Come Full Circle, with a FINAL ANSWER!

6,000 miles, 13 states, and two and a half months have passed since we started this road trip. Our purpose was not only to visit friends and new places, but to figure out an answer to our homelessness and unemployment in a place that doesn't start with "Lake" and end with "Tahoe." (And to come back with my truck in one piece). After traveling up the west coast and across to Montana, we continued through North Dakota (quick visit to my dear friend Kodee) and on to Minnesota. I have experienced the coldest days I have ever experienced in my life, and have more respect now for those people who live along that northern central border of this country (although I do question their sanity). Hey, the country needs farmers right? It's the nice people in Fargo, ND whose motives I don't understand...

Anyway, we spent about 3 weeks in Minnesota and got to see just about everyone in Nate's family and group of friends. It was fun to hang out, but other than that it felt like quite a stand-still since we weren't looking to move there, and I was getting more anxious everyday to figure out where exactly we WERE going to be moving. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the fact that we've been homeless and on the road since September... So one night I made Nate make a deal with me- if we don't figure out where we're moving by the end of our ski weekend in Utah (April 4th) (that's the farthest date that we had planned) then we're going to Ireland to waste time instead of kicking around here waiting to hear back from jobs! Yes, I said Ireland. Surprised?

With that in mind, we continued on to Fort Collins, Colorado, stopping for a two-hour detour in Nowhere, Nebraska to visit our new friend Levi who fixed a heater hose on my truck for us at closing time. Thank you, Levi! We successfully couch-surfed at two different houses in FoCo with some really awesome people. Seriously, the people were what stood out the most in that town, they were just so nice and really seemed genuine, they were like a breath of fresh air! The town was Pre-Spring Brown (a new color I just invented) which is not beautiful, but we saw its potential. It made up for lack of green in tasty beer and good live music. We had high hopes for Fort Collins, and Nate tried to make contact with the jobs he applied for, unfortunately to no avail. As we rode bikes, looked into housing options, checked out the hills nearby, and kept meeting new friends (and old-shout out to Robbie Giomi!), Nate got a couple phone calls from an unlikely place: Bozeman, MT. As it turns out, he ended up with not one, but two interviews (for two different jobs) within two days (this would be last Wed and Thurs, today is Tuesday). Both went really well, and we ended up leaving Colorado confused but ever hopeful for some good news.

Utah was our last destination, and it felt like home to see big mountains again (one negative thing about Ft. Collins- just foothills). We met my parents and Daryl in Wolf Creek for a family ski weekend during which we snowshoed, skied Snow Basin, and played some rowdy board games! The ironic thing is that on April 4th, literally as we had just started the last leg of our road trip back towards Tahoe, Nate got a phone call. He was offered one of the jobs in Bozeman!!!!!!!!! I started honking (I was driving) I was so excited just to have an answer! It has been a LONG time coming, it was a LONG trip, and instead of going to Ireland next week, we will be moving to BOZEMAN. I LOVE Bozeman summers, I do admit I'm a bit terrified of the winter (remember the hair dryer incident? see photos..) but at this point I'm super stoked to be moving to such a beautiful place, where I know I can play softball this summer, get a puppy, and even get to see my brother regularly. It means I will be getting a job (God-willing) in the service industry because that's what Bozeman, MT has to offer someone with my extensive language skills. That's okay, I'll figure it out. Nate's job is near exactly what he wants to be doing: surveying fish in the Yellowstone River and gaining tons of experience he needs to move forward in his field. It goes through the fall, but rather than up and move again, we want to stick it out through the winter, see if I survive, and live to see another beautiful Bozeman summer. I'm sure there will be some tropical travel plans involved as the winter really comes around, but in the meantime I'm focusing on moving my life to Montana for the THIRD time. So, in the end, we are blessed and excited to be moving to Bozeman, and hey, 3rd time's a charm, right??