It's finally time for an update

Well, Cassie and I have moved to Missouri. It's official and real. As real as the sweat on my forehead on a 85 degree day with 85% humidity. However, it hasn't been a very difficult transition.

We packed the Uhaul and my truck all on Saturday the 3rd of August. We mostly had boxes, which made the packing easier. We had the help of my brother, his girlfriend, my dad, mom, Emilee and Xander from the youth group. Those hands meant that we were fully packed in 90 minutes from picking up the box truck from the Uhaul supplier!

After a quick lunch, we were on the road to Phoenix to stuff a few extra items into the back of the truck from Cassie's parent's house and to have a small get together to say good bye with our Valley friends. 

Just leaving Amarillo.

We were on the road at 6:30am on Sunday, ready for a long haul of a day. After hours on the road, a couple cups of coffee and a number of pee breaks, we made it to Amarillo, TX. It was already 9pm when we rolled into town because of crossing two time zones throughout the day. Luckily, there were no issues and despite the long day, we made it safe.

Amarillo Sunrise.

Monday was just as easy. We had the goal of making it to Cassie's grandparents house in Havana, AR that night. We hit some construction in Oklahoma City but, again, no delays and just a long day of driving. It was this day that it hit me that we were moving into unknown territory. After living in the Ponderosa Pine forests my whole life, Oklahoma was an alien world. This move became real.

Somewheresville, OK

We saw Cassie's grandpa and grandma, and her aunt and uncle in Arkansas and spent a quick night there. Her grandma drove us up the highest mountain in Arkansas, Magazine Mountain, which is right outside their front door. I have the intention of going back and riding my bike up that road someday. 

After another $100 fill of the uhaul gas tank, we were off for our final push into Columbia. The only hiccup we had the whole trip was this day when we hit a road closure and had to take a 20 minute detour. It was painful because of how close we were and how done we both felt driving all that way. We rolled into town, took a quick wrong turn, got corrected and were at our new home by 2:30pm Tuesday afternoon. We made it!

We decided to just get everything unloaded into the garage and we will then begin the process of sorting through things over the next couple of days. 

That's just the space emptied from our 7 bikes.

Slowly our house began to take shape. We were missing a lot of furniture pieces, but our kitchen, bedroom and office eventually became functional. We now have a couch that we found on Craigslist, Cassie has a desk that we found the same way and our bank accounts are a little lighter because of the whole moving process.

Cassie has started her classes and meetings with her department this week. She is generally gone most of the day during the week. I am spending my time searching and applying for jobs, going on bike rides to get a feel for the area better and keeping the chores at the house taken care of. 

We both went on a group ride on Tuesday night and met a number of other, really fast, cyclists. We are joining a fun volleyball league with a number of people from her department at school this fall. We have visited and decided on a wedding venue for ourselves for next Summer (stay tuned for an official announcement). 

Our new home.

Overall, we are loving Columbia and all that it has offered so far. The weather, until this week, has been amazing. The bugs haven't been nearly as bad as I was expecting and we have found a church that we are going to continue to explore and get to know.

We thank you for all the prayers and support that everyone has shown us in this transitional time of our lives and we want to offer up our guest room as a thank you to anyone wanting to come visit.