After seeing Mt Rushmore and Wall SD, we headed on to Wyoming & Montana. Two incredibly beautiful states, that if you have never seen I highly recommend visiting at least once in your lifetime. We scheduled in to our travel a day off to explore Yellowstone and I’m so glad we did. Not only did it give us a much needed break from the long days of driving, but it was also a chance to see a part of our country (and earth) that is so vastly different from anything else I’ve ever seen before. We have pictures (still in the camera) that I will post later. I hope they capture the beauty of what we saw. It was also a learning experience for Amy – which made it that much more fun for us to see it through her eyes too.

Once our day off was done we had two more days of driving and then we finally arrived in the greater Seattle area Sunday afternoon. After finding the hotel and dropping off the animals, we headed out to start our search for somewhere to live. We managed to see four places Sunday afternoon. There were a couple that were contenders, but we wanted to take at least one more day to look around. So after a night of rest we began the search again Monday morning. Thankfully it only took us about half the day to see the rest of the places on our list and we were able to settle on a place Monday afternoon. Lease papers were signed Tuesday and the fun of moving began all over again.

This time was a little easier since we didn’t have as many stairs to deal with and we were only unloading a 10 foot U haul that contained our clothes and other belongings that we had at my parents/or that didn’t fit into the PODS when we loaded them back in May. The first of the two PODS with our remaining stuff wouldn’t be delivered until Friday so the fun of eating out & eating off of paper plates (and sleeping on the floor) continued.

Not to bore you with all the details I’ll skip ahead now.

Dean started work on Monday and has had a good week so far. He is enjoying his new job, learning a lot, and eventually will become a permanent employee/team lead for the company where he is currently a contractor. Amy started school on Wednesday and has already made two new friends and has a bus buddy she rides with as well. In some regards school is different here than it was back east. One of the big changes is when the school year starts and ends as well as the time of day school starts. Both are later than what we were used to, so that has been an adjustment for all of us. There is a lot more diversity as well – which is a good thing too.

Being that we are in Redmond, a suburb of Seattle, we are a lot closer to all the amenities than we were in Rome. For me that has been the biggest adjustment. It takes me less than 10 minutes (with traffic) to be at any one of the shopping places (Whole Foods, Fred Meyer, Safeway, Macy’s, etc…) the post office, or anywhere else that I might need to go. If there is something that I can’t find here, Seattle is less than a half hour away – much closer than Atlanta was too. One thing I will have to get used to is not buying so much. When we lived in Rome and would have to drive to Atlanta for things I would have a tendency to stock up on multiples of items. Now that we are in an apartment, I don’t have the same room as we had in the house. But I can also buy in smaller quantities too. So it will be an adjustment for a little while.

So here we are. We have one more PODS to empty – that will be next weekends project. Some stuff will go into local storage, other stuff will get put away in the apartment, and other stuff will be donated. Maybe once things have calmed down I’ll take a friends advice and sit down and write out our journey in more detail for anyone else who decides to embark on an adventure like this.

And now we return to your regular “Brain Drops” whatever that may be

So now to catch you all up -
We left Alabama Sunday morning and made it to just outside of St Louis MO that evening. Relatively uneventful drive, once the drugs kicked in for the cat.

Monday morning started with rush hour and a less than stellar breakfast. Add to that a stressed cat, a stressed child, and then a stressed me and it wasn’t one of our best days. But we made it to Omaha Nebraska, where we spent an over priced night. Woke up to rain, but no rush hour (thankfully). Cat & child did much better and we ended the day in Wall South Dakota. The scenery once we got out of Missouri improved immensely. South Dakota and today Wyoming have been incredibly beautiful.

So after spending the night in Wall, we headed on to Mt Rushmore for a quick visit. It is definitely on our list of places to go back and see again. Along with some of the other sites that we’ve passed along the way.

After traveling some back roads, we wound up back on I 90, which has brought us to Buffalo Wyoming. Here we have settled in for the evening, doing laundry, a quick swim, and dinner. Tomorrow we continue on. We’ll head towards Yellowstone, stopping off in a town just before to board the animals for two nights. We are planning on spending a day (Friday) at Yellowstone, before heading on to Idaho on Saturday. If all goes well we should pull in to Redmond some time on Sunday and hopefully find a place to live Monday.

I’ll post pictures once I can get back on my computer. In the meantime, follow along here or Facebook for updates.

The Great Adventure continues…

It will be a six day drive, provided all goes according to plan. We will be making a couple of tourist stops along the way (Mt Rushmore, Devils Tower) and hope to also stop and see family one night too. As much as I would like to make it into a longer journey to see more people along the way, it’s just not feasible.

Dean will begin working for a company located in Redmond Washington on August 30 and school starts September 1 so we do have a deadline to meet.

Below is a map of our “planned” stops. Any suggestions for places to see, eat or stay (pet friendly please) are greatly appreciated. I will try to update our progress in the evenings. But you can always follow along on twitter too. http://www.twitter.com/me_b for updates. Let me know if we’ll be in your area – we’ll try to meet up.

This has been a busy week – for Dean at least.

He flew out to Reno NV on Monday. 3 flights later, he finally arrived in Truckee California late Monday night/early Tuesday morning. Tuesday was the marathon interview (9 hours). It’s a great company, nice people, beautiful area. Lots of snow in the wintertime (which should make Amy happy) and close to Reno for all the big city offerings that we’ve missed living in small town south for so many years. Wednesday he spent exploring the area and enjoying the cooler weather, while the rest of us melted here in the 100+ temperatures.

Thursday the travel started all over again. Early morning flight to Salt Lake City, then on to Seattle for a 2 day interview with a company that is interested in him. Part one went well, part two is taking place as I write this. Again he is enjoying the cooler temperatures, the beautiful scenery, and an added bonus, he gets to have dinner with my aunt Maritza and uncle Chuck. After which he flies home on a red-eye tonight, getting in some time tomorrow morning.

So for those keeping track, there are now three companies that he has interviewed with extensively, and we are waiting to hear back if offers will be extended. In no particular order they are located in Redmond Washington, Alpharetta Georgia and Truckee California. Hopefully we should know something early next week. Keep watching here for more updates when we know something more.

I never thought it would have taken this long. One thing we’ve found out, most companies are wanting to hire someone who is local. They don’t want the expense of flying a candidate out for the interview, waiting for them to relocate, possibly having to pay for relocation expenses, and so on. That explains a lot of the calls from the Atlanta area.

So here is the latest update for you all. He has 2 face to face interviews in Atlanta on Friday (the 30th). One with Verizon, the other with Foodbuy. He has had 4 phone interviews with a company in St. Louis (Missouri) and is supposed to have a 5th phone interview on Monday. In addition he has had 2 phone interviews with a company in Truckee California (close to Lake Tahoe). We’ve been looking at the Reno Nevada area if he were to take this particular job. We’re hoping that they will fly him out next week for a face to face interview. They are one of the few companies that is not so particular when it comes to where the candidate is currently located, as long as they are willing to relocate. Add to that another phone interview with a company in Redmond Washington tomorrow as well (in between the 2 face to face interviews) and things get pretty busy around here.

For a while there it was looking like there was going to be a job in either San Francisco or Los Angeles (same company just two different locations) but that seems to have fallen through. He has also had calls from Boston, Pittsburgh, Columbus (again), and somewhere in Florida and somewhere in Virginia, but I’ve forgotten where now. Some days it’s hard to keep up.

So for now, we still don’t know where we’ll finally settle. Depending on how much longer my parents can stand us, we may wind up on someone else’s doorstep soon. (Just kidding – my parents have been wonderful about letting us stay.)

*** Update ***

Dean is flying to Reno next Monday for a face to face interview on Tuesday in Truckee CA.

Face to Face this morning with Verizon went well. Waiting to hear back on that one.

Phone interview with Redmond WA in progress. Sounds like they may want to fly him out there next week too. Waiting to hear back.

Face to Face this afternoon with Foodbuy. Will update again later.

After more than a month of mostly calls for jobs in the eastern half of the United States (most in places we didn’t want to be), calls have finally started coming in from the west coast (where ideally we would like to be). There have been two recruiters who have been very aggressive (in a good way) in trying to find just the right job for Dean. They are located in the LA area and have been setting up interviews with companies in both LA and San Francisco. Now after two different tests, 4 phone interviews, one position he was turned down for, one he was over qualified for, there seem to be two positions (with the same company) that may turn out to be offers. One is in Los Angeles, the other in San Francisco. We’re waiting to hear something today if they are going to fly him out for a face to face interview next week.

In the mean time, he also has a face to face interview for the company in Alpharetta Georgia. This will be next Tuesday afternoon. It would have been sooner, but most of the people he needed to meet with were out of the office for one reason or another. It’s a good job, the area is nice, but at the same time it’s not really where we want to be.

So in the mean time, Amy continues to try and find things to keep her occupied (not an easy task), I continue to work on projects (knitting & quilting), and Dean continues to send out resumes. And we wait.

And to all of you who are sharing this journey with us, thank you again for your support. It amazes me how emotionally invested so many people have become in our adventure too. And the calls & notes of encouragement mean the world to me.

The Great Adventure continues…

• I went to the doctors office a couple of weeks ago to have my foot checked. Not having health insurance, they knew I was a cash patient and charged me for the visit when I left. I paid, expecting that I had paid the full amount. Fast forward 2 weeks and I get another bill for the balance due. Now would you not think that if you have a sign posted that states new patients must pay a deposit of $100 or the balance of their bill at the time of visit, and you pay the amount they tell you to when you are checking out, that you would not get a bill later?
• The job search continues – the calls seem to come in waves. It will be completely quiet for days and then just like that, they all call at once. And they always seem to call around dinner time. I understand the ones on the west coast calling at that time, but I would think the recruiters on the east coast would have already left for the day and be home eating dinner too.
• Dean had a phone interview with a company in Alpharetta Georgia on Thursday. He’s waiting for a call back for a face to face interview some time next week. When this adventure first began we were set on getting out of Georgia (and preferably the south in general). As time has gone on we have noticed a trend that a lot of the calls were from this area. Wondering if maybe we are supposed to stay in this area a little longer, Dean has taken some of these calls. Interestingly enough, when he does that, the calls start coming in for the areas that we originally considered relocating to. Call it coincidence, call it obedience to the plan God has for us, call it what you will, it does make me stop and think.
• He had a call from a recruiter on Thursday evening with two different opportunities on the west coast. One in San Francisco, the other in Los Angeles. Both areas we like and would definitely consider moving to. Right now the opportunity in LA is at the top of the list. It meets the criteria of what he is looking for in a company, the compensation and benefits are excellent, not to mention the location is pretty nice too. This company also has offices in Australia and London – wonder if they ever take business trips there?
• Since most of my quilting and other crafts are packed away in storage right now, I have started knitting. I’ve been having a fun time with this and am working on a scarf that I want to felt once it is finished. Depending on how it turns out, I’ll post pictures. My next project after that is a sweater/shawl. It looks like a sweater or a shawl or a scarf – all depending on how you wear it. It’s hard to describe but when you see the pictures you’ll understand.
• If you have any old wool sweaters that you want to get rid of, let me know. I have lots of projects that I can recycle them in to as well.

I guess that’s all my randomness for today. Have a great Friday.

One other thing I’ve learned from this experience; don’t say never. Years ago I said I would never move to California (for various reasons) and yet now it’s one of the places we are considering. And yes, Alpharetta is in Georgia, and  yes we were saying we wanted to move out of Georgia when this all began. And this may not be the “one” either, but we do have to consider it before we can make any final decisions. And we continue to learn and grow, an eventually move on to the next chapter, wherever that may be.