Month 2

Week 5: Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and Apartment Tour

College started up this week here in Tucson, so I got a taste of what it's like to work at both the community college and the University. I'm also up to 4 agencies that I work for, so the work has been coming in. I've already worked at the Air Force Base, one of the casinos, and the Desert Museum. Soon, I have a job at the Biosphere! I've also been doing the typical doctor's appointments and business meetings.

Rounding out the First Month

 Week 3: The Perseids and the International Wildlife Museum

This hawk has been hanging out in the apartment complex

Monday - Friday has started to become routine for the two of us. The school year has started for Susan, so she's now on a normal schedule, and I've started to get work. At night, it's been too hot to take the dogs to the dog park, so we've been taking them on a walk around the complex after we get back from working out at the gym.

The First Few Weeks

Week 1 - Susan's Birthday and "A" Mountain

My sorry attempt at celebrating Susan's birthday on the road.

The first week or so was really dedicated to getting settled in - getting the apartment set up, figuring out where to shop, finding good dog parks, etc. Susan started orientation on Wednesday and was learning about her new job. I took the week off and focused on the apartment. Also, a priority for me was celebrating Susan's birthday, which had been on one of the days of the long journey across the country and I sucked at recognizing. I found a little bakery nearby and placed an order, just hoping that the cake would be good. I also booked a sunset horseback riding trip through Saguaro National Park for the two of us. I picked up a few Wii games from a local box store and got some amazing magnets for her collection from a cute shop on 4th Ave.

The Drive

Day 1: Rochester to Casey, IL

Accidentally deleted the post from this day. :(

First day of the drive wasn't too exciting. We took the dogs to the dog park to run around before we left. Matt and his friend Josh took off very early in the morning with the moving truck and we didn't see them at all this day. Stopped at the Hard Rock in Indianapolis. They had barely any city specific pins, and the one I got ended up having 2011 on it instead of 2012!

Day 2: Casey, IL to Clinton, OK

Not sure what time we got on the road, but Susan was still dead tired, so I did the driving. First major stop of the day was St. Louis. We saw the arch on the way in and stopped at the Hard Rock. It was a cute little one, tucked back behind a mall. They had a much better selection of pins.

Susan napping with Baxter and Zoe.

We had been in touch with my brother throughout the day and they had hit St. Louis a little before us. They were taking a tour of the Budweiser factory while we were at the Hard Rock. Since we had the animals, and no real interest in the Bud factory, we kept on going. A few hours later we made a stop in Lebanon, Missouri for some food, a walk for the dogs and the Russell Stover Candy Factory/Outlet. We spent so much time there, that the boys ended up catching up with us. We put some stuff that we no longer needed in the truck and parted ways again. (The truck could only go 75mph, so we were able to go a bit faster than them in certain areas.)