We were so lucky to spend a little over 3 weeks at home. We saw friends and family, played in the lake, went to ironman, went to a gorgeous wedding and danced til our feet hurt. We went camping up the St Joe for a night, had bbqs and went to Yakima to see Uncle Chance while he was home. We ate at all our favorite restaurants more than once and had delicious drinks. I had this picture in my head of sitting outside of piper and relaxing every day, friends coming out to hang and just having a lot of down time. LOL that didn't happen because we were so busy soaking up everything that Coeur d Alene in the summer has to offer. I got to throw Brandon a top out party and that was a lot of fun too. My mom and I made a delicious spread of croissant sandwiches, salad, fruit, chips, potato salad, wine, beer and cake! I was most excited about the lineman balloons, temp tattoos and the tribute video I made for him. You can see it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsDVCPlncnc :) We pretty much celebrated for 4 weeks straight :)
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| Our Beautiful spot we got to call home for 3 weeks! |
We talked about staying longer, there were a couple jobs opening up close to home that Brandon could work and we wanted to stay so bad. We realized though that even if we stayed for 3, 6, 10 more weeks we still wouldn't want to leave. It is our home and we love it there, no amount of time would be long enough until we are HOME so we stuck to our plan and hit the dusty trail on Monday the 14th. We made it to Salt Lake Monday night about 8:30. We were so tired and ready to just hit the hay. We stayed in the walmart parking lot cause we figured we would only be there for a few hours, no since in hooking up. We crawled into bed, Bash of course was wired because she'd been sleeping all day. We opened our windows in the bedroom because it was so hot, trying to get some air flow in there. It had been 103 (the hottest day of the year) in salt lake and it was still 90 that night. We both tossed and turned all night cause we were so hot and didn't really get that great of sleep. We woke up early the next morning and went and saw Justin, Kelli, Easton and Steston before Justin had to go to work. I got to hold that sweet little babe and he fell asleep in my arms, it was precious! Bashlyn got to play with Easton and check out all his toys, Brandon and Justin got to catch up as did Kelli and I. It was so nice to see them in person again! We headed back to the 5th wheel to hit the road again. I went inside to close the windows so we wouldn't get dust inside as we were driving and thats when it hit me……. the slides were still in so there was no air flow coming from those windows….they were inside the slide. Talk about embarrassing!!! I blame it on the fact that we had driven for 14 hours the day before and couldn't think right!
After fueling up we hit the road about 8 and were on our way, our goal was Vegas for a few hours, then we'd finish the trek to Cali. We stopped for lunch and ate at Cafe Rio - did you know they give kids a free quesadilla?! I had no idea but we got it and Bash loved it. Of course the strawberries on the side were her favorite. We made it to Vegas and traffic was a little crazy. I had been talking with Sandy Larsen and we were planning on meeting at the hall. We found a Lowes about a mile away and parked the 5th wheel there. We decided we were all 3 too tired to continue on to Cali so we headed out in my car to check out rv parks. We were not going to make the same mistake as the night before! After checking out a couple parks ( and not being successful) we headed to the hall. As we were driving past Lowes we saw a tow truck headed towards our truck and piper! We raced into the parking lot and Brandon got into the truck and we just took our whole outfit to the hall :) There was a union meeting that night and we got to meet so many incredible people. Sandy is one of the nicest people I've ever met in person and I am so excited to be about 3 1/2 hours away from her! We got to meet President Shannon Skinner and she is so cool, it was a little surreal to see her and Brandon talk line work a bit, I loved it! What a badass lineman. Everyone there was so nice, so welcoming to Brandon. That was the first hall he'd been to as a journeyman lineman. It was really an incredible feeling.
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| The Beautiful Sandy Larsen |
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| President Journeyman Lineman Shannon Skinner! |
We stayed at a crazy RV Resort in Vegas, it was gorgeous and huge, pools, workout rooms, just down the street from the strip. We didn't have a ton of time to enjoy it, we just ate dinner, drove the strip and went home to bed. Before we went to sleep Brandon called the job line for local 47 and there was a standing call for a lineman out of Long Beach. We looked at the weather and the location and it was 70 degrees for the next 10 days! We though ok this is where we need to be living and working! If the call was still there when we got to the hall Brandon was going to take it. We decided we would just get to Long Beach if we could find a park to stay at and go from there as far as a job. But JUST LIKE THAT our plans changed from San Dimas to Long Beach…it happens fast! We got to the hall and the call had been filled. Brandon signed the books and we made our way to the RV Park. I have a friend staying in the park and thankfully she was able to talk to the owner and got us a spot! Everywhere in San Dimas was full and we would have had to pay weekly at almost $300 a week, and move every week to a new spot. So being able to find this park for a great price and having it for at least a month is a great (and much more affordable) thing! Driving here wasn't too bad. We were driving at 5 and I thought we'd hit so much traffic but we didn't. The nice thing about here is yeah there are a lot of cars but there are 6 lanes and everyone is going 80! I can hang with that, unlike Denver which has 2 lanes and you are at a standstill every day! I don't mind traffic as long as its moving :)
I love this park. Its not a resort or anything but its home to us now. The owner is the sweetest 80 year old lady. She is a spit fire! She came out and helped us park, got us cribbing because we were not level. She brought us a welcome packet that had directions and addresses to nearby grocery stores, rv repair guys, rv detailers, cable and internet in the area, a phone book (lol) and she pro rates the rent from the day you move in to the day you leave (this is unheard of) She is so sweet, always has stories to tell, loves to talk to Bashlyn and visit. I'm not going to lie I got teary eyed already thinking about having to say goodbye to her :( One of the best things about this park…we have our OWN address…with our own mailbox! We haven't had that in over 2 years!! :) There are fruit trees all over in this park too, lemons, oranges, nectarines, avocados!
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| Home Sweet Home….with our cute little mailbox! :) |
Brandon is currently on the books. There have been a couple short calls and a couple calls that were 2+ hours away so he turned them down. We have prepared for time off and being patient will pay off in the end. The books are moving fast, just yesterday they put 17 lineman to work so I'm sure it'll be this week. In the mean time we are LOVING all the extra daddy time we get!
We are absolutely loving California! We are 15 minutes from Target, Costco, Winco, Trader Joes, In and Out, oh and THE BEACH!! We've checked out Huntington Beach, Malibu and Seal Beach so far. Bashlyn loves the sand AND the waves! I don't have to drive the freeway to get to the stores or the beaches really, its all pretty easy so far :) I'm already feeling pretty settled in and it hasn't even been a week! Change and the unknown is scary but if you just got for it, the reward is so so great!
Talk soon!
