Hello Colorado.
After much anticipation, Erik and I have arrived in Colorado to our new apartment. It has been a long awaited journey with twists and turns along the way but being able to explore our new home makes everything worthwhile. We arrived home from our vacation to Mexico on Monday night and had to finish packing our belongings by Wednesday morning. Luckily, I packed the majority of our things before we departed for Mexico but it was still a tight turnaround. As Wednesday rolls around, the weather was less than cooperative. It rained ALL DAY. We waited for a good opportunity to move the couch into the truck so it didn’t get ruined but that window did not arrive until 3:00PM. We pushed through and got everything packed into the moving truck.
Just as we thought everything was going to be smooth sailing from there, the truck sprung a leak only to find that the water was landing directly onto our mattress. Panic mode set in and I hauled ass to the hardware store to get supplies to fix the leak. As Erik stayed in the truck plugging the hole himself, I was moving as fast as I possibly could in hopes that our mattress was not ruined, but only time would tell. The whole truck was already strategically packed full so unpacking to check the mattress was not an option at that point, we had to wait until we arrived in Colorado to determine damages.
As we were finishing up the last couple of boxes early Thursday morning, someone pops their head into our apartment. We both look at each other in confusion as he asks “Are you guys moving out?”. I answered yes, hoping he would identify why he just walked right into our apartment but that was not the case. He entered confidently and almost relieved to hear he was ‘in the right place’.
I quickly asked him how I could help, since we were still in the process of loading up our personal belongings. “Oh, I’m here to change the carpet before the next tenants move in.” Okay…. I suppose they couldn’t wait another hour after our departure to schedule the carpets. How lovely. So as we were getting rushed out of our Madison apartment, we got on the road for our next chapter. Westminster, CO.
The drive was long since Erik and I were traveling separately but I settled in with Lucy by my side and the voice of Dax Shepard, Armchair Expert, ringing through the car speakers. Several hours go by, Lucy is probably wondering where the heck I am taking her since she has never been in the car this long. We packed everything in the truck except my house plants that I carefully placed into my car. Lucy has never had a desire to chew on my plants so I thought it was safe to put my Golden Pathos next to her in the backseat. Wrong again. I glance back to see how she is doing, expecting her to be sleeping as she does every other day, rather she is chewing on my Golden Pathos ripping the leaves off one by one. I quickly reach back and grab all the leaves from the backseat and panic not knowing if this plant is poisonous for dogs. After a quick little search, of course it is. Side effects: swelling of the tongue causing difficulty breathing, vomit, diarrhea, death, organ failure etc.
I’m cursing in the front seat thinking of how much it will cost us if we have to take her to the emergency vet clinic. We pulled off on the nearest exit, got her out of the car and had her drinking water to flush some of the particles out of her mouth. Now, she didn’t eat a lot but it wasn’t clear how much she needed to eat to have serious side effects. She drank some water, ate her dinner, and we decided we would monitor her to see if she needed emergency veterinarian attention. The website I was looking at said “Be cautious if your dog has a loss of appetite or seems lethargic”. If you know Lucy, those are her two main characteristics on a daily basis. She sleeps 18+ hours a day, acts like we’re abusing her if we take her around the block for a walk if it’s ‘too hot’, and sometimes ignores the fact that we put food in her bowl. Great…
We made it to North Platte, Nebraska and she seemed like her regular old self so I decided we were probably clear of dog poisoning. We called it a day and got some sleep before the last 4 hours of our drive the following morning. We were both pretty exhausted but were running on fumes of excitement just to be in Colorado. We woke up on Friday to hit the lovely Best Western breakfast buffet, ate a couple cold biscuits and what seemed like the scrambled eggs out of a box and checked out. Lucy charmed her way through the lobby as per usual, batting her eyes and getting many undeserved treats just for being cute. We piled back into the car and hit the road, it was the home stretch.
We finished up the last several hours of our drive, Erik went straight to the apartment and I went to the Denver airport to pick up his mom. Once we arrived, Erik had already started unloading boxes in the 90 degree heat with minimal cloud coverage. It could’ve been raining though so we didn’t complain. Denise and I quickly started grabbing items from the truck to bring upstairs to the apartment. There was no elevator so we definitely got a booty burn moving everything up a steep flight of stairs. Let me tell you, moving in at a higher altitude than what you are used to is no walk in the park. After one flight of stairs, I was WINDED.
We could see the end was near but as I stated earlier, the mattress was a big question mark and that was the last piece left on the truck. Since our luck had not been kind to us in the beginning of the trip, it remained that way when we unveiled the mattress. It indeed took on some water. My bestfriend from grade school, Leah, came to help us move so the three of us struggled to get the wet mattress upstairs to dry out, hoping that we could salvage it. We luckily put a couple protective covers on it which lessened the water damage, we stripped the mattress, washed all the covers, and waited. All-in-all the move was relatively smooth, the mattress was not ruined, and we got beautiful weather the rest of the weekend to explore.
After getting settled in, we explored the surrounding areas with Erik’s mom. She actually has a friend living in Colorado that she hadn’t seen in 30 years. They reunited this weekend at Breckenridge Brewery in Littleton, CO. She brought her husband and three kids who were around our age. We spent the night chatting and getting great recommendations for food places in the area.
We made a trip to Red Rocks Amphitheatre the next day since Denise wanted to see it while she was in town. Ended up hiking one of the trails nearby and just barely finished before the torrential downpour hit. We were driving out of the parking lot with large pellets of hail hitting the windshield.
It is always amazing spending time with Erik’s mom, Denise. We don’t get to see her very often since she is living in California and flights from Wisconsin were typically a nightmare. Now that we are just a short flight away, I hope visiting becomes easier and more frequent than before. After such a positive weekend, I cannot wait to see what this move has in store for us. This was absolutely a big leap of faith for us but the thought of regretting it later in life fueled us to take the risk. We have to make the most of every opportunity that crosses our path and for us, we couldn’t pass it up.
“Inaction breeds doubt and fear. Action breeds confidence and courage. If you want to conquer fear, do not sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.” -Dale Carnegie
