Move II

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Leaving Behind the Rain and Clouds
This was it. After 13 years of living in Seattle (albeit many different locations within the city) I would be leaving the Pacific Northwest for a long, long time. It was time to move on, and this move entailed packing up my belongings, my bikes and my cats and heading south. I would start anew in the Bay Area. Mountain View, to be exact. I had made arrangements to rent out my house to a fellow motorcyclist from ADV so I knew that it would be in good hands.

August Seattle, WA to Mountain View, CA Tickets: 0 Mishaps: 0 Puckers: 0
I picked up the Budget truck Thursday morning and had it parked in front of the house until it was time to start moving stuff around. I was suprised at the difference in cost between Uhaul and Budget. Unfortunately, I think it falls into the "name as an object" sort of thing, like "Kleenex" and "Xerox". People just assume that when you move, you get a Uhaul. I saved quite a bit of money by calling around, and the service and equipment was just as good. Dan flew into Seattle Thursday night and Friday morning we started the task of making all of the boxes fit into the truck. I had packed just about everything I owned and it stood in an orderly line in the garage. All we had to do was fit it into the truck and we could be on our way!

Most everything is out of the house	Leaving some things behind for my new tenant

The truck is in position!	But first, breakfast

Moving the VFR out of the living room	The truck, and Dan, ready to go

Loading in the goods	Dan secures the front half of the load

Checking out the secured load	Preparing to tie down the bikes

Dan plans his revenge on the leaking plant	That's it!

And what's left behind in the garage, with a couple of last-minute items
Now the truck was packed, the car trailer loaded and the cats tucked away inside the car. It was time to go. Saturday morning we did some last minute things (like loading the cats) and eventually we were heading south on I-5. This is where we'd stay for most of the next 17.5 hours, the total amount of time it took to make this trip. A couple of gas stops, some food stops and some very slow going up over some mountain passes added to the length of the trip. Dan and I took turns driving with no particular division of time other than "it's your turn." At a rest stop break we were quite the hit, as many others in the parking lot were heading to Burning Man. With the unusual bug in town, they thought that we might be as well. I laughed and said that the kitties might not approve of the detour to the Nevada desert, not to mention that I really just wanted to get "home". Because of our late start and the slow going, we didn't pull into Mountain View until almost 3am. Add some time to unload our illicit kitties and appropriate kitty-supplies and it was almost 4am before we got to bed. Friends were due at 10am the next morning to help unload so it would be a short night's rest.

Heading out of Seattle, with Mt Rainier watching	And we immediately hit traffic

Beautiful weather over Grants Pass	Mt Shasta in the distance

The bug was quite a hit at rest stops	Trying to keep the sun off of the cats

Being passed by semis on Sikiyou Pass	I don't know what's more amusing: the reflection or the oncoming truck

Even I pack my bike better than that!	Dinner break somewhere in Oregon
I am fortunate that I already had many, many friends in the Bay Area before even moving there, thanks to the motorcycle forums I post to. Six friends ended up coming over to help haul boxes and furniture out of the truck and up the one flight of stairs into the apartment. With so many hands the work went fairly quickly. I tried to have a label on every box so that whomever was carrying it knew exactly where it was to go and that helped out quite a bit. Once the truck was empty we all retired to the only open space left: the balcony. Here we sat around the lit grill and ate burgers and beans and drank cold beverages. Ahhh - it was nice to have everything moved.

Jim is the first fool to show up to help with the unpacking	Dan contemplates unpacking it all

What? The tv's not that big!	Wooo! Last piece!

The wonderful crew that helped me move in
While Dan went to work on Monday, I started the challenge of making everything "fit". We had decided earlier what should be able to fit into the apartment and now it was just a matter of seeing if we had been right. I shoved couches and futons and bookcases around numerous times, trying to get them in the optimal positions.

What I was left with after the moving crew went home	More mess

Mess, continued	Yet more mess
Tuesday Dan continued to work while I continued to move things around. This time I worked on unpacking boxes and making more space by taking the empty boxes out onto the balcony. It was shaping up slowly.

The next day, getting started on it	Organizing boxes to unpack

Pookie approves of the bookcase placement	I cut wood to cover up the (extra) tub for more useful space

Look what I found when I unpacked the dresser!!!	Becca is obviously worn out from the move
By the end of Wednesday I was pretty much satisfied. Sure, there are a few more things to take care of, but for the most part everything that needed a home, had one. Dan expressed his admiration when he got home from work that day. All of this work in the apartment had been compounded by two things: the apartment complex was performing a routine maintenance check and I had to make sure that any kitty evidence was not visible. The second thing was the unusual heat that the bay area was experiencing. I was working in temperatures that were well into the 90's for all of these days and it really made it tiring. But now that I'm done working, the weather has broken and we're back to more normal temperatures, for which I'm very thankful.

Moto gear welcomes visitors	No more room for Pookie on the bookcase

Well, this is pretty much it	Another view, with the balcony in the background

The eating "nook"	Looking through the kitchen
Now that the apartment was done on the inside, it was time to find out just where I had moved to. I took advantage of the "nice weather" and went for a walk to downtown Mountain View, maybe a 10-15 minute walk, and scoped out the stores that are there. Most everything seems to be either a place to eat or a place to get your nails done, but overall it's a clean and pleasant place. Coming back to the apartment I decided that I deserved a dip in the pool, which felt fabulous in the heat.

The bikes under the shelter of the carport	The VW safely tucked away

The walkway leading to our front door	The second floor is ours

The fabulous pool	Mmm - hot tub

City Hall and the Performing Arts Center	Downtown Mountain View
So now that I'm moved in, the kitties have escaped detection and the holiday weekend is almost over I now have the next task before me: to find a job. I think I'd rather unpack the apartment again!