Excursion to Big Sky x 3

I will soon mark my "3rd move" to Montana coming up on what I'm predicting to be around May 15th. It is funny how something that once seemed so adventurous is now par for the course. So I'm hoping to shake up my latest journey!

I'm traveling with Katie, my former crew member Emily's twin sister. I'm so lucky to have a traveling companion and Katie lives only about 20 miles from me so we will pretty much have the opportunity to travel together the entire way! I'm grateful for the company although we will need to be creative about finding space in my little Honda Fit.

I'm going to stop by Yiayia's, of course, but then I'm going to continue on to Brookings SD to visit my old professor, Dr. Jenson, who is letting us stay the night. I am excited to see her and to reminisce about college. Also I am hoping she has some good advice for me about graduate school.

From Mary's, we will cross over to Desmet, 40 miles W of Brookings, to see Laura Ingall's Wilder's Homestead!!! (AHHHH SO EXCITED!). The formative years of Laura's adolescence were spent in Desmet! Desmet is where she met her husband, Almanzo, where she received most of her schooling, and where she became a teacher. Also, it is the site of the infamous blizzards featured in The Long Winter. Honestly that title was such an understatement.

After South Dakota, Katie and I are tentatively planning to stop in Buffalo Wyoming to visit a friend of hers, Sarah, who I met on my way home last fall. Sarah's family is wonderful and fun and if the timing works right, we may be able to go on a little excursion to Sarah's family's vacation home in the Tetons. That would be amazing. We'll see if everything falls into place and we can be so lucky!

So in anticipation of all of this movement and change, I'm making lists. Lists of things to pack, lists of things to ship, lists of things to purchase (trying to keep this list down to nill...). I'm also making lists of household chores, like cleaning out my personal belongings and giving away what I don't need before my mom does it for me (ehhem). Clearing out files, Organizing important paperwork like passports and birth certificates, checkbooks, etc. I also realized that this year marks the expiration of my drivers license. I'm taking the big step and going for the enhanced ID (which will gain me access to canada without requiring a passport).

I enjoy the feeling of knowing what is happening for the next few months. I'm shocked though by the idea that I have spent more time at home waiting for the next few months than I will actually spend working. I'm a little bit disappointed by that ratio.