These are the Days

It's past midnight, 4 days after we had hoped to leave Kentucky for Seattle, and as I write this Mark is driving up from Charleston with the truck... on the back of a Uhaul.  After way more hours than either of us ever imagined would be spent working on the truck repairs, yesterday came the day to start her up.  She ran beautifully!  So why you ask is the truck on the back of a Uhaul right now?  No rear lights and no power to the fan.  Something in the electrical components of the truck weren't right and even though Mark worked on it till 3:30 in the morning still no go.  Mark made the call around 8:00 AM that I know was unbelievably hard for him to make.  We have run out of time to work on the truck.  By 9:30 Dad and I were off to the car dealership, Mom was calling storage units for vehicle storage rates, and Mark was renting another Uhaul.  Mark hoped to get on the road by early afternoon, but our general theme held true and hour after hour passed before finally around 8:30 PM Mark said the final goodbye to our house and Charleston to set out for Atlanta.  He made it to Orangeburg.  Engine light on the Uhaul came on and the truck began to loose power.  Mark had to pull over and call roadside assistance.  I know one day we will be able to laugh about all this.  And surely any move we make after Alaska will seem so simple.  At least tonight our family will be together again and our true adventure can begin.  As one of my favorite Sugarland songs says, "we're making moments we won't forget, and fueling ones that haven't happened yet".   

The Longest Goodbye

Last Saturday my parents threw us a really nice going away party.  Many of our neighbors and friends stopped in for a final goodbye and farewell wishes.  The next Tuesday the movers came and collected our stuff headed to Alaska.  I worked nonstop on packing up the rest of the house so the following Saturday we could load the Penske truck and early Sunday morning all leave for Atlanta.  Mark worked endless hours on the truck with unfortunatly little to show for it.  It became obvious Mark would not be ready to leave Charleston on Sunday, his was the first goodbye to be extended.  My parents returned Friday night, and early Saturday morning we picked up the truck from Home Depot and started loading the rest of our house.  As Mom and I continued packing all the little this and that items still hanging around, Mark made his 90th trip to the parts store, and Dad worked without rest on packing up the truck.  Sunday, still too much left to do!  After way too much time spent on trying to decided the best coarse of action, we finally came to the realization that my goodbye was the next to be extended.  Instead of staying and working on the truck, Mark drove the Penske with Dad, followed by me and Gianna, followed by Mom and Luke.  Once we got into Atlanta we unloaded the Penske and literally filled our storage unit to the absolute limits!  Mark and I then kissed Luke goodbye and with Gianna headed back to Charleston.  The plan was for me to pack and clean the rest of the house Monday morning and return to Atlanta that afternoon.  Early Monday, my goodbye was pushed to Tuesday, then Wednesday.  What was supposed to be an early morning departure time was pushed to the afternoon after Mark's 122nd parts run took longer than expected. 
I did finally make it to Atlanta Wednesday night.  We had hoped Mark would follow me by only a day or two, but as this post's theme suggests, his departure day has continually been pushed back.  One day we will head out west... one day.

Moving Day

So today is our pack and load day.  All our possessions that will meet us in Alaska start their journey today.  What a trial it has been to come up with what stuff goes and what stuff stays!  Our first survey came in at over 6,000 pounds.  Here's the punch line though, to move 6,000 pounds to Bethel, Alaska was going to cost more than $21,000!!  What!?!  Ok, so we had some serious thinning to do.  To stay within the budget my company allotted us for relocation we had to get our weight down to 2,460 pounds.  It's hard to look at your furniture, your clothes, your beds in terms of weight.  Me being the type A that I am, pulled out the scale and began weighing EVERYTHING that was going.  I started a spread sheet and cataloging the weights of every single item.  My magic total came in at 2,250 pound; we should find out in the next 48 hours what the moving company's total comes to...  With 200 pounds of wiggle room, we should be ok.  Our belongings will travel by truck from Charleston, SC to Seattle, from Seattle to Anchorage by barge, and from Anchorage to Bethel by plane.  If it all makes it damage free I will be amazed.

Since we plan on bringing Mark's Land Cruiser out there with us we have to drive it to Seattle where it will be barged to Bethel.  (To have had it shipped with our stuff from Charleston would have cost another $2,000 and pushed us over our allotment.)  This is not going to be an easy task as the Cruiser is in a million pieces right now!  In order to make the cross country trip and be equipped to survive Alaskan winters some much needed adjustments have to be made.  I didn't realize at the time, this essentially meant putting a new truck in an old body.  Once all said and done the Cruiser will have a new engine, new clutch, new drive shafts, re-upholstered seats and new exhaust.  To try and save us some money, Mark is doing many of the repairs himself.  Our garage looks like a mechanic's shop, and every road block that could be hit has been so far.  Our plan was to leave this weekend with the remainder of our home, place our belongings into storage in Atlanta, spend the weekend in Atlanta with my family, continue on to Bowling Green, KY to visit Mark's family, and then start our journey out west.  We are supposed to have nearly 2 weeks to reach Seattle, seeing all the national land marks we can along the way. Camping in Badlands National Park, Yellowstone National Park, and Glacier National Park are just a few on our list of things to do.  Unless repairs begin going a bit more smoothly, we may have to shorten our trip by quite a bit.  Either way, to quote Luke's favorite movie UP, "Adventure is out there"!