Packing

We were fortunate that Dan's company (the reason for the move in the first place) was providing people to come and pack up our stuff, toss it into a truck and then, a week later, unload it into our new house. This meant that everytime someone asked me "Are you all packed?" I just smiled and said "No". I've moved plenty of times in my life but this was the first time it would be "effortless" for me. The movers showed up on Thursday the 20th and put everything into boxes. Then they came back the next day and put all of the boxes into the truck. This last step also included our two cars and three motorcycles. What we were left with at the end of the day were three cats, an inflatable mattress and a couple of folding lawn chairs in an otherwise empty apartment. We had made previous plans to flee the empty apartment for a weekend in San Francisco, and then on Monday we'd fly to LA to pick up our RV. Why an RV? And why LA? Well, the RV made sense in the transportation of the three cats and besides, it would be fun to drive across the country (again), but this time in five days instead of 42 hours. And LA - because it was where the extraodinarily good deal was located on a one-way rental. We saved so much money by flying down to get it that it more than paid for the cost of the plane tickets and the gas to get back to Mountain View. So Monday morning we got a ride from a friend to the airport, flew to Long Beach where other friends of ours picked us up to have lunch and then dropped us off at the RV rental place. Eventually Dan and I were settled into our new "mobile home" for the next week and driving north. Tuesday morning we put the cats into the RV, tucked in a few more things that the movers hadn't/wouldn't take and we were off! It wasn't to be an exciting trip. The idea was to take I-40 across the southern states, see something we hadn't seen before (the southeast), visit my sister in Tennessee and then be in our driveway on Sunday. No sightseeing allowed, other than what we saw from the RV. It was time to go "home".

Day 1

We left around 10am, the cats set in their own kennels and Dan and I taking turns at the wheel. The RV was rediclously easy to drive, smaller than most SUVs on the road. The cats were quiet, the traffic light and once we were on 99 south, the pace was quick. We were backtracking, heading right back down towards LA, but this was only so we could avoid traffic and construction on I-80 over to Tahoe, as well as giving us the most direct route to my sister's house in Tennessee, the only stop we were committed to for the entire trip. Eastward, Ho!

We were hoping to stop in Lake Havasu for the night, at a nice state park near the London Bridge. But for whatever reason, my time/distance estimates were grossly exaggerated and it was getting later sooner than expected. We decided to expend the 20 minutes or so it would take to go south to the park and instead keep going east. We were going to hit up a KOA, but figured "why waste the money?" and just camped out at a rest stop. The trucks never stopped blowing by and it was hot inside the RV. Probably not the best night's sleep I'd had in a while.

Day 2

We woke up early (before the sun!) and were on the road in no time flat. We had miles to cover!

Day 3

This time we spent the night in a different rest area, in Texas. The trucks were still noisy but the weather was a lot cooler. I was amazed at how clear the stars were and how vivid the Milky Way shone in the night sky. There's not a lot to see along I-40. It is indeed "the trucker's route" and we saw many of them along the way. The scenery is rather unobtrusive and one must look for items of interest.

At one point I had passed someone and before I could move back into the right lane, a car pulled up on my right and passed me. I could see another car waiting behind me to pass, so as soon as the actively passing car was past my bumper (and not much past!) I pulled over to the right lane, so that the car behind me wouldn't get the same idea. Move completed, I settled in with the cruise control set at, well, about 3mph over the limit, and sat back for the drive. That's when I noticed the red/blue flashing lights behind me. I was surprised when he followed me off to the shoulder of the highway - what could he want with me? It turns out he was "concerned" about my pass and wanted to make sure that I knew what I was doing. I suppose "RENTAL RV!" plastered all over the side of the vehicle would allow someone to suspect that the driver doesn't have a clue. I know that's what I think when I see them on the road. Doing his duty, the officer asked to see my driver's license and the RV paperwork. All well and good, except that I can't find my wallet. Yikes! The officer asks me to step outside, but he just reviews the rental contract with me and tells me to be safe. I get back in the RV, where Dan has been looking but to no avail. I figure that it must have fallen out of my pocket at the truck stop. I call and cancel the credit cards and then we're on our way. The truck stop was some 3 hours behind us - the odds of us finding anything if we did go back were slim to none.

That night, we decided that enough time had passed inside the confines of our RV that we needed a proper campground. We found an ok one about a quarter of the way across Arkansas, complete with hot showers and internet. We could have lived here! Well, not really. We could still hear the trucks on the nearby interstate, which was a real disappointment to us. But we could plug in the RV and run the air conditioning, which was noisy but comfortable. And while settling in for the evening I had a thought: what if my wallet fell out at the Pizza Hut we stopped in back in Oklahoma? I grabbed the laptop, did a search for Pizza Huts in El Reno, OK and found the one. I gave them a call and, lo and behold, they had my wallet. The manager reviewed the contents with me (everything was there) and agreed to mail it to my new address in New Jersey. Wooo hooo! Life just got easier again!

Parked near us was a large converted van, driven by a woman who was on her way home to North Carolina after visiting the San Francisco area. She had a big fuzzy dog and Dan went over to play with him for a bit while I popped into the shower. She said that she was disappointed in this KOA and that it was the worse one she'd stayed at. What did we know? It was only our first time to stop somewhere other than a rest area.

Day 4

Now we were getting somewhere new! Dan had never been this far southeast and I hadn't be on I-40 in this part of the country. It wasn't a long ride in to Franklin , TN where my sister Linda lives. We arrived there in the early evening and had a wonderful dinner with her and her husband Steve. We spent the evening shooting the breeze and watching a mindless flick. It felt really good to be in a real bed that night.

Day 5

Two more days. We probably could have squished the 15 hours left into one long day, but what was the point? We still had a leaky air mattress and no other furniture. So east/northeast/north we plowed on, heading eternally through verdent rolling hills. That night we stopped at another KOA, this one well away from the highway and very peaceful. But unlike the other KOA, this one charged for every little thing, so our amenities were limited (ie, we only had an hour of internet). Instead, we walked around the campground and looked forward to the impending rain. Finally - rain!

Day 6

This would be it! We were in Virginia already and according to the maps I'd brought with us, we just had a few more (very small) states to cross before we'd be in New Jersey. And small states they were. I barely had time to put my camera down before we had moved from one to the other.

Unloading

We arrived at the house mid-afternoon on Sunday and the movers came around 11 Monday morning. We were without our stuff for an amazingly short period of time. The same driver was there (Tom), but he had two local guys to help him unload the truck. They worked quickly and efficiently, joking around with each other as they pulled box after box out of the truck. I stood by to coach them on destinations of some of the stuff. Garage, basement, living room, dining room, I-don't-know... everything went somewhere.

Unpacking

And now the tedious part came. I don't even mind packing as much as I mind unpacking. And the way that things were packed! I had more paper wrapped around items than I had items! But nothing had broken and I guess that was the point. First things first, we checked out the house. The attic was bigger than we remembered it. The paint on the walls was uglier than the pictures reminded us. The smell of smoke (The previous owner smoked. A lot. With the windows shut) was more prevalent than I had realized. We had our work cut out for us. We started by painting the master bedroom and living room. Working around unopened boxes, we visited the big box stores and bought supplies and got started.

While Dan painted, I unpacked. Box after box, I unwrapped things and wondered where the heck I'd put them. The new kitchen was smaller than the old kitchen and there wasn't a lot of space. But with the aid of a pantry in the hall and a large, unused basement, I found a place for everything.

During the painting/unpacking process, we also cleaned. The smoke residue was everywhere. We cleaned light fixtures, blinds, walls, cupboards, the lights themselves... everything. And it still smells a little stale when the windows have been closed. Sigh.

The BBQ

Now that we had both the main and guest bedrooms unpacked, the living room was liveable and the kitchen was serviceable, it was time for company! My friend Mark came down from Conneticut and Dan's friend Aaron came down from Rhode Island. The four of us sat out back while Dan hooked up the grill and then we took a drive to the Eagle Rock Reservation overlook. It was a beautiful day and we spent a while up there, looking at the view of New York City.

Mark had to leave on Saturday, but Aaron stayed with us until Monday. The three of us took the bus into the city and wandered around the streets and had amazingly good food before coming back.

I think that this will be a very good place to live.