The Big Move

9th August 1999

I am writing this as we drive out of Swindon for the last time, in our 16 seater minibus that the company rented for us. It's 11:30 at night, foggy and pouring down with rain. The 'bus' is so full of luggage, cat crates, junk (to be dumped tomorrow), and toys that we can't get it past 60mph. It was sad to say goodbye to our house and neighbors, we really enjoyed our last 30 months there.

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12th August 1999

Christopher was sick three times as our flight descended into Denver. Nicole, who had loved the flight and had been very well behaved, turned white every time we dropped a bit lower during the landing, screaming "Daddy" and grabbing my hand. We arrived in sunny Denver only to find out that we hadn't filled in all the paperwork, so there we were at the desk, with all the kids and luggage, scribbling away. Thankfully the customs people were super friendly.

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We eventually found our apartment. It's quite big, but it feels like home already.  It has a canal and bike trail running behind it. Our realtor (estate agent) had a welcome basket awaiting us in our room, full of drinks and treats, wrapped nicely with a bow and a welcome card, which was a nice welcome.

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I did feel very helpless when I went to the supermarket though. I have NEVER seen any supermarket as big as this. It even had its own bank inside! I was there all on my own, walking up and down the aisles COMPLETELY lost! There is far too much choice over here. All the milk is marked differently to the way we do it in England (for example, "2%" instead of "semi-skimmed"). There must have been 100 boxes of cereals and about 20 types of butter too! To make matters worse, most of the brand names are different, so I had no idea if I was buying good or bad!

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The biggest surprise though was that they don't have orange squash here. I explained 'Ribena' and 'barley water' to two people, who tried hard to find what I wanted, but failed miserably, pointing me to vegetables and frozen drinks. They had no idea what I was on about!

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14th August 1999

First I got my social security number, which was a very quick process and then we opened a 'checking' (current) bank account.  We swapped our mini-van over for something smaller, a Buick Century, which is quite fancy and drives great. We will be using this to take our driving tests soon. Our realtor popped over this afternoon and showed us some property available at the moment. Talk about WOW!!!

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The weather here is great. A clear blue sky with not a cloud in sight. It's meant to reach 100 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, but thanks to the lack of humidity it doesn't feel that bad. Everyone's really friendly. They just all want to talk, everywhere you go. They say they love our accents, although for some reason they keep asking if we're Australian! 

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15th August 1999

I had intended on getting to bed early, but it wasn't to be, because I blocked the loo and ended up flooding the bathroom. While trying to mop the floor I was unaware that the dishwasher that I'd loaded was gushing out water and soapsuds all over the kitchen floor! More mopping! It turned out that 'dish-washing fluid' is actually washing up liquid, and not for dishwashers! Boy, did we feel stupid!

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We were amazed by the prices in the supermarket. Bread for instance is really expensive (around £1.30 per loaf). On the other hand, meat is really cheap. Over all it worked out about the same price as back home unfortunately (we had expected it to be a lot cheaper). Mind you, electrical equipment's cheaper; probably about a third of what it costs in England. 

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16th August 1999

It turns out that lanes with red curbs are 'fire lanes' for fire trucks only, and you're not allowed to park there. I looked out of our window and spotted a parking ticket attached to the car, for $15. 

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22nd August 1999

We went shopping at the mall, mainly for Matthew to get a stereo for his new bedroom.  We were freaking out crossing FIVE lanes of traffic on the interstate... it's crazy! 

 

23rd August 1999

We finally worked out that there are communal mail boxes here for the apartments - it's only parcels that are delivered to your door! Once I worked out which key to use and in which box, I opened it to find hundreds of letters waiting for us!

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It does feel as if it's all falling in to place at last. WE HAVE FINALLY CHOSEN OUR NEW HOME! The place is air conditioned, with a double garage, stone walls at the front, a large porch and lawn area outside the front. It even has a view of the mountains from the main two bedrooms.  There's also a big back yard too, with a deck to eat out on.

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29th August 1999

We met up with some friends and set off to the "Garden of the Gods". It was fantastic! You feel so small amongst these huge bright red rocks, surrounded by all sorts of colorful wild flowers. Breath taking. Looking right out onto the mountains too.
We then decided to get something to eat, which is where things went a little wrong. OK, who locked the car keys in the car?! Cutting a long story short, we had to call a locksmith for help!

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Next we went down to Colorado Springs, to the "Cave of the Winds". This was brilliant as well. Imagine something similar to Cheddar Caves, located in a big canyon. After that we watched a laser show projected on the canyon walls, set to music, ending up with "God Bless the USA", which brought a lump to my throat!

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30th August 1999

This morning we took the written part of our driving test. We each got a different sheet of 25 questions to answer. We passed first time, but then found we had no way to pay, because they didn't accept credit cards. A problem considering this is the only way we can pay for anything until our funds clear in the bank account. So, I went across the road to use an ATM (service till). Looks like a Switch card only works in the UK. Ah, my trusty emergency credit card. Works anywhere in the world. When you can remember the PIN that is... <oops!>. Never mind, I'll use my new direct debit card for our US bank account. Oops again - looks like the pin number for that is at home. Panic! How do I pay?! No problem, I'll phone Citibank and get them to give me my PIN number - they can ask me personal questions to validate who I am. One problem. How can I phone the UK without any cash? I ended up using my credit card to make a phone call, to get the PIN number for the card, to draw out some cash. "What's that? You can't give me my PIN because you don't have access to it? OK, Can you reset the PIN to something else right now, so I can use it? No?!!"

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We ended up going to a nearby bank, with my credit card and passport to draw out cash. I was able to pay for our licenses, but we need to pass our actual DRIVING tests tomorrow before they are valid. The licenses are neat. They are small plastic cards with our photos and signatures - nothing like our paper licenses back in the UK!

 

4th September 1999

We showed up at the driving test center, ready to take our practical tests. I was told to drive round to the back of the building and wait for him there. To be honest the test was a doddle. No hill starts, no emergency stops, no three point turns, no turns in the road, no roundabouts (not that I've seen one here anyway!). Not only that but he even told me when I was approaching new speed limits! We chatted about what Denver used to look like and what it was like in England, as we drove around in the sun! I was only on the road for 10 minutes. "No problem" he said. "Take this paperwork into the office, you've passed"!

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Next we went to Best Buy to choose all our new household appliances. We ended up buying a freezer, washing machine, dryer, cooker, microwave, 19 inch TV (for our bedroom), digital camera, computer, photo printer, Technics hi-fi separates, toaster, vacuum cleaner, battery charger and batteries, ink, paper, surge protectors etc, a 5 year service contract on all the appliances and delivery, for a fraction over $4,000, in other words about £2,400. I do love America!!

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We also visited Matthew's new school, which is excellent. It's divided into three sections, called "Evans", "Longs" and "Pikes", which are three of the tallest mountains visible from Denver. The school is situated at the top of Smoky Hill, and apparently before all the houses were built in the area, the classroom windows looked straight out onto each of these mountains.

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11th September 1999

We bought new bikes each last week from Toys R Us. When we went to ride them we found that they had not been assembled correctly (even though we paid extra for them to do this). Christopher's bike had a scratch on it, and the first time he rode it his stabilizer wheel fell off and my brake lever touched the handlebars without doing much. Because my tools haven't arrived yet there was nothing I could do.

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We took Christopher's bike back in the car and I asked to see the manager. When I explained what had happened he apologized that some school leavers had been employed to assemble the bikes last weekend and he wasn't happy with their work. He immediately gave us the assembly money back, got Christopher's bike fixed there and then, and even gave him a Sega T-shirt and a football to make up for it! He then offered to drive over to our house personally in his truck this evening to collect our bikes to take them back to the store to be repaired, ready for tomorrow and get someone to deliver them back to us as well! Now THAT'S what I call service!

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12th September 1999

We attended our new church for the first time today.  It literally backs on to our new house.  All I can say is WOW! It is huge compared to what we are used to, but everyone is so welcoming. There were classrooms for the children according to their ages, but our 'sanctuary' was simply incredible, with live worship music and an incredible pastor (vicar).

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We then bought our first American car... a five year old Dodge Intrepid, automatic. Fairly sporty looking for a four-door car, and with 3.3 liter V6 engine and about 80K on the clock. It's spotless! You would not believe how much leg and headroom there is in the back, nor how big the boot ("trunk") is.

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18th September 1999

We got up early, to buy my car, a T-Top 5.0 liter (V8) RS Camaro, which looks and drives amazing.  After that we drove to Estes Park in the Intrepid, the first stop of our little outing today. It's a lovely little town, where the film "The Shining" was made. After checking out the local shops (including a large "Christmas Store" which was amazing) we had lunch outside at a restaurant. 

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Our next port of call was the Rocky Mountain National Park, up Trail Ridge, into the mountains. There is NO WAY I could possibly begin to explain how breathtaking the mountains look, especially with the trees starting to turn yellow with Autumn ("Fall").

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We saw some great wild life, but no bears. Perhaps it was their day off. I must admit that on the way back down from the mountains I was starting to feel a bit giddy and breathless, which can happen due to the high altitude.

 

We then headed to a small town called "Grand Lake", named such because it's located by (yep, you guessed it!) a very big lake. We tried out some hand made sweets ("candy") and had a drink by the lake, taking in the calm and tranquility.

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We continued our 300 mile round trip, through Winter Park, one of the ski resorts here. Talk about hair-pin bends round the mountains! We got home absolutely shattered. It was all worth it though, and Christopher said that this was the best day he'd ever had. Matthew was all full of excitement too. Nicole was fast asleep, bless her.

 

21st September 1999

I received a call from Matthew's school. He had fallen in gym and hurt his arm. The nurse suggested getting an x-ray. Firstly in the States there is no National Health Service, so everything has to be paid for by medical insurance. I was told that I'd have to get him to ER, but that it would cost $50. Say what?!!

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I picked Matthew up from school and after several attempts, found the right hospital. Inside I explained (sounding like Basil in Fawlty Towers making excuses for his Spanish waiter), "I'm sorry, I'm from England!". The expected response came quickly, "And your name is England???". Here we go...

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I asked for an idiots guide as to what to do. Cutting a six hour story short, it turned out that it was just a sprain and all he needed was a sling. Listening to Matthew you'd think that it was a broken neck or something!

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With that fiasco out of the way I decided to get the car washed and then take off the T-Top roof and head home. I found a brushless car wash, which I thought was a good idea until I was in it and found that my drivers side door seal needed replacing.  I got soaked in soapy water, which Matthew thought was hysterical!

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We drove on home, getting lost for a further hour and a half.  Yet somehow it didn't matter. Driving along in an American muscle car with the top down and the wind in my hair (OK, balding head), the sun beating down on me and a view of the Rockies in the distance, covered with snow from the previous night, I realized that I was as happy as I could ever be!