Blaine Voyage

As I just finished writing (and posting) we finished moving out of our house on Tuesday, June 27th, and slept at my aunt and uncle’s that night (after they fed us dinner and we had a fabulous dip in their pool). You’d think that on June 28th, we’d be ready to head out bright and early. 

Unfortunately, there were errands. 

And errands.

And some more errands.

So we spent Wednesday:

• Buying a lock at Walmart for the extra storage unit we’d needed at the last minute because our stuff didn’t *quite* fit in the first unit we’d bought.
• Going back to the storage facility to formally rent the second unit (their awesome employee let us put our stuff in there the night before). 
• Repacking our car and pulling out the stuff that we’d overly optimistically hoped to bring with us, and instead put it in the storage unit as well (e.g., Julianna’s giant bag of Legos). 
• Getting me my second round Hep A and B vaccinations.
• Picking up the permanent license plates for the new minivan from the dealer.
• Dropping off stuff we’d finally sorted at the safe deposit box. 
• Getting frustrated when we returned back to our now mostly (but not entirely empty) house to find that our cleaning service had thrown out the stuff in our fridge and medicine cabinet after I’d specifically texted them first thing in the morning to instruct them NOT to do that (we’d planned to eat and sort that stuff and then get rid of it ourselves).
• Mailing back three stuffed animals that my best friend’s daughter had accidentally left at our house on Sunday morning when they’d returned to Philly.
• Dropping off the Verizon Fios equipment at the UPS store for return.
• Buying and eating lunch.
• Finishing the work the cleaning service left undone.
• Dropping off the keys for our renters.

We’d hoped to finally head out for good by about 2 or 3 pm, but found that we didn’t get to leave until almost 6 pm. It was an endless day.

But there was good stuff as well.

As always, our neighbors pitched in and helped as needed.

And right before we left, our Hero Lynley insisted that we come by their house for a goodbye surprise.

It turns out that all of the families with kids in our neighborhood collaborated to create a Goodbye/Bon Voyage/Safe Travels video for us. I will post it to the blog once I’m sure it’s okay with everyone and once I figure out the technical skills needed to do so (I work from an iPad, but the video is on a thumb-drive).

Thanks to my friends on the best street in our town! We love them and as much as we love this trip so far (more on that tomorrow), there is so much comfort in knowing that we have a wonderful life to which we will eventually return.

In the meantime, goodnight from Rhinebeck, New York. 

Here’s a brief preview from what will hopefully be tomorrow’s Rhinebeck post, where we are staying on a farmhouse located on… prepare yourselves, Hamilton fans… what was formerly the Schuyler estate: