16-17 August 2017
When I returned to Chelsea and Travis' place in Tallahassee they had made a lot of progress unpacking and moving in. Heather and I crashed on the air mattress for a couple nights while the shopping and decorating and trying out new restaurants continued. After a couple of days of that we drove back to Brunswick for one more night on the boat.
We swapped out some clothes and such, repacked, and made some more slight boat preparations for hurricane season. So far nothing that bad had happened, but we're still pretty new at this extreme weather business. In the morning drove to JAX for our flight out. We only planned to be gone for about three weeks so we parked in the off-airport lot in the covered section. Had we thought a little harder about what might be coming, we probably should have sprung for a garage during hurricane season, at least the second floor, as close to the center as possible. As you'll see, we were gone much longer than we planned and there were a lot of storms to agonize over.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
The adventures of Dan and Heather as they travel on their sailboat, "Hiatus".
Wednesday, November 15, 2017
Monday, November 13, 2017
Final Leg - New Orleans to Tallahassee, and a Quick Trip to the Boat
10-15 August 2017
We were leaving New Orleans, next stop our final destination of Tallahassee. We picked up the Land Cruiser and trailer at the off airport parking. The attendant apologized for having to charge me for two spaces. I was just happy that the trailer was still there and to have not been visited by Homeland Security. Off we went down the road.
We arrived in Tally about dinner time. Unbeknownst to me Travis' relatives in town had arranged to feed us, but I (and the pets) were done, fried. I apologized and traipsed off to the hotel we had arranged and got the pets situated.
We picked up the keys to the duplex in the morning, which was in a typical university kind of neighborhood, with all the good and bad that that entails. We quickly emptied trailer (funny how that is so much faster) and returned it with time to spare. Then the dreaded unpacking of boxes and organizing began. There was only so much of that I could take, especially since my opinion didn't matter for any of the decisions.
I was just bone tired of the whole moving experience, so I drove to Brunswick on 13th. Heather stayed at Chelsea's and organized and arranged and decorated. Each to their strengths. I got back to the boat, which was thankfully still intact and afloat, and slept for a couple days, with some eating in between somewhere. At some point I had the energy to take down bimini, since we were still deep into hurricane season, and adjusted the lines some more. I added a second diagonal strap to hold the dinghy down on the forward deck.
Well rested, and with the boat a little more prepared for possible hurricane unpleasantness, I drove back to Tally on 15th.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
We were leaving New Orleans, next stop our final destination of Tallahassee. We picked up the Land Cruiser and trailer at the off airport parking. The attendant apologized for having to charge me for two spaces. I was just happy that the trailer was still there and to have not been visited by Homeland Security. Off we went down the road.
We arrived in Tally about dinner time. Unbeknownst to me Travis' relatives in town had arranged to feed us, but I (and the pets) were done, fried. I apologized and traipsed off to the hotel we had arranged and got the pets situated.
We picked up the keys to the duplex in the morning, which was in a typical university kind of neighborhood, with all the good and bad that that entails. We quickly emptied trailer (funny how that is so much faster) and returned it with time to spare. Then the dreaded unpacking of boxes and organizing began. There was only so much of that I could take, especially since my opinion didn't matter for any of the decisions.
I was just bone tired of the whole moving experience, so I drove to Brunswick on 13th. Heather stayed at Chelsea's and organized and arranged and decorated. Each to their strengths. I got back to the boat, which was thankfully still intact and afloat, and slept for a couple days, with some eating in between somewhere. At some point I had the energy to take down bimini, since we were still deep into hurricane season, and adjusted the lines some more. I added a second diagonal strap to hold the dinghy down on the forward deck.
Well rested, and with the boat a little more prepared for possible hurricane unpleasantness, I drove back to Tally on 15th.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Wednesday, November 8, 2017
Back in New Orleans
08-10 August 2017
Well, we were back in New Orleans for a couple of days. This was our first major stop after leaving Houston in the boat almost a year ago. We were sitting the pets while Travis and Chelsea were out on the town, paid in beignets administered once or twice a day. We slept and watched a lot of Netflix because we had been going non-stop since flying to Arizona two and a half weeks before, draining the dogs in the yard every few hours.We went to one of our favorite BBQ places in the country, called Blue Oak ("Vegetarian Free since 2012").
It was a nice little break, over too soon.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Well, we were back in New Orleans for a couple of days. This was our first major stop after leaving Houston in the boat almost a year ago. We were sitting the pets while Travis and Chelsea were out on the town, paid in beignets administered once or twice a day. We slept and watched a lot of Netflix because we had been going non-stop since flying to Arizona two and a half weeks before, draining the dogs in the yard every few hours.We went to one of our favorite BBQ places in the country, called Blue Oak ("Vegetarian Free since 2012").
It was a nice little break, over too soon.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
Third and Fourth Leg
07-08 August 2017
The next day we were headed for a suburb of Houston where Heather's sister Holly lives. She and her husband Scott were kind enough to take in our circus troupe for a night in their lovely home, feeding us and plying us with Tequila.
Our fourth leg was from Houston to New Orleans. Here is where our travel plans broke down a little bit, for multiple reasons. First, the whole traveling with pets thing is a huge pain and really limits your options. Finding places that would take two dogs and two cats was difficult and expensive. Second, Chelsea and Travis wanted a little time to themselves in NO, so we were staying for a couple nights. I searched for AirBnBs near the airport and found a little place that would take the pets and wasn't outrageously expensive. Unfortunately I didn't pay too much attention to how near the airport it actually was, as in not. It was in a place I was previously unfamiliar with aptly called Center City.
When we pulled off the freeway near the dome and into the neighborhood we were greeted by 55-gal drums with cozy looking fires in them. We pulled down a side street following the GPS directions only to encounter a hole that spanned more than half of the road and almost as deep. No barriers, markings, cones or whatever. WTF? If we had pulled in during the pouring rain a few minutes earlier I might have driven right into it. The trailer wheels cleared it by less than a foot.
The 2-bedroom house was actually a nice little place with its own driveway and parking, but I didn't want to venture out on foot after dark, or for that matter, before dark. I was flashing back to an encounter while lost in Delaware a long time ago (pre-GPS) and episodes of The Wire. We talked about leaving, mostly because the trailer with Chelsea and Travis' every worldly belonging was going to have to be parked in the street for two days. I wasn't sure it would still be there, or at least still full, by the time we left.
I was tired after driving all day and maybe not thinking too clearly, but I got the idea of parking the trailer at the airport. On the drive there my head cleared a little and I envisioned how parking a clearly heavily loaded trailer at the airport might quickly attract another kind of unwanted attention. I decided to try the largest off-airport parking lot across the street. They either didn't notice or didn't care why a U-Haul trailer would be parked at the airport. Welcome to New Orleans.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
The next day we were headed for a suburb of Houston where Heather's sister Holly lives. She and her husband Scott were kind enough to take in our circus troupe for a night in their lovely home, feeding us and plying us with Tequila.
Our fourth leg was from Houston to New Orleans. Here is where our travel plans broke down a little bit, for multiple reasons. First, the whole traveling with pets thing is a huge pain and really limits your options. Finding places that would take two dogs and two cats was difficult and expensive. Second, Chelsea and Travis wanted a little time to themselves in NO, so we were staying for a couple nights. I searched for AirBnBs near the airport and found a little place that would take the pets and wasn't outrageously expensive. Unfortunately I didn't pay too much attention to how near the airport it actually was, as in not. It was in a place I was previously unfamiliar with aptly called Center City.
When we pulled off the freeway near the dome and into the neighborhood we were greeted by 55-gal drums with cozy looking fires in them. We pulled down a side street following the GPS directions only to encounter a hole that spanned more than half of the road and almost as deep. No barriers, markings, cones or whatever. WTF? If we had pulled in during the pouring rain a few minutes earlier I might have driven right into it. The trailer wheels cleared it by less than a foot.
The 2-bedroom house was actually a nice little place with its own driveway and parking, but I didn't want to venture out on foot after dark, or for that matter, before dark. I was flashing back to an encounter while lost in Delaware a long time ago (pre-GPS) and episodes of The Wire. We talked about leaving, mostly because the trailer with Chelsea and Travis' every worldly belonging was going to have to be parked in the street for two days. I wasn't sure it would still be there, or at least still full, by the time we left.
I was tired after driving all day and maybe not thinking too clearly, but I got the idea of parking the trailer at the airport. On the drive there my head cleared a little and I envisioned how parking a clearly heavily loaded trailer at the airport might quickly attract another kind of unwanted attention. I decided to try the largest off-airport parking lot across the street. They either didn't notice or didn't care why a U-Haul trailer would be parked at the airport. Welcome to New Orleans.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Monday, November 6, 2017
Second Leg to Nowhere TX
06 August 2017
After arriving in Las Cruces we had dinner at my favorite place, Nopalitos, which has great green chile and is situated in an old church. When we came back to the house the dogs had jumped the wall and were in the neighbors yard, which fortunately no one had noticed yet. We got to sleep and then we were back at it in the morning. I had almost an hour head start since we had a full day of driving scheduled.
I hadn't made any long distance car trips east of El Paso since I was a kid, so much of this was new. El Paso roads were kind of a mess with construction, and I found myself in the wrong lane before the road split. I made it across, but almost without the trailer. It took a few wiggles before we were back on the same frequency. A little too exciting.
After that there was a whole lot of boring. I had heard a lot about driving across west Texas and it was true, except we were crossing after some significant rain and everything was supposedly much greener than normal. Sure. Really boring interspersed with some seriously ugly landscape. At least the Land Cruiser was doing well, especially since it was 22 years old with well over 200k miles on it. Other than having to down shift a few times on bigger hills it kept on trucking at or near the speed limit.
We spent the night in the middle of nowhere known locally as Sonora. It took a while to drag the pet crates up to Chelsea's second story room while mosquitos drained us.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
After arriving in Las Cruces we had dinner at my favorite place, Nopalitos, which has great green chile and is situated in an old church. When we came back to the house the dogs had jumped the wall and were in the neighbors yard, which fortunately no one had noticed yet. We got to sleep and then we were back at it in the morning. I had almost an hour head start since we had a full day of driving scheduled.
I hadn't made any long distance car trips east of El Paso since I was a kid, so much of this was new. El Paso roads were kind of a mess with construction, and I found myself in the wrong lane before the road split. I made it across, but almost without the trailer. It took a few wiggles before we were back on the same frequency. A little too exciting.
After that there was a whole lot of boring. I had heard a lot about driving across west Texas and it was true, except we were crossing after some significant rain and everything was supposedly much greener than normal. Sure. Really boring interspersed with some seriously ugly landscape. At least the Land Cruiser was doing well, especially since it was 22 years old with well over 200k miles on it. Other than having to down shift a few times on bigger hills it kept on trucking at or near the speed limit.
We spent the night in the middle of nowhere known locally as Sonora. It took a while to drag the pet crates up to Chelsea's second story room while mosquitos drained us.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Tallahassee Bound, 1st Leg
05 August 2017
Somehow we got everything of Chelsea's packed up. Chelsea and I were in the Land Cruiser for this first leg because I was afraid that an animal wrangler might become necessary. We left a while before Heather in Chelsea's Prius and Travis in his car. The Land Cruiser was never meant to be a high speed highway car and the trailer wasn't going to make that better. I was guessing that the trailer had at least a few thousand pounds of crap in it. This kept me at or below the speed limit, so if we were going to meet up later for lunch or something I needed a head start.
There were four other passengers in the car. Chelsea's dog Leeloo was in her crate. Heather's dog Cally was going as well, her harness tethered to a cargo hook in the floor. We also had the girls' two cats that they had gotten when they were in elementary school in a smaller crate. We had tried to find another home for them in the valley but we were unsuccessful. With all this already in the car there was barely room for things like luggage and human passengers. I knew I was in trouble when I started to sympathize with Mitt Romney having the family dog riding in a crate tied to the roof rack.
Our first leg took us to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where Heather's mother lived. Since the only trips we had taken the pets on were trips to the vet they were a little anxious at first. Once we got started and boredom set in the animals calmed down, and remarkably, stayed that way. After the first 20 minutes it was as boring a drive as ever, interrupted only by some dog walking at the McDonalds in Benson. I had to downshift the Land Cruiser going up Texas Canyon, slowing to about 50 mph. As it turns out, that was the worst we saw for the entire trip.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Somehow we got everything of Chelsea's packed up. Chelsea and I were in the Land Cruiser for this first leg because I was afraid that an animal wrangler might become necessary. We left a while before Heather in Chelsea's Prius and Travis in his car. The Land Cruiser was never meant to be a high speed highway car and the trailer wasn't going to make that better. I was guessing that the trailer had at least a few thousand pounds of crap in it. This kept me at or below the speed limit, so if we were going to meet up later for lunch or something I needed a head start.
There were four other passengers in the car. Chelsea's dog Leeloo was in her crate. Heather's dog Cally was going as well, her harness tethered to a cargo hook in the floor. We also had the girls' two cats that they had gotten when they were in elementary school in a smaller crate. We had tried to find another home for them in the valley but we were unsuccessful. With all this already in the car there was barely room for things like luggage and human passengers. I knew I was in trouble when I started to sympathize with Mitt Romney having the family dog riding in a crate tied to the roof rack.
Our first leg took us to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where Heather's mother lived. Since the only trips we had taken the pets on were trips to the vet they were a little anxious at first. Once we got started and boredom set in the animals calmed down, and remarkably, stayed that way. After the first 20 minutes it was as boring a drive as ever, interrupted only by some dog walking at the McDonalds in Benson. I had to downshift the Land Cruiser going up Texas Canyon, slowing to about 50 mph. As it turns out, that was the worst we saw for the entire trip.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Back in the House
01-05 August 2017
At the beginning of the month we were back in the house, which made the commute much shorter. We thinned and packed and donated and moved and cleaned, then did it all over again. These were very long days, but not very exciting. You can fill in the blanks.
Despite our hard work and progress, on the Friday night before our scheduled departure at 9a the next morning it was not clear that we were going to make it. We started discussing alternate plans. Chelsea was supposed to pick up the keys for her duplex unit the following Thursday in Tallahassee. Chelsea and Travis had a goodbye party with their friends Friday night, then came home and kept packing. After a nap I got up in the middle of the night and got back at it, and by about 5a it seemed like we might make it.
By about 8a we had packed all of Chelsea's items except a makeup table and such that we might be able to move later (Ikea Rule addendum). The trailer was completely full, but so was the Land Cruiser, Chelsea's Prius, and Travis' car. We couldn't have cut it much closer. We were less successful in packing us up into the storage unit or getting the house ready to rent. Much of that would have to wait for our return after moving Chelsea. One thing at a time.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
At the beginning of the month we were back in the house, which made the commute much shorter. We thinned and packed and donated and moved and cleaned, then did it all over again. These were very long days, but not very exciting. You can fill in the blanks.
Despite our hard work and progress, on the Friday night before our scheduled departure at 9a the next morning it was not clear that we were going to make it. We started discussing alternate plans. Chelsea was supposed to pick up the keys for her duplex unit the following Thursday in Tallahassee. Chelsea and Travis had a goodbye party with their friends Friday night, then came home and kept packing. After a nap I got up in the middle of the night and got back at it, and by about 5a it seemed like we might make it.
By about 8a we had packed all of Chelsea's items except a makeup table and such that we might be able to move later (Ikea Rule addendum). The trailer was completely full, but so was the Land Cruiser, Chelsea's Prius, and Travis' car. We couldn't have cut it much closer. We were less successful in packing us up into the storage unit or getting the house ready to rent. Much of that would have to wait for our return after moving Chelsea. One thing at a time.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Friday, November 3, 2017
Park Model AirBnB, and the Ikea Rule
30 July 2017
Our last AirBnB was a park model, a little prefab place that was nothing more than a small trailer that wasn't meant to move much more than once. It had a little add on TV room and a carport, and was in one of those huge retirement complexes in Mesa. It was a different take on a rental because I also had the ulterior motive of getting Heather to try one out. After a couple of days Heather admitted that a month or two in one in a nice, entertaining place wouldn't be too bad.
I don't know where I picked this up, and I certainly had had little opportunity to use it, but somewhere along the line I encountered something called the Ikea rule. I think it had to do with storage units, but I think it applies to moving in general.
The gist of it is that it is not worth putting anything from Ikea, or anything similar, into storage. People stay in storage units way longer than they planned. That was certainly our experience when we moved from Tucson up to Mesa, and why I had nothing to do with storage units since. The girls had conned Heather into getting one "for a few months" during one of their condo moves. That one lasted for at least a couple years. I prefer not to know exactly how long. By the time you had a storage unit filled with Ikea for a while you would have paid more for storage that it would have cost to buy a new one of everything from Ikea.
We did allow for one small addendum to the Ikea rule. Many things like storage units are not continuously sized - you jump from one size to the next, with no options between. Our compromise was to identify things that fell under the domain of the Ikea rule, and if they pushed us to the next size unit then they had to go. If there was a little room left in the unit that was not needed for more legitimate items then their day of reckoning was deferred. This eventually caused some heartache on my last trip to the storage unit, but somehow the door rolled down. We'll see next time if it will roll back up.
We had to apply the same rule to the trailer for Chelsea. It was a big financial step from their biggest trailer hauled by the Land Cruiser to the next level, a truck or pod or something. When it was sitting right in front of you it was difficult to remember that it wasn't worth paying another grand to move a $200 buffet, literally from Ikea. At least I wouldn't have to put the next one together.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Our last AirBnB was a park model, a little prefab place that was nothing more than a small trailer that wasn't meant to move much more than once. It had a little add on TV room and a carport, and was in one of those huge retirement complexes in Mesa. It was a different take on a rental because I also had the ulterior motive of getting Heather to try one out. After a couple of days Heather admitted that a month or two in one in a nice, entertaining place wouldn't be too bad.
I don't know where I picked this up, and I certainly had had little opportunity to use it, but somewhere along the line I encountered something called the Ikea rule. I think it had to do with storage units, but I think it applies to moving in general.
The gist of it is that it is not worth putting anything from Ikea, or anything similar, into storage. People stay in storage units way longer than they planned. That was certainly our experience when we moved from Tucson up to Mesa, and why I had nothing to do with storage units since. The girls had conned Heather into getting one "for a few months" during one of their condo moves. That one lasted for at least a couple years. I prefer not to know exactly how long. By the time you had a storage unit filled with Ikea for a while you would have paid more for storage that it would have cost to buy a new one of everything from Ikea.
We did allow for one small addendum to the Ikea rule. Many things like storage units are not continuously sized - you jump from one size to the next, with no options between. Our compromise was to identify things that fell under the domain of the Ikea rule, and if they pushed us to the next size unit then they had to go. If there was a little room left in the unit that was not needed for more legitimate items then their day of reckoning was deferred. This eventually caused some heartache on my last trip to the storage unit, but somehow the door rolled down. We'll see next time if it will roll back up.
We had to apply the same rule to the trailer for Chelsea. It was a big financial step from their biggest trailer hauled by the Land Cruiser to the next level, a truck or pod or something. When it was sitting right in front of you it was difficult to remember that it wasn't worth paying another grand to move a $200 buffet, literally from Ikea. At least I wouldn't have to put the next one together.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Thursday, November 2, 2017
Boxes of Boxes
28 - 30 July 2017
So before packing is (should be) thinning. I could only take a couple hours of the should I stay or should I go game before I had to do something else, like take a load to Goodwill or the storage unit. It was exhausting to look at each and every thing that you own and decide if it was worth keeping for at least a while longer. Or even what the hell it was.
We started off buying office boxes at Costco. Standard size boxes pack easier, and I had played the game of filling a large box with books and such heavy things before. My back couldn't do that again.
We started buying three boxes of 10 boxes each every day. We knew we were getting closer when we only bought 2 boxes of 10. By the time we only bought one box of 10 for the day the house was looking pretty empty.
Did I mention that we had lived in this house for 26 years? We had done a little too good a job stashing stuff in every nook and corner.
Our next AirBnB was a little studio apartment that had been finished on the second story at the back of a house. The place was bordered on two sides by one of those little man made lakes. It had an outside entrance via a set of stairs so it was pretty private, and it had obviously been done pretty recently. A nice, quiet little spot which was a little better than our first place.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
So before packing is (should be) thinning. I could only take a couple hours of the should I stay or should I go game before I had to do something else, like take a load to Goodwill or the storage unit. It was exhausting to look at each and every thing that you own and decide if it was worth keeping for at least a while longer. Or even what the hell it was.
We started off buying office boxes at Costco. Standard size boxes pack easier, and I had played the game of filling a large box with books and such heavy things before. My back couldn't do that again.
We started buying three boxes of 10 boxes each every day. We knew we were getting closer when we only bought 2 boxes of 10. By the time we only bought one box of 10 for the day the house was looking pretty empty.
Did I mention that we had lived in this house for 26 years? We had done a little too good a job stashing stuff in every nook and corner.
Our next AirBnB was a little studio apartment that had been finished on the second story at the back of a house. The place was bordered on two sides by one of those little man made lakes. It had an outside entrance via a set of stairs so it was pretty private, and it had obviously been done pretty recently. A nice, quiet little spot which was a little better than our first place.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Wednesday, November 1, 2017
Storage Units and Trailers
28 July 2017
Assuming that boxes would eventually be filled, we needed a storage unit and a trailer to put them in. We decided to set aside our optimism and focus on a 10 foot by 10 foot storage unit. We could always move to a smaller unit in the same complex if we were wrong, and after we take another pass at what remains of our belongings. Because we had pictures and papers and such we wanted the unit to not be subject to the worst of summer heat and monsoons, as the last unit had been. Once we started looking for storage unit places we started seeing them everywhere.
We finally settled on an indoor place with a freight elevator down in Gilbert. It was pretty new and clean, and while I couldn't say it was cool, it was not steaming hot like it was outside. It was a few minutes farther from the house than I had hoped, but it was reasonably priced and checked most of the other boxes. In addition, it was on the second floor, so instead of a 7 or 8 foot ceiling it was more like 12. That would become important.
We followed the same approach with the trailer. Having never done a one way moving rental like this before we went with Uhaul. Again we hemmed and hawed and finally settled on the largest trailer they had, 12 foot long. The thought of packing the trailer the night before and finding out it was too small was just too painful to contemplate.
So we had a week to pack Chelsea's life into a 12 foot trailer, and hopefully most of ours into the 10 foot storage unit. Well, we were maybe half right.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Assuming that boxes would eventually be filled, we needed a storage unit and a trailer to put them in. We decided to set aside our optimism and focus on a 10 foot by 10 foot storage unit. We could always move to a smaller unit in the same complex if we were wrong, and after we take another pass at what remains of our belongings. Because we had pictures and papers and such we wanted the unit to not be subject to the worst of summer heat and monsoons, as the last unit had been. Once we started looking for storage unit places we started seeing them everywhere.
We finally settled on an indoor place with a freight elevator down in Gilbert. It was pretty new and clean, and while I couldn't say it was cool, it was not steaming hot like it was outside. It was a few minutes farther from the house than I had hoped, but it was reasonably priced and checked most of the other boxes. In addition, it was on the second floor, so instead of a 7 or 8 foot ceiling it was more like 12. That would become important.
We followed the same approach with the trailer. Having never done a one way moving rental like this before we went with Uhaul. Again we hemmed and hawed and finally settled on the largest trailer they had, 12 foot long. The thought of packing the trailer the night before and finding out it was too small was just too painful to contemplate.
So we had a week to pack Chelsea's life into a 12 foot trailer, and hopefully most of ours into the 10 foot storage unit. Well, we were maybe half right.
sv-hiatus.blogspot.com
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)