Our first few weeks on the road were more about finishing up loose ends than really starting our trip. We needed to be out of our rental house, so we packed up the cats and headed to Salt Lake City where Sam’s family lives. We needed to sell our Prius (which we did for a great price at Carmax, more than we even dared hoped for!) and have some work done on the Dodge before we headed up to Alaska.

When we took the Dodge in we got horrible news, there was a ton of work that needed to be done, budget busting, holy shit, how can this be happening type of work. I won’t go into details because it is depressing and we have moved on, but let me tell you there were a few days where we were both not sleeping. Sam, who always is so great during bad times, told me in four months we will be so happy this will no longer be important, and I know he is right, perspective is hard when you are in the moment, but there are always going to be challenges, so I need to find better ways to get used to dealing with them.

ugh………..

While we were in Salt Lake we did have some fun times and some went on some great hikes.

Getting used to hiking again, and altitude……one step at a time.

Silver Lake

It was also wonderful to spend time with my sister-in-laws Jess and Anna. Anna and I bonded over torturous hot yoga classes and drinking bottles of wine and watching True Blood episodes late into the night. Jess, who flew in from Moscow where she is working on the winter olympics, and I caught up over yummy dinners and more wine (I know, there is a trend…)

Sam’s mom and her husband Nick, who are both in the Utah symphony, gave us tickets to the Indigo Girls who played at the Deer Valley Ski resort in Park City where you can bring picnic dinners and wine! It was a beautiful night.

After the concert we went up to the St. Regis and crashed a wedding. They had a s’mores station set up next to a fire pit.

The best s’mores are free s’mores! Anna might have had a flaming marshmallow incident, but that is her story to tell….

Claudia and Nick also have one of the first urban farms in Salt Lake. They have chickens, bees, and a mind boggling amount of organic produce. I was lucky enough to be in Salt Lake for Pioneer Day (a Mormon holiday) which they call Pie and Beer day. We had a super fun party at their farm. I made strawberry pies with Anna and Claudia, and drank lots of beer, and met a couple that just finished an around the world trip who were an inspiration to talk to.

Anna with the scarecrow, getting ready for the party.

Party at the farmo in full swing.

Anna, Sam’s wonderful sister is going to take care of our two cats for the duration of our trip. It is funny, out of all the things we have had to do over the last year to get ready for the trip, we did not expect saying goodbye to our pets to be the hardest part. It was, it gutted us. The day we left we were both a wreck, and we headed up to Bear Lake for our first official night on the road.

Nala, the day we left. I miss both my cats so much…..but I know they are being spoiled and loved while we travel.