The Trip

For those of you who I don't know, here's my very brief story behind the trip:

I grew up on a farm in Montana with my parents.  I had worked on the farm from since I was probably 7 or 8 years old till I left home for college at age 18.  

After I started college, I pretty much was only home between school and summer internships until I was 25.   I then started working in Maryland at my first "post school" job as an engineer in 2008.  I'd enjoyed both my work life and social life, being very involved in my local church and in my community.  

Around when I turned 30 (spring 2012), I made the decision to go back to the family farm to help my parents out, but also to be closer to the rest of my family.  Just before the holiday season of 2012 (since I wasn't planning on leaving till Spring 2013), I informed my supervisors at my job that I was intending to move back to Montana in the spring.  Both supervisors were very supportive and understanding.  

I have a '98 GMC Sierra that is nearing 180k miles, so I spent many weekends and several hundreds of dollars  (probably closer to $2000 actually) going through the truck to make sure it was fit for the upcoming journey.  The list of new or replaced items included the following: fuel injector spider, upper and lower intake manifold gaskets, shocks all around, sway bar bushings, sway bar links, spark plugs, spark plug wires, distributor cap and rotor, front brake rotors, front brake pads, heater core, radiator, upper and lower heater hoses, thermostat, MAP sensor, idle air sensor, and a set of new tires.  With much help from friends (you know who you are!), all this work was done to the truck before I left.  

I then said many very difficult goodbyes, rented a trailer, packed up all my things, gave away what I couldn't fit, and hit the road.  

Over the next few days, I drove a total of 2800 miles pulling a well-loaded 6'x12' Uhaul trailer and my trusty old truck got me home on Father's Day, June 16, 2013.

Thus, begins this blog.