HOME-HOME AGAIN

This past week has been one of sorting, packing and cleaning.  We had a request to rent out our condo in AZ for the spring months, so that meant sorting out our personal effects for storage, packing all the odds and ends we wanted to take back to Alberta, and giving the condo a good cleaning in preparation for the renter moving in.  He was due to arrive yesterday.  So it was a busy week, but I was thankful to have more time than last year, when the arrangement to rent was made just two days before we left for "home-home," a useful term I learned this winter to distinguish between our home in Alberta and our home in AZ.

We left on Friday morning at 7:30 a.m. and got all the way to Provo, Utah by 6:30 that evening.  We were fortunate to get the last room in a Days Inn there, a very nice room, and quiet.  Unfortunately, I woke up by 12:30 because I was too cold and had to go turn on the heating unit.  After that I slept only in fits and starts, a bad night!

Saturday morning we drove through Salt Lake City in very moderate traffic.  We follow Interstate 15 all the way from Las Vegas to the Canadian border, and the unfortunate part is that we have to go right through Salt Lake City.  We try to do that early on a weekend morning, and that seems to work quite well.

We were very blessed with good roads, all the way until the last 20 miles of Idaho and the first 10 miles of Montana.  That's the first time (out of three) that I 15 crosses the continental divide, and that section was slush covered and then whiteout conditions with blowing snow.  The Dear One did a great job of careful driving and we came out into blue skies and sunshine for most of the drive through Montana, with the exception of another 10 or so miles north of Butte.

This was our view for a good portion of our drive.  In Utah the landscape was all snow-covered, but the roads were clear and dry.  This photo was taken in northern Montana, not too far from the border.

Saturday evening found us in Helena by 4:30 in the afternoon, ready to take a room in another Days Inn.  That's an excellent motel, just off the Interstate in Helena.  They advertise "an awesome breakfast" and fully lived up to that claim.  It was great.

There are some curvy, mountainous parts to the road north of Helena, but not for long.  North of Boulder, Montana, you've got good open spaces.  It was a beautiful day, sunny and blue skies.  We reached home-home by 3:30 p.m., grateful for a VERY good winter-time drive home.

Now to unpack and catch up on the piles of mail on the dining room table.  Need to go grocery shopping, too and stock up the pantry again.