The house was sold. Praise God for that, even though it sold for much less than he was asking, and we had to be out by 9/29/12 and the new people were moving in 9/30/12.

My dad had started looking for movers fairly early and did a lot of shopping around. My son had met a guy at the gym he goes to up here who moved people on the weekend and went to school all week. He did this with his brother and had been doing it for a few years, so my dad thought he would help out these college guys and go with them. The price was decent, they would load and unload the truck and break things down and set them up again. So, we’re packing away and getting close to the move date. They were supposed to show up on Friday, pack up on Saturday, drive all night and unpack on Sunday so they could go to school on Monday. They called on the Monday before the Friday they were coming and said they weren’t going to be able to make it. There was a death in the family.

My dad freaked out and I was a little concerned about him now. He’s sure he won’t be able to find anybody at this late date and they’ll charge him a lot more and on and on.

So, I called my husband. He was already planning to come down and drive a vehicle back. We thought he would drive our truck with a trailer but now I’m thinking if we can get one more driver, we can rent a Penske truck or whatever and one person drive the truck, I drive the van, my dad drive his truck and trailer. My husband did find a friend who was willing to come down and help out. They arrived on Wednesday of move week.

We had a pretty rough night but he did find a few movers that would move us.  We also had the option of renting a truck as we had a body to drive it back. He decided on a moving company that quoted him a price close to what the other guys had quoted him and they would break down, set up, pack the truck and unpack the truck at the other end on the day he specified so that sounded good. We did find out that you can rent guys to pack you up if you rent a truck.  Professional movers, so that was good to know and an option to go with a rented truck but, he went with this one moving company.

We get down to the wire. It’s Saturday and we have to be done and out that night as the new people are moving in the next day. The movers had come. We weren’t ready and everybody was just throwing stuff in boxes. They weren’t all getting labeled. Nancy, the neighbor, came over and took Mother for a walk for a while and over to her house for ice cream. That was a big help. But, then she wanted to come back home again so she brought her back. A couple from their church had come with sandwiches and another lady from church came with chips, plates, cups and tea. They also stayed to keep Mother occupied. They eventually had to leave so we kept pressing on.

It got late and we still weren’t done. The movers had gone and everything that was left was getting packed into our truck or my dad’s truck and trailer.  At this point, we don’t have any choice but to get the stuff packed into the trucks as the moving van was gone.  They also had charged my dad more than twice what they had quoted him. There wasn’t much he could do about it as we HAD to get out but, he would not recommend these guys.

Nancy had taken Mother over to her place, next door, to keep her out of our way but she got anxious and sent one of the guys back to get my dad as she couldn’t handle her anymore. So I told Daddy to go take care of Mother and the rest of us would work on the house until it got done.

So, we’re working away and I’m vacuuming, and I hear all this yelling outside. I turned off the vacuum to go see what was going on. My dad was pulling my mom over the patio wall, which was about knee high, and yelling at her that everything was gone. He dragged her in the house to show her all the furniture and everything was gone and she had to stay at Nancy’s.  She had been fussing about going home. I got him calmed down and called my husband over. I had him walk them both back to Nancy’s so my dad wouldn’t kill my mom on the way back.  *sigh*

I’m really worried about him now. He’s at the breaking point also. I will be SO glad when we finally get moved.

Steve, John and I finally got the last box packed. I got all the rooms vacuumed. It was about midnight or later and we had to get up at 5 and drive all day. We finally get over to Nancy’s after showers and get ready for bed. Steve and I had a pull out hide a bed in the living room.  It wasn’t real comfortable and I didn’t sleep much at all. Everybody was tired and we had a full day of driving ahead of us. I already have trouble staying awake anyway. I would sit at my computer to get stuff done and fall asleep so I was really worried about driving all day on zero to three hours of sleep.

When we had seen their friends from church, they had prayed for us, that God would surround us with His angels and take us safely home.

We start off with my dad and my husband in my dad’s truck and trailer, then me in the van with my mom and then John, our friend, in our truck bringing up the rear. We stopped pretty often, because I was trying to stay awake. My dad was complaining about the stops.  John was worried because he said I was weaving a lot. At one point, my dad was saying how we weren’t even going to be able to make it in two days, it was going to take three even though I had map quested it and shown him the time it would take to get back and we were doing fine. Ever the optimist.

So we pressed on. I found this out later. At one point, I had pulled out in front of a truck and it had to stop so hard it’s back end went up in the air so John could see it’s shocks! I guess I kept our guardian angels busy.  I know I always looked before I changed lanes and John said it had sped past him so I’m thinking maybe I changed lanes at the same time he pulled out and sped past John. At any rate, I guess God isn’t finished with me here yet cuz we’re still here. That would have been awful and Mother was in the car with me. That would have complicated things a lot.

We looked for a Comfort Inn for the night. We have found it to be a consistently good hotel with comfortable beds and, boy, did we ALL need a good night’s sleep. Mother didn’t travel as well this trip and everybody’s nerves were on edge. We found a Comfort Inn, had a nice dinner and everybody got a GOOD night’s sleep. The beds and rooms were comfortable, we got a decent breakfast in the morning and off we went. The second day was much better although I was getting tired around noon so was glad to stop for lunch. I take 2 BP and heart meds that make me tired. One says don’t drive with this drug. That on top of the fibro makes it really hard to drive long distances for me. We had a nice leisurely lunch and the rest of the trip was without incident.

There was one point where we had just started out and I thought the one back tire on the trailer was wobbling.  So I called my husband and told him about it.  At the next place, we pulled off the road and my dad came and rode in the car with me to watch the tire.  He decided that it was the mud on the side of the tire making it LOOK like it was wobbling but it wasn’t. It was an optical illusion. So, at the next stop, he went back in the truck with my husband and the rest of the trip went without any problems.

We made it home around 2 or 3, I forget now but, it wasn’t all that late and it didn’t take three days.  :-) We got home right around when I predicted we would from my map quest. Their addition was all done. Mother thought it was beautiful but they didn’t have any furniture yet so had to stay on our side. The guys called and said they weren’t going to come on Tuesday, as scheduled, they MIGHT be there Friday. Now Daddy is worried that they won’t be coming at all and they’ve stolen all his stuff on top of getting a check from him. Remember. Ever the optimist.