Day 159 - 165: Bruce's eye, Packing, Moving.

 Bruce had an eye appointment to check the progress on the pressure of his eye, and he did great! His pressure is down to 14 from 38. The vet was very impressed and excited! Bruce is going to make it in the world with one eye! He still gets drops daily and will indefinitely. 

After Bruce's visit our next focus was on moving. We had to get packed up and prepared. After our last trip on the I80, I was all nerves about this drive. Brandon may have been all nerves as well. We watched the weather along the entire route, and we had the best day to move (we hoped). We got a majority of the packing done throughout the week and removed the skirt from the RV - which was easier than we expected. Alanna slept over Dana's Friday night. They went for Ethiopian food and went skating. It is no secret that Alanna is going to miss having her aunt so close, and I'm going to miss having my sister so close. These last few months have been awesome hanging out with Dana. Saturday Brandon and I got up and packed up some more stuff before we headed out to Alanna's last derby practice with Boulder County Roller Derby. She has really impressed us with her derby skills and dedication to the sport. She took it upon herself to look up a Junior team in Utah, and her first practice will be this Sunday. 

Sunday morning came. Our travel day. Weather was looking good, spirits were good, we hooked up quick and efficiently, and we were on our way. 

We said "see ya later" to the Colorado portion of the Rocky Mountains and started our drive. Everything was looking great. The weather was holding out, the drive was going smooth. Bruce was sitting all goofy, Socks threw up twice, but we were all good!

We got onto the I80, and we were still going well. It has taken me a couple of days to update because of what happened next. We were driving along and then everything changed. Without a warning the wind was 60+ miles per hour, and we hit black ice. The truck went one way, the trailer the other. Scared doesn't even begin to describe how any of us felt in that moment. Brandon just kept saying "I've got it, I've got it..." and he did. He got us out of it. He got us going straight. I don't know how he did it, but he did. We knew it wasn't going to get better, but what were our options? We could pull off somewhere and stop without knowing when we would be able to go again or keep going. We kept going. We went slow and kept getting pushed by the wind on the black ice, and Brandon kept us going straight. We muscled through it; we decided as a team to muscle through it. We got to a safe spot, stopped at a gas station to fill up Shakira, and shake off our nerves. While at the gas station we found out that the area we just came through was not closed due to the conditions. We got through the worst of it. We quite literally went through hell. Even today the route has closures. We got back on the road, which wasn't great, but it was better, and in about 20 minutes the roads were dry, and the wind was absent. The rest of the drive was just about as perfect as it could be. 

We have decided that we do not want to move in the winter again. Ever. We have also decided that we have never hated anything more than the I80, specifically between Laramie and Rawlins. If you remember from the last update, that is the area that we were stuck in last time, too. We got to our new spot just two hours later than expected, but we got here! The sunset was absolutely stunning. The view all around our park is absolutely stunning.

We are just outside of Park City in an area called Heber City. We set up in about an hour, then grabbed a bite to eat. We were pretty prepared for something to be wrong inside the trailer considering the drive we had. When we opened the door, we discovered that one of the cabinets that had canned goods in it had opened. The canned goods fell out, and broke part of the countertop. Neither one of us really cared, we made it. We will figure out repairing it, and it will be a reminder of how fortunate we are. Lesson learned. Always bungie the cabinets closed. 

 The sunrise the next morning was equally as stunning as the sunset the night before, and the view from my office window is amazing. 

The view didn't last too long; it faded as the snowstorm came in. Our area was expecting 5-8 inches of snow which was weird because it never really got below 34 degrees out. The snow came, and it was heavy, and slushy. We braved the slush and went to check out a gym and did some grocery shopping. We got home in time for the snow to really start coming down. There was definitely a good amount of snow when we woke up this morning. Brandon had to go into work today, and it was a slow drive in. I will say that Utah seems to be better at clearing snow better than Colorado was. There is a plus! Now that the storm is gone, the view is back. Just breathtaking.

Things we learned:

• Brandon is a superhero. He is our superhero. He did amazing.
• The truck and trailer are not heavy enough for a portion of the I80 especially during winter
• Bruce's eye is doing well
• Once again, we were reminded that we can basically get through anything together.
• Heber City is quaint yet has everything we need within a 10-minute drive

Much Love and Happy Times,

The Blackshire's