commandeered the Suburban through heavy rain, windy roads, a mountain pass, Denver traffic, and 2 lane highways like a pro. One always remembers their first "long haul"....
I was slow going most of the trip. Between pee breaks, food stops, doggie breaks, and hills that required slower driving for the very heavy trailer being pulled at the head of our caravan.... it seemed to take forever.
But...we persevered and after a long, bumpy (but fun, kinda) ride, we finally reached our new home. Gillette, Wyoming was green and overcast when we arrived. The boys got
acclimated to their new surroundings very quickly as children do. Here they are in downstairs relaxing after the forever drive!
The weather was such a beautiful change that Craig decided to sit outside and relax...
Even our sweet doggies, Zeus and Rusty enjoyed the nice weather...until night, that is - when it got cold and poor, just shaved, Rusty was REALLY COLD! For the first week we were here, he shook and his teeth actually "chattered"!
Soon, though, G'pa Nute and G'ma Beth would visit us. Good ole G'pa knew just what to do for Rusty. He wrapped him up in a blanket each night he was here. It was really quite sweet!
The great part about living in a quiet neighborhood is getting to bike ride with the kids and take the dogs for walks without fear of being mauled by a large dog not fenced or leashed.....
We love our new home and hope you visit us very soon!
"Mom, c'mon...letsssssssss gooooooo!"
