We are in Portal — this time to stay.

Our move went well. The movers were great. Curiously, our mover Charles has actually been to the Portal area before. Prior to this, we’d never even talked to anyone who had heard of Portal. As Charles told us, he’s been a lot of places.

And departing LA was quite easy. I was a little surprised not to be tearful at leaving either our home or office (where we’ve been for about 8 years). It really seemed time to go, and we were excited about the change.

After leaving LA, we spent a couple nights with Brad’s mom. After a very long day of moving on Mon., a home cooked dinner she made was much appreciated.

On Wed., we set off early at about 5:30am to try to get to Portal before dark. We drove a different way, this time on the 8 through Yuma, joining back up with the 10 before Tucson. The drive was beautiful. The only thing that could have made it better would have been driving together in the same car.

We had some hopes of getting to the San Simon post office to collect our mail before it closed on Wed., but the combination of the time change and the fact that the post office closed at 4 made that impossible. We got some groceries before heading down to Portal. By the time we got to the 80, it was dark, but we were very excited to be heading into the valley that will be home.

When we got to the Quailway Cottage (the guest house we stayed at before and which we’ll stay at for two days before moving into Mountain Shadows on Fri.), it was about 7:30. To celebrate New Years Eve, we cracked open a bottle of champagne and ate appetizers. For the first time in 30 years or so, I did not stay awake until midnight.

Waking up to the new year in our new home was laden with symbolism and good cheer. We made breakfast and alternated watching the Rose Parade and the amazing array of birds out our door before heading over to the property. It was a stunning day, sunny and in the 60s. We drove out toward Horseshoe Canyon (down Sunrise past our property) to explore. On the way, we saw a large javelina. Surprisingly, he seemed to be alone.

On the property, we unloaded our various ladders and tools and checked out the new fence. It looks really great.

The land right now is how I like it best with huge expanses of golden grass. We hiked around for a while and took some pictures before going to mail the check for the fence. I also took my first ride in the truck standing in the bed holding on to the rack. Great way to get a big view. I can’t wait to take some movies this way.

Driving down 80, we saw two large coyotes crossing the road. They looked very healthy with thick, bushy coats. Later in the night, returning to Quailway in the dark, we heard what sounded like 50 or more coyotes yipping and howling. It was an amazing sound. The perfect new song for the new year in our new home.

(Picture of our land taken from the water tower platform)