THE SURPRISE

She’s coming!

    A few days before I was to begin a journey that would take me 3000 miles away from her, Jenn let me know she would be joining me. What started as an offhanded comment that she should “come along for the ride”, turned into the best news of my recent life. In typical Jenn fashion, she took my words to heart and made magic out of them. By asking her mom to watch the girls, and taking a leap of faith that 10 days in a cramped car with me and my stinky dog was exactly what she wanted, she instantly turned a depressing drive into the trip of a lifetime.

THE GOODBYE

    In the final few weeks before I was due to depart for Spokane I felt like a terminally ill patient, or a prisoner on death row. My fate was sealed, and it was inescapable. The gods had cast their die and I had no choice but to bend myself to their will. Leaving all my friends and family behind to drive west, alone, into the unknown. The shear weight of that burden left me feeling depressed and heartbroken. I was a dead man walking, and I’ve never felt so helpless.

THE HOUSE

    Now that I had packed up nearly all of my personal belongings, it was time to figure out where to ship them. So I booked a flight to Spokane for the second weekend in February to search for an apartment. I had chosen that weekend specifically because it was when Jenn was scheduled to be running the World Snowshoe Championships in Japan. And, since our time together was quickly dwindling, I took full advantage of the period she was already going to be away.