We're in Missoula...

We left (finally) the Seattle area last night much later than hoped. Thanks to mom (Selma) we were able to leave at all. She helped so graciously throughout the move as did Dad, even bringing us lunch one of the days, then coming back our last day there to help bag up the rest of the stuff to get it to the truck. Thanks again, Mom and Dad! Sister Jennifer as usual had a nack for showing up at just the right time. She took Daniel out for lunch with his cousins, Nick and Jake. I think Aaron felt we would move without him if he went to McDonald's with them, so he stayed home with us and helped pack and load. We also had some last minute/day assistance from three neighbor boys, Clifton, Michael, and Benjamin. They saved a few backs I'd say with all their many trips up and down the stairs.

We reminded ourselves how nice it was to have rented a 26-foot truck instead of the 17-foot model. We needed about 25 1/2 feet of it. Remember that old warning on product labels, i.e. "Some settling may occur in transit?" That was the case with us. More later. I was finding some trouble in getting the parking brake to engage on the truck and without it, it just rolls. It kept giving the "service parking brake" light, so I mentioned it to the U-Haul location before leaving. They changed a "relay" in the engine compartment, which seemed to resolve it then. They loaded up our Blazer for us on the auto transport and we pulled out of town in the early evening. We ended up in Snoqualmie as I was starting to nod off and didn't feel safe behind the wheel much longer. The Summit Lodge is a great place to stay if anyone needs it while skiing up there... Once we arrived, I had to go into the truck to get some clothes for the boys and found several objects had "settled" in transit, including a rocking chair that wanted to come out prematurely. I could tell how bad it was last night and today by how hard it was to open the door in the back. I would gingerly raise the door while peering underneath for any impending avalanche of belongings. Everything's reorganized now, though.

We pulled in to Missoula tonight around 9:30 pm and have scheduled our wake up call for 5:30. We had pizza delivered to the room just now at midnight and are ready to hit the sack. We'd like to be on the road again by 7:00 am tomorrow. We have figured 565 miles or so to Glendive, Montana which should put us there by evening, much earlier than we arrived tonight. I've been paying about $60.00 per fill up, which is about half a tank on the U-Haul. Andrew, on the other hand, payed something like $7.00 at his fill up in Post Falls, Idaho. I'm glad I'm not a full-time truck driver... I was unable to figure out posting of pictures to our blog, so I set up an MSN group for people to see. Let me know if you didn't get the address. I couldn't remember everyone's e-mails to send it to, unfortunately.

Hope all is well with everyone at Chase Lake and all of our family. We appreciate your thoughts and prayers as always as we make it across the remainder of Montana tomorrow. Of note is we didn't have to chain up at all in the Cascades or the mountains in getting to Missoula. Snow is forecast in the afternoon around Missoula, but we'll be gone by then.