I am starting this post in Montana, sitting at the dining room table getting ready to eat some breakfast. Meghan, Addy and I have just returned from a week in KS. The long and arduous process of going through things in the house and getting business matters in order was the purpose of our trip.

I had an afternoon appointment on Monday before I left two weeks ago and I decided to go ahead and leave after that to get a jump on getting on the road. With such a late start it ended up being two shorter days of driving instead of one really long one. That was nice for a change and much easier – so much better that I will just do that from now on.

I got to Coeur d’Alene and unfortunately the hotel I stayed in turned out to be crappy. I was more than happy to get out of there and will time my trip to stay someplace outside of that city going forward. This is the third different hotel I have used there and all three have been bad.

The trip to Meghan’s house went well. It is a l-o-n-g drive on I-90 across Montana from the Idaho border. I have done the drive several times and have stopped at several places to see things so there’s not much left to see for me to stop at now. It’s not NEARLY as bad as the drive from Ellensburg, WA through Spokane though.

We got up the next day (Wednesday) and left somewhat early – destination Denver. Speaking of horrible drives, the drive from Livingston, MT to Denver is a real yawner. It’s good to be able to drive 75-80 MPH to get through it faster. It is still a long and boring drive even at those speeds.

We got to our hotel in Denver and were ready to sleep. It was a long day – about 12 hours of being in the truck – and the three of us were done for the day. Addy did very good during the long day traveling and didn’t complain until the last 15 minutes. The hotel was nice and was a welcome sight after my experience in C d’A.

Thursday was the final push to KS – another boring drive and an extraordinarily windy one this trip. I have made that drive many, many times over the decades, sometimes three or four times a year. I have stopped in many places along the way so there’s no need to stop much other than food, fuel and leg-stretching. And the Cozy Inn in Salina, KS, which I have blogged about before. Since I usually fly I always take the time to stop at the Cozy when I drive back to buy a sack of burgers. Yes, they were delicious as always.

We got to KS late afternoon. We stopped at the house and I stayed while Meghan went on in to Chelsea’s house. The next day, the task of going through my parents’ things began.

It is a difficult thing to do, going through the stuff and the memories, but it all has to be done. Going through the possessions is tough, but not nearly as tough as settling the financial affairs and taking ownership of the house and the things to be kept.

Between me, my sister, my three daughters and a cousin or two we spent the best part of an entire week taking care of a lot of things and there’s more to do. We did get a lot done but there’s still more to do. For me, living a somewhat minimalist lifestyle the last six+ years means it’s quite a task to go through all of the things my parents accumulated over both their lifetimes. I have brought home some things that mean something to me as well as papers and other stuff I need to sort at home since I have more time to do that there.

We left KS Thursday morning to begin the long drive home through all of the same scenery (or lack thereof). We drove to Denver and left midday on Friday so we could visit with a couple of people, deciding in advance that for Addy’s comfort we would break it up between Denver and their house by staying the night in Casper, WY. We ended up in a Holiday Inn Express and it is one of the best hotels I have ever stayed in – no issues at all with anything. This may be my new go-to hotel chain.

This brings me full-circle back to the dinner table I started this post on. I plan on starting the solo portion of the trip in the next few days and get this last two days of driving over and done with. I will have been gone over two weeks by the time I get back home. I have a ballot to fill out for this very important election along with other personal business to attend to. I need to go to work and talk about a few things with them and check on my potential timeline to return to work. The weather is looking a bit iffy so I am not exactly sure how long I will be staying after just now checking the radar.

So far it has been a great trip, albeit under less-than-ideal circumstances given what we were going there to do. Addy did exceptionally well traveling and it has been a long time since Meghan and I had a road trip together.

That’s all the news there is for now. I don’t know if there will be anything else to write about for the remainder of the trip so we’ll see what happens.

Please note: I do not post anything on my blog until after I have returned home. It’s just something I do for my privacy.