So the story continues... After a leisurely relaxing time at the Rose Garden Inn we frantically raced around SLO with errands. We lightened our load further by mailing more things to ourselves. We had bagels for breakfast and dropped off a super hero crimefighting kit for scarlet (we forgot to give them one on Monday night). Then we picked up a new way to transport our food goods and headed off again (this time we left around 1PM... getting better!).
Travel was generally off to a slow start as the 46 is a one lane highway and a Monday afternoon is the perfect time for tons of truckers (and one sad man going 55 :( ). Along the path a huge dust storm spun up... to my inexperienced eyes it looked like a small twister. Not knowing how to handle such a beast that was going to cross the highway just as I was I stopped to let it pass by... heedless of it the trucks barreled on through (so I guess it's not a problem, and likely very common). But boy did it freak me out.
After we got to the 5 we raced along at greater than 75 (since that's the actual speed limit I felt inclined to go a bit faster). At that speed we ate up ground and drove a lot further than expected. We passed through Bakersfield, rather than stopping there as we might have. We had dinner in Needles at a Carl's Jr. populated by some of the most unprofessional and incompetent people I've seen working fast food (see how that's saying something). Apparently only two people could be found to work in that one horse town. The first worry came when the couple preceeding us left as we arrived. Next came the patron in the front of the line and the drive thru customer yelling across the counter to each other. With the cashier interjecting and showing that they all knew each other and each others personal lives intimately. I was finally able to order when the cashier confided in me that it was 'just her and the other girl, so it might take a while but we're doing the best we can'. After my order was taken the all proceeded to gab and discuss things, while I waited for our meal to arrive. After being treated to 'Number 44 your order is ready....... Just kidding' a couple of times. We were finally given our food. Only to find about 3/4 of the way through that Kelly's burger was not cooked in the center... at all. Disgusted and certain that any attempt at recompense would be met with 'well I'll have to call my manager' and any number of hours later we'd get coupons for a free meal or something equally inane... we left.
We continued on, I cannot stress how important it is to never stop in Needles. And 60 more miles gets us to Kingman, AZ. So here I sit... in a nice little Holiday Inn with free internet access.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Day 0 and 1
The trip got of to a bit of a rocky start. Let's start with a recap.
On Tuesday the movers called. Apparently they had a problem, they'd double booked Monday and wanted to know if we could instead have our stuff moved on Sunday. Reluctantly we agreed, and things were set in motion. Yours truly worked until Friday, that left me with only evenings to pack as well as get everything planned and see my friends some before I left. Needless to say that made things a little hard to get done.
So Friday saw me woefully unprepared for the weekend. On Friday we packed as swiftly as we could, while planning Kailee's party and getting travel plans solidified. Saturday began with Kailee's birthday party, this was set in an uncomfortably hot gazebo in a little park right next to Piner. This venue was chosen by my sister because it was out of the way and not used for much. I'm sure she hadn't planned that the amateur HAM radio hobbyists would descend on the park and use all of it's parking spaces and most of it's area. Relegating us to the aforementioned gazebo.
As before for Kailee's birthday I had designed a special adventure surrounding the theme of the party, super heroes. So our intrepid partygoers were given crimefighting kits that came with yo-yo, paddle ball, bubbles, coloring book, and board book. Or as they were described a hypno-spinner, explosion extender, soporific suds, crime-fighting journal and super hero manual. Not to mention a hand sown cape with mask and utility belt to match. So our adventurers fought Dr Evil's paper airplane robot army then broke into his hightech lab (through the expando-bubble wall) and defeated his minotaur (using super speed to wind magic strings retrieved by the flying super heroes around him, all while the super strong super heroes held him down. Then they defeated Dr. Evil with their soporific suds and attack water balls.
As you can imagine this was incredibly tiring, but then it was off to watch our daughter's Dance Performance. Then we finally returned back home to pack some more. Sunday arrived and with is the movers (at 8:30) in the morning. They weren't too frustrated that we weren't completely packed, since they had bumped us forward and allowed us to pack while they moved out everything. They were exceptionally efficient so we were rushed to get everything packed in time. With everything out of our house we took a bit of a rest, before I had to take my daughter to her final Dance Performance. Then I returned to clean my house up for the Last Day party. Thank you to those of you who helped (since, of course, I wasn't finished cleaning when our guests arrived). The party allowed me to see all the friends I was leaving behind one last time. and there were alot of them we went from 4 PM until I don't want to say how late. Many lovely faces showed up so I could hug the stuffing out of them.
So it was, with very little sleep I proceeded to pack up the car to begin the journey. Unfortunately in our rush to decide what to take with us it turns out we were a little too excessive in our plans of what to take. So after much sweaty moving of things down to the car I needed to take a number of them to the UPS store to be shipped to myself. Even still we were pretty cramped as we piled into the car and headed south. By the time we finished our errands around Petaluma we didn not end up leaving until 4 PM (noticing a theme here). So we scooted on down to SLO, but we couldn't travel on to Bakersfield as was the plan. We stopped there, and closed down IHOP with Marie, Emir and Scarlet. Sarra retrieved her stuffed puppy Nilla (even though she'd forgotten about her). We stayed in the Rose Garden inn and I slept a blissful 10 hours.
On Tuesday the movers called. Apparently they had a problem, they'd double booked Monday and wanted to know if we could instead have our stuff moved on Sunday. Reluctantly we agreed, and things were set in motion. Yours truly worked until Friday, that left me with only evenings to pack as well as get everything planned and see my friends some before I left. Needless to say that made things a little hard to get done.
So Friday saw me woefully unprepared for the weekend. On Friday we packed as swiftly as we could, while planning Kailee's party and getting travel plans solidified. Saturday began with Kailee's birthday party, this was set in an uncomfortably hot gazebo in a little park right next to Piner. This venue was chosen by my sister because it was out of the way and not used for much. I'm sure she hadn't planned that the amateur HAM radio hobbyists would descend on the park and use all of it's parking spaces and most of it's area. Relegating us to the aforementioned gazebo.
As before for Kailee's birthday I had designed a special adventure surrounding the theme of the party, super heroes. So our intrepid partygoers were given crimefighting kits that came with yo-yo, paddle ball, bubbles, coloring book, and board book. Or as they were described a hypno-spinner, explosion extender, soporific suds, crime-fighting journal and super hero manual. Not to mention a hand sown cape with mask and utility belt to match. So our adventurers fought Dr Evil's paper airplane robot army then broke into his hightech lab (through the expando-bubble wall) and defeated his minotaur (using super speed to wind magic strings retrieved by the flying super heroes around him, all while the super strong super heroes held him down. Then they defeated Dr. Evil with their soporific suds and attack water balls.
As you can imagine this was incredibly tiring, but then it was off to watch our daughter's Dance Performance. Then we finally returned back home to pack some more. Sunday arrived and with is the movers (at 8:30) in the morning. They weren't too frustrated that we weren't completely packed, since they had bumped us forward and allowed us to pack while they moved out everything. They were exceptionally efficient so we were rushed to get everything packed in time. With everything out of our house we took a bit of a rest, before I had to take my daughter to her final Dance Performance. Then I returned to clean my house up for the Last Day party. Thank you to those of you who helped (since, of course, I wasn't finished cleaning when our guests arrived). The party allowed me to see all the friends I was leaving behind one last time. and there were alot of them we went from 4 PM until I don't want to say how late. Many lovely faces showed up so I could hug the stuffing out of them.
So it was, with very little sleep I proceeded to pack up the car to begin the journey. Unfortunately in our rush to decide what to take with us it turns out we were a little too excessive in our plans of what to take. So after much sweaty moving of things down to the car I needed to take a number of them to the UPS store to be shipped to myself. Even still we were pretty cramped as we piled into the car and headed south. By the time we finished our errands around Petaluma we didn not end up leaving until 4 PM (noticing a theme here). So we scooted on down to SLO, but we couldn't travel on to Bakersfield as was the plan. We stopped there, and closed down IHOP with Marie, Emir and Scarlet. Sarra retrieved her stuffed puppy Nilla (even though she'd forgotten about her). We stayed in the Rose Garden inn and I slept a blissful 10 hours.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Preparation for Transplantation...
Plans have been laid. The groundwork is prepped, sustenance has been prepared. We have nearly completed the consolidation in preparation for transport. Our belongings will head on their merry way on June 29th. I will attempt to keep you updated as we mosey our way out to Ohio.
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