Its been a while..

So its been a while since my last post.  I guess its because there hasn't really been all that much to report until this past weekend.

On the 19th, we ended up going to the Arizona Humane Society, where we ended up adopting not one but two kittens, who were about two months old.  They can be quite energetic, but I think its because they are happy to have a home.

On Saturday, we decided to do a little exploring, so we drove over to South Mountain (about 30 minutes away).  We were able to drive up the mountain, to a place called Dobbins Lookout, which is at an elevation of 2,330 feet above sea level, roughly 1,200 feet above Phoenix in the valley below.  The view was breathtaking; you could see for miles and miles.  We actually want to go back someday soon around dusk to watch the sun set over the mountains in the west.

Tomorrow's my birthday, and is a bit of a milestone.  It really makes one think... and right now, all I can think is that this is the last place I'd expected to be.  Maybe I haven't applied myself enough.  Maybe my aspirations were too high.  Maybe somewhere in between.  But I can't change the past; all I can do is look to the future.

Arizona is still very new for me, for us, and there's still a lot to see and do, and from what I hear, we are coming in to the prime hiking season.  And during the week, I've gotten back two to three hours I used to spend commuting; time I can use to try and close that gap between where I am and where I thought I'd be.

 

After one week...

So much has happened in the last week.  

The biggest, most interesting discovery was that Arizona has a monsoon season.  I didn't know that.  Lynn didn't know that.  Thankfully, the monsoon season in Arizona is short, lasting about a month.  And although it did ran almost every night this week, it rained at night, the days were sunny and, of course, warm.

Our PODS container arrived on Thursday; with he exception of a couple of things that shifted during transport, everything arrived in one piece.  

We had previously arranged to have a two-man moving crew help us unpack the container first thing Friday morning, and we were looking forward to finally getting our belongings (not the least of which was the BED!).  But wouldn't you know it, Thursday night was one of the worst monsoons that Arizona had seen in years.  There was so much water, we had lakefront property for a couple of days!

But Friday, aside from being a little humid, went well.  The movers came, and pretty much unloaded the entire container themselves.  I went into the office after lunch (last day of the month), then came home to look at the unpacking job we've got ahead of us.

Its going to be a busy weekend...!

 

And so it begins...

I left Illinois early on the morning of August 19th, with Lynn following behind me in her car.  We had decided to head west, through Iowa, Nebraska, Colorado, and New Mexico.  We stopped for lunch the first day in Iowa, and stopped again for a snack in Nebraska.  We thought about stopping for the night in Nebraska, only to discover that there's literally NOTHING in the western half of the state of Nebraska, so we ended up stopping in Sterling, Colorado for the night.

After another early morning start, we drove through Colorado and into New Mexico.  As long, straight, flat, and boring as 'The Heartland' was, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona were much more interesting... some places were downright harrowing!

Day two ended up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, another early night, and another early start.

Leaving Albuquerque on the last leg of our journey, we stopped at a scenic outlook and took a couple of shots:

After that, it was on to Arizona.

We stopped in Flagstaff for lunch before the final stretch to Phoenix.  We were both surprised to learn that Flagstaff is at an elevation of almost 7,000 feet above sea level; almost 6,000 feet higher than Phoenix, and driving from Flagstaff to Phoenix relatively quickly, leading to several of the aforementioned harrowing times!

We finally arrived in Chandler, AZ on the 21st, a day earlier than planned. Unfortunately, our apartment was not ready, so we had to spend one more night in a hotel.  

We signed our lease on the 22nd, unpacked our cars, headed to the closest store (a Wal-Mart SuperCenter) for cleaning supplies and some other necessities (like an air mattress) to make do while we wait for the PODS container to arrive.

That's about all the news from The Grand Canyon State.  More to follow!