Colorado - Greenwood Village, CO
Greenwood Village, CO
Well, it has been two weeks since our last entry, so we felt that it was time to write another entry, even if most of our recent travel has been domestic in nature. Despite the travel closer to home, we have been as busy as ever!
After a year and a half of trying to sell our house, we got an offer on it while we were in Cambodia. That made things more exciting, as we had to coordinate the move, and the purchase of a new place (sight unseen) all by email. We had two weeks from our return on Aug 9 to get everything coordinated, and Keely has been very efficient at getting everything orchestrated.
Here is a brief chronology of events since our return.
August 9 — late afternoon return. Keely and Scot visit the new condo they are purchasing for the first time, decide it is a good place to hang out when visiting Denver. Keely begins packing house, Scot gets Uhaul truck loaded with Ross' furniture and sundries for drive to Montana the next day.
August 10 and 11— Keely spends time coordinating all of the items needed to make the move work, including having new wood floors installed in the condo in 2 days after closing so that furniture can be moved from house. Scot and Ross make 12 hour drive to Bozeman, unload truck and get Ross ensconced in new apartment. He has a great place, right on a nice lake, with beautiful mountain views. It was a great father-son bonding trip, although Scot now feels a bit sleep-deprived.
August 12-16 — packing continues. 10 movers come to house on Aug 15 to pack up the house. Huge amount of items donated to various charities, since condo is less than 1/4 size of house. Some items have already gone to Nevada previously, more to come. Bri flies in to town on Aug 15, great to see her, she is getting so close to her college graduation, we are very excited for her! She gets her wisdom teeth out on Aug 19 in the midst of all of the moving pandemonium!
Aug 16-18 — Scot takes Ross and Danielle on trip to San Diego and Phoenix to spend time together and see grandma before not seeing each other for 3 months. Keely oversees move in to the condo, and spends time with her parents, prior to our departure. Keely works incredibly *********g hours overseeing the move to the condo, unpacking and organizing things to go to other locations.
Aug 18 — Alyssa leaves for 10 days in Mexico to practice her Spanish and surfing, catch up on her school work and to work with the Mexico ministry.
Aug 19-22 — Scot in Mexico to work on the upcoming Pastors conference, and to teach a session on the 5 Love Languages to the governing board of the Mexico ministry, then to NYC for board meeting. Bri gets her wisdom teeth out and begins recovery in the new condo.
Scot and Keely are sad to be apart, particularly for a whole week. It is ironic that the three of us — Alyssa, Keely and Scot are all in separate locations for this week (except for a 3 day overlap in Mexico for Scot and Alyssa), when we will be spending the majority of our next three months together, sometimes in very close quarters (camping in tents!). Scot is particularly sad that he is not there to help Keely with the move, and Keely feels the same way! We are all looking forward to being re-united when we move Kaitlyn to college for her initial orientation next week.
As Keely and Scot reflect on the upcoming years' itinerary, we feel that our year of travel really begins with our departure in September. The trip this summer to Cambodia, Thailand, Ethiopia and Europe was wonderful, but was not too dissimilar from trips we have done in previous summers with several of the kids, etc. By contrast, knowing that we are leaving for nearly three months, and with only one of the children with us (to very remote areas) makes the upcoming adventure travel very real!
By the way, packing for this upcoming adventure was a huge challenge! Trying to fit everything we need into one large bag for three months of travel in multiple climatic zones (our range of temperatures will include over 120 degrees from the low to high temperatures we will be exposed to during this time!) was harder than we thought. In addition, the need to pack sophisticated mountaineering gear, and survival gear (more on that when we discuss our upcoming destinations), made things bulkier and heavier than we would like.
The ads say "5 continents, 2 pairs of underwear" -- can that really be true? If so, does it guarantee you an empty row on the airplane, bus or any other form of transportation? Do you actually need 4 times the number of pairs of socks than you do underwear? Can you survive on three shirts for 5 weeks of hiking? Can you do a day of horseback riding up a mountain in shorts? (We answered that one a definitive "no" and added a pair of jeans to the trove of clothing in the bag!). Do water purification tablets really work? How many courses of Cipro (antibiotics) might we need while in a remote area for that long — where according to traveler reports "everyone gets sick, it is just a question of when". We feel we will ascertain the answers to all of these questions, and come back far more knowledgeable about such important trivia, and of course, will record our discoveries in our notes, as we enjoy these unique life experiences.
Stay tuned….