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

Laura and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Weekend

At the end of July, Peter and I attempted to fly out to Spearfish, SD to look for a new place to live.  It unfortunately did not leave me with warm fuzzy feelings about Spearfish.  I should have known how things were going to go that weekend by how they started out on Friday the 29th.

Curse you Murphy and your stupid law!

Part of the Transfer of Station deal with the Forest Service is a trip to your new town to look for a place to live, all on the government's dime.  Sounds great, right?  Well, yeah, we thought so, too.  We left Friday morning by hopping onto a tiny little plane at the Gunnison Regional Airport.  The ride from Gunnison was nice.  Everything left on time and we made it to Denver in time to snag a little lunch before we had to make our connection to Rapid City.  Unfortunately our 30 minute delay turned into a five hour delay.  They changed gates on us three times and would not give us any explanation as to why.  I get it if there was a mechanical issue.  When flying, I want everything to be safe, but five hours of waiting with no explanation or apology was ridiculous, and we did file a complaint with United Airlines.

Peter looking very annoyed at the Denver airport.

"Do I really want to get on this thing?"

Eventually we boarded another tiny little plane and made it safe and sound in Rapid City which is an hour drive from Spearfish.  Unfortunately it was too late for Peter to meet up with his new boss, but at least our hotel was really nice.

The next day Peter and I spent the day looking at places to live.  The only problem is that everyone in Spearfish apparently hates dogs.  I have never been to a more dog unfriendly place in my life.  No one would even consider renting to people with a dog.  The only place that would allow a dog was clear down in Lead.  It's only about twenty-five minutes away but the drive is very gnarly with twisty turny roads through a canyon.  It would be very difficult to make that drive into work and school every day during the winter.  The town of Lead itself is very small and the roads are very steep.  The house we looked at was somewhat run down and it even slanted significantly.  If you placed a ball at the back of the house, it would roll all the way out the front door without any assistance.  It was almost comical.  After considering all of the pros and cons there were definitely too many cons.  So it was a no go.  By the end of the day I was emotionally drained.  I know it had only been one day of looking, but I was so discouraged and worried about my Natasha.  I was nearly in tears.  I have put a lot of work and love into her to be a good dog, and though she's nowhere near perfect she is still my dog and I am very attached to her.  There is no way I will give her up voluntarily, but I am terribly worried that I will be forced to.  I will exhaust all of my options before that ever happens, though.

The slanted house in Lead

Sunday, we got up early and headed back to Rapid City to catch our flight back to Denver.  Of course, we missed our exit to the airport, and the next exit wasn't for about twenty miles down the road.  By the time we got turned around we had only twenty minutes until our flight left.  We didn't know anything about check-ins prior to flight, so when we tried to pick up our boarding passes we found out that the airline had given them away!  We were furious!  We saw nowhere where this information was posted and we don't fly enough to know these little things.  We managed to get our tickets transferred to a later flight, but unfortunately we would miss our connection from Denver to Gunnison because it was the only flight that day.  We would be effectively stranded in Denver.  By this time I was in tears, feeling helpless and frustrated.  So as we sat in the Rapid City airport waiting for our flight to Denver, I got onto our laptop and found a rental company that would do a one way car rental so that we could drive home from Denver.  I was relieved that we were going to make it home that day.  All I wanted to do was sleep in my own bed and snuggle with my doggy.  But of course there would have to be one more problem, right?  Once we had boarded the plane someone was sitting in Peter's seat, we double checked Peter's ticket and the woman's ticket, and sure enough they had the exact same seat numbers.  I have to hand it to Peter.  He deals with stressful situations far better than I do.  He remained calm throughout everything.  I was freaking out again because I thought we were going to be stuck in Rapid City, but the flight attendants moved things around and found Peter a seat.  An hour later we finally took off and landed in Denver.  From there we got our rental car and drove four and a half hours back to Gunnison.  Exhausted and emotionally drained, I crawled into my own bed.  Sleep didn't come easily as I had much on my mind, and I was exhausted the next day at work.

I'm trying to look at Spearfish with optimism still, but our whole trip left me with a sour taste in my mouth.  The Forest Service will have to provide housing for us for at least a month, so hopefully during that time we will find a pet friendly place to live.  A month from now, I hope I will look back on this experience and laugh, but it's hard to be optimistic when you can't see what the future holds.  I just have to put my faith in God right now, and pray that things will work out for the best whatever they may be.  In my short experience in this life I have found that things always work out for the best, even if I can't always see that.  When Peter was laid off from his IT job five years ago, I thought it was the worst thing ever, but it set Peter down another path and into a career that he has thoroughly enjoyed.  A bad thing at the time turned into a positive thing down the road, and honestly the best thing ever.  I am hoping that Spearfish will be the same way.  I wrote on my Facebook page a few days ago that maybe I should move to Australia instead.  A friend told me not to bother because the flight there is even longer.

Thank goodness for friends to put things into perspective.

Things will get better.

They always do.

What Is This? A Post? Gasp!

Hello, Blog, long time no see...er, write?  Any ways, I've been pretty quiet lately.  Mostly because I've been incredibly busy.  Working two jobs has actually been going pretty well.  It's not as stressful as I thought it would be, in fact, I've enjoyed working full-time again...however, I'm about to go from two jobs to zero jobs.

Last week Peter was offered a full time, permanent, year-round position with the Black Hills National Forest based in Spearfish, South Dakota.

South Dakota?!

Yeah, that's exactly what I thought when he first applied, too.

But I have good feelings about Spearfish.  Not only is it a pay increase for Peter, but the cost of living is less expensive there.  There is also a university to which I am planning on applying and hopefully attending.  Spearfish is twice the size of Gunnison and has more amenities, but it still lacks the serious mountains we have in Colorado and Utah.  I'll really miss those.  They have a few hills they call "mountains" but I don't buy it.

I got to tell my family this last weekend when both sets of parents and my sisters all came out for a visit (unbeknownst to them, their last).  When I told them Peter and I had an announcement, I think a few people were disappointed that our big news wasn't that we were having a baby.  I'll be glad when the day comes that I don't have to start every announcement with a disclaimer.

The only issue right now is that Peter's start date in Spearfish is August 29th (fast, I know), and our landlord wants us out by the 15th so that he can get a couple of college kids moved into our apartment before the semester starts on the 22nd at Western State College.  So, we have to figure out temporary housing until then...plus we have to find a place in Spearfish.  Ugh...moving is such a pain! And we would know.  This is our twelfth move in the (nearly) eight years we've been married.  Peter was once told that "to be successful in the Forest Service you must carry a briefcase in one hand and a suitcase in the other."  Boy, has that been proving to be an accurate statement!  Things are going to get pretty chaotic around here, but when are they not?  Hopefully this will be our last move for a while, and maybe we'll both absolutely love Spearfish and never want to leave.  It's hard to say what the future holds.  I certainly never thought I'd be living in South Dakota.

So, ready or not, Spearfish, here we come!

Weird...

Did anyone else lose blog posts after the "maintenance" Blogger was doing this week?  I blogged about the one-year anniversary of our move to Colorado and the post has completely disappeared.  I don't even remember everything I wrote about and I don't even feel like bothering to try and repost it.  Oh well.

Thanks, Blogger.  You fail.

On a side note, it looks like I'm going to be picking up a second job working for the Forest Service this summer.  It'll be nice to bring in a little more income especially since Peter has yet to find a new job...There are jobs out there, but the Forest Service can't fill them because they can't afford to.  I don't want to grumble too much about my incredible disappointment in the government and it's ability to govern itself, though.  I can't talk about the poor economy and lack of budget without bristling.  Any ways...I hope something comes up, but at least my additional job will help a little if he doesn't and we end up facing another winter without his income.  I dislike winter enough without that burden hanging over my head, but I digress.  I need to think more positively.  All will work out.  Until then I'm going to be working 6 days a week starting in June.  Yay.

Birthday Milestones, Incontinence, and Hairloss

I know I haven't blogged much recently, and some friends and family have asked me why, but to be honest the real reason is that...nothing has been going on.  Absolutely nothing.  We holed up for the winter (yeah...we don't really get out when it's -30) and mostly did a whole lot of nothing.  Peter was on furlough for about three months which wasn't much fun, lemme tell ya!  He was very happy when he got back to work two weeks ago, and the Forest Service promptly sent him off for about two weeks.  He was off in some little no-name town in southwestern Colorado supervising a tree planting, and then the next week he went off to Denver for his advanced cruising course which has something to do with setting up timber sales.  Why they call it "cruising" I have no idea but I keep picturing Peter driving around the woods with the windows rolled down with Bob Marley (or someone else equally chill) playing on the stereo.  I know this isn't what he actually does...he's really uh...doing something scientificy...that involves trees.  I really can't explain it well, you'd have to ask him.  Any ways, now that spring has sprung (not that you could tell because it's SNOWING) I hope to have fun outdoorsy adventures to blog about.

In other news, Peter turned the big 30 this week!  He got to spend his birthday riding around on ATVs and getting paid to do it.  Sometimes his job is pretty awesome...when he's actually working.  Speaking of his job, now that he has career status he's been busy looking for a new job.  Hopefully we'll be moving towards the end of the year.  I feel like we're both stagnating here in Gunnison, and it's definitely time to move on, though I will really miss some of the friends I have made here.

Because Peter is now an old man, you may think he is the one suffering from incontinence and hair loss...but no, it's not him.  That would be our dog.  Natasha has recently developed urinary incontinence which is really not fun.  Not fun at all.  She can hold her bladder like normal...unless she gets really excited, but when she gets tired she has a harder time controlling her little sphincter muscles and she starts to dribble which makes her lick herself clean and then she gets bladder infections.  It's all because of a hormone deficiency because she's spayed and isn't producing enough estrogen.  This type of incontinence usually happens to female dogs between the ages of 3 and 5.  Natasha will be 4 this year.  So, to treat it she has to be put on a hormone treatment.  Right now Peter and I are just trying to decide if we want to medicate her on a daily basis or twice a week.  There are pros and cons to both, but I won't bore you with it all.

As for the hair loss...it's spring and Natasha is blowing her winter coat.  I've been waiting for this to happen for the last few weeks as the weather started getting warmer.  I've read about it, but I've never dealt with it...and now that I have...I can tell you that it's pretty epic.  I was absentmindedly petting Natasha this evening when clumps of her hair started coming out.  So I pulled out our Furminator brush (by the way...I highly recommend it for anyone who has a dog that sheds) and after a short brushing session this is what we pulled out of her coat.

It's pretty much a small dog...and this is one reason why huskies are not for everyone.  For me, I find it amusing, and thankfully this only happens once a year (she does shed more noticeably in the fall too, but not quite as much).  So, Natasha's just one big ball of fun right now.

Now I just need to figure out what to do with all the fur.

Maybe I should take up knitting.