Driving Cross Country: Part 3

Today should be our last day of driving! I really enjoyed the trip until last night. We had smooth sailing until we got into Illinois. And while I don't want to blame the state itself for the weather, it seems like it got colder, darker and ICIER as soon as we crossed the border. Eduardo said he was fine, but I could feel my car sliding. It felt like the back of it was swinging to the left or right in certain spots, and I just didn't feel right. But at the same time huge semi's and tons of cars were flying past me (and Eduardo since he had to wait for me). We ended up stopping after a particularly bad patch at a Love's. I kind of felt like I was making it up, since everyone else on the road seemed to be fine (including Eduardo), but I was unable to convince myself of that. And I wasn’t willing to bet my life, or someone else’s on it either. I felt even more convinced once we got back on the freeway and the road got the worst I felt it had been, i.e. I was slipping and sliding and counter steering, and telling Eduardo to slow down, and then up ahead we saw a car off the road in the median, and a pickup in the ditch to the right. Apparently I wasn't the only one slipping. It was really stressful.

But the whole day before that went by great, and fast. It didn't take too long to get out of Nebraska, and in the morning I was able to watch flocks of geese flying north. There were tons of them, all going the same direction.

You learn interesting things while on the road. Things you wouldn't normally. I learned that Eduardo would rather be stuck in a room of beavers than raccoons. I learned that the biggest city in Wyoming is not so big, I learned there is a Robert Henri museum in Nebraska, and that John Wayne was born in DeSoto Iowa. I learned that my and Eduardo's speedometers are about 5 mph off.

You observe things you normally wouldn't as well. In Wyoming it was the sky, In Nebraska it was definitely the ducks/geese and the tumbleweeds. In North Island, Nebraska I noticed a truck driver calling into the local radio station to request "If I Can't Have You" sung by Yvonne Ellimen.

And you spend a lot of time thinking about random things. I thought some time about shiny things. The ducks were shiny as the flew overhead. The cornstalks were shiny in the fields. I thought about coffee, and the fact I'd only seen 4 Starbucks the whole way, one in Fairfield, one in North Platte, one in Lincoln, and one somewhere between the Mississippi and here. I thought about how the scrubby brush of the west had slowly given way to grasslands. And I thought about the buffalo that once would have been abundant in such a place. I thought about how annoyed I am that we still call Native Americans "Indians". I'm even more annoyed that Columbus didn't believe it when people told him he hadn't actually reached India. What a stupid mistake to persist so long. I thought about the fact that there wasn't a single tall building between Salt Lake City and Lincoln Nebraska. I thought about all the times I've thought it would be fun to go on a road trip and eat only at diners all along the way. I thought about how that did not work with my resolution to eat healthier once we left California. I thought about why someone at exit 292 in Iowa would decide to name their restaurant "Machine Shed Cafe".

After several days on the road, it is actually possible to get so caught up in these strange wonderings and observations that you actually forget you are driving. I lost about 40 miles in the middle of the day yesterday, just because I was so busy pondering   how desperate people must have been to give up their lives and civilization and become a pioneer and head out here without cars and highways.  

I also composed a couple of pretty good (I think) haiku. I listened to music for a while, but I found it distracting. And I realized that most of the CD albums I have only really have 1 or 2 at most songs on them I like. So now I am considering adding the few good ones to my iTunes and trashing the rest.

And that is how I spent my time. I am anxious to get to our destination today, mostly because of the roads and the weather. I could handle driving longer, but the icy road stress gets old really fast.

Eduardo is taking his time this morning, and it's just as well. Assuming the roads are OK, we should get there around 5 or 6 tonight. We had a great night at our hotel last night, and we got almost the last room here! Everyone had to get off the road, I-94 was closed up in Michigan , and the roads were icy. But we lucked out. We had a great hot tub that was super hot (and great for my frayed nerves), and we had dinner at The Cracker Barrel! My salad has a piece of plastic in it, so they gave me my meal for free. And we have a great room that we are taking full advantage of.

I'm a little nervous about getting back on the road, but anxious to do so as well. I don't think we will go to the house today, but we definitely will head over there tomorrow. Only one more day till we get started on our fixer-upper. I can't wait to start this new, new adventure! We just have to make it there first!

Driving Cross Country: Part 2

We are half way there! Actually we are more than half way. We are in Gioethsburg Nebraska, which is pretty much in the middle of nowhere.We drove 1400 miles in two days, and besides really high winds for ALL of Wyoming, it's not been to bad. But according to the Weather Channel there is a winter storm headed our way (well, actually it's headed away from us but we will be driving into it) named Winter Storm Rex! Just like our little Rexy!

It's been going really well. I've been tired of course, and I worry about our stuff getting stolen out of our cars when we sleep at night, but those are normal things I think when driving across the country.  Today we hope to make it to Michigan. It really helps having the walkie-talkies to communicate while we are driving. I would totally recommend them to anyone who has to caravan by themselves in their vehicles. We have been using them all day, everyday.

I have been enjoying the drive, really. It's been quiet except for when I am chatting with Eduardo, and I've had plenty of time to think, and observe, and enjoy every aspect of the drive (at least when I'm not white knuckle driving through 50 mph winds;) and it's been great. I've even written a couple haiku (well I audio recorded them and wrote them down later)

We are getting a bit of a late start today. Well, actually Eduardo is. He didn't wake up until 7:45. But that's local time. At home it was only 5:45. That's ok though. We figure we have 15 hours left (let's say 18 for bad weather), and two days to make it, so we are not in a big hurry.

Eduardo is giving me evil looks, and lifting his eyebrows in a weird way, and being distracting to me while I am trying to write so I'm going to stop now.

Driving Cross Country: Part 1

The Big Push!

All my art!

Yesterday was officially "truck loading day". The driver dropped the trailer off before 8:00. I figured they'd take longer so I was in the bath when it arrived. I got out without even conditioning my hair. Then we went to Panera for coffee. Eduardo still hadn't cleaned out his truck, or unloaded his tools. So he worked on cleaning his truck while I started loading boxes. Then he went to get Pillo, his friend, and a dolly, and I kept loading. I had most of the boxes on the truck before Eduardo got back. I don't know what took so long. Anyway, his friend Juan surprised us both and came over to help too, in fact he got here before Eduardo even got back! We were not planning on any help, and we ended it with two extra guys! How lucky is that? It was really nice of them to spend their day off helping us carry couches and barbecue grills and stuff, and I'm sure we will be forever grateful.So the three of them were able to load all the big stuff, which was awesome!

We paid for 7 feet of space on the truck, and we really don't want to go over it, because every foot was $100, and it went by 2 foot intervals. It took some serious finessing, but I think we were able to fit everything in! I did most of the organizing, and I think it works best that way, with only one person taking charge. I had a whole strategy mapped out though, including stacking boxes of like kind. (I dreamed last night we were loading the truck and we had to try it several different ways before I figured it out, which was very useful today!) We kept working all afternoon.

Around four Eduardo's mom had an unexpected emergency, so he took off again, to go take care of her. Thankfully she was OK. I stayed home and continued to pack up boxes and clean. I didn't stop, I figured I'd quit when Eduardo got backWhen Eduardo still wasn't home by 7:00 I changed my mine. I decided to take a bath. My feet were killing me, and I was tired of working all by myself. I was beat!

 When Eduardo did get home we went straight to Mom's to jump start her car, and load the pick up with a few things she was planning on bringing over here. We unloaded it when we got home. By that time it was almost 10:00 and I was so tired I could barely keep my eyes open. I pretty much went straight to bed, which happens to be on our bedroom floor because the mattress has already been loaded onto the truck.

I don't know if all of our stuff will survive the journey in one piece. I'd like to think so, but when the guys started piling more stuff on top (to fill in all the empty spaces) I worry that they might have exceeded the weight limit of some of the boxes I'd placed below, or scratch some of the furniture. I tried to explain that several times, but they kept doing it. Oh well, there is nothing I can do about it now. And if things hadn't been piled, then we'd have to pay for more space in the truck which we didn't want to do anyway.

We aren't quite done yet with the packing, but we are getting close. All of my art work still needs to be loaded into either my or Eduardo's vehicle. Maybe both. I have a lot of art! I kind of thought I did, but when I see it all piled in the living room it's really obvious.

I didn't sleep well, but only because I am not used to sleeping on the floor I imagine. It feels so much harder than I remember it being as a kid! I was up early because of it, but I do feel rested, mentally anyway. My body on the other hand is pretty sore from lifting boxes. My legs and forearms and even my fingers are all a little achy this morning. Oof, my biceps too apparently. They will have plenty of time to rest on the drive back east.

We are supposed to leave tomorrow morning, but now Eduardo is sounding like he wants to wait until Saturday. I guess it really doesn't matter to me except I just don't want this to be a long dragged out departure. I'd prefer it to be quick and over as soon as possible. That way we can focus on what's ahead. But we'll see.

 *It's now...8:30. Eduardo got done with my car and brought it home before taking off again. I ran a bunch of errands including picking up my watch from the jeweler, getting a couple beer kits to start us off in Michigan, getting gas, and walkie-talkies....Except for Vic Sauce I think I got everything on my list, and I'm done and ready to go!!!!

Eduardo came home and brought his mom and we all went up to see Tere, his sister and the kids before we go. We had a nice dinner, and showed them pictures from when we were in Alaska. When we said our goodbyes I felt like they thought they would never see us again. Tere even took a picture of us! I think a long time ago that would make sense. But in this day and age, and with air travel what it is, we'll see them in a couple months probably. I am hoping maybe all the kids can come out this summer to visit, and so while I must admit that it made me sad to say goodbye, I don't really believe it will be that long until we are all together again. And that makes me happy.

We decided on the drive home, since Eduardo has that meeting at 11:00 tomorrow, and it's Valentine's Day, that we will stay the extra night and take both our Mom's out for Valentine's dinner at the Cheesecake Factory before we leave. It will be a nice fun evening, and hopefully it won't be too sad or emotional on anyone’s part.

So that's it. One more day, and then we are out of here! 

The truck.

Everything we own in 7' of space.

Eduardo cramming the last things in.

Ready for pick up!

Our makeshift bed.

Packing Up

I don't really feel like writing now, but I think it's important that I do. We are home. We got back from Alaska last night.

Today we started at 8:30. The light here is more normal, so it was a bit of an adjustment for it to be daylight at nine. But we spend the whole day packing. There is so much stuff.  I thought we had most of it packed, but there is so much more! If you can imagine it, we spent 10 solid hours putting things in boxes. And there is still more to go. This morning I observed the stack of boxes that Eduardo brought home and I was sure that we had too many. Now I am not so sure.

I don't feel sentimental anymore about our apartment. I'm over it. I've exhausted those thoughts, and right now we have way too much to do anyway, so it's just as well. I have passed the point of sentimentality. See, that's why I freak out early before anything happens, so I am ready with my game face on when it comes to crunch time!

But in this very moment our former home is stacked with boxes, and it's lost it's familiarity. I kind of feel like I am in a hotel...a really messy hotel because all of my shit packed but everywhere and waiting for the moving truck.

So this is officially the night before EVERYTHING will be packed and loaded. This is the last night I'll be in my bed, in the place I've called home for the past 4 years. I'm just on the cuff. Right now is the end of one adventure. And tomorrow heralds another. And I won't be able to do this tomorrow. Literally. Because my bed will no longer be here. And I don't know how long from now I will next sleep in it either! 

I sometimes feel like there should be some kind of ceremony for these kind of "last" moments, but I'm not sure why. Why should the last time be different from the 5th or 87th time you did something? None the less I often do feel like they should be memorialized or something. Fireworks or a 3 gun salute or something, maybe a photo or a poem. I guess I'll just have to live with Eduardo's Karen Carpenter Pandora station and the piles of boxes.

Right now all I want to do is get everything on the truck, and get to Michigan in one piece. That is my goal. It's time to get out of here.

Everything is harder when you are still in it. It's much easier when it becomes the past. It's hard sometimes to get to that point, but once it's over and gone, well...I find it's much easier to to not look back once you've made the decision not to. Life isn't only about what you feel. Sometimes it just boils down to what you choose, and your willingness to embrace your choices and see them through.

The moving truck!

One big pile of stuff.

Make sure to label everything...

Give Me a Break!

Dog sleding in Alaska!

I haven't written much about the house since I've been up here in Alaska, but that is a good thing. I needed the break. And a break I've had. When you are 250 miles from the nearest Starbucks, and your cell phone doesn't work, there is not much else you can do but let things go and relax. Getting to pet my sled puppies everyday has been therapeutic too, and like most vacations, being up here has given me some perspective on my life that I probably would not have been able to have otherwise.

And that is the best thing. I can easily see how moving and house buying can be stressful, especially with the difficulties we've had. But there is also some part of me that  thinks if you are going to do it at all, you should enjoy it. The trick is, when you are in the thick of it, it's near impossible to step back and think to yourself "Oh yeah, this is fun."

But having a two week break between buying the house, and getting everything packed up and hitting the road, has been really great. If we would have headed out to Michigan right away, I'm afraid I would have been a mess. The drive would have been stressful, I would have still been all anxious because of the messy closing. But now I am ready. I feel super excited to get everything packed up. I feel excited and refreshed and ready to get to Michigan and get to work on the house! And instead of stressful pressure to get things done, I am now feeling happily anxious to get things started.

I am sure most people can't take a two week vacation to the middle of nowhere between buying their first house and moving. But if they could, I'd certainly recommend it. I think it was the best thing I could have done.  

Real Estate Drama: Return of the Homeowner

Victory Beers!!!

I was trying to type on the plane, but my wireless keyboard doesn't work in airplane mode, and it was slow and I never did get to finish my entry after they came around with the drink cart. And now we are in Alaska! So I have been busy chillin' with my bro. (That means spending time with my littlest brother;)

Anyway, getting back to the story, at 7:00 am on the day we left I got a call from the receiving bank. They asked me for Eduardo's social, and his drivers license number. I asked if they needed anything else, and the woman I was speaking with said there was nothing left to ask besides what shoe size he was. I told her I could give it to her if she thought it would help. I think she was joking. I was not.

After that we waited, hoping for a quick resolution, and finished up our packing. By the time we got to the airport there was still no word. We went through security and found a bar that was surprisingly open in the early morning. We grabbed a couple seats at the bar top of Original Joe's, and ordered a couple beers from a disinterested looking bartender, and still no news.

We were trying to make the most of things, but it was so ridiculous that we even felt the need to do so! I mean we were at the airport heading off to wild Alaska! We had both just completed our last days of work! We were both at a bar having a beer at 8:00 on a Tuesday morning! Making "the most" of it should have been easy. But it wasn't. We were doing our best though....and the beer at 8:30 am helped a little too. That's how warped things get when you are under pressure and stress I guess. It's an ugly thing, and I don't like it. A beer at 8:30 am shouldn’t require anyone’s “best” effort.

Anyway about nine, Eduardo was on the phone with his mom when I received a text from our agent. "The wire has been received and funded!!! You now own a home!!!" And just like that, sitting in an airport bar, on our way to Alaska, we became first time home owners. It was so shocking that the money finally went through I didn't even know what to think. Eduardo looked relieved, but I was having a more difficult time processing the news. Of course I let Dad, Mom, and everyone know. But it took....almost all the way to Fairbanks for it to sink in to the point that my jaw was able to release, and the frown lines on my forehead to relax. It took another couple days for that weird weighted "you must DO something NOW" feeling to lift.

Now I feel pretty excited. I haven't been thinking about it too much since I've been up here though, which I think is good. I need a little break. And I don't want to spend my whole vacation thinking about the house. I'll have plenty of time to do that when we get to Michigan.

The whole house buying experience was not enjoyable for me. I hate to say it, but it's true. But it was also a learning experience. And while it took three times longer than it should to close, I am glad we were able to get it squared away before heading up here to Alaska. Now I am free to enjoy my wonderful, beautiful vacation, and still have a house to come to when we head back east in a couple weeks. 

My actual text from the Agent!

Eduardo was on the phone with his mom when we received the news!