It is hard to get away when you have animals. Chicken sitters are few and far between (at least good ones). That's awesome you're helping a little guy get started with his first flock!
44 is a big flock, I've never gone over 19 and that was a handful. But it's easy to get attached and it would be hard to decide who goes and who stays.
My family was always crazy about the mountains but I'm an ocean/beach lover. Figures that once I moved to Florida, I'd end up married to a guy that gets a job in the Wyoming mountains.