Why-Homing

The rest of the drive through Nebraska was very quiet except for Parker’s little voice drifting from the backseat. It seems that boy knows every word to almost every song that comes on any given radio station. We crossed over into Wyoming at 1:25pm MST.  The mesa’s are amazing to see all around. It was fun to listen to the boys talk about all they were seeing, “dad what happened to the top of those mountains?” “Dad, where are the buffalo?” “Dad, are we really going to live here, there aren’t even houses!?”

 I was impressed to see wind turbines across Nebraska and Wyoming, which according to anyone that I talked to before I left are kind of behind the times.

 I think the most inspiring thing I’ve seen on our journey to Cheyenne is the unified pride that is exhibited across the country.  So many places were flying these HUGE flags that were breathtaking in the wind.

We arrived in Cheyenne at around 2:30pm MST. Took the picture but it was blurry :( unfortunately you only get one chance. 

We had called prior to our arrival to go and see two of the homes on our list (during the drive we were able to narrow our search down from seven to two of the homes) and base housing. When we arrived on base we were shocked when we came down a street and saw two of antelope just standing beside the road and even more shocking, they didn’t even care that we were driving by. When we pulled up to the office where Jonathan will be working we noticed that there were about 20 antelope all around the parking lot and grassy areas. It was definitely a nice welcome.

 We all went inside and met the very small command, including the Skipper (the Commanding Officer) who couldn’t have been more welcoming. After checking in with the NOSC (Navy Operational Support Center,) we took the Jetta off the dolly with the intention of dumping it at a U-Haul location in town as soon as humanly possible. We went into the housing office and filled out the necessary paperwork, while the boys chased these two bunnies we saw around. PS1, the guy who is our sponsor for the move, was very helpful in getting everything lined up. We have noticed one huge thing about the area though, everyone is so freaking nice!! It is very reassuring to know that the people here are as nice if not nicer than the people back home. We left base to go drop the dolly and view the homes. We get to the U-Haul place and find that it is closed an hour earlier than it says. We decide to look up any other locations and find that they are all also closed early. So we grudgingly head off to look at the homes. On our way to the first house we ended up at the wrong address because we didn’t realize that there is a 4^th street and a 4^th avenue,  and the 4^th street address is in the very undesirable area. Once we got to the first address we find it is absolutely wonderful, with two exceptions—No dishwasher and no backyard. The house was built in 1926 and has almost all of the original character, including a shelf and cubby for an old rotary phone and a phone book slot. It is a five-bedroom house with a den and a sunroom. It is located in the historic district in Cheyenne. The people who own it are very nice (the lady is so much like my dear Ms. B that I can barely contain my excitement) and they live next door. When we were getting ready to leave the couple across the street came out to meet us and turns out the wife grew up in this house and not only that, but both the neighbors are the people who lived here over 20 years ago. They have three kids (13mos, 2, and 4). We left there and headed to the second house which is across town a ways and we get there at the agreed upon time and the lady is 40minutes late. At this point the house better be awesome because I’m tired and hungry. We ended up talking with the neighbor for about 30 minutes, and he is retired Coast Guard and Navy. Very nice guy and he told us a lot about the area and the property but nothing he said overly sold it. When the lady shows up we go inside and it smells like someone or something died in it. I couldn’t concentrate on the tiny over-priced place for the awful smell! We leave there with a unanimous decision that if we can’t be on base house number one is the winner. We go to Chili’s for dinner and our waitress was so nice and she told us so much about what to expect and about the cool festivals that are coming up. She was incredible and so was our dinner—which considering our other experiences was a definite check in the win column! After dinner we went to the Frontier mall to find the Sprint store and get my phone fixed. We find the store wait for an hour and then find out that they can’t fix it but will replace it, although it’s going to take about a week. I asked for a temporary phone and it took another hour to get it hooked up. Needless to say at this point I’m exhausted (I hadn’t totally adjusted to the time difference and I haven’t totally recovered from the lack of sleep due to being sick earlier that morning). With the help of a friend, shout out to Bryan for saving our cans and finding a hotel in yet another impossible situation where they were all booked and nothing is available.  We had to go back on base to get our clothes out of the Jetta, which was quite a drive in the dark and considering all the main roads are under construction so you have to detour through these quiet neighborhoods. Jonathan was so sick of the empty dolly at this point because without the weight of the car it is so dang loud that it sounds like (okay as I’m writing this I ask Jonathan to tell me how to describe it he stomps off and goes “NO YOU'RE NOT BRINGING ME BACK THERE!!”) empty metal trashcans full of bolts, screws and hatred. As we drive through the neighborhoods and around the detour the dolly is clanging and clattering to hell and back. Between my exhaustion and the look on his face I’m dying of hysterics in the passenger seat and both boys are cackling loudly in the backseat. It’s hilarious, don’t ask me why but it was the funniest thing I’ve seen/heard in a while. The thing is unless your doing approximately 28mph you are going too slow/fast to make it quiet. So every bump or even tiny pebble in the road makes it slam all around. As we finally approach the gate I’m crying laughing and both boys are snorting. The guy at the gate is probably 19 and he is laughing his tail off at us which in turn makes me laugh harder. Once he checks our ID’s he says “have fun,” too which Jonathan replies with a terrific one liner—“Have fun listening to me for the next five miles.” That sent me over the top. I couldn’t stop laughing. It was too funny. We get around to the Jetta and he decides he’s going to take the dolly off and leave it there because he’s *&*%*& tired of listening to the chorus of his nightmares (the dolly and all of us laughing at him) that is going to send him to hell. “I’m not going to hell because of my lack of faith, it’s because I just woke up half of Mayberry for the last 20 minutes with this freaking dolly.” We try unsuccessfully to unhook it for about 20 minutes before he got pissed again, kicked the tire and gets back in and drives out. We make our way noisily to the hotel and go to sleep.
 

The next morning we go and drop off the dolly (YAY!!) and then go back to base to check in with the housing office. They have nothing new to tell us (go figure) so we decide to take the kids to the park and have lunch. We go to the commissary to get lunch food (once again overwhelmed with how nice the people are--and they make killer sandwiches!) and then drive over to the park. On the way we see a lot more antelope and as we actually get to the park we see a male sitting less than 50 feet from the playground. He lazily gets up when we get out and strolls about 5 feet and rubs his antlers on a tree before slowly strolling away. While the boys were playing I saw a prairie dog darting around a tree before racing into a hole in the ground. It is amazing to see all the wildlife. We discuss the houses and decide that we will not spend another night in a hotel and if housing doesn't call us back by 1pm we will go with house number 1.