A Few Bumps in the Road

We departed Wisconsin on Sunday, July 15th and headed to Boulder, CO. Our first stop was only a few miles from Jamie's parents' house where we started out. Jamie was not very comfortable in the passenger seat, we needed some ice for the coolers and Ryan had to check the tow dolley after being on the road for a little while. Thankfully the middle seat was more comfortable for Jamie and once she got situated there she was much more comfortable. Throughout the drive there were several stretches of road that were extremely bumpy - the truck suspension resonated with the bumps in the road. Due to the extreme comfort of the cab, Ryan was happy to take breaks often - Jamie's pregnancy was not usually the reason for stopping. At a top speed of about 60 miles per hour we did not get nearly as far as we had hoped - especially since Iowa had so many hills, we probably only averaged a speed of 50 mph. Oh and not to mention the two hour delay for tire repair on the tow dolley. Ryan checked the car and dolley at a rest stop and realized that the bumper was rubbing up against one of the tires - literally melting the tire. We praise God that Ryan noticed this before the tire failed. Penske was quick to respond and we waited for the tire to be fixed and ate an early dinner. The first day we drove somewhere around 600 miles (we left around 8:00am and didn't stop to sleep until 11pm). We were on the road again bright and early the next day at 6:30am and arrived in Boulder around 4:00pm mountain time.

After touring our new "home" and running a few errands our unloading crew arrived. We were so thankful for all the help - 5 college students took a break from their Navigators Leadership training to help us out. Drew and Stacy (Navigators staff) organized this for us and brought us "house warming gifts" - breakfast and cleaning supplies, it was so kind and thoughtful of them. A few of our new neighbors also helped us, they too were impressed with the crew that was there to help. Unfortunately most of the furniture was slightly damaged from the move. Knicks and scratches on just about every wooden object - probably from all of the bouncing and rubbing up against whatever was next to it. A bottle of bleach spilled and ended up soaking our mattress as well as a couple of our couch cushions. Some wonderful new neighbors tried to help us out by bringing over a bissel hand cleaner for the mattress and couch and a mattress for Jamie to sleep on that night as the bleach smell was a bit overwhelming and probably not a good idea during pregnancy to inhale too much of. Ryan slept on piles of blankets on the floor that night. The next day Drew and the same college students were available to help Ryan unload some more things into our storage unit.

We spent the next week or so unpacking and arranging furniture in our apartment. The bleach smell dissipated from the mattress and we were able to sleep on it the following night. Jamie's priority was to get the kitchen unpacked so that we could stop eating out. Ryan moved furniture around in the bedroom and living room and started setting up the computer.