Today our stuff moves in with us

Today is the day that we are supposed to receive all of the things that we turned over to United Van Lines two weeks ago. To say that we are eagerly awaiting their arrival would be a shameful understatement. They just don't make air mattresses like they used to. Well, actually, air mattresses are probably way better than they used to be - but they are no beds, let me tell you.

The Badlands, SD

Mt. Rushmore

That is not to say, though, that the last two weeks have been a bust. The trip out here was pretty great. It was Matt's first drive through the Dakotas, and we are both chalking it up as a success. It got a liiiiiitle bit long in places, but mostly, it was gorgeous.

We stopped at the crossing of the Missouri River, Wall Drug, and the Badlands

Crazy Horse Memorial

National Park on our first day through SD. We spent the night in Rapid City, which was both larger and cuter than anticipated. Then, we set out for Mount Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Memorial, and the remaining gazillion miles to Montana. We also stopped en route at the site of the Battle of Little Bighorn. All worthwhile stops, in our opinion, although the last was the most sobering. Especially in the wake of discussions about changing the name of that football team in DC, there were still a few things that, to us, seemed like indicators of some progress yet to be made on the front of relations

Marking Fallen Fighters at Little Bighorn

with Native Americans. In some ways, the literature put out by the government at the memorial reminded me of stories that I heard in graduate school of kids from the south studying "The War of Northern Aggression" rather than the Civil War. In any case, these are all topics for another, more political blog that isn't in the spirit of just trying to keep up with friends and family :)

On an unrelated note, driving through Wyoming was really, really awful. Like, really awful.

The non-history lesson that we learned was that majority of the states that we crossed are absolutely gorgeous. The scenery can go from prairie to a former sea bed to the barren west to mountains in no time flat. And if you discover that, in fact, your phone has the ability to take panoramic photos (note: Dad, if you're wondering right now, your phone can take panoramic photos), you can do stuff like this and then spend a lot of time delighting in it:

Panoramic View of the Badlands

We have also taken much delight in our new hometown. My advice for anyone who will be in our position is this: if you are going to spend a week and a half in an empty house with none of your belongings, move to a place that plans a BUNCH of outdoor goings-on. In the first week that we were here, Bozeman hosted two farmers markets, the Bite of Bozeman, the Sweet Pea Festival, and shuts down main street one night each week for live music and festivities. What? In a town of 40,000 people? Yep. That's the one. And boy was it nice when we otherwise have literally only two suitcases of belongings. Plus, it was awesome to be served cherry lemonade with a piece of watermelon in it. It's like one good idea after another here. Matt has also been particularly appreciative that all of these events happen in a place where there is no humidity. I can't say that I disagree.

We've also been spending time starting to assemble our offices and lab rooms. Undoubtedly, a more intensive version of these efforts will be in place this week. At minimum, I have my desk set up and we've figured out the bus route that runs from across the street to the student union that sits right next to my office building (Matt has a walk of about another 50 yards). All in all, the people have been incredibly nice, the weather has been amazing, and we're pretty excited to be settling in together!