Onto to Utah

First stop was a final trip to Glenwood Springs.  This has been a favorite vacation spot of ours since Ed and I got married back in 2004.  Last year we took the kids on their first river rafting trip there where they had the time of their life.

We arrived in Glenwood in time to have dinner at the Slope & Hatch... a little taco and hot dog hole in the wall.  I highly recommend visiting this little business if you're traveling through.  There are only about 6 tables inside and it is always packed... be prepared to sit outside.

The only hotel we could find that would allow the dogs was The Hotel Denver.  This place was SO charming.  Antique furniture through out and the most hospitable front desk people I've ever encountered.  These wonderful people packed up a beach bag for us when we told them we were going to the pool, fully loaded with towels, apples and bottled waters.  They are pricey and truth be told had there been a cheaper place to stay that would accept the dogs we probably would've gone there.  I'm so glad we got to stay at this treasure.  My suggestion, splurge on this at least once in your lifetime.

We stayed for the weekend, did lots of swimming at the hot springs, ate ice cream then went back for an evening swim.  I'm not sure what it is that kids just love about swimming at night?  I think they feel like they are getting away with something.  Whatever the reason, my children act like the entire pool just filled with birthday cake when they flip that light switch on.

Sunday we left for Dinosaur National Park in UT and let me recommend to all you parents to children aged 6ish - 12ish.... this is the age to go.  My kids loved touching the dinosaur bones and joined the jr. rangers program where they learned all about 6 different dino's.  The downfall was that we had to leave the dogs in the car while we raced through the exhibit.  Luckily I have remote AC in my Volt so I was able to run that with the windows cracked and the water dish in the passenger seat so I don't think Sarah MacLachlan will be singing to me for it.

After that we headed for Salt Lake City to our next Home2 hotel where it was the least favorite hotel on our journey.  We were on the 2nd floor, which was a pain to potty the dogs.  Then to make matters worse the people one floor above us had either a toddler running across the floor until the a.m. hours or it was a large dog pitter pattering around.  So not the best nights sleep for the only one legal to drive.  I tried to get the girl to drive, but that suggestion was met with an eye roll so hard she may have sprained and eye ball.

I forgot to mention that at the start of our journey we started an audio book on the Bluetooth.  Sidebar........As someone that has traveled the route from Colorado to California twice, each time with 2 nine year olds and 2 pets (first the cats, then the dogs), I can not implore you parents enough to get an audio book the family can listen to or a podcast for any trip over 2 hours.  On the way back from our first trip I discovered the podcast Lore.  It was historical, a little creepy with just a hint of darkness, but nothing too horrible that a 9 year old can't listen to, depends on the kid.  Listen to a couple episodes yourself to judge.  Probably the Lobotomy episode is the worst.

Because this was an opportunity to walk through history, I decided to share a book that I had just listened to twice about The Donner Party, The Indifferent Stars Above.  Was it too dark for 9 year olds?  Maybe, but it is history.

So starting at Salt Lake we traced the route of the Donner Party, looked across the great salt desert where Sarah Graves Fosdick and her entire family trudged across in covered wagons.  It's quite a picture they paint in the book of what these human beings endured.  We were so much tougher back then, however we did only live to the age of 50 ish, so those hard times obviously took their toll.

In my next post I'll cover our trip from Utah into Nevada and finally California.

Getting Ready to Sell

Hello friends, family and everyone else that stumbles across this.

I decided to write a blog/journal (is there really a difference?), to keep everyone updated on what is going on in our new California life.  But to get the whole story, it's best to start with the selling of the house on Grand.

We listed the house and ended up using the same realtor that we bought the house from, Catherine.  This lady is a pistol!  She ran through a list of things that needed to be done to the house and told me that she would be bringing in a staging crew.  Her list seemed a little daunting, but doable.   That is until the staging girls showed up.  These two women went from room to room through the house while I busied myself in the office.  After a few hours they came to get me and introduce a new strain of panic.  In each room they had made piles of things they wanted me to stash out of sight, I knew they would be doing this, but I had no idea how much stuff would be in each of those piles.

The house was due to go live the next day, and as the staging girls left at around 4pm I was left to pack a 3 story house by the end of the night.  We'll call this strain of panic 'bewilderment panic'.  That is the kind of panic where you are so overwhelmed that your eyes dart from pile to pile of objects that need to be packed, walk from room to room not actually getting anything packed because you are so bewildered at the enormity of the task at hand, then finally realize you need to step back for a moment to come up with a plan.  When you find yourself walking in circles getting nothing done, you are deep in bewilderment panic friend.

We ended up going to dinner with Grandma & Grandpa and when we got back home I was in a much better place to focus on what needed to be done.  And just as a gift from me to you, when feeling overwhelmed ALWAYS take a step back, take a break, just get away from the issue at hand for a moment, I promise it will make more sense after a few minutes away.

So the house went on the market at $435,000, we had a lot of showings but no bites.

We were in the last week of the school year when the packing company arrived on a Thursday.  Three very nice ladies packed each room of the house up as I showed them what was ours and what belonged to the staging girls.  They were originally scheduled to arrive on Weds. to do a 2 day packing job, but their boss called Tues. evening to tell me he thought it would only take a day so they would only be packing on Thurs.  It seemed like not enough time to me, but he does this for a living, so who am I to contradict him?  These poor ladies worked their butts off and were there so late that night.  The office was the final place to pack and it took 6 of us to get all the beads in zip lock bags... I know that I bought 3 boxes of zip bags, plus what I already had on hand... I bet there are over 100 gallon bags full of beads.

The next day, Friday, the moving company arrived with 4 guys and a huge semi truck.  This is also the part in our story where I'd like to point out that our realtor should have called her staging company and told them to come and get their things.  So, here we are on Friday, with me, and just me, directing these 4 movers on 3 different floors.  While doing this I'm discovering that the coat closet didn't get packed as well as a few other things and I'm also trying to point out items that belong to the staging company.  Fast forward 13 hours later, I'm ready to just set the house on fire and walk away, but those movers got the job done.

That night 1 adult, 9 year old twins and 2 dogs moved into the Home2 Stay hotel on Timberline between the Texas Roadhouse and the Cinemark.

Hotel living with kids is a challenge especially kids that are not used to apartment style living where you have to be considerate of your neighbors, not scream or stomp, etc.  Doing this with kids and dogs is a different kind of panic, this one we'll call 'Homeless Panic'  This is the panic where you are constantly in fear of being thrown out onto the streets because the little dog is barking at everyone that walks down the hall and the kids are fighting and screaming at each other.  Living in a hotel not only produces the 'Homeless Panic', but has a close cousin called 'Gonna get seen panic'.  Gonna get seen panic' is when it's 10pm and you are in your nightgown and robe sneaking out behind the movie theater to potty the dogs and hoping nobody sees you.  I was super unsuccessful at avoiding this kind of panic and I'm sure gave nightmares to more than one teenager coming out the back entrance of the theater.

Back to the house now.

There were several trips back and forth to the house during our week stay in Fort Collins.  My first trip back I was greeted by two unhappy staging girls.  It turns out that the moving company had accidentally packed up an area rug, some throw pillows and some towels.  I told the girls this was an honest mistake, we weren't trying to steal their items, it was merely a case of me not being able to be in 3 places at once to supervise the movers.  The way I was treated though was as if I was trying to pull one over on them.  I told them that the items were on the moving truck on the way to CA and that once it was there it was going into storage until we found a house, which would probably be around July.  At that point I told them we could ship the items back to them.  That was unacceptable to them, I told them I understood and I guess we would just go ahead and pay for the missing items.

The following week imagine my horror when I opened up an email invoice for almost $800!!!  That was for 8 throw pillows, 2 bath towels, 1 hand towel and an 8x10 area rug, (and let's keep in mind that all of these items are used).  Upon reviewing the invoice I see that they are also charging us a $150 restocking fee and a $60 fee because the other area rug had dog hair on it.  I wrote back to them and told them I would agree to pay them $425 in which I listed out I would give them $25 per throw pillow, $10 per bath towel, $5 per hand towel and $250 for the rug.  Then I told them I would not be paying the the restocking fee or $60 to vacuum an area rug.  They wrote back to me that this is the cost to them to search out replacements items and clean the rug.  In the end we basically gave them a 'bite me' email.  I told them we never signed anything with them and had offered them a very reasonable amount to replace the items.  Since they continued to try and price gouge instead of working things out, how about nothing?  Now you get nothing.  We will send your items back to you once we get them off the truck and we will not be paying them one red cent.

As of now there has been no further contact from them.  Oh, and by the way, turns out Catherine found 4 of the throw pillows in a cabinet in the basement.  The packing girls had put them in there to make sure they didn't get packed.

So that is our getting ready to sell story.  Next up will be our road trip to California.

Peace Out!