I
apologize for this being so long and taking so long to get up, its just been quite
the journey in the last week.
Our
journey has finally begun. Actually, it
began back in April but that’s another story.
We spent Saturday loading the moving truck with the help of our
neighbors. It took a lot longer than we
expected and we ended up not getting out at 2pm like we’d planned. We were all loaded up at about 9:45 and then
we had to make a run to the bank, a stop at the library, and finally grab some
food for Alex and I.
Once
we got back to the house Alex backed the jeep into the driveway and we hooked
up the trailer. Since Alex was driving
the moving truck, this left me to drive the jeep. The problem wasn’t me driving the jeep; it
was me driving the jeep with a heavy utility trailer behind me. I’ve driven trucks and I’ve driven tractors
but I’d never driven with a trailer like this, not to mention there was a brand
new engine and clutch in there so I had to get used to that.
All
and all it wasn’t bad but it was a little rough at first. It was a bit windy as
it always is up the I-5 corridor from Battle Ground till just past Kelso where
you pull away from the river. Just after
Kelso I finally started feeling comfortable as the wind had stopped jerking me around;
all of a sudden I hit a large pot hole and lost control of the trailer. Thank goodness it was night and there was no
one around at that point because I felt like I had no control. After
fishtailing a few times I finally got it straightened out and just prayed for
nothing else to happen.
Normally
this trip takes us about two and a half hours but due to the moving truck and a
heavy trailer climbing hills took quite a bit of work and it took us an extra
half an hour. Once we got off of I-5 and
onto 12W it was pretty smooth sailing, there were very few cars around us which
made me less nervous.
Just
a few miles out from our new home I hit another large pothole. This time it didn’t throw me around a bunch
like the first time; it just really pulled me sideways. Just then a car passed
me…it was a cop. He kept going for a while
so I figured I was clear. All of a
sudden he slowed down and flipped around. I figure maybe he had just hit the
end of his patrol area and was flipping around to head back. He got right up on the trailer and stayed
there. Let’s talk about make me nervous. If that wasn’t bad enough, then he flipped his
lights on. At this point I’m almost in
tears, I’d been driving for nine years and I figured I’d just blown my clean
driving record . He couldn’t be pulling
me over for speeding because I was going under the speed limit. Maybe I’d had a light go out while we were on
the drive? I had no clue. I’d had a feeling to keep my purse where I
could access it easily but all of the bags fell on it and it got buried. The officer came walking and checked out our
trailer full of bikes, buggies, strollers…and decorative bricks. He all of a sudden came up to my passenger
door. I couldn’t get the stupid window to unzip so he asked if he could just
open the door. He shined his light in
the back hitting Luke in the face and waking him up…needless to say, he got a
dirty look before apologizing multiple times.
Then came the question, “do you know why I pulled you over?” I looked at him and said “no, I really don’t”. He proceeded to tell me that I was half way
into the bike lane as he was passing me and then I got back into my lane and he
wanted to make sure I wasn’t drunk. I
explained to him that I don’t drink and I just wasn’t used to driving the
trailer, I’d hit a hole and it pulled me over.
He smiled and asked who it was in front of me since my husband had
pulled over in a giant bright yellow Penske truck. I told him it was my husband. He asked what
brought us out this way and where we were from.
I told him it had been a dream of ours to move out to the coast and we’d
finally found a place. When I told him
we were coming from Battle Ground, he smiled and told me that is where his wife
grew up…can someone say small world? I’m
sure he was also thinking that it was almost 2 in the morning and we were crazy
for moving in the middle of the night. He let me go, not even a warning (thank
heavens). I promised him I’d try and avoid the potholes. He got a good chuckle out of that.
Get
back out on the road and there he is, riding my bumper again making me totally nervous. All of a sudden he started to pass me and I
realize it’s not really the cop; it was some guy who was all over the road. Why on earth do I get pulled over and not the
dude that is all over the road speeding?
At least we made it safely.
We
finally pulled in right around 1:45. Originally
we’d planned on putting our tent on the deck until we could get in and vacuum/shampoo
the carpets but we were so tired that we were just going to set up Luke’s
playpin and our air mattress in the middle of the living room floor and saying
forget it to the tent. We get out
expecting to find the keys hidden where our realtor was going to put them and
they weren’t there. We looked all over and finally just got out the tent and
set it up. We open the camping tote and
realize the pump for our air mattress isn’t in there. So we layered as much as
possible on the floor and covered up with our bedding.
Sunday
morning we were both so stiff. We also
were so tired that we have no clue what time Luke went to sleep because he was
still chit chatting with Tigger and Ferdinand (his giant stuffed cow) when both
of us passed out. We got up and ate some
muffins while waiting to call our realtor to get our keys. We finally got our keys around 9:45 and we
started off loading stuff onto the deck.
This was not exactly what I wanted to spend my whole Sunday doing but because
we didn’t get up here when we planned, we had no choice. We finally finished up around nine last night
and we sat down and had PB&J sandwiches for dinner before driving the truck
back to Aberdeen. By the way, most
places around here don’t carry diesel so we had to drive all over the place
trying to find a gas station that did.
We were so grateful to be home last night and pulled our nice futon mattress
in and laid it on our living room floor where we quickly passed out once
again. Today we got our hot water fully
running which was nice. Now on to
cleaning the place so we can get everything out of boxes and into its place…
