What an adventure it was moving back to Indiana. We rented a Uhaul Trailer to tow behind our Xterra, and then we were going to drive our car separately. Luckily, Heather's sister Amber and her husband decided to fly out to Montana and help us drive back. This was great because it meant we didn't have to drive each of the vehicles alone, and we were able to share the load of the 1900 mile drive.
With the help of several other staff members at the ranch we were able to load up the trailer and both of our vehicles. The trailer was a 6 x 12 foot trailer, and we used every square foot of that trailer. When you opened the door it was completely packed. Heather and I pretty much shut down during the loading process because we were so overwhelmed and we knew we were not going to be able to fit everything. We loaded what we could, and then helped our friends Tim and Lisa, who also worked for the ranch, load there 26 foot truck because they were also leaving. They ended up having quite a bit of extra space, so we didn't have to leave behind much of anything. Tim and Lisa took our grill and our dog's 400lb. dog house (not small items!) and several other things which was a relief to us.
We left on Monday to head to Bozeman, MT to pick up Amber and Shawn. They knew I was really stressed when we got to the airport because the drive to the airport took a lot longer than I thought it was going to take. This was mainly because the trailer was swerving all over the road and it seemed quite dangerous. I knew something was wrong, and I figured it was with the weight distribution in the trailer. After Shawn pulled the trailer for a few miles, he concluded the same thing. There was only one thing to do...repack the trailer.
We planned on dropping off the trailer in Livingston, MT and then driving into Yellowstone for a few days. We stopped at the Uhaul facility in Livingston, and began to repack the trailer by taking almost everything out. The whole process took only about an hour and a half, and we even ended up with a little bit more room than we had the first time. I told everyone during the repacking that I was kind of having fun doing it, and it was a challenge to see if we could make everything fit. After a test drive to test out or new arrangement, we left the trailer and headed to Yellowstone. We spent the rest of Monday evening and most of Tuesday in the park. We saw a total of 5 grizzlies, which was certainly the highlight of that trip for all of us. We talked about going white water rafting, but that was going to make for a cold, wet, and early morning that we weren't really feeling up to. We left the park Tuesday evening and made it that night to Billings, MT. The next day we drove to Mount Rushmore. The weather was getting pretty bad and there were actually tornado warnings, so when we were done at the monument and had dinner we headed to Wall, South Dakota, which is right next to the badlands. We saw a lot of lightning, but we made it safe.
The next morning Shawn and Amber took our car and went through the Badlands. We waited for them at the end of the loop because we didn't want to pull the trailer through the national park. We drove a lot that day and made it all the way to Moliene, Illinois (almost home!). The humidity was not a welcome site, and we had to use the air conditioning the further east we went. We arrived in Indiana on that Friday. We made pretty good time considering the sites that we saw, all the stops for gas, and the repacking of the trailer. It was good to stop and not have to drive a lot the next day. I had a few extra days with the trailer so I took it to Greencastle, Indiana were Tim and Lisa left our stuff with Heather's other sister. It is all now at Heather's parents house and waiting for our next home. Thanks for your prayers and all of you that helped with the loading, unloading, or reloading (lol). I will post some more scenic pictures of our trip soon. It has been 2 months since the move and I am just now getting around to this.
No comments:
Post a Comment