Kinfolk said, "Jeff move away from there."

Said Colorado is the place you ought to be, so I packed up the car and moved to.....Grand Junction.

Yup, after getting laid off back in October, Julie & I decided that now is the time to start our transition to get out of Michigan and move to Colorado. So I got a job at Reynolds Polymer Technologies, designing large aquarium structures out of clear plastic acrylic. When I say large, I'm talking tunnels that people walk through under polar bear exhibits (RPT did the Detroit Zoo one), or the 50' tall 36'diameter cylindrical aquarium suspended 29' off the ground that an elevator runs through (DomAquaree, Berlin, Germany). They also do weird/neat not so huge projects, like David Blaine's sphere that he spent a week in, or the Sky Spas at the Palms Hotel in Vegas (6 jacuzzi's that look like balconies overlooking the strip). Pretty cool, huh? Well that's my thinking.

So I piled what I could into the little zoom-zoom.

And started my drive out through Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and into Nebraska. That was day one. Now remember, this is February, so of course, there was snow on the road and it was extremely windy, but I survived, and managed to stay mostly in my lane through to Omaha, Nebraska. Then day two I headed out of Omaha, and drove past Besy's favorite covered bridge, for no apparent reason, so they call it a museum.

No, I didn't stop at the covered bridge. Sorry, it just didn't seem cool enough. So I continue on, through Nebraska, and into Colorado. After talking to my Summit County Weather Authority (aka in-laws that live up there), I make the decision to drive straight through to Grand Junction, and pass up visiting with my 8 month old twin nephews (I'll hopefully see them in two weeks). Now just north of Denver I run into another issue: traffic completely stopped on I-76, and truckers standing on the side of the road talking about how if they were in a car, they'd turn around on the highway and find another way around the flipped over semi-truck that's blocking both lanes up ahead.

So that's what I did, didn't get a ticket, and only added about 20 minutes to my drive time. So it's through Denver, and up into the mountains. One more picture for Besy, and any other Transformers fan out there.

Drove through the mountains, where it was snowing lightly, but not too bad. (Glad my wife made me get those new tires though) And made it into Grand Junction Wednesday night. Good thing too, cause they closed I-70 on Thursday into Friday. So I was able to apartment hunt, find a little one bedroom that's furnished, get moved in, and the power turned on by the weekend. Then spent all weekend getting whatever supplies couldn't fit in the Mazda. The apartment is not too much to look at, but here's a shot of complex, and the mountains of Mesa Valley all around it. Of course, they look better in person, but this is just a taste of what it's like here. Now it's time to start working again, but I'll have more posts as I start to explore the area on the weekends to come.