Our First Night

                First thing first, stretch our legs!  Super D has to take Mr. R to his parents home (not to far from our land) so he can get home.  While he does that Sugarbug and I walk the land with the dogs and breathe a sigh of relief that we are here.  Ok I breathe Sugarbug runs off extra pent up energy.   We have our cars and trailer pulled to the side of the county dirt road next to our property.  While Sugarbug and I are waiting for Super D to get back we meet our neighbors down the road a bit.  I think they thought we broke down or something.  I introduce myself and let them know we are moving in.  Super D comes back and his mom shows up to greet us.  So now our goal is to make a way to the bed so we have a place to sleep tonight. 

Meeting Grandma S on the dirt road

Veiw from bed :)

                Super D first has to unhook the truck from the trailer. Then we have to start unloading what we can to get to the bed.  Thankfully, Super D’s brother lives close and has a huge garage/storage area that has some room in it for our stuff.  So the unloading begins.  We are able to fill the back of two trucks, Super D’s and his step dads, with stuff from the trailer so that I can move all the clothes off the bed.  Thankfully we used blankets to pad big things we packed so we have plenty of those available to sleep with.  By the time its dark we have the bed cleared and made somewhat with blankets.  There is just enough room to get into the trailer and to the bed.  I did manage to find Sugarbug some pajamas to put on but Super D and I are stuck with what we have on.  Honestly we are all so tired I don’t think we care!  We all pile on to the queen size bed and sleep. 

Sugarbug in Pj's ready for bed.

                Super D wasn’t able to level the trailer very much on the side of the road so we are all rolling into him in the night.  When we went to bed we are all hot so I just have a light blanket on us.  But somehow Super D didn’t hear me tell him I have more blankets on my side of the bed when he gets cold. He was pretty annoyed when he woke up in the middle of the night cold trying to get warm in this what he called paper thin blanket and then looks over to see me and Sugarbug wrapped up in a big fluffy blanket.   Poor guy thought we were holding out on him.  I did share and we all stayed warm and woke up with the sun and birds of Missouri.

The Journey

                To make this incredible move we decided the most economical and efficient way was to get a trailer that we could pack our stuff in but that would also serve as a home while we got settled on our land and decided what and when to build.  Super D did an awesome job of finding a very large 5 wheel trailer that he fixed up to fit out needs. 

Super D filling up in Colorado

The journey to get to our land in Missouri took 3 days of actual driving but the trip took a week.  We pulled out of Colorado late one Saturday morning we had a truck pulling a 40 foot trailer and two cars with three drivers.  Super D's best friend from Missouri flew to Denver to help us get moved and drive for us.  Plus he was the muscle that was needed for the move where I couldn’t be of any help.  We could not have made this move without him.  We packed everything we could into the trailer but of course you can not fit a 2000 sq. foot house into a 300 sq. foot trailer.  We had to leave quite a bit of furniture and things behind even after months of purging and getting rid of things right up to the end.  When we pulled out there was room in our black carfor a driver and nothing else!  Mr. R (Super D's friend) drove that car and Sugarbug and I took the lead in the white car with the trunk and back seat packed.  The 2 dogs were in the front seat with Sugarbug.

Packed to the gills!

                We didn’t even make it a block when Super D pulled to the side because Mr. R couldn’t get the black car started.  Apparently the battery was dead.  Go Figure.  So I turned around to take Super D to the house. There was no turning the trailer around!  But this delay was best as it gave us one more chance to say goodbye to Grandma S who had pulled up right when we left.  It was a sad goodbye and we were off.

                Our trip was slow. We had a caravan me leading, Super D in the middle, and Mr. R following. Our top speed was about 55 mph.  We head east and all is well.  We make steady progress and on our way to Colorado boarder we have a blow out.  Super D pulls off safely and the boys make pretty quick work of changing the tire on the side of the road.  We pull into Burlington about 2 hours before dark.  Here the boys check for a tire store that may be able to put a tire on a rim. We have the tires but only one more still on a rim.  But being about 6ish and Saturday no one is open.  We decide to go on and get as far as we can before dark.  Super D doesn’t want to drive in the dark much.  We make it to Oakley KS. and turn in for the night.  We are all tired and ready for a break. It has been a stressful couple days getting ready and stressful day of driving.  But thankfully the hotel we stay at has a pool and hot tub!  Sugarbug goes swimming while I soak the stress away and the boys go to find food.  Ahh.

My View for 1000 miles :)

                The next day we really want to get a new tire before going on but realize its Sunday everything is closed.  Oakley is a pretty small town.  Plus there are high wind warnings for the area and Super D isn’t looking forward to driving in that.  So we decide to stay a day and relax.  We check in for another day and take a good long nap in the afternoon.  Monday we wake refreshed early and ready to go.  We hit the road and head for Oklahoma.  The goal is to make it to Oklahoma to visit my Mom and Grandma.  As travel is good and as Super D gains confidence in the truck and how well it is handling we all start to relax a bit.  We pull into Oklahoma about 8:30 driving in the dark isn’t much fun much less through a huge city with our caravan.  We finally make it to my mom’s where Super D takes up all the curbside in front of my mom’s house.  Our big trailer barely fits.  Her streets are so narrow once a car parks on the side of the street only one car can drive the road at a time.  We look like the circus pulling in!  But we made in one piece and are happy to be there.  My wonderful mom has food ready for my hungry crowd. 

Pit stop

Just pulled into Oklahoma.  Had to stand across the parking lot to fit all in picture!

                Apparently we made some of my mom’s neighbors nervous we were here for good.  The second night in Oklahoma the police show up to ask about the trailer.  Someone had called about us parking there.  But he informed us that we just had to move it every twenty four hours and since we were leaving in a day we were fine.   I don’t think the police officer was very worried about it at all. He even told us that moving it every 24 hours could just mean pulling it forward 2 inches.  I thought it was pretty funny.  I’m sure her neighbors sighed a sigh of relief when we pulled out. 

                We spend the next three day’s sleeping in, checking the truck, and visiting family.  It was a great short visit before we head on. We still have one more full day of driving to reach Missouri.  Normally a 5 hour trip but our slow going caravan is going to take 8 hours.  From Oklahoma to Missouri we have one more blow out that the boys are prepared for and fix in a flash.  The first one happened on the side of a two lane highway that wasn’t very busy this one on a 4 lane interstate.  I was much more nervous about it with cars and semis zipping past.  Thankfully we were by an exit so we had a little more room but Super D being ever calm was steadfast and they fixed it in record time.  

                We pull into Missouri and onto the dirt road to our land at 6:30.  We can’t just pull onto our land as there is a ditch between the road and the land.  Now what?

Sugarbug and Dogs on Land

A Dream is Born

          When I met Super D he was visiting Colorado from Missouri.  He was visiting his dad for the summer.  Our romance began.  Fast forward and we are getting married, Super D moved from Missouri to Colorado to be with me and Sassafras.  While we planned to live in Colorado I married Super D with the idea that we would move to Missouri. Super D loved Missouri and talked about it, a lot. That was where he wanted to be and raise a family.  I fell in love with Missouri every summer when we would come to visit for 2 weeks.   It was always such a beautiful place full of greenery and life.  I always learned something and discovered new things daily.  The dream of living in Missouri was born.

Super D and Sweet Ma in Colorado during our dating days.

                Life marched on though and our dream was put on the back burner.  We had a life, jobs, and family in Colorado.  We bought a house and had our children and were living the “American dream.” A couple years after buying our house we had the opportunity to buy land in Missouri.  Plus it was part of the land Super D grew up on.  He was pretty excited and we jumped to do it.  The dream was rekindled but then we had no means to actually build or make the move as there were no jobs in this part of the country that would pay what we needed to make our bills.  Like most we had credit cards, car payments, and some other things financed that we thought we couldn’t live without.  So we enjoyed the idea that we had our land for the future but we just didn’t know when we would use it.  Life in Colorado was pretty good.  For a long time we had family from both Super D's and my side close.  We had adventures there too, of camping, 4 wheeling, and homeschooling.   With my daycare we always had a slew of kids around to keep life interesting.  Super D and I always liked the idea of raising what we could to eat and cutting our expenses where we could.  I like to cook from scratch and make our food from whole ingredients.   But there is only so much of that you can do in a house in the city.

Super D, Sweet Ma, Sugarbug, and Sassafras in Colorado family photo of 2004

                The circumstances came about to be just right so that we could start the grandest adventure of our lives so far.  With Super D out of work and not being able to find anything suitable, my side of the family moving to Oklahoma, and money being tight even with us being almost debt free it was time to explore our options.  Our biggest expense was the house.  We couldn’t afford the house payment, utilities, and food and have any money left over.  We were in a rat race we couldn’t get ahead on and were tired of it.  So the research began.  Super D spent countless hours researching how we could get onto our land and live on it with the least cost.  The dream of being self sufficient was born.   We want to have a life that we work together as a family to build and maintain. We want to live off of the land we own raising our own food and supplying our own power.  We want minimal bills so that any money we make is for surviving, improving our land, and fun.   But we want the control of how much we need to work for others to make that money. Eventually, find a market for us to be self employed in some form.  We are willing to fight for the time to enjoy life’s little things with our children as we watch them grow and learn.  So our journey to Missouri begins in the dining room of our Colorado home as Super D researches and investigates and learns what we are to do.  Breaking the news to his side of the family and friends isn’t easy. Packing up 10 years in the same house to move 1000 miles away is a chore!  But this is more to share with you the adventures we have to get here and especially what we are discovering here in beautiful Missouri.  Life at a country pace is so much more peaceful and when you look around you can’t help but be in awe at what God created and be thankful.

Veiw from my front door in Missouri in Spring of 2012