Moving to South Dakota: Part II

4:00 a.m. is not a fun time to wake up.  It should be outlawed.  Unfortunately, we wanted to be in Spearfish, SD at a reasonable hour and we were looking at a twelve hour drive if you include stops for food and gas.  Somewhere around 11:00 p.m., when Peter and I were still lying wide awake in bed, we debated just getting up and driving through the night.  Peter was all for it, but I convinced him that as wide awake as we felt then, we wouldn't feel that way in a few hours and that it would be hazardous (I remember vividly how sick and tired I felt the day of our last move and I didn't want to drive under conditions like that again).  Though, I guess it was kind of sixes considering how tired we would be any ways if we couldn't sleep.  So, we tried to sleep and eventually we both drifted off.  We woke up bright and early, before even what the sun thought was a decent hour, and we were out of our apartment by 5:00 a.m.  We said our quick goodbyes to the place that had been home for a year, and with tears in my eyes we climbed into the filled-to-the-brim Jeep that contained a week's supply of clothing, our computers, and everything else that couldn't go in the moving truck.  There was barely enough room for poor little Natasha to curl up on her bed.

That is one unhappy pupple.

We drove off and left Gunnison behind us.

We didn't look back.

Mostly because it was too dark to see anything behind us.

We had driven an hour before the sun rose and we could finally see more than what was illuminated by the headlights.  It was nice because by that time we were on 285 near Buena Vista and we had a clear view of the Collegiate Peaks as we drove north towards Denver.  I have been very fortunate to live in some very beautiful places over the years, and though the town of Gunnison itself is mostly sagebrush country, it is just a short drive away from some beautiful places.  If you've never seen the Collegiates, you should.  They're breathtaking.

We drove on through Denver, and only stopped for some food when we had gotten to Fort Collins.  We were just a few miles from the border of Colorado and Wyoming, and we weren't looking forward to the next leg of our journey.  We'd driven for five hours and we still had seven ahead of us during the hottest time of the day.  The A/C in our Jeep has been broken for years, but it hasn't really bothered us because we've lived in relatively cool places.  Logan got into the 90s but we always lived in the woods up at higher elevations during the summer, and it was a hot day in the peak of summer in Gunnison if the temperature got over 80.  I never saw 90 there, but eastern Wyoming and South Dakota are a different story.  We had to drive through nearly 100 degree weather with no air conditioning.  I was really worried for Natasha's safety.  People have sweat glands, so Peter and I could cope as long as we stayed hydrated, but dogs do not.  Plus, she's an arctic breed, and though they can tolerate heat, they're not the best breed for it.  They're more suited to, say, Gunnison temps.  She was a trooper though, and she spent most of her time sleeping.  Sometimes in very odd positions.

Periodically she'd wake up and give us sad puppy dog eyes that clearly communicated that she was miserable.  I constantly gave her water to help prevent heatstroke and even sprayed her fur down with a water bottle to help keep her cool.  I felt horrible every time we stopped for a break and she resisted getting back in the car.  I felt the same way.  Peter and I were both hot and tired, but we drove on through some of the most boring terrain I have ever seen in my entire life.  The only place more boring to drive through is Nevada.  There was nothing but horizon as far as the eye could see, and I'm used to being surrounded by mountains.  I love mountains.  They're a comfort to me.  They're familiar.

Prairie is not.

Prairie is foreign to me.

Finally, around 4:00 p.m. we found trees.  Lots of them.  We'd finally reached the western edge of the Black Hills.  We drove another hour through the Black Hills National Forest and Spearfish Canyon and by 5:00 we were checking into our hotel.  It was such a relief to collapse onto a bed in an air conditioned room.  It was a surreal feeling to be back in Spearfish in the same hotel where we had spent one of the most miserable weekends of my entire life, but I was optimistic that things would go better this time.  For better or for worse we were there to stay this time.  After unpacking a little and grabbing a bite to eat, we pulled it in after us and got some much needed sleep.  The next few days were going to be very busy as we hunted down a place to live.

I wasn't looking forward to that.

It's hard enough to find the right place to live, but when you have a dog and you're looking for a place to rent...it's nearly impossible.  At least it is in Spearfish.  Gunnison was different.  It wasn't hard to find a place to rent that allowed pets.  The whole town had a very dog-friendly vibe to it...and dogs were everywhere.  It's probably the reason why there were three vet clinics in a town that only has a population of 5,000 people.  Peter and I were determined though to find a place for all three of us to live.  There was no way we were giving up Natasha.  We had put a lot of time, effort, and love into her and the thought of being parted from her made us both sick to our stomachs.  Plus, I think Peter knew that if his job and this move forced me to give up my dog, the dog he had gotten to help me cope with moving farther and farther away from everything and everyone that I loved (not to mention to help me forgive him for forgetting my birthday that year), he would have one very angry and resentful wife on his hands.  Needless to say, Peter had a lot of motivation to find dog-friendly housing.

So, the next day we searched through ads and made many phone calls.  Some were returned, most were not.  There were very few people who were willing to rent to people who had a dog.  I remember one afternoon Peter and I drove around aimlessly looking for posted signs for apartments or houses to rent.  We both felt helpless and hopeless as we contemplated the possibility of being employed but homeless.  I joked darkly with Peter that at least we owned our car.

The whole experience of trying to find a place to rent that allowed dogs helped me to learn a few things.  One is to always keep your cool and not let your frustration through when dealing with landlords.  Be gracious and respectful when they say, "Absolutely no pets.  Period."  You don't wont to give them any more reason to not rent to people with pets.  I quickly learned that mentioning I had a dog over the phone or leaving a message on an answering machine resulted in zero call backs, so I tried a different tactic: see the place first, talk to the landlord, let them meet us and get a feel for what kind of people we were, and then mention we had a dog.  This worked a little better.  Sometimes people still say no, but they seem to contemplate it more.  I think it's harder to say no right to people's face.  Maybe it's unfair to put people in that kind of position, but all I can say is that it works because...

We found a place to live...and yes, Natasha was staying with us.

To be concluded with Moving to South Dakota: Part III

Moving to South Dakota: Part I

Three weeks ago, Peter and I left Gunnison, CO, the place we called home for only a year.  Leaving Gunnison turned out to be harder than I thought it would.  I guess the place grew on me, despite the frigid winter.  There are a lot of good people in Gunnison who I will truly miss, mostly my coworkers at the Forest Service and Tomichi Pet Care Center.  It was tough to say goodbye...but I didn't have much time to dwell on it then.  We had movers coming, and there was a lot of work to do.
Because the USA Pro Cycling Challenge was coming through Gunnison the very next day and the major road out of Gunnison was going to be closed, we had to get the movers in and out in one day.  They told us they would be at our apartment before noon on Monday the 22nd, but they really didn't show up until about 2:00.  We put Natasha in boarding for the day so that she wouldn't be underfoot, which was a good decision since she's nervous around strangers, and it was nice to not have to worry about her.  I had to give the guys credit, though, it took them only five hours to pack up everything in our two-bedroom apartment.  It was weird to just stand around and direct total strangers who were handling all of my stuff.  I'd spent the day before packing up everything I didn't want them touching and that we planned on taking with us in the car.  The biggest trick for the movers wasn't the packing, but getting the truck into the parking lot.  I didn't know the movers were coming in a giant semi!

I really felt bad about blocking in my neighbors' cars.

It was difficult for the driver to make the turn off the street and around the first apartment building.  The movers had to go door to door and ask my neighbors if they could move their vehicles out of the way.  It was a little embarrassing, but they managed to make it.  Our stuff didn't even fill 1/4 of this truck.  Apparently when you hire a moving company they make several stops.  They'll go to one home, pack it up, then put up a divider in the truck, then go to the next home, pack it up, rinse and repeat.  Then they either take your stuff to storage or deliver it directly to your new home depending on what your request.  We still hadn't found a new place to live, so our stuff was going to storage.  After the movers had packed up all of our earthly possessions, we had a farewell dinner to go to.  The Gunnison timber department took us out to dinner at the Ol' Miner Steakhouse and gave us a beautiful framed photograph of The Castles by a local photographer, Allan Ivy.  It was strange to go home that night to any empty apartment.  Natasha wasn't even there to greet us.  It was kind of sad.  We had a very busy day the next day, so we set up the air mattress since our bed was now in a semi heading towards Colorado Springs.

The now empty apartment.

The next day I got Natasha out of hock and then the cleaning commenced.  We were hoping to catch the cyclists coming through town since it was kind of a big deal, but we were so busy that we didn't have a chance.  We spent the entire day cleaning and packing up the liquid items that the movers were not allowed to pack since our stuff was going into storage.  By the time we were done you could hardly tell that anyone had lived there.  It was like erasing any evidence of our short stay in Gunnison, but again we didn't have much time to dwell on it, because once we were done cleaning and packing we called it a day and crawled into bed...we had a long drive ahead of us the next day.

Stay tuned for Moving to South Dakota: Part 2

Last Hurrah in Colorado

So, most of you know that we recently moved to South Dakota, but before I get into that adventure, I need to write about our last "hurrah" in Colorado.  At the beginning of August, our dear friends from Tucson, AZ decided they needed to beat the heat down south, so they came to visit us for a week in cool Gunnison.  They wanted an "outdoor" experience, and although Peter and I rubbed our hands together mischievously at the thought, we decided to take it a little easy on them and we rented a Forest Service cabin instead of forcing them on a backpacking death march.  We had a great time showing them the beautiful scenery of Colorado, and I think by the end of the week they were sad to go back to Arizona.  I know we were sad to see them go.  This vacation came right after our terrible house-hunting trip to Spearfish, and it was exactly what I needed to relax and feel better.

Jack & Jaime 

Sophie, Jack and Jaime's dog and Natasha's new best friend.

The first thing we did when they arrived was...sleep in.  Peter and I were exhausted.  We had just gotten back from Spearfish the day before and we needed to recuperate, so we all spent the night at our little apartment in Gunnison and then we headed out to the cabin the next day.

The little FS cabin

We hiked around in the general vicinity, looked at some nearby native American archaeological sites and then drove out to Sargent's Mesa where Peter had worked on a timber sale the previous summer.  Apparently at Sargent's Park on Sargent's Mesa there is a war memorial.  Why it's there in the middle of nowhere is beyond me, but it was interesting to see at any rate.

Sargents Park

War memorial

Peter also remembered that there were some grate chanterelle patches in the area.  We didn't find very many because it was a bit early in the season, but we managed to find enough to go in our dinner that evening.  Natasha loved looking for mushrooms and she apparently has a taste for chanterelles.  She kept digging them up and eating them before we could collect them!

Chanterelles

Jack also tried his hand at chopping wood for the first time in his life.  He thought it was a lot of fun, but I'm sure if he had to do it every day, he wouldn't enjoy it quite as much.

Jack chopping wood

The next day we went up to Crested Butte.  It truly is a beautiful little picturesque town up in the mountains.  I wouldn't want to live there due to the fact that there is a certain...attitude among many of the locals, and the fact that real estate prices are way overinflated, but it's fun to visit.

Elk Avenue, the main street in C.B.

Neat house on Elk Avenue that has Colorado
license plates all along one side.

We also drove a little ways north of Crested Butte up to a tiny ghost town called, Gothic.  I think it was once a mining town, like so many of the other towns in Colorado, that went bust and is now home to the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory.

View of the East River

The next day we went horseback riding up into the Fossil Ridge Wilderness.  I think it's been more than a decade since I've been on a horse, and Jaime is a major horse lover, so we thought it would be fun to treat the two of them to a beautiful ride in the wilderness.  It certainly was beautiful, and we even saw a Great Blue Heron, but after three hours in the saddle...we were all a little bit sore.

I was the last one in the line, so this was pretty
much my view the entire time.  Peter's horse
was rather flatulent, too.

The four of us having a jolly good time

Afterwards we drove down to the Currecanti National Recreation Area where you can see the eastern end of the Black Canyon.  It's quite the view!

View of the Black Canyon

We certainly all had a great time, and it was fun to visit new places or revisit others before we moved away.  There are parts of Colorado that truly are stunning.  Despite that fact, when I first moved to Gunnison, I was very depressed and unhappy with the area.  I was terribly lonely, but as I worked and started to make friends, somewhere over the course of a year it became home to me, and it was hard to leave...but that is a tale for another day.

Natasha and Sophie ready for their next adventure