Month: June 2021

Around noon on Friday, June 18, our little caravan rolled into Las Vegas after 3 days of driving. Our journey took us through Washington State, Oregon, Idaho, Utah, and even part of Arizona before reaching our final destination. It was a slow journey, but we took our time and made the best of it. Ultimately we had very little trouble getting down here, but even as I write this more than a week later, it still doesn’t quite feel real. It’s as if we’re on an extended vacation and will need to go home soon, but as the kids keep saying, “we don’t have a home”. At least not at the moment.

Moving week began by picking up a 26 foot diesel truck at Penske in Everett on Monday, June 14. Jessica and I worked for nearly 8 hours that afternoon and evening to get it packed. It was hard work but we took our time and did our best to load it up the best we could. On Tuesday afternoon I drove the truck back up to the Penske office with my neighbor Erik following me in my car. When I arrived we got the car carrier attached to the truck and loaded my car onto it. At that point we were ready to go. Although our original plan was to use Pods as a moving service, it turned out to be far too expensive based on how much stuff we had, so driving a truck and towing my car, then having Jessica and the kids following me in the van made the most sense.

I was awake before 4:00am on Wednesday morning. I simply could not sleep knowing that this was finally the day where we would say goodbye to our house and hit the road. Jessica woke up shortly thereafter, we threw a few final things in the truck, got the kids up, said a family goodbye to the house, and by 5:30 we were pulling out of the neighborhood. I had been expecting to drive the truck alone, with just Peach and Spencer to keep me company, but after a little research I learned that it was legal to have a car seat in a single cab truck, as long as it was connected the right way. Consequently, I almost always had one of the kids riding with me in the moving truck, and it was awesome. Each of them later said that one of their favorite things about the road trip was riding with me in the truck.

I didn’t have too much trouble driving the truck, but it was really slow and bumpy. The steering was so loose that you’re constantly making adjustments to the wheel just to keep it going straight, and you’re bouncing around so much that my FitBit thought I was walking all day long. My step counts for those days were quite impressive! 

On a level road with no incline going flat out in the truck, I could get up to 70mph, but it felt a lot faster than that because it’s like steering a locomotive down the road. It’s a big rig with a lot of momentum behind it. Each of the kids commented that it feels a lot faster in the truck than it does following behind the truck in Mom’s van. However, things would get pitifully slow as soon as the road started to incline. There were times going up mountains where I’d have it floored and we’d be going 28mph. There’s nothing you can do besides stay in the right lane with your hazard lights on, but it was tough for Jessica to stay behind me going so slowly.

We made it all the way to Boise on day one, which is supposed to be about 7.5 hours but it took us closer to 11. After getting checked into our hotel we went out for Mexican food, then back to the room so I could pass out. My neighbor told me I’d be sore from driving the truck and I kinda laughed it off. I figured there was no way that would be true based on all the Jiu-Jitsu I do, but he was right. I woke up Thursday morning in Boise feeling quite sore in my back and shoulders.

Thursday was supposed to be our easiest day of the trip, but it didn’t quite work out that way. The plan was to drive from Boise to Provo, Utah, which is a little college town 30 minutes south of Salt Lake City, most famously known as the home of BYU. Everything got off to a good start, but around midday on the freeway just outside of Tremonton (which is in northern Utah), I blew a tire on the car carrier.

I honestly didn’t even notice it happened, but Jessica started getting pieces of rubber in her windshield while following behind me. She pulled up beside the car carrier and could see one of the tires falling apart, then signaled to me to pull over. Now we find ourselves on the side of a freeway not knowing where we are or what to do. We had to act quickly because staying there wasn’t an option. We pulled up Google Maps on our phone and could see that the next exit was less than 2 miles up the road, so we started driving slowly on the freeway with our hazard lights on until we reached the exit.

Once we were out of harm’s way I pulled out the paperwork from Penske and called their roadside assistance line. I wasn’t worried about getting help, mostly because I had taken out extra insurance on the truck and car carrier, but according to their phone system it was going to be a 30 minute wait to speak to someone. It was in the mid 90’s that day, so waiting outside wasn’t really an option. I hopped into the van with Jessica and the kids and waited for someone to pick up the phone.

While we were sitting there, a couple who appeared to be about our parent’s age pulled over to check on us and see if we needed any help. At first we were saying it was fine and that we were just waiting for roadside assistance to answer our call, but it soon became obvious that they weren’t going to leave us there sitting alone. We could tell they were genuinely nice people, and eventually the wife invited Jessica and the kids to come into their house to relax in the air conditioning while the husband and I waited to get the truck repaired. I could tell from the look on Jessica’s face that she felt safe with them, so we took them up on their offer. 

The husband, who turned out to be a retired police chief, stayed with me at the truck, but eventually I started following him slowly down into town because there was a tire repair shop that could take care of my problem. While heading down there, after 45 minutes on hold, I finally got someone from roadside assistance on the line and they confirmed that the shop we were heading to was an approved Penske vendor. Once I got there it literally only took 15 minutes to swap out the tire, and due to the extra insurance I’d taken on the truck, it ended up costing me nothing more than a couple hours of our time.

While this certainly wasn’t part of our plan, in a strange way it ended up becoming a highlight of the trip. It’s nice to know good people like this still exist in the world, and we will never forget their hospitality. Jessica even took a picture of their address so we could send them a thank you card. From now on whenever I think of Utah, it will be this experience and hospitality that first comes to mind. I may even become a Utah Jazz fan because of it…

We ended up arriving in Provo a couple hours later than expected, but still had time to go out to dinner and take the kids swimming at the hotel. We drove into the heart of town looking for a vegan restaurant we’d found online, but it turned out to be closed. Luckily we found Fat Daddy’s Pizza next door and just decided to do that. We were pleasantly surprised to see they had a vegan pizza menu, so it seemed like it was meant to be. The food was great and overall Provo turned out to be a really cool little college town. After taking the kids swimming later that evening everyone slept well.

Friday was by far the hardest day of the week, and once again it started very early. We were on the road at 6:00am because the truck was due back that evening by 6:00pm in North Las Vegas. Jessica followed me all the way to Vegas, and the scenery that day was incredible. Southern Utah and northeastern Arizona are so beautiful it’s hard to describe. The different colors of the rocks, and the canyons you wind through can’t really even be described, you just have to see them for yourself. 

Once we got to Vegas, Jessica took the kids straight to Nana’s house while I first went to the Penske dealer to detach the car carrier from the truck and park my car in the parking lot. Once that was done, I headed to the storage facility near my Mom’s house where I would meet up with Jessica, Uncle Terry, and his friend Nick. It was literally the hottest day of the year, and unloading our entire truck into the storage unit was quite possibly the hardest physical labor I’ve ever experienced. Each of us felt like we might faint at various points throughout the day.

We ended up packing our 10’x20’ storage unit to the max, but still had stuff left in the truck, so we had no choice but to put the rest of our stuff in Mom’s garage. By the time we finished filling up her garage it was 116 degrees. Jessica looked like a ghost and my clothes were drenched in sweat. Ultimately I was able to get the truck returned on time, got in my car and closed the door, then let out a holler that would make the Dukes of Hazzard proud. We had done it! That evening I brought a few things over to Devin’s house to store, came back to Mom’s house to get cleaned up, then Jessica and I went out to celebrate.

Saturday morning we wasted no time in getting started with our house hunting process. We met up in Henderson with Rowena and Sassy, our realtors who our friend Linda had connected us with, and started viewing houses. We liked the first one and rated it 7/10, then went to see another one a block away that had just come back on the market. I had seen this one a couple months earlier on Zillow and really liked it, but it went into contract so I removed it from our list.

As it turned out, that sale had fallen through and the house had just become available the previous day. When we arrived the owner was there doing some work around the house, but invited us in for a tour. It was nowhere near show condition, but Jessica and I quickly saw past all that. It had everything we wanted, even though the pool and spa were still under construction. The appliances were all brand new, we loved the 4 car garage, as well as the layout and the schools. Considering how crazy the Las Vegas / Henderson real estate market is, and how reasonable the price was, we decided to place an offer that day. Ultimately it wasn’t meant to be though, and after feeling like we were getting the runaround for a week, the owners decided to pull the house off the market. I assume they’re going to finish all the construction, get it in show condition, and raise the price, but at this point we’ve moved on and don’t really care.

On Friday we went and saw another house in Henderson, and honestly we like this one even more. It’s 4,000 square feet with 6 bedrooms plus an office, 4 car garage, and a gorgeous backyard with a pool and spa. It’s in a gated community sitting in the middle of the best school district in the state of Nevada. The inside of the house is a bit dated, and there are things we would want to do before moving in, but the intangibles are all there. We wasted no time in putting in an offer and hope to get a response later today.

Other than house hunting we’ve just been focusing on getting settled and spending quality time with Nana. After a few days we were able to organize our stuff in the house and garage, and I have already joined a local Jiu-Jitsu school. We frequently go swimming at one of the pools in the neighborhood, although that has had its challenges as well.

On our first full day in town we took the kids swimming and Ava jumped feet first into the shallow end of the pool, slamming her heel into the bottom. It was really bothering her for a couple days, but then the very next day Jessica did a cannonball into the deeper end of the pool (which is still only 4.5 feet), and slammed her tailbone into the bottom. By Monday they were both very sore and I ended up taking Ava to Urgent Care for an x-ray. 

Much to our surprise, the x-ray showed what they thought was a fractured heel, so Ava had to get a temporary cast and crutches. We made an appointment with a specialist later that week, so for the next few days she and Jessica were in bad shape. Luckily things turned around after seeing the specialist when he confirmed that there was no fracture in her heel and that she didn’t need to be in a cast. We were worried about her Summer being ruined but luckily that is no longer the case.

Working from my Mom’s house has been fine and I don’t foresee any issues there, so on this most recent Friday night Jessica and I decided to go out for a night on the town to celebrate our first full week in Las Vegas. A brand new casino on the strip called Resort World had just opened the previous day, so we decided to check it out. We walked in and there was this huge line of Rolls Royce’s all lined up inside the casino. I’d never seen anything like it! Then, while walking through the casino, we saw Michael Voltaggio, one of our favorite chefs from Top Chef, just hanging out at a blackjack table. We knew it was him because a couple other people had just recognized him as well and were asking for a photo. We didn’t say anything but it was awesome.

We walked all around that night, checking out Resort World, Fashion Show mall, and the shops at Wynn. We even went to a vegan ice cream parlor at Resort World. Later that evening we were on our way to a restaurant near home when we saw a sign saying “Chef Kenny’s Vegan Dim Sum – Grand Opening”. I called an audible and immediately pulled into their parking lot.

As it turns out, Chef Kenny has more than one vegan restaurant in town, but he was there that evening for the grand opening of his new location, and ended up chatting us up quite a bit. Everything on the menu is 100% vegan so you don’t have to worry about what you’re ordering, but you would never know it from eating the food. He recommended the steak roll, which is one of his signature dishes, and it was amazing. I swear you would never know this isn’t real meat. We also had a couple sushi rolls, and honestly it was one of the best rainbow rolls we’ve ever had, real fish or not. It’s just incredible how you can make plant-based food look and taste like real meat and seafood, or even raw seafood in this case. We also had sweet and sour shrimp that was absolutely amazing. This place, along with Violette’s Vegan (which we’ve already been to 3 times since moving here), have immediately become some of our favorite restaurants in Las Vegas.

Overall we’re very happy to have made the move, but leaving our family and friends behind was really difficult. There were a lot of emotional goodbye’s, but we really are committed to coming back to visit as a family every Summer. There are simply too many people we love in Washington not to do so. We figure if we can come up once a year, and we can convince people to come down for a visit once a year, we’re getting two really good, multi-day visits in. These will be very memorable visits too because we’ll make sure to do special things while in town.

We can tell the kids are enjoying themselves, even though things are so different. They love all the time they’re getting with Nana, and Enzo has already said (while chilling by the pool) “I hope we’re not moving again because I love it here. It’s so relaxing.” Elise has also said “Most people probably wouldn’t know it, but I never really liked the weather in Washington.”

Certainly there are times when the heat can be intense and start making everyone grumpy, but we have no doubts that we did the right thing for our family. I know we have a lot more excitement coming in the near future, hopefully in the form of a new house. We knew it was going to be easy as a seller and difficult as a buyer, but that’s fine. Hopefully this new house we’re bidding on will work out, but we know there are multiple offers already, so we’ll see. If this one doesn’t work out another one will.

For now I’m just thankful that we made it here safely, we’ve settled into Nana’s house nicely, and we’re wasting no time in looking for our home. I’m also relieved that none of our pool injuries are serious, and hopefully we’ve learned some lessons about jumping in. I also have a newfound love for Utah and look forward to taking a road trip back there, most likely sometime this fall. I’m looking forward to taking a four day weekend for the 4th of July and promise to update everyone as soon as one of our house offers gets accepted. Until then, here’s some recent pics!