A Short Update

[ARtraveler]

I have been away from the site for most of a month now. That of course is extremely rare for me.

We left AK on May 11th for the road trip portion of our move to AK. I did a daily blog on the adventures, so wont re- do that.

We arrived in AR on Saturday the 18th. And then had a few more adventures. The buyers of our home in AK decided to play a few games to get their last "pound of flesh" out of me on concessions. I made the decision to stand firm and they lost on that one. The closing was delayed a couple more days because of it.

We closed on Tuesday the 21st. The funds transfer was then delayed by a couple more days...because the mortgage lender sent the funds to a wrong account...and they did not notify us about it until a few phone calls were made. The local bank gave us the keys to the the new home even without the funds in hand. But, I could see the local banker was a bit scared of the potential outcome.

We stepped lightly and did not do anything until the actual funds were in hand.

All was solved in a couple days. We solved some of our anxiety by going shopping. Since are household goods were still sitting in AK, we have an empty home to move into. We bought three rooms of new furniture (which was our intention anyway), and the home is now partially furnished with a kitchen, living room set, and a master bedroom set. A couple thousand additional dollars and we bought the necessities to make the home run until the rest of the stuff gets here.

We were able to get a TV up and running in a couple days. We had to use satellite because the local TV, internet, and land line phone had not yet put in a power cable from the road yet for those amenities. We went with sat. TV from one company...and was told the cable for phone, and internet would take about 4 weeks.

We signed up for the service and after three additional weeks we were still waiting. I saw another TV ad for the service and we hooked up with another sat. company that could provide the service.

Happily, that was installed yesterday. Now we finally have basic services. Six weeks without landline phone and internet was a bit much for even us.

Talked with the movers again yesterday. The goods had finally been moved to a depot in Montana as of last Sunday. We were told that we can most likely expect the goods to arrive the week of July 7th. So...we are still three weeks out for that part of the game. They have our Spyders and my motorcycle in that shipment. That is the only part that hurts.

We have gone on a couple day trips and the country is beautiful here. Can't wait to see it from the seat of a Spyder or MC.

We love the cost of living so far. We are eating out for less than half the price we paid in AK for going to the restaurant.

We love our new place. We are perched at the top of a hill and can sit on the front porch and see beautiful rolling hills with lines of trees, and at least two adjoining cattle farms across the road. Linda likes to watch the critters when they come to graze. We also have two farms that adjoin our property and have had cattle grazing right up to our fence line in our backyard.

The local peacock continues to entertain us. He spends most nights perched in our tree in the back. He calls out almost hourly during the night. Eight AM, and he starts calling out in earnest. Eight thirty or so, he dismounts the tree and displays his feathers for about a half hour or so. He walks around, calls out, does 360's, and just displays. He then makes his daily rounds...he sits on our fence for awhile then goes from farm to farm. We can hear him calling out during most of the day from a distance. He is used to us sitting on the back patio and watching. We have named him Sammy (after our cat that would come and wake us up at 5:00 AM most every day). Sammy and Princess both went to a new home prior to the move. We just did not have the room, or the ability to take them on an eight day journey. After eight years, they had bonded, so they found a home that took both of them in.

We are very happy so far. No regrets. No missing AK. Twenty years was enough though. We do miss the pets, but the peacock is helping, so far.

As Paul Harvey used to say..."Now you know the REST of the story.