Ross School of Business Incoming Student

Kris walked the 3 blocks to campus to pick up his schedule yesterday. They gave him a spiffy new name tag!

We've Arrived!

After 2,600 miles, a busted drive belt and a short stop over in Chicago we have arrived in Ann Arbor, our new home. Peggy came out and met us the day we arrived and has been helping us to set up our new place. Our apartment is technically located in the attic of a 3 story Victorian building (the first floor of which is a liquor store) so we have beautiful high ceilings paneled in pine, along with several sky lights that bring in a good amount of natural light. We've made a few trips to IKEA, Target and Trader Joes and I think our place is really starting to come together. Sunday our cable/internet is installed, Tuesday our bed arrives, and hopefully our stove will be repaired in the next few days so we can make our first home cooked meal in over 2 and a half months.

Other than that we hope to spend the next few days venturing out and exploring our new community. Thursday Kris begins a program at school that will last for about a week, and then starts full time classes September 8th. And, as I'm sure everyone knows by now, unfortunately due to budget cuts my position at the school has been eliminated, so I'll be volunteering the first week at the school and then looking for work. Hopefully I'll make some connections while volunteering that may lead to something. I also signed up for a class in metal smithing that starts in September, something that I've always wanted to learn.

So, here we go Ann Arbor, bring it on!

On the Road Again

We took off Saturday morning for our cross country drive and so far so good. After 11 hours of driving we arrived in Salt Lake on Saturday. A bit strange considering we arrived in town after 10pm and just about everything was shut down (even on a Saturday night!). We checked into a mangey Super 8 and enjoyed some fine dining at Denny's, where the converstaion at the table next to us included a few tidbits like, "Well technically you are my daughter, but you were raised as my sister."

And this morning we hit the road early and drove the 7 hours to Denver, Colorado. We arrived in town around 4pm and spent some time driving around downtown, which is beautiful, with classic brick buildings, an amazing amount of new looking condos, and their baseball stadium right in the heart of the city. We both agree that the city has a really nice vibe and we wish that we had some more time to explore, but it won't work this time. Tomorrow we take off for Omaha, Nebraska, then Chicago, until we reach our final destination, Ann Arbor, next Thursday 8/20, to a very empty apartment, in a very new town. Can't wait to see what adventures lie ahead!

Happy Birthday Obama

Yesterday Kris & I got to help Obama celebrate his birthday, lucky us!

Hiccup Along the Road

Well, we are back and officially over our jet lag, I think. We spent a day and a half in the OC catching up with the Swaims and Gills and then hit the open road. We planned to stop in Santa Barbara, Pismo, and San Francisco before we took off for Michigan.

Ricky, the truck, got a beautiful make over while we were traveling, including a much needed wash and a camper shell. We were 20 minutes outside Santa Barbara, when BOOM, we were hit from behind in stop and go traffic. Good news is that no people were hurt, but poor Ricky got his bumper bent up underneath. He's still driveable, but we are trying to sort things out with insurance to get the repairs done. In the meantime we are in Santa Barbara with Peggy and Ed, not a bad place to be stuck.

Just a minor set back, only 2,967 miles to go.