Where have I been?

Well sorry it has been so long. We left Texas on the 29th of September, drove all the way to southern Illinois. Stayed at the welcome center on 57 for the night. It was our first night in the trailer, figured a few things out to make the rest of the trip easier. Then we drove to Marion, IN and visited a friend for a few hours. After that we finished our day by driving to moms in Coldwater, MI.

The next evening we had a birthday party for Kota that was a real good time and a great turn out. The next few days were spent relaxing at moms and trying to catch up on sleep along with getting some hunting in!

Speaking of the hunting, it only took me 2-1/2 days to turn my $138 tag into a ten point buck with a bruiser body!! I will try to get picks on here later.

Katie and Kota left to go visit her family on a Thursday and I stayed at moms and hung around with denim. On Sunday we went to watch my cousin Kelcee race her kart in Archbold, OH. Then I left to head up to pick up the girls and the next morning we left to go see my dad in Manistee, MI. To be continued....

T minus a week

Well in a week we leave Texas. I thought I would have mixed feelings, or at least I thought I would have part of me that doesn't want to leave. But so far there isn't any of that. The closer I get the more I don't like this place. My true feelings are coming through. Basically that means, I am a small town person, the "Ft Hood area" is way to much like a big city. Way to many people living in way to small of an area. I can't wait to get to Coldwater to be reminded of what living in a small tow is like. And the on to Alaska, and finding a place out and away from everyone. Maybe my "civilian " side will be appeased with the small town way of life. Hopefully Alaskan drivers will not piss me off as much as their Texan counterparts. Hopefully it will help calm me back down. I miss that.

The next few days will be busy. I will finish clearing, just 3 things to go. We will finish packing, and get weighed again. We will try to spend a little time with our friends. And we will have a good nights rest for the little part of the big trip, the test run if you will. I hope we can get some great pictures to help tell this story a little better. And to help you get a better idea of the people who help make this journey called life more interesting and fun to deal with. The friends who we'll never forget and have helped us throughout. You know, the important things in life!

Improvements

Well things are really starting to turn around, and it's making me much more optimistic. We have had the trailer for a few days now. I got it weighed in for our empty weight. I got an email a little bit ago saying that our DITY advance pay has been paid. We should see it in the account in the morning. I filed for the other various entitlements today, so we should see them soon too.

I have been hard at it trying to get my clearing done. It is going pretty well. And after looking at the calendar today I realized that, we only have 13 days left in Texas, and only 9 of them are working days. Life is getting much better.

Got the trailer!!! Finally....

Here it is!

I'm really happy with it, so far. The eventual plan is to convert it into a toy hauler, where the rear 12' will be a "garage" amd the rest will be a camper. In fact that is how we will use it on the trip as long as it isn't to cold!

Where to start

Well where to start.... First off, I don't have the trailer just yet. Maybe tomorrow, but more likely Monday or Tuesday. The credit union in their infinite wisdom sent a check to the dealership. Really? A check?? In today's electronic society and the sent a paper check in the mail??? Not cool at all.

Next, the housing market here has slowed to almost nonexistence. We have had a few showings now but that's all. So now we are putting it up for rent or sale, which ever happens first.

On top of all that, there is a decent chance that we could get to Alaska and get assigned to the unit that is getting moved to Ft. Lewis, Washington. Ft Lewis is supposedly a really great post and area, but it is not where I want to be. The only plus would be that it would be another PCS, and we could do another DITY move and make some more money.

Anyway, all of that has put a slight damper on my mood, and greatly increased my stress level. On a positive note I finally started clearing today, and I did get to do the paperwork for the DITY money. They didn't get it submitted today but I did get my part done. So I should see the money in the next 2 weeks. That will ease some of the stress.

Got some good news today, finally!

Well the trailer arrived at the dealer today. I called to check the progress of the build and the guy said, "well it's funny you called, it just arrived 10 minutes ago and I'm outside parking it next to the gate to show it off!"

    Anyway I called the bank and got a short term loan so I can pick it up now instead of waiting on the army to pay me before I get it. It makes me really happy to get it early, now I get a chance to drive it around a little
And time to set up the front like we want it. That should help make it more comfortable for us to stay in.

    So tomorrow I should be able to go take delivery of the trailer as long as the bank gets their part done.

    Today after work we drove out and looked at the trailer, they were closed and we couldn't get real close, but we did get to see it. We had to drive through this mess of a storm they call "Tropical Storm Hermine".  It was raining like hell on the way back. I was in a 70 mph zone but doing about 30 mph was all the faster I felt comfortable doing. That's how hard it was raining & blowing. So far today we have had 4" of rain and they are calling for 4" more tonight. I really can't wait to get away from this crazy Texas weather. But with all the rain I should sleep like a baby tonight!

    Well I'm done for tonight. Hopefully I will write again tomorrow with pictures of the new trailer!

The latest

Well I have the paper orders and I went to transportation and they set me an appointment for the 10th of September. I'm glad they're not in any hurry :( Still nothing new on the house, I have a feeling we are going to have to rent it out. I'm not real happy at all about that. It will probably cause us to not be able to buy in Alaska. Anyway not much else going on at all. We are about 70% packed, just waiting on everything to fall into place.

Stress

Well I got the paper copy of the orders so now I can file for the pay to get started. I'm going to try to do that Monday.

I am getting real sick of the Texas weather. It has been over 100 degrees everyday for as long as I can remember now. Today it is 106, I really can't wait to get away from this crap.

The house is getting to be more and more of a worry. I'm afraid we might have to rent it out, that really scares me. In fact the whole financial process of this move is scaring me. We have so much left to do but I am losing motivation. Depression has set in.

Arghhh

So I will never figure out how it is that one office can get it done in 2 hrs, 2 other offices can have it done in 2 days, but 1 office needs at least 2 weeks. I'm referring to Katie and Dakota's doctor offices getting copies of their medical records for us. We had to have them today and only the one office was being a complete pain in the butt about it. I had to send Katie in to talk to them, I was ready to burn the place to the ground, and probably would of had the cops called on me if I went in. Anyway she managed to get them and we got the review done. Now we just wait for the paper copy of our orders so we can start the painfully annoying process of clearing Fort Hood.

I do know that I will be putting in for 30 days of leave and 12 days of travel time. That means we should be leaving Fort Hood on 28SEP and getting to Michigan 2 days later if all goes well. Plans are to be in Michigan for a couple weeks then start the journey up to Alaska.

Been a couple weeks

Well it has been a couple weeks so I thought I would try to give you all an update. Let's see what has happened? Well for one my laptop died. I guess the trips out to Iraq and back have taken their toll. So not sure what to do about that. Katie's computer is starting to have it's own issues, but that doesn't surprise me as it is 4+ years old. Not sure what we should get or if we even should get anything. Although not having one would make communication with families a real pain in the butt.

We are hiring a guy to repair the hallway floor and retile the bathrooms. He starts this Thursday hopefully he will be done by Monday. He did a full remodel of our neighbors bathrooms turning the bath and a half into one big bathroom. From all I can tell he did a really good job.

Today I got an appointment to have a gooseneck hitch installed in our truck. It is going to be installed this Friday. I also made a down payment on a trailer.

We decided that financially it will be best for us to do a "DITY" move. That is a do it your self move. The Army will end up paying us about $16-22,000 to do it that way, with about 60% up front. So that is the reason we are buying a trailer. It would cost a bunch to use u-haul or hire a moving company, so we really will do it ourselves. The trailer we ordered is a 8'x24' enclosed gooseneck cargo trailer. It is not a cheap one with plywood and aluminum on the sides. Instead it is an all steel construction. And worse comes to worse and we can sell it once we are in Alaska with the crazy prices of things we may break even. But that is not the plan. We plan to make it there and have a nice trailer for future use paid for by the Army!

Well that's about all I can think of for now. If I misspelled anything it is probably due to the fact that I am typing this all out on my phone!

Got a new truck!

     I figured the gas tank was almost empty on the last truck so I needed a new one so I didn't have to refill it. Seriously, I think I will be much better off with this truck up in Alaska than the last one. The new one is a 2010 Chevrolet Silverado 2500 HD. It has the 6.0L gas engine, and 6-speed transmission, camper mirrors, towing package with brake controller, and is the prettiest blue I have ever seen!

Well it is on the market!

     Well we got the house on the market today. It is listed for $77,900. It should be a good number based on what has sold recently and what is currently on the market. I hope this goes quick, I really need this off my mind so I can concentrate on the other things involved in the moving process. Plus we are finding quite a few homes we like up there, but we can't do anything about it while we still have this place. Oh well.

     This weekend we will be doing alot of minor maintenance to the house getting it ready. Painting, fixtures, cleaning, trimming, organizing & packing, all those fun things people love to do. You see me rolling my eyes right?

     Today I also started the process of getting me and Dakota a passport. Katie already had one from our days in Germany. I also got started on the briefings I need to do before we can leave. Anyway, I need to try to get some sleep. I see a lot of stressed out sleepless nights in my future, as they have already started.

Realtor likes it a lot.

     Well the realtor show up today, she really liked the house. Thinks we shouldn't have a problem selling it. Tomorrow she will be back with husband in tow to talk numbers.  I hope it sells fast and easy, hopefully we can make some money too. That would be a big help for the move.

It's to early for setbacks....

     Well it's to early for setbacks, but we had one already. The realtor was supposed to come by today and go over the selling process, and give us up to date info on prices and such along with what we can do to help the house sell faster. But she had an emergency that required her to be in Austin today. I'm not real impressed that she didn't call back after her assistant called this morning. Next week will be busy at work and I'm not real sure when we are going to be able to get this done. Hope she is willing to work late on Tuesday, or Wednesday or she might be replaced.

     We have been looking at places around Fairbanks online. Doesn't seem like you can get much for your money up there. Maybe that is what we need, a small place just out of town with just a little land to play on. I think I' going to start looking for smaller places on 1-5 acres. I think we can deal with a smaller house if we have a little piece of land and a decent garage (shop) or room to build one.

     I wonder how much of a pain it would be to have a place with a water tank, instead of a well or city hook up. It must be a bit of a pain cause you can get alot more house/land when there is no well/city hook up.

The start....

     Well to start it all off.... We are an Army family, most all of you know this. We currently live in Copperas Cove, Texas, but we were born and raised in Michigan. On June 30th, 2010 we found out about our orders to Alaska. The immediate shock and fear of the whole process overwhelmed the happiness. I have always wanted to live in Alaska, or at least go there for a few months minimum. Katie has really dreaded the idea. Kota doesn't quite understand the concept, but she does want to live by the mountains, and she loves the pictures of the bears and other wildlife.

     As of right now the moving process looks like it will take place in October, or November. Before then we are going to have to work on getting our home in Texas sold, and getting all packed up. I'm sure that it will have it's headaches, and downfalls, but we are starting to look forward to it all.

     Moving from Texas will be a huge change. We have lived here for 5 years, and are more or less used to the 100 degree summers and winters without snow. And if anyone is looking for any kind of gift ideas for birthdays, Christmas or any other reasons, warm winter clothes, are high on our list right now. I'm sure it will be a shock moving when we have to from the highs in the 60's & 70's in Texas to highs averaging 7 degrees in Fairbanks.

     Speaking of Fairbanks, that is the area of Alaska we will be headed to. Ft. Wainwright more specifically. Our hope is to find a home within our budget, from what I have been told the on-post housing is full with a waiting list. So we may have to rent or buy. The real hope would be to find a nice small 3 bedroom house with a decent sized garage. I am really excited about the hunting opportunities, and can't wait for the opportunity to fill the freezer with some bear, moose, or anything else I can.