"there's no place like home..."

I made it!! The drive was pretty uneventful. I remember the stories we heard better than the landscape! We brought a couple of books on CD with us and as a result the majority of the time we were lost in other worlds. Illinois, Minnesota and North Dakota had us navigating the Canary Islands as an oceanographer searching for a buried city with two dolphins named Pete and Susie. While driving through the other half of North Dakota and the beginning of Montana we were lost in northern New Hampshire listening to a family grow through loss and grief. We are still finishing the last book, "The Kite Runner," that took us through Montana and into Idaho. I read it last summer, but my mom and Bill are on their first go-around and find it "spellbinding." After dinner we've spent our evenings here in Sandpoint listening the book from my laptop. It feels like we're in the 1930's sitting around an old radio waiting for the next chapter and what will come next. Honestly, it's kind of fun.

Right after pulling into town on Sunday we went driving around in the rain and snooped in all the windows and yards of the places I was lined up to see on Monday with the rental agency. The one I was crossing my fingers for looked great. It even had a fenced in yard for my potential new pup. My appointment was at 1:00 p.m. on Monday afternoon and by 1:50 p.m. my lease was signed, with approval from the landlord to have a dog. ABF Moving did a fantastic job and my trailer full of material possessions looked exactly as I had packed it and was sitting in front of my little cottage waiting to be unloaded. I recommend them to anyone making a long distance move. It's about the same rental price as U-Haul, but they pay for gas and do all the driving. Considering the mountain passes we were driving through - the small difference more than paid for itself. Almost everything is unpacked now and we're thinking about grilling in the backyard tonight on the Webber grill my dad snapped-up for me right before I left Royal Oak. In all honesty, it's going to be more of Grilling 101 session. I have a few things to learn.

Sandpoint...is everything I remember it being from my interview visit. I know it's only been a few days, but there is this calmness that overcomes me being in this part of the country. I now understand why they call the area of Montana close to here God's Country. In the mornings I've been walking to the Long Bridge that spans Lake Pend Oreille and I cannot even find the words to begin to describe it. My instinct is to say that it is "breathtaking," but the feeling is more the opposite in that I want to breathe deeply and somehow take into my body all the beauty that's before me. My mom compares this view with that of Lake Zurich in Switzerland. I think the view seemed the most idyllic to me when the coal train started chugging by us on the other bridge spanning the lake. It somehow all seemed too beautiful to be real. Pictures are forthcoming.

I did not realize I would write so much! There is grocery shopping and unpacking that needs to be done. But what I am really looking forward to is wiping my feet on my new doormat with two ruby red slippers on it that reads, "There's no place like home."