Halloween

So it is Halloween night. We got back from the candy hunt and the kids have candy for another year. Yesterday we bought 5 pumpkins and carved them out...they look pretty cool sitting in our dark driveway. Here are some pics...

pics from the move

We did not take many pictures from our move. But here are a few showing the truck w/ trailer and dog box and another one showing the dogs being watered and fed. The remaining dogs are on the other side of the trailer.

Perspective

Here is a map of the total trip...almost, Google earth takes the most direct route, which was a little different than ours...not by much though.

our move...Morgantown, WV -> Stafford, VA...242 miles

We made it! Arrived in the early afternoon at our house...no electricity or heat turned on. Heat was not a problem since it was hot here...the drive was as to be expected for the capital area...sitting an hour (at least) in traffic jam on I-95 going south. I had expected a nice yard since our new landlord made a big deal out of our dogs possibly ruining his yard...what a bogus. The yard was the worse mess I have ever seen. Old leafs everywhere (turned out nobody had cleaned or done anything to the yard for at least 2 years). No real lawn...just some sporadic grass. A lot of broken glass and old auto parts in the first few inches of soil. Anyway, the house itself is nice and it is on a very quiet, dead-end street. The kids made friends the first day...even Soren...the neighbor have two boys 4 and 5 years old...perfect.

We drove about 4500 miles. We left Two Rivers on July 6 and arrived in Stafford the 22...not to shabby considering we had to spend extra time in Haines Jct and Whitehorse. The picture below shows our street and the house. The big building at the end is the Widewater school, where Soren is attending pre-school.

our move...Richmond, IN -> Morgantown, WV...312 miles

This stretch took us through Ohio, Pennsylvania, and into West Virginia where we stopped in Morgantown. We could probably have made it all the way. However, we could not get into the house in the late evening, so we decided to split the last stretch up in two days. West Virginia was a pleasant change from the corn fields of the mid-west...hilly and a lot of forest...very pretty.

our move...Latimer, IA -> Richmond, IN...608 miles

Nice driving through the states...flat and fast. The most memorable was the rest stops...they all had large, green areas for pets. So the dogs had a blast every time we stopped. Other than that, just cruising through at 75 miles per hour. This day took us through Illinois as well.

our move...Minot -> Latimer...659 miles

This day/s took us through North Dakota, through Minnesota, and into Iowa, where we stayed at the Norseman Inn near Latimer (between Mason City and Des Moines). I am sure we had an overnight stay between Minot and Latimer since 659 miles sounds a little too much for one day traveling with kids. The Norseman Inn was very cool. They had a large lawn in the back with trees and a corn field behind it. When I went out to feed the puppies in the late evening...it was dark and I could see a bunch of flashes...fire flies...so cool. The kids ran around catching them for a while.

our move...N. Battleford -> Minot...495 miles

We got back into the US...the border patrol officers had no clue what to do in my case, so they ended up giving me an I-94 that is only valid for a year...think they should educate their people better or at least give them a contact person so they can call and find out what to do. We stayed in Minot, North Dakota...not much to remember expect all hotels appeared to be full...not a clue to why.

our move...Grande Prairie -> N. Battleford...525 miles

Again...very vague...I kind of remembering crossing into Saskatchewan before finding a hotel. Only remember the traffic Edmonton where we were stucked for a bit.

our move...Fort Nelson -> Grande Prairie...~365 miles

The trip is a little vague in memory...nothing special happened. Truck was running good...the dogs are into their travel schedule and we left the Alaskan Hway. A lot more traffic was now present as we were getting closer to metropolitan areas such as Edmonton etc.

our move...Whitehorse to Fort Nelson...618 miles

We left Whitehorse on a high note...the truck was fixed and we were ready to make some serious run on the Canadians Hway to catch up for lost times. About 20 minutes out of Whitehorse we blew another tire on the trailer. Fortunately, we had a spare, plus I had fixed the first blown tire...and as a precaution, I bought an extra tire. No problem, we swapped and on our way again...a few hours later...boom...another trailer tire gone...well, glad I had bought an extra spare. Unfortunately the wheel did not fit! We were in the middle of nowhere in the Yukon. We left the trailer on the side of the road and hoped to find a place that had a tire press to swap the good tire onto one of the wheels that fit the trailer. We drove for about 30 min and came to Rancheria hotel-motel, a family owned palce. They had, not only a tire press, but also tires. I got my tire swapped over and drove back to the trailer. On the way back we decided to call it for the day at the Rancheria. After 3 blown tires on 1 day of total driving, we had to think a little. Either the tires that came with the trailer were bad or the trailer was overloaded quite a bit. It was probably a combination of both. But we were entering a long stretch on the Yukon without repair stations, so we decided to dump the ridin' mover. Fortunately, the family just needed one and gave us $300 plus three trailer tires plus two tires for our truck...pretty sweet. For anybody doing this trip. Stop at the Rancheria...great people! It is located at mile 710 approximately 75 miles east of Watson Lake. The next day went smooth with no problems and no flat tires :) We even got to see a black bear goofin' off by the side of the road. We made it all the way to Fort Nelson that night (mile 300 on the Alaskan Hway).

our move...Fairbanks -> Whitehorse...584 miles

We left in the afternoon (on July 7th, I believe) and shot for Tok. We made it without any problems, checked in at a hotel and got some food. The dogs were great, even though they were still trying to figure out what the h... was going on and getting used to their new 4-hr schedule (drive 4 hours...break...drive 4 hours...break etc). The next day we planned in driving to Whitehorse, the capital of the Yukon. We made it to approximately 20 miles north of Haines Jct when we blew a tire on the trailer...we made a quick swap and continued just to see a dense, white smoke coming out the exhaust...we cruised into Haines Jct. Unfortunately it was Saturday and the two mechanic shops were closed. We stayed a motel right next to a grossery store...so it was nice. Monday morning we took it to Kluane motors...very helpful, but unfortunately had no tools to fix our 2004 dielsel truck. He was afraid we had blown a head gasket, which would be bad since it is a very expensive fix. He managed to get a towing truck that would fit all of us and also tow the trailer to Whitehorse...98 miles. In Whitehorse, we stayed at a motor inn just on the northside of Whitehorse...very friendly and helpfull host. They let us park the trailer and dogs in the back just outside our hotel window. The truck was towed to a garage where the could look at it two days later. The called the next day and said it had a blown head gasket and possible bad header...bad news...that would be at least $6500 to fix. I couldn't believe it and asked to have it towed to the Ford dealership. Their diesel mechanic was also overloaded, but they gave us a loaner car to get around in. Two days later they called and informed us we had blown a egr-cooler...a $3500 fix...still expensive, but better than $6500 for something that wasn't wrong. We ended up 5 days in Whitehorse...a nice town and particular enjoyed new sports center with skating, soccer, and swimming. The people were very friendly and had a musher stop by everyday to check if we needed anything for our dogs. I would seriously considering living in Whitehorse if the opportunity were ever given.

...why we left Alaska...

Even though Alaska is our dream place, my job situation up there was less than perfect. HIPAS was funded on a three months basis, not exactly a stable situation. In addition, there were some major management issues . As an example, our 401K was canceled without notice and we later found out, that our insurance company had not been paid by IFSHE (the company owning HIPAS) and as a result, our insurance was terminated 2 months too early...quite important considering we are expecting a baby. So it was a no-brainer when the NRL opportunity was given. Since we were moving almost 5000 miles cross-country, we had some decisions to make. A moving company would cost us ~$13,000...an absurd number. Driving to vehicles to DC (as we did from Utah to Alaska) was out of the question with Melissa being pregnant, so we decided to buy a trailer and haul us, the dogs, and all our crap with us. We bought a 16 ft trailer, I put some plywood sides on it and we could fit most of our stuff on it. The kennels we donated to our friend Heather who runs a rescue kennel. I build a 8-hole dog box for the puppies (with the help of Poul and John S to finish it on timely manner)...and off we were...

wow...late posting again! 4 months have passed since the last post. The blogger have changed and I am now logging in through my gmail account...pretty neat. Many things have once again happened. I got a job offer from Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) in the nations capital, Washington, DC. NRL is one of the absolute top places to go in my field regarding atmospheric and gravity wave modeling. Yes, I am not a modeler, but my job description is actually to look at the model output as if I was an observer...way cool. In addition, I am analyzing data from the AIM satelitte, a project we tried to get postdoc funding for while I was with Mike...so now I am doing it after all...quite exciting.

We found a nice house just north of Stafford, VA...in the woods with a fully fenced yard...the dogs are having a blast chasing each other when left loose in the backyard.

Enough for now...more to come.