DAY 1

We got to a slow start but, we finally got started on our adventure today. The past few days have been a blur and we are as ready as we are going to get.

We had to stop in at Monica’s Taco for one last meal of their famous fish tacos. They were better than normal. Probably because we know they will be our last for some time. After lunch we headed to our favorite Starbuck’s in Barnes and Noble to get the best Americana concoction, well our version that we have perfected. While we were there we walked over to see if the Milepost had come in. There were none on the self, so we asked one of the employees. Turns out they got 2 in, but both were set aside for other customers as special orders. They offered to order 1 for us but we explained we were heading out today and that would not work. Lisa (the Barnes employee) called one of the customers who had it on hold to see if they would mind if we could take theirs and she would order a new one for them. The stars were aligned just right cuz we now have a 2007 Milepost to travel through Canada.

We made it to F.E. Warren AFB, WY today. F.E. Warren is located in Cheyenne, WY. Let me tell ya about finding FamCamp in the dark, with a large truck and trailer in tow, on a base that you’ve never been to before. It makes us appreciate how nice FamCamp was on the Academy. There is one other RV here and it is 22 degrees. We plan on checking out the base in the morning. All of the building we saw (in the dark) were Plantation style. It looks like they have had some fresh snow but the roads were clean.

So far so good and we will end on that note. Tomorrow it’s on to Utah.

2 days and counting

So, we are down to 2 days before we leave…and time is flying by.

March 13th, I was able to surprise Brad with tickets to the Last of the Breed concert, Willie Nelson, Meryl Haggard, Ray Price and Asleep at the Wheel. We were some of the youngest in the crowd and we are not young anymore, at least Brad isn’t :).

We successfully delivered my truck to have it shipped. The only catch is we did not go to Dallas, TX as we were told. Brad was planning our route and found that there is a VPC (vehicle port of call) in St. Louis, IL. After map questing it, he found it was actually closer than Dallas, plus it is a straight shot back home. The ride home was a bit cramped, 2 adults, 3 kids and 1 large dog in a Ford Taurus but we stopped at Bob Evans restaurant along the way so life was good again.

Well, I am no longer an Archivers employee. Saturday was my last night and I was greeted with a bouquet of balloons, a cake and a handmade card with a generous gift card from my coworkers. My family even brought in a bouquet of flowers. This has definitely been my best job ever. Between the coworkers and customers that I was able to build friendships with and the fact that it was a scrapbooking store, it couldn’t get any better.

Sunday was our going away party here at the TLF (temporary lodging facility). It was so nice to get together with friends and reminisce on the past 3 years we have been here. Brad fired up the grill and we chowed down on some damn good BBQ, and of course we had Bird Dog BBQ sauce.

We are doing a partial DITY move so we had to weigh the truck and RV dead empty then we will reweigh full to be reimbursed for the cost of moving household goods. SO we emptied EVERYTHING out. Can you believe how much stuff we have crammed into our RV in the past year?? Luckily the kids were troopers and helped to unload the RV. With the RV completely empty it was time for the fun task of cleaning from top to bottom, then reloading the RV. We rented the TLF for a week so we were able to slowly unload and reload.

Tomorrow is our last day in Colorado Springs and it will be filled with running last minute errands. Brad worked his last day here at USAFA on Monday so he will out process from this base tomorrow. He will then work on finishing Rocky and the Becker Bunk house (RV) and fingers crossed we will be hooked and ready to go by early evening.

The Count Down...

So another month has passed and boy have we been busy! We are now 18 days out from our 4000 mile voyage to Alaska. We made a last minute trip to Tucson, AZ at the end of February to say goodbye to friends and family before our move. The timing was great as my grandparents were also visiting from Michigan. The kids got to help Grandma bake her famous Snicker Doodle and Cowboy cookies. We also got to have dinner with my Aunt Lavonne (my mom’s sister) and Uncle Paul. It was nice visiting everyone, but it was hard not having our RV. We towed out my ’73 Jeep to store in AZ so the RV had to stay in Colorado. Not having it showed us how spoiled we are. We traveled quite a bit in the past year and had always taken it with us.

We caught up with the Weinstiens for a night of visiting. I worked with both of them at a restaurant called Carlos Murphys, a place I worked at for WAY TOO long.

Another event we got to participate in was AMARC’s first family day. AMARC is better known as the airplane graveyard. Both my parents work there as did Brad when we lived in AZ. That was probably Brad’s favorite job he has had to this point. It would be like Zac working in a Lego store.

The kids also got to spend a lot of time with their cousins. No matter how long it has been since the last visit they always pick up right where they left off and have a great time playing together. It’s a shame they don’t live closer. If Cindy would only move to Alaska….

Brad was able to spend some time with Ashley and Michele. They are getting excited to come visit us in Alaska. Michele spent the entire week with us, stomach flu and all. As strange as it may sound, Brad felt lucky to be able to care for her while she was sick. Normally he just gives sympathy over the phone. Ashley had to baby sit, but we got to spend some time with her as well.

We took advantage of our time and hit our favorite places to eat such as Eggies, Gus Balone’s, Ajo Café and Yokahoma Rice bowl. It will be a long time before we can eat there again. And of course we had to hit Taco Cabana for breakfast tacos in NM.


We are now in the chaotic mode of gearing up for the big move. Our household goods (yes, household goods NOT in the RV) were packed and loaded last week. We had a total of 5400 lbs of goods. Most of the weight turned out to be books and collected rocks :). We found out that we are NOT taking my Excursion truck to Denver to ship to Alaska like we had been told, but it does start with a “D.” It just happens to be Dallas, TX. SO, with 3 weeks left we are now driving to drop off Brad’s old Ford pickup then to Dallas to drop off my truck. We hope to see some friends who live in TX. The last week will be spent prepping the RV and truck that pulls the RV. We are spending a few nights in TLF so we are planning a goodbye party and finish out processing from this base.

Brad and Zac had a winter survival class at the beginning of March. The temperature at the trail head was -5 degrees with a wind chill of -20. They snow shoed about 2 miles total through several FEET of snow (over a foot of new snow fall that day). They spent the day digging snow caves, learning winter navigation and signaling skills, and then hiked back out. I did the same class 2 years ago and if I move wrong I still have residual pain.


Zac and Brad were presented a commanders coin and certificate for a good deed done. They dug out a RV and truck of a couple that had tried to pull into FamCamp through all the freshly fallen snow just before Xmas. The gentleman was very appreciative and wrote in to the commander. The commander thought it was worthy of recognition and presented Brad and Zac commanders coins at the monthly staff meeting. Brad just considered it taking care of our own.


We will be updating the blog again after our trip to TX. I’m sure we will have some new things to add as we do every trip. Then, we will be adding each step of the way.