Google maps indicated our trip to our new house would last in the range of 7 to 8 hours each way, depending on which route we took, so we figured with an early start we could turn it around in 16 to 18 hours – a long day, for sure, but possible (we have two cats and didn’t want to leave them alone for 2 days) – but it turns out Google doesn’t take into account road conditions or restrictions to speed limits, such as tight curvy dirt roads up and down mountains and the round trip took a whopping 25 hours.

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We were up at 3 am and left at 4, the trailer pre-packed and ready to go. Adventures and majestic scenery along the way – yes – best saved for another day (to keep this post short). We made it to the house in a little over 9 hours, not too bad, but got held up at the house itself. No doubt about it, the house is on the shabby side and smaller than the place we are leaving, but it is clean and pleasant inside, one of those wonderful places we know we can do lots with. Not so great was no gas in the gas tanks for cooking and hot water, and when we turned the water on a fountain ensued. A T-piece had split.

So there is a bit of emergency work to do, but fortunately we weren’t staying overnight. Greg wrestled the huge spurt into a minor trickle and then we turned the water off. This is a country house, so there’s no piped water to the premises. If there is a leak, what’s in the rainwater tank would be gone by the time we get back there.

The return journey took over 12 hours, not only into the night but right through it – which is another story for later.

The truly glorious thing about the house was its location. We had not been there before, but had looked at Internet street view maps to get a feel. Unknown to us, the cameras used for street views flatten everything out quite dramatically and we ended up expecting a basin with mountains somewhere off in the far distance. Instead, mountains, hills and ranges were right there, surrounding us. We immediately loved the energy of the place. It feels right. It is exactly what we wanted, only with better views! We truly have got our house in the mountains.

Cheers everyone. I will get back into writing about writing when all this has settled down.

😀

Allyson