It has been a crazy few days. Saturday the movers arrived late morning and quickly got to work loading the truck. Donna and I worked on the last of the purging and packing. Her brother Roger and his wife Kim came down from New Hampshire and her brother Brian and his wife Michele came over. Everyone jumped into help when needed.
It was crazy busy but also so much fun being with family. We have not lived close to each other since I was a baby so we have had to rely on visits all these years. I love that as soon as we are together it feels like no time has passed and we just pick up where we were. The banter and picking on each other and memories and catching up made for a great time. There was even talk (and I recorded it on video) that they will all be over to visit us next year! No backing out guys!
Once the truck was loaded we took some family photos and said our farewells. Never goodbye. We decided to go ahead and start our 11 hour drive and planned to get down the road about 3 hours. Although exhausted we were on an adrenaline rush so why not get some of the drive out of the way.
Carl drove one car and Donna and I in the other. You can imagine our excitement that we had accomplished the packing and moving and now were on our way. The drive down I-81 is absolutely gorgeous. Bob has made the drive before but I never have. It was incredible.
We decided to stop near Scranton, Pennsylvania and Carl and Donna went into a hotel to get rooms. Unfortunately, because the NASCAR race was on at Pocono Raceway there were no rooms. The hotel called several other places for us and they couldn’t find anything within an hour’s drive. UGH! We needed to eat so took an exit a little bit down the road at Frackville. We could see the tall sign for the Cracker Barrel but missed the turn to go up where it was located. Unfortunately, this ended up taking us down and I mean down a very twisty tight road down into a canyon with nowhere to turn around. By this time we are beyond tired and know that once we do eat we will need to drive another hour or so before we can get off the road. This road was not making us happy at all. I finally found a place where we could turn around and we headed back up to find the restaurant. It is now getting dark and the signage to the restaurant was lacking. After a few U-turns and falling into HUGE potholes we finally found it.
Once we had eaten we got back on the road (even more exhausted now) and Donna got on the phone to find a hotel. It turned out to be longer than an hour away but we finally arrived at a Red Roof Inn. It was pretty awful but since it was now after 11pm what were we to do?
The next morning we got back on the road about 7am stopping a few hours later for breakfast. Donna took over driving just before we got on to I-77 so that I could enjoy the breathtaking view of the valley.
We arrived at their “home” at 3:30pm. After taking some very important photos we got the cars unloaded and relaxed.
Donna and I took a swim in lake and talked about how exciting it is that they have finally made their dream come true. A 20-year dream!
I’m thrilled (although exhausted) that I was able to be here and help them make the move. I’m a bit sad that it didn’t happen sooner when we lived in Raleigh only 3 hours away. But timing is everything and we have had many great times here together and I have no doubt that we will be back to visit and will make many more.
Remember the lasts and firsts that I mentioned the other day? Well, Donna and Carl are now experiencing those. They no longer live in Connecticut. She no longer has a 2.5 hour commute every day. Carl is now really retired. They won’t be packing the cars up next weekend and heading back up north. Their dream is now a reality. They now live in North Carolina in their beautiful house on the lake.
The Winery Woman 