Moving out, and Day One

Here I am, in a Best Western in Vernon, TX. We are FINALLY on the road!

But let me back up a little bit....

On Sunday, the moving truck came to get most of the household stuff. I was pleasantly surprised at what a cool trailer it was, too. I didn't get any very good pictures of it, although I tried to while still being casual. Haha. Anyway, the back of the semi had a ptarmigan on it, the back side had a moose in profile, then the lake with a bear in it (seen between the two moving guys) followed by the polar bear family at the front.

The estimates we got for weights from two different moving companies were evidently off by about 2000 pounds. Egads. We haven't gotten a final weight yet. James sums up the way we all were feeling:

The semi already had another family's stuff in it at the front. The movers partitioned it off and then loaded our stuff. Then it was time for Little Sweetie to be loaded in. The movers had a bit of fun joking about which trailer it was to go in - theirs, or U-Haul's.

Uuuuuup the ramp Little Sweetie goes, with Jim behind the wheel.

I could be a lot happier about the arrangements of the stuff around the car, especially considering that they are on their way to pick up yet another load in Wichita. But they assure me they've done this over and over and everything will be fine.

Fast forward to Tuesday. We spent all of Monday packing and straightening up the house, and then on Tuesday we loaded the trailer and both vehicles full of paraphernalia and pets and headed out. Several hours later than we'd hoped, but at least we're out the door, right? But I have to say, if it weren't for Jim's dad Big Jim, we probably wouldn't have made our deadline to get out of the house on the 30th at all. As it was, we were frantically throwing things away and giving things away and lightening the load as much as we possibly could. Big Jim stayed behind to make not one but two round-trips to unload the house and take the stuff to Forney where he lives, then come back and get another load. What a blessing. Mwah, Big Jim!

Surprisingly, I didn't cry on the way out of town, but Jim did. He's already missing having his dad handy. It's not like they saw each other very often, but at least it was more of a possibility up until yesterday than it will be from now on.

We left The Colony around 6:45 on the 30th. We drove as far as Vernon and stopped at the Best Western, where we were glad to find Tate welcome. Here we are in the hotel, playing with finger puppets from the travel snack/entertainment kits Amy G gave each of us (including Tate!). Thank you, Amy!

Jim, unpacking his goodie bag from Amy:

Tate seems to like her first time in a hotel. Our budgies seem to be okay with it, too, although they're not smiling as big as Tate.

There were a few bumps in the plans to getting out of the house, and I hope there are no worse bumps in the days ahead of us. We're on our way to a whole new adventure and new way of life. Thank you to everyone who helped and supported us as we planned and stressed and carried on.

I'll write more in the days to come, as I get time and internet access. Next stop - Bayfield, Colorado to visit my Mom, Stan, and sister Carla and her family. Maybe I'll be able to write from there.

And now, a final Thank You to the people who went out of their way to help us in our Wild Ride:

Team Yarnell, who helped us empty the storage unit in record speed and moved boxes like professionals;

Scott and Jane, who offered us a place to sleep should we happen to need it, and who will be helping with our trash cans until the new owners take over the house;

The Stiblers, who fed us a lovely steak dinner on the 29th and provided an island of sanity in all the hectic activity we were going through;

Amy G, my soul sister, for her encouragement during the years and months this whole thing was in the works. For talking me off the ledge more times than once. For the packing materials for which we blessed her name every day. And for goodie bags for the road;

For James, who worked his hiney off without complaint;

For Jim, whose whole idea this thing was;

And again, for Big Jim, who is even now at this hour spending long hours on the road cleaning out our garage for us.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. {{hugs}}