Move to Rockford, IL is on

[Grandffiti_Central_Station]

Well, my wife got the offer she was wanting and sigend the contract. We are moving to Rockford end of June. Hopefully I will meet up with some of you while out and about railfanning in the northern Illinois, southern Wisconsin, area. We are really looking forward to it. I can't wait to get back to selling at the Great Midwest Train show down in Dupage again. We used to travel over every month for it. That was always a great weekend and I can't wait to get started back at doing those shows every month.

Once we get settled in I will get the studio set up and any in the area that want to drop by are welcome. I will probably have about 30-40 originals up on the walls at any one time. The first year we are there we will be in an apartment until we can find just he right house. I want something with a large basement to house both my studio and gallery. Also need a large back yard. So, we will take our time and find just the right palce, in the right neighborhood. However, we will be in a 3 bedroom apartment, so I will still have the studio set up over that first year.

Going to be swamped until the move. A lot of the packing is already done and stored. But, I have 9 more drawings to complete before going. Time is going to fly by with a schedule like that.

Look forward to meeting some of you.

[THarms77]

Congrats on the finalizing of the move!!!
Currently weatherwise Rockford may be a little better, but not much :)
Welcome to Rockford (come June)

[Grandffiti_Central_Station]

Thank you! Yeah we got hammered yesterday. Not as bad as some places back east have been getting it this winter though. But we got a foot of snow and the winds were about 40-50mph which made for whiteout conditons. We had 4-6 foot snow drifts everywhere. Everything was shut down. The parking lots look like the Rocky Mountains with plowed piles over 10 feet high. This was around our 3rd major snow in the past 30 days, just when you can start to see the ground again from the melt we get hit again. I can't tell you how glad I will be to see the backside of this winter. I have been keeping track of weather over there. You all seem to be about that same as us, get hit by the same storms, both winter and summer. The only difference it seems is about 10 degrees cooler there, on average, during the summer without all the humidity we get here as well. That will be a relief.

[fitz]

Lance, good luck with the move, new environs and I hope you do a great business in Illinois. :teeth:

[Grandffiti_Central_Station]

Thank you! We really are looking forward to it. Omaha is nice but for my business we are smack dab in the middle of nowhere. We have lived here for almost 9 years, the people are great but we know we can do far better over there. That is why we did so much traveling to Illinois, I do really well there. It is about my best state for sales except California. After living in the SW most of my life I have no desire to head back down that way. This is our second major move together, and hopefully the last. We moved to Omaha from Albuquerque, I was born there and lived there all my life until the move up here. My wife is orignally from Colorado but lived in Abq. for 10 years. So, this will be her 3rd major move. Now with a 2 year old in tow we need to put down roots.

Lance, good luck with the move, new environs and I hope you do a great business in Illinois. :teeth:

[Grandffiti_Central_Station]

Well, it has been a while since I posted this thread but the time is almost upon us. Next weekend we are making a run over to Rockford with a moving truck with all the items going to storage. Then 2 weeks after that the final move happens. We found a really nice condo in the NE part of town and are looking forawrd to getting to know the area better. Lotta work to do though before the dust settles. Seems we have twice as much stuff to move this time than when we came with to Omaha from Albuquerque 9 years ago. And, that is even after a garage sale, Goodwill donations and 3 full industrial dumpsters filled for trash. It is amazing how much clutter one can pick up.

Anyway, that is the reason for the lack of any new drawings. Look for some new posts of new stuff in August.

[THarms77]

Thanks for the update!!! I was wondering the other day on when you were moving. I was thinking it was early summer.

Tim

[Grandffiti_Central_Station]

We have been over there probably half a dozen times in the past 6 months getting everything finalized. Second place we looked at to rent for a condo we took. That is much quicker than we we came to Omaha. It tooks us 3 days of looking all day, each day, before we found something we liked in Omaha. The storage unit was a real find as well. It is in a warehouse, climate controlled and extremely secure and reasonable in price. So, things really just fell into place for this move. Will just be glad when July is finally here and we are there for good and all the work is behind us.

[BNSF7173]

Good luck with the move! Tina and I are still unpacking from our more move from Rockford to Champaign. Property is super cheap in Rockford so I'm sure you'll find a house like you want. Tina and I visit up north once in a while, so maybe I might stop in and beg you to do some B&M art!:angel:

Welcome to the Land of Lincoln!

[Grandffiti_Central_Station]

BNSF7173....
Come on by whenever you are in town. We will be there offically after next Wednesday.

We took a 15' truck over, loaded, with all the stuff that went to storage last week. Tomorrow we are driving over one of the cars to leave there and coming back. Just over and back on the same day, about 14 hours on the road and close to 950 miles but at least it will make things easier for next week.

The movers come next monday to load the last truck and then we drive over next Tuesday.

Pretty tired but it will get done.

[Flash Blackman]

You can drive over to Harvard, ride the Metra to Chicago, railfan all day and then ride back to Harvard to drive home. (I think Harvard is pretty close to Rockford?)

[Grandffiti_Central_Station]

Well, the move is over. We are now offically here in Rockford. Just about have everything unpacked and am going to set the studio up this week. Look for some new shots of new works in progress soon.

[THarms77]

WELCOME TO ROCKFORD!!!! "The nuts & bolts capital of the world" It's said that we have the most machines shops that make nuts & bolts. Most are for the auto industry.

Just a little FYI

Tim