So, on April 28 (just three short months after finding out this move was only a possibility), we made final preparations for our move.
We did final things in the house. Take things off the walls, repair every little nail hole we could find, repaint, etc. We went down the list and made sure everything was done.
In the weeks before, we made our moving plans with a local company. In addition, we had two wonderful friends who would take time off work to be with the packers and the movers. God bless them!
We had to do things like change our address and make a plan with our relators there and finalize closing plans.
We woke up to rain the morning of April 29th. We packed the truck the best we could, loaded our brood of dogs and said a tearful goodbye to our home. Honestly, it felt like we were leaving a piece of ourselves.
Maybe it was the dreary rain or maybe it was just the raw emotion, there wasn't a moment of our long trip that felt ok to either of us. I don't think we've ever had such an emotional road trip. We drove in rain about 3/4 of the trip, with the rain stopping only through Illinois.
It was the beginning and an end. We took turns crying, being excited, being scared, encouraging the other and a feeling a lot displaced.
After our GPS took us on a 30 minute extra drive through a winding forest, hilly road, we finally made it to our new home at about 9:30 that night. Driving without stopping, the trip is about 10.5 hours. With three dogs and a husband with a peanut bladder, it took about 12.5 hours.
We did our final walk through in the house. We were so disgusted by what we saw, but I will get to that in the next post.
For three nights, we stayed at the only hotel in the next town over. Ick! That's all I can say.
Wednesday morning, we signed and took possession of our new home. We spent the next several hours driving from one utility company to another transferring service to our name.
Meanwhile, our stuff was being packed. We had packed up a good deal of the excess stuff in preparation and to better show our house. However, we had left all the bigger and more fragile items.
Six young men spent about 10 hours wrapping, securing, taping and packing the rest of our stuff.
We were told to take all valuables with us. Either faith or ignorant bliss left me feeling secure to leave most everything except a few jewelry items, wedding photos and important paperwork. However, after arriving in Ohio, that STUFF started to feel like a part of us. Anxiety overload would soon set in.
At 8 am on Thursday morning, the young men would return to finish packing and begin loading two box moving trucks and the car. At about 8 pm, they finally finished.
At 9 pm, the owner called to confirm they were starting the drive at about 9:30 pm. Two of them would make the journey to Ohio. We spent most of Friday a bit nervous and anxious for the missing pieces of us to arrive.
At 8 pm on Friday evening, the caravan arrived. We were quite impressed that the 2 of them unloaded every bit of our stuff in 6 hours.
By about 11 pm, we were all tired and losing track of what went where. By 2 am, everything was being put in the barn. Something we would later regret.
Despite our exhaustion, we were sad to see the movers go. They were our last face to face contact with anyone remotely familiar.
But, we would head to bed and try to get some sleep before tackling a lifetime of stuff in boxes.
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