A Commitment...

 

Tonight will be our first night in the new house.  We have to be here early tomorrow morning to let workers in: a crew from the home builder will start the process on replacing an exterior door and jam on our side.  Steph has hired a handyman they've used before to install 7 ceiling fans and some kitchen/dining light fixtures.

We loaded up the Equinox with stuff we'd need for overnighting, including Rufus's toys, food, and scratching pads.  Getting to the house, Joan cleaned inside kitchen cabinets and put liners down; then, she was able to start unpacking dishes and glasses.  Rufus enjoyed laying in the crumpled paper that was used to pad the glassware...

 And speaking of my big furry boy: he did a fine job in the car on the way to the house.  He sat on the center console or in Joan's lap, just looking around.  I think he was happy to not be left alone today.  When we got to the house, I walked him around room-to-room to let him get used to the new digs.

While Joan worked on the kitchen, I assembled Rufus's tower.  Seems straight forward, but I wasn't the one who took it apart... it took me a while to figure out how the posts aligned to fit the 3 perches.  He spent a good portion of the morning sitting on the tower - I think he happy to have it back.

Joan suggested I go to the music room and start with the biggest item (the drums) to work on determining a layout.  Easier said than done.  I had to move stuff out of the way - I put all the guitars into the closet, opening up some floor space to assemble the drums.  You might think electronic drums are lighter and faster to set up than regular drums...

I figured the set-up on these would take most of the day.  It has been several months (April) since I took them apart and packed them into their original box.  Everything fits in there like a puzzle...

I worked on getting things set up until close to 1:00, then headed out to visit with the guy from Tuff Shed at their factory here in Phoenix.  My buddy Neil (who I met at the Home Show the day after we got here), showed me what they could do to build us a shed that will keep the roof line as low as possible, but still allow stand up height; something along the lines of this...

... with a more shallow roof pitch than the one pictured above.  I am trying to get something that will allow us the storage we want, but still keep the HOA folks happy.  It can be painted in colors that match the house.  The issue: we have 6' walls around the property, and the HOA wants anything that will show above that 6' level to be approved.  With the shallower roof line, the peak of the shed would be 7'... but it will set back about 30' from the front wall.  I looked at that placement from the sidewalk and the street, and I don't see that 7' would show... until you get across the street and step up onto the sidewalk there.

The Tuff Shed factory is 13 miles away according to the Maps program.  Surface streets are the most direct way; it took about 35 minutes to get there.  Pretty sure I will never get to a point where I am OK with the traffic here.

Speaking of the HOA, we submitted in writing (Steph did a great job writing up the proposal) the proposal for the 24' x 12' pergola we have "on hold" with the landscaper.  That was on Sunday.  I received their acceptance of that this afternoon.  So, we are good to go with the landscaping, pavers, gravel, and turf (and pergola) that is supposed to get underway next Monday.  Fingers crossed.

Joan made supper for us this evening.  Our first "home cooked" meal in the new home.  With all the running back and forth, we have been picking up food along the way.  This was a nice way to start our evening in the new home.  While putting stuff away in the bedroom, Joan did a load of laundry to try out the stack washer/dryer - she declared it "very nice."  Little by little, we are using all the stuff in the house.

Into the evening, we have the TV programmed so we could watch the World Series... bottom of the 8th inning, the Arizona Diamondbacks are behind 11 to 1... I don't see this ending well for for the D-Backs.

We are dog tired.  Except for Rufus - he is cat tired.  With all that was going on, he did not get his usual naps today.  He has turned in early...

That's a yawn, not a scream (above).  And settled back in (below)...

I hope we all sleep good tonight.

Furniture...

 

It helps make a house a home.  As does the loving occupants.  Today was furniture day.

We shopped at the same store where Steph and Dan bought their furniture - besides the fact that the store had the nicest furniture and the best variety, we were able to get it all delivered at the same time.  Our new friends, Jose and Chris went right after it.  Ah, to be young and have a strong back again.  The leather couch with two sections of electric recliners had to be heavy - they toted it in and put it in place like it was a feather-weight...

 The rug and lamp we picked out have been ordered and should be here in a couple weeks.  In the meantime...

We are in dire need of some decor on the walls.  The headboard, footboard, dresser, and night stands are solidly built - again, they carried it in without breaking a sweat, and being careful going through doorways.  Before the Select Comfort mattress was put in place...

Even the slats are nicely finished (kinda looks like koa).  A shot from the doorway with the mattress in place...

Joan is still deciding on what to do for black-out curtains in there.  She got the compressor connected and we laid on the bed... oh, I have missed this mattress.

I was in charge of getting Steph and Dan's furniture placed in the right spots.  Their living room is a lot bigger than ours, and will hold a lot more furniture...

I didn't get a photo of all the furniture in their bedroom, but I did take this photo for Steph (I sent her photos of the process) when the guys put the headboard against that blue wall: very striking...

While one guy was positioning their living room furniture, the other was assembling the desk for Dan's office...

The desk has electric and USB outlets built in; it is going to be very functional when Dan works from home.

While these delivery guys were finishing up, another delivery of our TVs arrived.  We spent time getting them set up and put in place. 

The other room I spent time in today is still boxes and guitar cases: I haven't decided what I want for a layout in there.

More mail today: we now have Arizona license plates on the Equinox and the bikes.  I guess that makes us official AZ residents.  A lot to do still to get settled in.

Safe arrival...

 

Off to the new house early to let the painter in.  We were told he would be there at 7:30... he was waiting in his vehicle when we got there at 7:08.  I apologized for him having to wait for us, he apologized because he has been late the last couple days.  But for the record: we were 22 minutes early.

We opened the house and let him in.  There were several walls that needed another coat.  To his credit, he agreed and went to work on it.  While he was getting to work, we unloaded the last of our stuff that was in Steph and Dan's storage unit: it was mostly guitars...

 

Into what will be the music room with them, and I held my breath as I unboxed and opened each case...  seems that they all made the trip from Texas intact.  I had de-tuned the wood guitars; no need to do that with the carbon fiber guitars.  The CF guitars were mostly in tune when I checked them over.  I took a few minutes to tune the Taylor 814 and the 652 (12 string), looking closely around the body and neck.  Another sigh of relief...

The Emerald X20 above, the Taylor 814 below...

 The pile in the music room grew...

Joan started with the closet in our bedroom...

Steph and Dan got there with 2 car-loads from their storage unit.  Joan and I got to take a break and make a run to Dick's Sporting Goods (for a Diamondbacks World Series shirt for Joan) and then across the huge parking lot to IKEA.  Joan likes their bath towels.  We picked up some other storage items, and checked out their selection of adjustable-height desks (for the music room).

Joan at Dick's Sport Goods above, and following arrows on the floor at IKEA below...

 All kinds of storage stuff at IKEA...

That's a clip-on cup holder and a headphones holder above.  One of the desk possibilities below...

IKEA is diabolical: the huge store is designed to wear you down.  You go through it like a giant maze.  The faces of customers at the beginning of the maze are all happy ("Hey, look at this!"), but turn to exhaustion by the time they get 2/3 of the way through the store ("Hey, can we just buy something and go home?  I don't think I can walk another step.").  They give you giant yellow bags to put stuff in - as you go through the store, filling the bag along the way, it is like a trick-or-treater by the end of Halloween night... except each Skanka or Fookenkrap you pick up costs you.  Some of their furniture is downright clever... some of it looks cheap and not-quite-adult-sized.  If you get a shopping cart, all 4 wheels rotate, so people look like stock car drivers going through corners.

We made our way through the maze.  Did not get a piece of cheese (training rats reference).  When we got back to the house, the painter was gone and Steph was cleaning sticky stuff (from the tape they used) off the tile floors.

We parted company mid-afternoon.

Another "event" tomorrow that will make the house feel more like a home: furniture delivery for both sides, 2 TVs for us.  Steph and Dan have to work, but they left us instructions on what goes where with their new furniture.  I am SO looking forward to something besides camp chairs and a 2-step ladder to sit on.

Easy...

 

There are a lot of jokes that could be made here, all of them self-deprecating.  Like: "It isn't easy being pretty... and vice versa."

In the grande scheme of things, today was relatively easy.  We didn't have to be at the house at the butt-crack of dawn.  Steph and Dan were there early, to let the painters in - there is a belief that they will finish today... I have my doubts based on the speed they are working and the fact that they haven't started on our side (but that is minor compared to all the painting Steph and Dan were having done).

We got off having to be early.  A stop at the storage unit to fill the back of the Equinox, then heading east.  We didn't get to the house until 9:15 or so.  The people to deal with today: delivery and set up for a washer/dryer...

The delivery guys set them up, leveled them, and tested them.  They are a charcoal color - very pretty for a washer and dryer.  This is on Steph and Dan's side; we have a stack unit and it is already installed.  The same people brought in the TV Steph and Dan bought - the delivery guys can't set it up because the paint is drying on that wall.  I was told it is a 75" TV, but it appears to be the size of a drive-in movie screen.  That's good, because the living area in their great room is huge.

Next up, and right on time: 3 guys from a blinds company.  Steph and Dan picked out a style and color for an electric blind over their 4 glass panel sliding doors to their patio.  When done with that, the guys came to our side to measure for a plantation shutter to go on our exterior door to the south.  Joan dealt with those guys.  They looked at me regarding color and material (poly or wood?) for that shutter... "You're looking at the wrong decision maker here," I said.  Joan got that ordered.

In the meantime, we needed something to put over that glass panel door, so when we went to Lowe's to pick up another ceiling fan and bathroom cabinets that had been ordered, we got one of those paper cellular blinds to use until the shutter comes in.  And some potassium chloride for the water treatment system; two 40 pound bags - the only heavy lifting I had to do today.  A guy from Lowe's loaded that stuff into the Equinox for us; I had help getting that stuff out of the car when we got back to the house.

We were able to leave around 1:00, since Steph and Dan agreed to stay with the painter.  On the way west, we stopped for a bite to eat, picked up another Equinox full (emptying our stuff out of the storage unit... but Steph and Dan have A LOT of stuff in there still) at the storage unit...

 

Then a stop at PetSmart to make sure the big furry boy won't go hungry.  We were back to the motorhome around 3:00.  Nice timing to avoid the traffic.  This beats driving home having to look into the setting sun and get there after dark.  More progress.

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How about some scooter content?

No, I haven't had time to ride Joan's Xmax.  Nor much time for my bike recently.  Last night, after taking Rufus for a walk, I saw that some RV neighbors not far from our site had a Vespa sitting outside their motorhome.  I walked over, asked if I could come into their site, and told them I had owned a couple Vespas.  The guy told me he didn't know much about them, but had gotten the bike from a customer of his after the guy's kid ran the Vespa into a boat that was parked on a trailer in the street... when I got close, I could see that the scoot was in pretty rough shape.  The front cowling was pretty mangled, lots of scratches and dents all along one side.  But, I was told it runs and rides good.

It is a GT 200 - a similar body size/shape to the two Vespas I had, but a smaller engine.  They are from Vancouver Island (BC, Canada) and he said they have a lot of fun running around on the Vespa.

"Vancouver Island?  I used to work in the San Juan Island, and we'd take our boat to Vancouver Island for some time off regularly," I told him.  He asked what kind of work I did... "I drove commercial whale watch boats."

He said, "Really?  I have to introduce you to my wife!"  Turns out, she is a whale watch boat captain on the west side of Vancouver Island!

She said, "You got to see Orcas all the time, eh?  Mostly humpbacks and gray whales on the west side."

I said, "But you have some serious water on that side!"  We traded whale watch and passenger antics tales... I could have visited with her all night.  I went over there to talk about the Vespa, but that topic changed right away when that whale watch captain thing came up.  An interesting evening.

The next big project...

 

Most of what has been done so far on the house has been baby-sitting: let the painters in (putting paint over perfectly good paint), deal with the HOA, get the landscaper scheduled, let the garage rack guy into the garages, show the water softener/conditioner guy where the plumbing stubs are.  Other than walking around the yard, discussing the landscaping among ourselves, it hasn't been... physical.  (cue the Olivia Newton John music)

Today, the moving pods are supposed to be delivered.  We got a confirmation from U-Haul, so we think it is going to happen.  It will be fun if we get the same pods back that we filled in Texas.  After those pods arrive, it will be physical to get them unloaded... so they can pick up the pods tomorrow.  We scheduled a week to get them loaded, but we are anticipating the unloading will happen faster.  And will fill our garage until the painters are done with their work.

Another early morning today: up just after 5:00 to get ready, put a feeder out for Rufus, then take on the big city traffic.  On a Friday.  Looking forward to getting this "commuting" stuff behind us.

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A couple world records this morning!  Right before we left the motorhome, Joan checked traffic and said, "Let's try the Interstate today and do the HOV lane."  As I pulled onto the Interstate from the entrance ramp, I put my turn signal on and ran left through 7 lanes, over to the HOV lane - that is what I would call a "Texas lane change."  We got slowed down a bit, where the 202 Loop exits off I-10.  The GPS said it would be a 37 minute trip - pretty optimistic.  We made it in 38 minutes.  That same trip the other direction last night took us an hour and 20 minutes.

Needless to say, we were both feeling pretty upbeat.  While at the house, waiting for some word on when our moving pods would be delivered (between 8:15 and 10:15), Joan and Steph worked on setting up the Ring app for our front doors...

No, they are not short - the house has 8' doors throughout.

With no advance call from U-Haul, the driver bringing our pods showed up at 8:20.  Impressive!  She went right to work unloading...

The driver Melissa is our new best friend...

Joan did a great job in packing the pods, and it appears that nothing shifted in transit.  We went to work unloading - and by "we" I mean Joan and me; Steph and Dan had a vet appointment with one of their cats.  We put most of the stuff from the pods in our garage...

Yes, we put those overhead storage racks that were installed yesterday to good use.  Joan and I had the first pod unloaded in an hour; a short break for rehydrating and ibuprofen, then we went to work on the second pod.  About 45 minutes into that one, we were down to the "last layer"...

It all went into our garage...

No, there isn't room left for the car.  Probably not even one bike.  And to be fair, we did put a few things in the house and a few more in Steph and Dan's garage.  Over the next couple weeks, we will be going through all those boxes and seeing what fits in the house... and what we hauled from Texas just for the pleasure of tossing in Arizona.  ;-)

About 2 hours to get the pods unloaded.  I texted Steph to let her know: "It is safe to come home - we have the pods unloaded."  ;-)

Plenty of physical work and more to come as we go through it all.  But, I have to say I am pretty pleased with how this part of the move is progressing.

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The pods were scheduled to be picked up tomorrow.  When someone from U-Haul called to set a time, we told them we had the pods empty, and if they wanted to pick them up yet today, that would be fine with us.  We knew in talking with the driver Melissa that she had a run going to Yuma tomorrow and said she would be back late in the day.  She was delighted when she showed up at the house to pick up the pods today: "This is going to save me from having to do this at the end of a long day - you guys are great!"  Honestly, we felt the same about her - what a nice attitude and very personable (see the photo of us with her above).  Our whole experience with U-Haul with these moving pods was very positive all through the process... two big thumbs up.

We met with the landscaper again this afternoon - final meeting.  We added some stuff on our side of the yard, he re-figured the cost, I quietly gasped, we shook hands, and Joan wrote him a check for the 1/3 deposit.  He talks a good game, gets good reviews on-line, and seems to genuinely want us to have things just the way we want.  He offered suggestions without being pushy.  It will be a week from Monday before he and his crew can start, and he expects to have it done within a week.  (the other landscape company we talked with said it would take "at least 3 weeks" to complete a less ambitious project.  This is a big deal, as it will make our outdoor areas more livable and inviting.

The painting continues.  Not sure what time Steph and Dan got out of there (90% of the painting is on their side).  Joan and I left around 4:00.  We decided to take the 202 Loop north and get on I-10... once again, the HOV lane was moving pretty good.  Good enough that we felt we could stop at Panda Express and pick up some supper.

Rufus got a walk in after we got home.  He has been sitting right by us all evening.  He's a good boy.

Nice Rack...

 

We headed out early for the new house.  A lot of "red" on the Maps app... it took a while to get there.  Soon, we won't be making this trek each day.  Plenty to get done today.

Dan and Steph were there before us - Dan got this photo of the sunrise from their patio area...

 Nice east view, with South Mountain in the foreground.

Steph and Dan were there early to let the painters in.  They are going with a tan color on most of the walls; we are staying with "extra white," while both of us are getting a deep blue on some accent walls.  Should be striking with all that extra white.

The painters getting the prep work underway...

Next order of business: a phone conversation with the lady from the HOA.  I told her our plans, she said, "That all sounds good," but we will need to submit the paperwork.

The installer for the garage storage shelves arrived and went right to work...

Thus, the title of this post.

The guy from Cox Internet arrived and got us on-line.  It's a bit faster than what we had in our Texas house, so we are all pleased with that.

Dan and I tried to level the fridge on our side, but I didn't bring any tools.  We did, however, go through the owners manual to learn how to adjust temperature and all the other stuff.

I spoke with the guy who will be doing the landscaping.  He will be out tomorrow to do the final layout and get a deposit.  I am told they should be able to get to us within a week or so (certainly better than the first company that came out and said it would be about mid-January before they could start.  Robert, our new landscaping friend said he will put 3 crews on it... "We are just finishing up a project that is about 1/4 the size of yours, and we had it done in a day."  Hope that means they can get ours done in a week or so.

Next on the agenda: the guy doing the installation of the water conditioner/purifier arrived and is working on it.  He said it will take "a couple hours"... he needs access to the attic in each garage and the laundry room... apparently, they run the pipes up through the attic in this part of the world.

Joan and Steph ran to Lowe's to get the ceiling fans they ordered.  More lighting is on the way, as well.  I am told we have someone lined up to do that install.

When they got back with the car, I programmed the garage door opener on our side into the button in the Equinox.  I still haven't figured out the best way to make that turn into our garage (the Equinox doesn't have a particularly tight turning radius).

While messing in the car, I took this photo of the view from the front of the house...

I didn't realize we have a view of the Estrella Mountains from the front of the house.  That is a "green area" on the other side of the construction container in the middle of the image, so there shouldn't be another house obstructing that view.

All this, and it is just barely 1:00 in the afternoon.  Joan has an Amazon delivery coming "sometime" today.  When we actually get settled in, I want to order something with "same day delivery," just to do it.  The traffic was busy on our way to the house this morning.  For the near term, we are going to be dealing with "that direction" early morning and "the other direction" in the afternoon, meaning looking into the sun both directions and slogging through traffic.  Once we get through all this getting settled in stuff, I am looking forward to not being on a schedule, and picking the time I want to be on the road.  

Dan has been going room to room checking the internet speeds.  I think he will be able to work outside on their patio, if he desires.  The south exposure on our side of the house makes me think I will be staying in air conditioned comfort.  We'll see how that all plays out when the landscaping (and pergola) is done.

First post from the new house.  :-)

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The water softener/conditioner/purifier guy just finished; around 3:00.  I am wearing out - it was an early morning and there has been a lot going on.  We gathered in the yard to discuss placement of everything once more.  Robert the landscaping guy will be here tomorrow for the final discussion and we want to have everything nailed down for our plan so he can go with it.

That task led me to calling the guy from Tuff Shed.  We are trying for something that is low profile, but big enough to hold the stuff we have in mind.  Neil game me some suggestions and invited me to visit the factory in Phoenix so I could stand inside different examples.  That may be a while.

The Amazon delivery came around 2:00.  With all the worker trucks on the streets here, I don't know how he got through, but I am glad he did.  Light fixtures for over the kitchen island and a new style litter box for Rufus.

When the painters are done for the day, we can head for home.

The best laid plans...

 

Today is scheduled to be "New House Day": the final walk-through and we get the keys.  Three hours before that time, Steph called to tell us that Moe (the guy doing our walk-through) told her that we can't close today - there is a problem with an exterior door on our side... it isn't locking properly.  The door is going to have to be replaced, and that means re-doing the structure around the door and rebedding the tile on the floor in front of that door.

After a few seconds of fuming - there has been a lot of anticipation on our part for this day, AND we have workers and moving pods scheduled to be delivered - we all took a breath.  It is going to be a pain in the ass and cost us money to reschedule (the pods would go into another month for the storage cost).

Moe explained to Stephanie that it would be better to not close so his workers can come and go at will while they do the repairs.  So, not closing would be for their convenience.  More discussion, then: IF we close today, we have to have someone at the house to let the workers in starting on Monday (while they try to find another door).

Obviously, we want the door to be right.  We also have a lot of plans and the need to get keys to the mailbox dependent on closing today.  Moe agreed to put an exception in writing that they will do the repair/replacement and still close today... as long as we agree to be there to let workers in.

The "boss" in me says they should have identified this problem and fixed it a long time ago.  The new homeowner in me is disappointed in the potential delay.  The practical me says: "too much riding on the timing - close today and we'll deal with letting workers in."  And that is where we left off at 10:30 this morning.

We have concerns.  Moe is frustrated that this didn't get handled before getting this close.  I'm thinking of all the mail we have stacking up in that mailbox.  I'm thinking of workers we have hired to be there tomorrow.  I'm thinking of a door that doesn't close/lock properly on a brand new house.  I'm thinking we have done all we said we would do, when we said we'd do it... a delay in this process is going to create new problems and expense for us.  I'm thinking: every bit of signing and paying has been according to their schedule and we have met that schedule.

So, we think we're going to the house to close this afternoon... with a written exception.  Updates to follow.

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So, we did close and get keys today.  We have to be at the house to let workers in (next week) to tear out the door (including some drywall and lathing on the inside, probably some tile; and weatherproofing and stucco on the exterior.  The door frame is not square.  They replaced the door already, and it is certainly better than it was, but Moe (the guy we are dealing with from the builder) wants everything to be good long-term; I appreciate his concern to make it right.

We can have them come in and touch up whatever needs it in 30 days (even if the people moving in furniture, washer/dryer, TVs, etc scuff anything).

The good news: there was mail waiting for us when we found our mailbox (central locations around the development).  Joan said, "Moe said to just try the key in every box until you find the one that opens."  That didn't sound right to me... because it wasn't.  The envelope with the mailbox keys in it had the location AND box number on it.  Fortunately, we now have proof for the DMV that we have an address (they need 2 things addressed to each of us), so we can get AZ drivers licenses.  By the way, I asked Moe about "trying the key in every box" thing and he shook his head no and rolled his eyes.  I was just sure that a surveillance camera somewhere was filming me, and we were probably committing a federal crime by messing with mailboxes.

Moe reset all the locks with our keys, so we have entrance to the house, they don't.  Pretty sure he told us how to do all the wifi and security stuff, but Steph was in charge of that.  Dan will be contacting Cox for our high speed internet tomorrow.

We're still waiting to get the new estimate from the landscaping guy, after the first estimate he gave us didn't have some stuff on it that Steph and Dan want.

Painters, garage storage installer, water softener/purifier/filtration installer, Cox internet tech are all scheduled tomorrow.  We'll have an early start to the day.

Some photos from today:

As we pulled up to the house, cleaners were working inside...

After signing...

The house is officially ours (the 4 of us), with the assurance the builder will replace the exterior door.  It's a pretty impressive door: once you close it, you lift up on the handle to create an air-tight seal, and then you can lock the deadbolt.  It must have some kind of extra insulating glass: when I put my hand on the interior glass, with the exterior in direct sunlight, it wasn't warm to the touch.

When we first walked through the house, we had to remove our shoes or wear booties...

I like the look - I may go for this all the time.  Or not.  While Steph and Dan had questions with Moe, Joan and I set out to find our mailbox (description above).  We went to one bank of about 90 boxes and tried the key in all of them - it didn't open.  We walked to another bank of mailboxes, and my key opened the third box I tried... felt like I was a winner on The Price Is Right... except none of it would have been necessary if the person who got the keys out had read the exact location and box number on that envelope.  Walking back, there were SO MANY homes in the building process...

It is going to be a while before this development is all built out.  Right now, workers' trucks are on both sides of the street in some areas.  I'm hoping the truck that will be delivering our moving pods can thread their way through them to get to our house.

After getting back from the hike to the mailboxes, we took a moment to sit (sort of) in the air conditioning... and it wasn't that hot (82º)...

We had a few sitting conveyances in our car - I'm thinking the new furniture (that is supposed to be delivered next Monday) will be more comfortable.  In the meantime, we aren't going to be living in the house, yet.  A lot to get done before taking delivery of the furniture.

Chris, Steph and Dan's realtor friend (who handled the sale of their house and guided us through this purchase) came by to offer his congratulations, answer a few questions, and took a couple photos of us...

Before leaving for the day, I pulled the Equinox into our single garage.  Then, Dan pulled their Lexus into their garage...

  

Not oversized, but it will be nice to have a garage again - we didn't have one at our Texas house, and the rental Steph and Dan have been in since they sold their house in Goodyear doesn't have a garage.  I was wondering about that 90º turn into our garage - I'm thinking if I pull into the driveway at about 60 mph and do a half bootlegger turn, I should be able to pull straight in.  Maybe tomorrow I'll try backing in?  At something less than 60 mph... because it will be an early morning.  I'm kidding, of course - I won't be able to pull into the garage tomorrow because there is a guy coming to install garage storage racks.

We did stop for pizza at a nearby place on our way back west - Dan picked; it was a good choice, and the chance to relax for a bit before taking on the traffic.  Even using the Maps program to find the routing with the least amount of congestion, it took an hour and 20 minutes to go 26 miles.  I can put up with that while we get moved into the new house... if I had to deal with that everyday, I'd be on my way back to Texas.

 

Circumnavigating the White Tank Mountains...

 

Nothing to do with moving or the new house... yes, one in a row!  We ramp up again tomorrow to deal with the house, but today was a "day off."  Knowing there won't be another of those for a while, Joan encouraged me to get out on the bike.  No argument from me.

After a bicycle ride and Rufus's morning walk, I headed out on the CTX, with a plan of circumnavigating the White Tank Mountains.  About 16 miles west on I-10 to get to the Sun Valley Parkway.  I shot some video with my Insta360 X2 and stopped to get a couple clips with the HoverAir X1; supplimented those with a couple stills from my iPhone.

It was a delightful ride - sunshine and temps in the 70s.

 A 3-minute video of the ride and using the HoverAir X1 drone...

 

A nice morning outing.