Nashville, TN

A few days after Christmas in 2021, my wife and I were visiting family in Utah. We discussed the idea of moving the boys to a place where the community and school district supported each other’s well-being. We weren’t expecting perfection. The goal was to find a community with good schools and a tendency of mutual respect.

Thirty-five days after that conversation, our boys started their first day of school in Nashville, TN.

Our intention was to move if the right community hugged us back, and (the people of) Nashville did.

I had a directing project in late January that got rescheduled after I was already in Nashville. I had come early to ensure I would be COVID-free for the shoot and to explore the schools for the boys.

SNOW

A few days into my Nashville visit, I heard myself saying, “It’s okay. I know how to drive in the snow.” The problem is that when no one else has tread and the plows hang out with unicorns, the only travel on the road is called “help me” or “help others.”

I hit the road to get coffee that morning. As I came around a corner, the traffic was stopped. A friendly voice in a truck behind me yelled, “If you go, I’ll go!” We proceeded to pull out well over thirty cars and trucks on the first day and quite a few more on the second day (the ice day).

I wanted coffee that day, but I ended up with a new friend, a positive take on the community’s willingness to help others, and countless thankful people.

HOUSE

As the snow cleared, we continued growing our list of homes to consider. My wife found what seemed to be the perfect house on a hill. I drove by, and we fell in love with it.

We REALLY wanted that place; it was very quiet and on a hill not very far from downtown Nashville.

Loud noises or constant sensory inputs wear me down, so the quiet part was pretty important in the place we found.

We called. No callback.
We messaged. No response.
We applied. No response.

We proceeded to drive by 1,487 homes in the Nashville area. That’s not true, but it felt like it.

I couldn’t stop thinking about the house on the hill. After finding just under zero other homes we felt were ideal for us, we reached out one more time, got a callback, and ultimately locked the house in. We were moving.

KENSTUCKY

I headed home on a Friday to get the family and our things. Well, I made it about 45 minutes.

My diesel truck basically said, “the truck doesn’t know if you have DEF fluid, so we’ll stop you here shortly.” For whatever it’s worth, the DEF was full.

I found a dealer, but their mechanic wouldn’t be in until Monday (like every other dealer on the weekend). On Monday, I learned the truck needed a part that was on backorder and had to be ordered through a “special parts” case through Chevrolet.

After reaching out to our local dealer, I confirmed this was standard protocol, so I sat tight. Nothing came through the next day, so I picked up the phone to start calling other dealers in the area. I found the part. I told the Kentucky dealer I found said part and would drive to go get it (one hour away). They said they coordinated and the part was on its way.

I waited multiple days (calling each day) with it not arriving. On Friday, they decided to inform me the other dealer had sold the part to someone else (which wasn’t true). They said we had to wait until Monday. Over the weekend, I found another part. They couldn’t work with that dealer.

I posted a pissed-off video (which I don’t typically do). Friends showed up, shared, and our local dealer worked to find us the part. They found yet another. The dealer in Kentucky told me they lost it… again.

This is the part where I started to REALLY get challenged with my whole expectations thing.

At this point, I was 12 days in. The community rallied around the video. We determined that the parts guy in Kentucky didn’t actually understand the process, and the original part I found that was one hour away was still being held for us. Our local dealer (Ed Bozarth Chevrolet) got the part to the Kentucky dealer in order to get me back on the road.

GOAL: GET THE BOYS IN A GOOD SCHOOL. ALSO, KENSTUCKY. ALSO, COVID.

When we said we were moving, I had multiple friends offer to help with the move. At that point, I didn’t realize they would end up doing 95% of it. After a week of “the truck’s almost ready,” I realized we needed to make progress in other ways.

We asked for help. Holy heck did we get it.

As friends boxed up the garage and production gear, my wife boxed up the house with some help from some of her friends until….

Side note: we had decided to pull our boys out of their school before we moved. Our goal was to keep the family COVID-free at least until we got to Nashville. Our youngest got COVID one of the last days he was in school, so the family was also quarantining in the house during the move out of the studio and garage.

After what seemed like the productive version of Taz the Tasmanian devil, a box truck and a suburban left Grand Junction to meet some other friends in Denver who towed the two trailers over the passes. Ultimately, I expected to make it home, but not being able to help showed how much support we had (from more people than showed up for the actual move).

CROSS COUNTRY & DODGING WEATHER

As I sat in Kentucky with a car rental and a broken truck, my friends were hauling two-thirds of our belongings across the windy, cold parts of the US that exist for things other than mountains.

A few days later, they showed up. As an understatement, we juggled a few things getting the trailers up the driveway; did I mention it’s on a hill? My friend I met while towing people out of snow came over to help us get the heavier trailer up the hill. The rental car was a Camaro SS and couldn’t handle it (primarily due to the lack of a hitch).

As we unloaded the trailers and box truck, I pretended to be a weather expert to determine just the right time for the family to leave our home in Grand Junction, CO. We had friends show up to move us into our home in Nashville. We had friends show up to drive across the country and back.

Our community is strong. Thank you all!

As the family left Grand Junction, CO, my friends who hauled things across the country headed out. One friend got to experience the lack of snow management in this area. A four-hour drive took at least four times longer, and at some point in his elongated journey, he got a photo of them going the other way and waved on their way to Nashville.

After a few nights, the family finally arrived. We slept in our own mattresses in a sea of unpacked boxes. It was the first time in way too long. It felt like home again.

The boys went to their new school and loved it. I asked my oldest how he liked it, and he said, “Everyone is SOOO nice. And, guess what, Dada? I didn’t see ANY bullies.”

As we all know, bullying moments happen everywhere. The fact that a lack of bullies was notable made me feel sad about where they came from and happy about where we were.

TRUCK’S READY!

I finally got word via carrier pigeon (faster than my corporate Chevrolet rep) that my truck was ready to pick up. We had one more load in Grand Junction with a ton of little details to figure out.

I stopped by Oklahoma City to pick up a PA for a friend (who also helped us out with the truck and trailer). I got back to a home that felt so strangely empty.

I travel all of the time for work. I’m used to feeling continually closer to the family when I’m headed to Grand Junction, CO. It was weird to reconcile the fact that the family was getting further away as I got closer to the place I used to call home.

I had a lot of items that overwhelmed me, but this trip was MOSTLY for my studio desk, instruments, amps, etc.

My friend who helped build my studio in Grand Junction had already deconstructed it for me. My other friends who helped haul cross country came over to help make sure it is packed safely and securely. After getting some much-needed disc golf rounds in, I hit the road as a snowstorm chased me over the rocky mountains. I felt tired, but I was excited to get home.

COVID AGAIN

On my way back to Nashville, I was listening to a report about Omicron symptoms, and it mentioned lower back pain. A few days earlier, I felt like I fell on my tailbone. Then it went away.

In the hotel that night, I decided to take a test. Positive for COVID. 4% more tired than usual and a VERY minor pain in my lower back. I get the asymptomatic thing.

The next morning, I tested again. More obviously positive this time.

I proceeded on to Nashville while calling anyone I had been in contact with; almost all were outside, and no one was worried about it.

After sleeping in my truck the second and final night of the trip, I made it home.

HOME-ISH

And, now I’m home. I’m staying in our RV waiting for my quarantine time to be finished. I started this journal I’ve been meaning to start for a while. I’m pretty happy about that. :)