Cross Country Trip

Well, this entry will be long.  It was to be posted several days ago, but our trip out to the west coast was AWFUL and there was no opportunity to sit and write.

Before I begin the telling of the story, allow me to first say thank you so some people.  We had a going away party on May 21, which was wonderful.  We are so thankful for the friends we have made in Norway, and will really miss them.  Thank you to the following families: Dube, Schlitz, Murvich, Menghini, and Gilroy.  I promise I won't mention that Brad ended up with a black eye.

My family came to help us pack on May 22 and without them, we would still be loading that damn U-Haul.  We were not prepared to load the U-Haul and didn’t have everything packed.  One thing I did learn was that when one thinks something won’t take very long, it always does!  So thanks to Mom and Dad Campana, Tad, Sara, Ella, Lucas, Ryan, Chrissy, Scott, and Elizabeth. 

Grant and Johanna Litts have been integral to our lives and the re-building of our home for the past 8 years.  We would not have the home we did without them.  They have been surrogate parents when our parents weren’t around to give advice on life.  Thank you!

Nick Baumgart and Anne Leschke became our marriage mentors and friends 11 years ago.  They have been so helpful to us preparing to move and have been a great support.  So we are indebted to them as well.

And now on the the details of the AWFUL trip:

We fully intended to start out at 6:00am on May 24.  Unfortunately, we didn’t get going until 9:30 because it took that long to get the final pieces packed.  How can 3 people have so much stuff?  After a tearful good bye to the only home we have known as a family, we headed out.  Stop #1 was after 5 minutes to get some Norway Spring water (because you can’t get good water anywhere else in the country!).  Stop #2 was at the Iron River cemetery to put geraniums on Gramma Campana’s grave.  Gramma Ruth put geraniums on my grandfather's grave every Memorial Day since 1967 (???).  It is something that has continued since she died in 2011.  That was another sad stop.

We actually put some miles on the trucks after that and made it to Ashland, WI before stopping for bad burgers and fries.  I had another meltdown because I had a very difficult time maneuvering the truck and boat in the tiny parking lot.  I told Alex I wanted to go home.  He reminded me that we don’t have a home right now.

Brad amused me in the truck.  When he asked me what the fastest car was, I attempted to say Lamborghini or something, but instead, the F-bomb came out (I missed a turn or some other motor issue) and he said “oh good, cars are named after swear words.”

We said goodbye to Lake Superior as we drove from Superior into Duluth.

We kept motoring and drove through MN—it’s kind of pretty.  Crossed a very TINY section of the Missisisppi river and saw some Paul Bunyan statues.   

Alex following me

A great travel companion!

Before the sun went down, we arrived in Fargo, ND.  The goal was to reach Bismarck, but Fargo was an acceptable substitution.  I was in the lead and missed a turn so we ended up driving through in the city of Fargo.  Alex called me and told me the U-Haul wasn’t shifting out of second gear.  I think I had another meltdown.  As luck would have it (wink wink) we happened to drive by a U-Haul place.  We turned on a side street and called U-Haul customer service.  I had another meltdown.

So Brad and I crawled into the boat under a street lamp, between a salvage yard and a truck depot and slept.  The mechanic that U-Haul contacted showed up at 11:30 just after REM sleep set in.  Alex went with him to test the truck (I wondered if I would need to use the Ruger .45 while he was gone) and sure enough, it was the transmission.  Again, U-Haul was contacted and we were assured we would have a replacement truck in the morning and that there would be a crew to help us.

Fast forward to 6:00 the following morning—we were awake and ready to drive to the U-Haul place.  Unfortunately, it wasn’t the place two blocks away so we had to get onto the interstate with a truck that didn’t go faster than 30 mph.  The dealer wasn’t open when we got there, and when they did open, they told us we had to drive back to the other U-Haul place to get a truck.  Alex was quite persuasive and as it turned out, there was a truck there we could use.  It was 7:15 and neither Alex or I had coffee or breakfast.  I told him we were going out for breakfast when we were done.

Well, we didn’t get breakfast.  We didn’t lunch either.  We had snacks.  Brad spent over 7 hours on my iphone taking advantage of the unlimited data usage.  Yes, We spend 8 (EIGHT) hours unloading one truck and loading another.  And no, we didn’t have help.  We had some guy ask about our boat, but he had no interest in helping us.  The packing job done by the Campana folk made it so all our stuff fit and the Judy packing job wasn’t as good.  We had to rent a trailer because we couldn’t get all our stuff back in.  We did have U-Haul tell us they would refund us $500 because we did all the work ourselves.  But the trailer cost $800, so we didn't make out too well. 

And what I think is the most important part of this story is the IT RAINED AND POURED.  The clothes were still wet 3 days later.  Yes, it RAINED AND POURED the entire time we transferred all our S**T. 

New U-Haul loaded and ready to go

Did I mention it rained?

We got on the road by 3:30.  North Dakota is a pretty state.  Rolling hills and canyons.  Big pretty sky.  What wasn’t too pretty was the fact that the boat trailer had pieces falling off of it.  The side bumper board fell down, so we went to Walmart to get a lag bolt.  The guy working in the hardware section didn’t know what it was, but we found one.  An hour down the road, the entire metal post of the bumper broke off, so we had to stop and unbolt the still attached end.  Another hour down the road, the other metal post fell off and was bouncing along the highway causing sparks to fly.  I tried to call Alex to tell him to pull over, but the cell reception was non-existent and he didn’t know I wasn’t behind him.  Little ol’me found the socket set and crescent wrench and took off the damn thing. 

Beach, ND, one mile from the Montana border, was a relief.  We slept in a quaint little truck stop.  

On the road to Beach

We set off again at 4:50 on day #3.  The initial goal was to be to Edgewood, WA by the end of the day, but that was not in the cards.  We were cruising along through the scenic state of Montana and I was in the lead.  Alex calls me and tells me there is something wrong with the boat trailer.  Not that the sides had already been taken off, but that the whole thing was shaking violently as I drove.  Another stop to check it out (like we knew what we were looking for!) and on the road again.  57 mph was the magical speed to avoid the violent shake, and the real fear was that the boat was going to fall off.  The slower speed was not ideal.  The speed limit was 80, so were were passed like we were sitting still.  There was a boat and RV store in Missula and a nice guy looked at the trailer and thought the tires were old and causing the problem.  Not much to do about that now, so we just drove VERY slowly.  The day ended in Ritzville, WA after 17 hours of driving, in another truck stop.  We did have a shower, which was really appreciated because I stunk!  

GPS says 12 hours 13 minutes.  It was SO wrong.

Bozeman, MT

Somewhere along I-90 in Montana

Day #4 started at 4:30 and we actually made it to our destination on time. 

We arrived at Coleman International in Fife, WA at 8:30 and were met by a great reception team.  We were offered coffee and refreshments and we DID NOT have to unload the truck and trailer.  All of our stuff was removed and inventoried and it took 11 pages to list all our things.  It was a little overwhelming looking at all that stuff set out on the floor of a warehouse.  The second pack-job caused some things to get scratched, but that is a hazard of unprofessional packers.  All our things will be loaded into a shipping container and will arrive at some unknown date in Bethel, Alaska.  We were told that the moving company will deliver our goods to our home (as long as we have one!) and put things where we want them.

I think the best part of this life-changing event so far was arriving in Edgewood, WA at the home of Alex’s son and wife, Nathan and Fala Hackett.  There was HOT and HOME-MADE food waiting for us.  Alex’s daughter Marie came up from Troutdale, OR to visit too.

We signed up for adventures when we decided to move to Alaska.  I just didn’t think we would be the epitome of Murphy’s Law.  But we can put all that bad luck behind us and look forward to what lies ahead.  And it better be bright and sunny . . .

P.S. As it turns out, the working hypothesis of the violently shaking boat trailer was that the tires were old.  We have new ones on there now.  Maybe Bethel will have a good welder willing to fix the rest of the trailer.

First blog post . . . let's see how this goes.

I chose the generic "The Judys Move to Bethel" title because I generally lack imagination and because it makes sense.  We ARE moving to Bethel, Alaska and that move will take place in about 2 weeks.  The whole idea does seem surreal. 

We (Alex, Brad, and myself) are picking up and moving about 4600 miles to the vast southwestern corner of Alaska.  Many people have asked us why we are going, and I think the best answer is "why not?"  There is a lot of world out there to explore.  Adventure, culture, and opportunity are some other pretty good reasons too.

Flying into Anchorage

Bethel is all tundra

Kuskokwim River

Alex will be working in the clinic seeing patients.  I will be an instructor for the Community Health Aide program (http://www.akchap.org/html/home-page.html).  Brad will just be a kid having the time of his life (we hope).

I thought a blog would be a good way to document our travels and new experiences.  It will also be a way to chronicle where we go and what we do.  And, it may be good therapy.  If you read this, please bear in mind that I'm a novice blogger and it'll take time for me to figure things out.