Further Ramblings from Louisville

I went out yestedray morning to fill up the car with gasoline and was somewhat surprised to see the price at $3.68. a gallon. A few days ago, in Kansas, I was surprised to see it at $3.75. So I snapped this picture and filled it up. Today the same station had gasoline at $3.64.


The quality of this house is not discernable by looking at the photos. It actually looks sort of drab compared to other homes in the neighborhood.

So I'm seeking input. I think the trim needs to be painted and the shutters need to be a different color. Any color suggestions?

We have found out that we will apparently be members of the Crestwood 1st Ward, Louisville Stake. Our chapel is on the property adjacent to the Louisville Temple, and church starts at 1:00 PM.

The Deal is Done

We met with John and Sue today. They are the retired couple who currently own 33 Autumn Hill Court. I have been frankly a little nervous about the whole deal because these folks had only been thinking about selling their home until we came along.

They are a cute couple and very pleasant people. John had sort of been hard to pin down on the deal. He was worried about where they would move (buying the new house) and packing up all of their stuff - a problem we are intimately acquainted with. We had agreed to meet today and I was all set to have to talk him into finalizing the deal with friendly persuasion that might need to escalate some.

Well he called at about noon and said he and his wife wanted to talk to us. Would we come over? we did and it turned out that their main concern was if we still wanted to go through with the deal. Of course we did. I may have mentioned that I truly believe they were asking about $75,000 less than equivilant properties. He mentioned today that he thought we were getting a good deal and we agreed. We pointed out, however, that they were benefitting greatly from not having to even list their property, hire a realtor, show it and negotiate deals. It's all done. They agreed that we had a "win-win" situation here.

Anyway, we see the attorney tomorrow and will sign the contract. The deal is done. we have worked out all of the issues.

I'm not going to be able to post pictures of the house for awhile because the house is still theirs and it's somewhat disheveled even though it is clean and well-maintained.

For those who are keeping track, our mailing address for now remains PO Box 565, Prospect, Kentucky 40059. However beginning about September 15th,
33 Autumn Hill Court, Prospect, KY 40059, will be the new one.

I think this is the nicest sounding address I've ever had and I know this is the most beautiful neighborhood I've ever lived in. I will take some pictures of the area and post them soon. Until then, we are very excited and can't wait to move in.

33 Autumn Hill Court, Prospect, Kentucky

We arrived in Kentucky early on Friday afternoon, July 25, 2008. We actually spent quite a bit of time looking around at available houses and neighborhoods on Friday and Saturday.

Rob and Laura had noticed a home on Autumn Hill Court, about a mile from their house. When they looked at it they found that the owner had actually left the key with his neighbor across the street. When talking with the neighbor, the neighbor told Rob that he (the neighbor) and his wife wanted to sell their place and felt that they had more to offer than than place across the street. So Rob (don't ever do business with Rob) told him that they were actually looking for us and gave the guy a pretty low ball price we might be willing to pay.

A called the guy Saturday afternoon. He told me his wife was reluctant to show the place without straightening up some of the clutter (not dirty, just cluttered for a variety of good reasons too numerous to mention here), but he told me his wife would be going to church at about 9:00 AM Sunday and I should call him back after that time.

I called, he said come on buy. I asked about what he considered for a price. he said come on by, take a look and we'll talk.

Cathy and I loved the place. we mentiond a low price and he came right back with a price that seems about $75,000 lower (minimum) than what the place seemed to be worth and it's in our range.

We went and got Laura and Rob for a third and fourth opinion. They also loved the place and thought it was priced very well. We went away, discussed it and decided to go ahead and offer what he wanted. I called him and we have a verbal agreement which I truly believe will hold up (no realtor involved on either side).

We'll get the details and paperwork started this week by hiring a real estate attorney to shepher the process through, but right now it looks like it should be a go.

Now what do I do? We'll think of something.

We are planning a trip to Phoenix to include the Fast Sunday weekend in September for Chloe's baptism (September 6 and 7 I think). So any of you who will be there at that time, we'll look forward to seeing you.

These pictures depict mainly how green things arein this part of the country. Basically all of the freeways from Eastern Kansas through Louisville have woods on both sides of the road. Very little litter is present and the roadways are in great condition.

We stopped for lunch one day at a Cracker Barrel restaurant and were impressed by the beautiful flowers.

There are also a couple of pictures (above) depicting our crossing the Ohio River from Indiana to Louisville, Kentucky.

That was yesterday (Friday), one week after we left Long Beach. We enjoyed the drive a lot,mainly because we didn't really push ourselves. The Rockies in Utah and Colorado were beautiful and the rolling hills and green farms of eastern Kansas, Missouri, Illinois and Indiana were also very nice to look at. The only bad part, that is the only part that reminded us of driving from Southern Cal to Phenix or Provo, was Colorado east of Denver and western Kansas.

We have already begun looking at homes and I'm seeing that really nice ones in the price range we want to pay will probably need some work. Within reason, that would be OK with me because I actually have a few days off coming up (like all of them).

We are staying with Laura and Rob Jackson.




Their home is like a grand hotel and we will be extremely comfortable here. They are such good friends and so gracious. We appreciate their hospitality more than we can ever tell them (though we try).

TBM Part 3 (short)

No photos this time. We left Kansas City behind yesterday and made it through St Louis to a little town called Mt. Vernon, Illinois (as opposed to George Washington's Mt. Vernon in Virginia). We found a nice Fairfield Inn and spent the night there.

Athough we crossed the Missouri River a couple of times and the Mississippi once, the only landmarks I would have considered photographing, I didn't because: A) we were in the car, B) I was driving, C) we were on freeways (couldn't pull over easily) and D) the rivers, though notably large, were not particularly photogenic looking (actually they were pretty ugly).

This morning waking up in Mt. Vernon, Ill., we find ourselves about 190 miles from Louisville. So, since it's I-64 all the way, we should arrive there fresh and relaxed by noon. we will take our hosts, Laura and Rob Jackson, to dinner at Captain's Quarters. That should be very picturesque and I will take photos there. It overlooks the Ohio river which is usually very photogenic.

The Big Move, Part 2 (Provo to Kansas City)

On our second evening in Provo,we had a wonderful time visiting with family. Cathy had many nice visits, especially with Maddi, Devin's wife.

We got to visit with Elder Ryan Merrill (Craig and Andrea's oldest son) who had just received his call to serve in the Columbia, South Caroline Mission. It was good to see him before he left.


Here we have Diana, Stephanie and Andrea enjoying a visit with each other.

And, of course, it was good to see my mom. She recently moved into a new place called Courtyard at Jamestown. It's so close to Beth and Bruce's place that she actually walked there on Sunday afternoon. Jamestown is a very nice facility. It's alittle smaller than the Seville and mom has jammed as much stuff into her space as possible. She steadfstly believes she can't live without any of it. She's comfortable but naturally is thinking about moving again.

We got a chance to see some of the kids including Devin and Maddi's oldest son, Luke and Julie and Ralph Hinkson's daughter, Amber. Cuties each.



On Monday morning, July 21, we drove up Provo Canyon to Heber City and then took US highway 40, east. We drove through Vernal and were very impressed by all the flowers they had adorning their main street as we passed through. We got all the way to Craig, Colorado, which I remember Devin saying was one of the most boring towns he had seen while serving in that area on his mission. Seemed like a proper evaluation. We wanted to stop overnight in Craig, but when we looked into staying at a nice Best Western Hotel there, they were sold out (increased oil and natural gas efforts newly rebounding in the area). So we moved on to Steamboat Springs. Beautiful place and crowded.

The Yampa River flows through the heart of town. And there seems to be evidence of boating (the second photo is the Steamboat Springs Yacht Club).


I discovered this wooden bridge that seemed unique (to me) so I snapped a quick picture of it. While looking at the bridge, I noticed a recent landslide near the river. I'm real glad we don't own that house next to it. Pretty nerve racking I would think.

We ate dinner at a place called the Ore House (cute name if you're still in high school). The food was terrific and reasonably priced, and the view was pretty scenic.

On Tuesday morning we pressed on, stopping for lunch in a town called Kremmling, Colorado. We found a place to park without having to use the area reserved for horses. The food was edible at the Moose Cafe there.

Then we passed through Winter Park which is another scenic ski resort area, so I snapped a few pictures there.


And then we got to Kansas.

In all fairness, only the western half of Kansas was like this. One of the most sparsely inhabited areas we've ever seen and for cause. It's just flat, hot, windy and boring in July.
Once we got to Hays, home of Old Fort Hays, the landscape became actually pretty. Rolling, gentle and green mostly farmland but pleasant.
We are now a little east of Kansas City, Mo. We spent the nigh here in a Courtyard (Marriott). I forgot to mention that we spent the previous night in Goodland, Kansas, where I snapped the Kansas photo (above).
So, today, we may reach the Louisville area. It's sevento eight hours away and I'm tired of drving. Mt. Vernon, Illinois is speaking to me. Stay tuned.

The Big Move - Part 1 (LGB to Provo)

Our escrow closed on July 16, 2008, and we received our funds on July 17. The 17th was also my last day at work. I will actually be on vacation for six weeks and my final official day as a Los Angeles Police Officer will be August 31.

Since we decided to sell our home and then wait until we had cash in hand before shopping for a new one, we decided the most efficient way to move was to rent PODs. These are containers that come in several sizes. You load them once, they take them and store them until you're ready - in this case after we select our new home - then they deliver them to your new location. We elected to rent two large ones that are 16 feet long and 8' tall by 8' wide. The first one arrived on Friday the 11th. When we ordered the PODs they asked us if we had room in our driveway for 16' PODs that are 8' wide which we did. What they failed to tell us was that nearly 12' of clearance is required width-wise due to the method of delivery.

The first delivery guy did a great job getting that POD into our driveway but we all agreed that the second one would have to go in the neighbor's driveway.






We had a lot of help from men in our ward loading the first POD. We did it in one hour on Saturday morning (July 12).

The second one came in on the following Monday. Owen and Alex Sanders helped me load heavy stuff on Wednesday. Kevin came from Phoenix and he and I finished it off on Friday morning (July 18).

In the meantime, Cathy was working fanatically packing boxes, boxes and more boxes and cleaning up after us big old sloppy men. Marga Sanders was also a huge help.

We got done at about one PM on Friday, jumped in the car and headed out. We weren't in time to avoid the weekend getaway traffic and we drove at a crawl all the way to Victorville. we were so tired by then that we stopped and spent the night there. In Victorville, I bought my new laptop computer.

On Saturday we hustled to Provo because my sister Beth was getting some folks together at her home to celebrate our retirement and our rare visit to Utah, Utah, Beautiful, Beautiful land."



That was yesterday. Today, Cathy and I and Jake and meredith who were here in Utah for a family event in Meredith's family, went to church with my mom. Then we had another farewell get together at Beth and Bruce's place. Beth has an amazing capability f feeding hordes of family members. Devin and Maddi had arrived with thei kids, Luke, Lauren and Jackson. It was great to see them too (Diana and Julie were als present with Julie's two cuties, Amber and Hannah and, of course, Craig, Andrea, Andrew, Stephanie, Elder Ryan Merrill soon to be a missionary in Columbia, SC and his friend, Emily). Tomorrow we head out on the next phase of our journey east. When I create my next blog entry, I'll flesh out this phase some more.