Things Get Real

What a strange week this is turning out to be. On Friday, my husband and I went to our respective last days of work. He experienced a mixture of relief and sorrow; he was ready to relinquish all his responsibilities, but he had been with Job Corps for 15 years and that's a long time to build a family with the people you work with. On my last day, a friend took me out for lunch and everyone told me how much I'll be missed around the office. Well, what do you say? It's been good, but it's time to move on.

This week we seem to be stumbling around in some kind of in-between place. It FEELS like we're on vacation. We sleep in til 7 a.m. My husband lets his beard grow. I pack a box here, a box there. But we're not totally panicking about our time line for getting out of the house. My husband thinks we're in good shape when it comes to packing, so I have to trust him. The boxes are piling up in the garage. I asked him today how big the garage was, just so I could visualize all that stuff fitting in our 28-ft U-Haul. I'm alarmed at how much tool stuff there is. Will we have to make some cruel decisions when it comes to loading the truck? His wood lathe vs. my piano? There are many, many boxes of books. I don't feel too badly about that, however, since his Louis Lamour collection is in there and that's 89 pleather hardback books. What doesn't fit will be dumped or donated. Again, my husband thinks we'll have plenty of room in the truck. I gotta trust him.

Today I went out to lunch with another friend and got the oil changed in the car. It felt like a Saturday or one of those days before I started back to work full time. There's just something about driving around in the middle of the day that makes me feel like I'm on vacation or playing hookey. I made some phone calls. St Vincent dePaul will drive up from Florence to pick up our furniture on July 27. We're donating the couch, recliner, end tables, buffet and any other odds and ends I can persuade the guys with the truck to take. We pick up the U-Haul July 28 and will say goodbye to our little house for the last time on the 29th.

Most of my time today has been spent on the computer. I've been in charge of mapping out our route, and it's been a booger. Our thought is to stay in KOAs and other developed campgrounds along the way; we figure it will be easier with our dog Brody along, and we'll be assured of a hot shower at the end of a sweaty day. We get the U-Haul for 10 days, but have decided to pay for extra days up front. Since we're making a cross-country move in the middle of the summer, I figure we might as well pretend it's a vacation! I've designed the route so that we don't drive more than six hours a day, or around 300 miles if we average 50 mph. There are some shorter days when we're visiting kinfolks. So, if we leave here July 29 and if we follow the route I've figured out, we'll pull into Crestview August 8 and have a day to unload the truck.

This afternoon, I've been calling and emailing campgrounds to see if they can accommodate our RV and offer parking for the U-Haul. What would we do without the Internet? I can't imagine gathering all this information and making all these choices without access to the Web. Every time I changed the route, I went back to look for campgrounds in our new overnight locations. It's a lot of work, but hopefully it will pay off as we roll across the country without a hitch. The KOA site, by the way, is excellent. I've never been impressed with their "kampgrounds" but their site even makes a couple of scrawny trees by a concrete pad look appealing. I'm going to miss my Internet connection when we move. I'll use my stepmother's connection for email, but it won't be the same. I'll experience information amputation! Ouch.

This week I'm supposed to take the RV out for a spin. I've never driven the "rig" so that should be entertaining. We've also talked about going camping in the middle of the week when the tourists aren't hogging all the spaces. That's what I meant about this feeling like something of a vacation. Yes, there are calls to make and things to do, but we're really not feeling overwhelmed. That's a good thing. If we can just keep the vibe going through the entire move, that will be excellent.

If you're interested in our itinerary, here it is: July 29 - Troutdale, OR; July 30 - La Grande, OR; July 31 - Caldwell, ID; Aug 1 - Evanston, WY; Aug 2 - Cheyenne, WY; Aug 3 - Grand Island, NE; Aug 4 - Clinton, MO; Aug 5 - Ft Smith, AR; Aug 6 - Shreveport, LA; Aug 7 - Meridian, MS; Aug 8 - Crestview, FL. As always, this is subject to revision.