Our road trip over Christmas included a 1 day 17 hour drive to California to the parents house - 4 days there - and a 3 day return trip through the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley and Arches National Park. Photos and a Google KML map below.
There are 2 pieces to this video. The first one was taken in August before I had started working on the driveway. The second piece was taken this weekend following completion of phase 1 work on the driveway, which was to channel water off of it to stop erosion.
I spent 3 days at the Sheraton Wild Horse Resort in Chandler, AZ for our semi-annual Vitamin and Adult Nutrition trade show. Nice resort, but did not get the chance to enjoy it much, as meetings go all day and then there is evening dinner, entertainment with work associates and more work. Temperature was over 110 degrees, so it was nice being inside, although I enjoy hot weather. First night there we encountered a lightening storm at 11 pm and it knocked out power to the entire hotel. I was getting to sleep anyway. It came back on at some point in the night. Images below of the hotel and our suite where we had retailer meetings.
I had a quick 2 day trip to Vegas for the GNC Franchise Convention at the Wynn Hotel and stayed at the new Encore wing. Swanky hotel, but expensive. Images below.
I returned Tuesday night and left Wednesday morning for a very quick trip to California for mom’s retirement party. My sister, Lisa, and I surprised both my parents with our arrival, as they were not expecting us. Images below that I took, although I will add more in the near future when I receive more pictures from the retirement party. I returned Thursday morning.
Weekend projects around the house included moving into the recently remodeled A-frame section of the house, lots of cleaning (dust, dirt, etc) and digging a 30 foot trench for an additional gas line we plan to run for gas fireplaces that will be installed. That trench took me more than 3 hours, with a few breaks, and was much harder than I thought. Picture below.
Weekend excitement also included a few cows from the 1000 acre ranch to the north and east of us who managed to bust through an area along the north fence. They did some roaming around our property before ending up on the south meadow. Ron from the ranch came in with his horse and herding dogs, an Australian Shepherd and a Border Collie, to get them back across. I could not catch much video at all of the herding. Instead of coming back into our property, the cattle were herded east from the property south of us and back onto the ranch.
April 10-13, travel to Alta Loma, CA: No GPS tracks. View images. This was a personal trip with Sue to visit my parents. My mom came down the 24-hour flu, then Sue, then me. Both Sue and I recovered pretty fast, but my mom took longer.
April 28, travel to Dallas, TX: No GPS tracks and no images. This was a 1-day trip in and out.
April 30, travel to Pittsburgh, PA. NO GPS tracks and no images. This was a 1-day trip in and out.
Buying and Selling Property and Moving
We closed April 6 on our new house and property (13.5 acres) located in Sedalia, CO. We closed April 24 on our old house in Aurora, CO. Within that span of time, we had quite a bit of work to do with contractors to get the new house live-in ready before we had to be out of our old house. The new house is a foreclosure and is pretty rough around the edges. The structure is in good shape, but heating does not work, there are electrical, plumbing and other issues. We got the contractors working on the new house pretty quickly after we closed. The new house is a large A-frame with 3 levels and an extension to the south with a great room, 3 bedrooms and a bathroom. Here is a list of things we are having done on the new house and the property:
Interior
A-frame loft: remove the bathroom, remove the closet, replace the door to the balcony, frame-in and finish open walls where the bathroom was removed; install new carpeting.
A-frame main floor: gut the 1/2 bathroom and install all new fixtures and flooring; redo the kitchen with new floor, new appliances, new counter top and kitchen sink and paint existing cabinets; install new carpeting; repair the doors to both the east and west balconies and seal up the west balcony from leaks into the house.
A-frame basement: gut the bathroom and install all new fixtures and flooring; gut the main living area and frame-in a walk-in closet; fix cracked windows; its a walk-out basement, so replace the doors to the outside.
South-side extension: clean-out the attic; blow in new insulation; perform minor plumbing and electrical repairs.
Heating system, both sides of house: repair, which is extensive in the A-frame section of the house.
Other: electrical repairs and re-wiring as needed; new water heater in A-frame section; install laundry tub, washer and dryer in basement mechanical room of the A-frame (same floor as the master bedroom).
Exterior
Replace the roof and gutters on the house and the garage.
Make electrical repairs to the well pump house and install a new heating system.
Some minor electrical work and installation of outside lighting.
Install a new gas tank and gas line to supply the appliances in the house.
Clean up the junk strewn throughout the property.
This is the contractor list. There is a list of things Sue and I can do in the coming months so that we save money by not paying contractors. They include: new fenced-in area off the east side of the house to let the dogs run around; general interior and exterior painting; re-grading of areas around the house for erosion and water control; and, cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning.
Later this year, or maybe next year, depending on how fast we move on other top priority items, we will do some re-grading of the driveways to control water run-off and some re-grading of areas of the property to help return it back to a more natural state. Next year, for sure, we will have to address some dry rot going on in the main barn by fixing some of the structure and controlling water run-off around the barn.
The contractors were able to complete required items on the south-side extension of the house in time before we moved in on April 23. We also had our new refrigerator and the microwave hooked up so we can at least do some cooking and eating at home. The roof was also done. Since then, the kitchen has been completed and we have unpacked all our kitchen items, but the remaining contractor items are still in progress.
Move-in Week
The week of the move went smooth, but was extremely busy. I took the week off from work. Here is how it went:
Saturday, April 18: Packed up things at the old house; made 1 trip down to the property with stuff. We got a decent sized snow storm that rolled in earlier in the day, so had the challenge of a foot of very slushy snow to contend with at the new house on a dirt driveway.
Sunday, April 19: Packed and made 2 trips to the new house with stuff.
Monday, April 20: Packed and made 2 trips to the new house with stuff.
Tuesday: Main moving day with the movers and the majority of our stuff.
Wednesday: Still living in the old house - made 2 trips with stuff that the movers would not take (electronics, plants, food); met the satellite-TV installation crew in the afternoon at the property.
Thursday: Made final 2 trips with stuff and cleaned the old house…we were officially out; met the new appliance delivery crew.
Friday: Sue went to the closing on our old house while I stayed at our new house to take delivery of our new Kubota L2800 tractor.
Images of the move-in week and shots of the construction work below:
I took one trip in February with my boss in his plane to Seattle. It was up and back the same day, from Centennial Airport to Boeing Field. I don’t like so much overnight business trips and try as much as I can to schedule day trips only. From Denver, it is very doable to many destinations.
Very smooth flight up and back with snow and precipitation in Seattle. Some bumps on our return into Denver, but nothing nerve-wracking. Any route that brings you back over the Indian Peaks Wilderness Area into Denver can be pretty bumpy, in me experience, which is the most direct route back from Seattle. Trip map below.
My travels took me first to Atlanta for a 3-day trade show that included 20 minute meetings with 50 retailers. The very next week, I had a similar trade show in Nashville that included 20 minute meetings with 45 retailers. Pretty grueling weeks with all the meeting and the weeks following these events are also rather busy with all the follow-up required. Both Atlanta and Nashville were cold with wintery weather more comparable to that we find in Denver than the southeast of the U.S. Did not bother me, as I spent the entire 3 days of each trip in the hotel.
Images from our plane ride to and from Atlanta are below. We flew private out of Centennial on a Gulfstream/Astra 100. Smooth flight up till Landing in Atlanta; winds were gusting and swirling, so while it made for an interesting landing in a small plane, we got down plenty fine.
I did most of the Nashville trade show myself, so flew out commercial. Flight was late getting out of Denver, but we had a monster tail wind (ground speed of 640 mph), so made up a little time. Coming back, flight late again, and we had a brutal head wind, so it was a long flight back to Denver. A few images of the hotel room in Nashville where we had our meetings are below. The trade show cleared out a hotel room for us and we setup with our product samples and poster. Every 20 minutes, a new retailer walks in for a face-to-face meeting.
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