How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Part I

I know I've been absent awhile -- at least awhile for me. Part was our recently crazy-ass life, and part was just general blogging ennui. I did start to write a tome on all the stuff that's happened in the past 6-8 weeks, but I got bored with myself and canned it. It's a lot to explain, but not as fun as a, "Guess what happened last night when I was totally trashed" story.

Okay, let's see if I can make this as short as possible:

- Beau and I had finally made all arrangements for moving to Missouri: quit our jobs, packed up and/or sold and/or gave away our worldly possessions, and purchased a new (1986 Nissan) pickup to pack up and haul our little Nissan. Admittedly, we weren't SUPER excited about moving to Missouri,but we did have a renewed sense of hope for the future. Things like a home, children, a decent job were all now possibilities.

Literally TWO days before we were to get on the road, the school in New Zealand contacted us that Beau's old teaching position was opening up.

Oh fuck.

This was what we had wanted for so long, but the timing was more than a bit awkward.

To make a long story short, we got on the road and headed for Missouri anyway, and somewhere in the hills of eastern Montana, our truck conked out. Just great. We made it to Wall, South Dakota, a place I already talked about on our original move TO Montana here. A crazy, little town, where we were absolutely g-d lucky to find that one of only two mechanics in town was open on a Saturday. After Beau and I drove to another city an hour away to pick up a needed part, the guy fixed the truck. Almost.

The funny thing was, staying in Wall, South Dakota ended up being a rather pleasant experience, despite all the chaos. And by chaos, I mean that we once again had the impeccable timing of being in this particular part of South Dakota during the large Sturgis rally. This rally is the annual mecca for all Harley-Davidson riders. The state was just CRAWLING with the hogs for a 100 mile radius. I've never seen so many in my life, and that includes the time that the H-D factory, just 3 blocks from my mother's house in Milwaukee, had their own big celebration. It was like suddenly I had been thrust into the movie Mask.

Here's an example of one of the fun-filled activities at the rally *cough*:
This would have been a mildly interesting phenomena, except for the fact that the presence of thousands of bikers meant even the Motel 6 was charging $126 for their cheapest room - I shit you not! Beau and I had enough funds to get started in Missouri, but getting the truck fixed, plus the additional hotel nights to pay for would drain us fast.

Anyway, as I said, Wall, SD ended up being kind of fun. The first time through we had literally spent just 20 minutes in this ginormous center of Western cowboy culture, but now we had all the time in the world to browse its dozens of stores of expensive kitsch. For the most part we didn't spend much money, though I did pick up some wildflower seeds along the way. We had a nice time, and one of the best breakfasts I have ever had with some super tasty biscuits and gravy as well as, omg, deep-fried cinnamon french toast sticks. MMmm mmmm good.

A big shout-out goes to the locally-owned Welsh's Motel which was the only place in the surrounding 5 towns not to jack up their prices due to the event. They were nice people too.

Anyway, we eventually made it to Columbia, MO, where, after checking into a very reasonably priced Motel 6, we eventually found ourselves a magnificent shithole of an apartment. It's got to be the worst apartment I've ever had, next to the roach paradise that I lived in in NYC. The funny thing is -- this new place has a pool, and it's well-maintained. And the BEST part is, the rent is almost HALF, holy Jesus yes(!), HALF of what we paid in Missoula. So, we will easily tolerate this place for awhile, since it is only temporary.

Yup, that's right, after some nail-biting weeks here in Columbia where we are both unemployed and nervous, just yesterday Beau was notified that the job in New Zealand is his. YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, and school starts October 13th.

Oh, boy. Here we go again...