We made it!

After two months of sorting, packing, and saying good-bye, we finally hit the road on Sunday, June 29, at 4:40 p.m. Alyssa and I were traveling in our little Kia Spectra with our two very unhappy cats, Moses and Rusty. We had an unbelievable amount of stuff to cram into the car with us and it looked like an impossible job. Delayne Hopkins and Sue Togersen took on the challenge,however, and we managed to get almost all of it in, using every available inch of space. There was just enough room for the two cat carriers to be wedged in by each of the two rear passenger doors.

The "week of movers" was, indeed a challenge. The packers came on Monday and Tuesday. By Monday evening they had packed everything it might have been nice to have access to (like towels, sheets, pillows, dishes) and left all the non-essential stuff to be packed the next day. Alyssa had the foresight to set aside a pillow. I was not so lucky, but a wadded up bathrobe served the purpose.

On Tuesday I asked them if they thought they'd get it all done that day and they assured me that they would. Well, by the end of the day, there was a LOT left to pack - all of the garage and many breakable items from the living room and dining room. The head of the crew said the estimator was way off on the number of dish packs needed (he had called for 13, they brought 20 and ran out) as well as the boxes for artwork (he had called for one carton. They used four and ran out). We also received a call from the lady at North American coordinating our move. She said they had not found a driver yet for our load, so they would not be loading on Wednesday, as scheduled.

No packers came on Wednesday (they had been assigned to another job). A call to the moving company determined that they'd be coming to pack after lunch on Thursday (still no driver assigned to the load). The packers finally arrived about 5 p.m. on Thursday and finished packing by 8 p.m. In conversations with the moving company, we discovered that our ONLY option was to have the local company come and load all our stuff on Friday. Then they would take it to a warehouse, unload it, and store it until a driver is found. I was not happy about everything being moved twice - more opportunity for things to get damaged or lost - but it was the only option they offered us.

So, two guys and a huge North American semi arrived at 9:30 Friday morning. As the day went on they kept calling in reinforcements, until they finally had a team of 6 guys working. They got the last of it loaded about 7:30 p.m. right before a huge rainstorm passed through town.

This was a sad day for our family. Randy, who had taken our dog, Annie, with him to California on June 15, got a call from the pet sitter that she was not able to stand that morning. He took her to a vet, where it was determined that her kidneys were shutting down and she was dehydrated. She could not stand up at all and one of her legs was rigid. She was no longer wagging her tail. He made the difficult decision to have her put to sleep. She was 16 and had been part of our family for most of Alyssa's life. She was the inspiration for many newsletter articles Randy and I have written over the years. She will be sorely missed.

It is now July 4th, and still no driver has been assigned to our load. Once they find a driver, it will take them five days to get here. I have since been hearing horror stories about people waiting three weeks for their stuff to be delivered. So, we are preparing ourselves for camping out in our new home for a long time. We have plenty of cleaning supplies, toiletries, and candles (the things the packers wouldn't pack), but not much else. Alyssa flies to Minnesota to go to camp in northern Wisconsin next weekend. If our load doesn't arrive, we'll be borrowing a sleeping back and buying some inexpensive "camp" clothes for her to take, since all those things are still in Iowa sitting in a warehouse in Iowa City.

Compared to the week of packers and movers, the travel days were blessed in every way. The cats were excellent travelers. We never heard a peep out of Moses, and Rusty only "talked" occasionally to make his presence known. The weather was spectacular - clear and sunny the entire way. We easily found motels who would accept pets, and there was very little traffic on the interstate, aside from semi's. The cats tolerated two 12+ hours of driving, so we got all the way to Reno, Nevada on Tuesday night. That left an easy three hour drive on Wednesday.

It's nice to be all together in one place. We aren't really "living" in our house yet, as it is empty, but we spend time there everyday so the cats don't feel abandoned. We miss our friends and our home in Reinbeck terribly, but are ready to dig in and get settled in this new place to which God has called us.