Monday-Wednesday, May 26-28 — Divide and conquer – that’s what we have to do to make deadlines and complete everything on our list. We need to be out of our condo by Wednesday, the 28th, so here’s how we spent Monday through Wednesday:
Fred – Drove 520 miles to Pender, Nebraska, to have Blue Ox install the towing system on our new Subaru – seems they haven’t built a model tow system for any 2014 Subaru Crosstreks yet, so if we bring it out to their factory in Pender, we’ll get the tow package for free – a great deal for us except that we need to be in Pender at the same time we have our move scheduled. So Fred broke in the new Subaru on the drive out, and then on Tuesday when the Blue Ox guys were working to build our prototype tow plate, he drove 100 more miles in a loaner car up to Sioux Falls to pay the taxes on the Subaru and get the title then 100 miles back. Then Wednesday late morning he started the 520 mile trip back to Chicago — make that Evanston, for as of Wednesday we are homeless, so staying with our dear friend, Anne, who’s giving us her guest bedroom for a few days. We figured we needed a couple more days here in Chicago to tie up loose ends and say final farewells before we launch on Sunday, June 1. [Launch – this is now a noun and a verb for us.]
Laura – Meanwhile back at the condo, I was sorting household goods into what comes with us vs. what goes into storage for two years. Tuesday was packing day, so for eight hours Ivan and Jose from our moving company carefully packed up our entire house. When I went to bed Tuesday night, I looked out at my view of the city one last time, then realized all my pillows were packed, so I just curled up with my duvet (in the ‘comes with us’ pile) and fell promptly asleep on top of the crappy RV mattress. Wednesday started early, as have most mornings for the past two weeks. Unfortunately by 5 a.m. my mind starts racing with all the excitement of our journey that is to come, and my head begins swirling thinking about the many To-Dos still left to do. Our movers arrived at 8 a.m. to begin wrapping up the furniture, then by 9 a.m. four strong men were taking everything down the elevator and loading it into the truck. By noon the job was complete! I finished cleaning up the condo and was out of there around 4 p.m.
Anne & I opened a much-needed bottle of wine as soon as we got to her house and made dinner, something I hadn’t been able to do in over a week which is so unlike me. I was very happy to be back in a kitchen again, even though my own is all packed up and will soon be in a big warehouse for the next two years. We waited for Fred who showed up around 8:30 p.m. road weary and hungry, but with all the towing gear we will need on the Subaru. I fell asleep on Anne’s sofa and missed the epic double-overtime Game 5 Blackhawks goal to keep us in the Stanley Cup playoff finals, but fortunately they whooped loudly, I woke up to see the replay, then promptly went to bed and was asleep again before my head hit the pillow.
These have been crazy, exhausting days for us, but they’re behind us now, and we are so keen to wrap up our time here, visit with a few friends and family members one more time, and then hit the open road on Sunday!
