This is it, our final day in the USA for the summer of 2015. We will not have another full day in America until we return from Nicaragua in December to celebrate Christmas with everyone, including my dad, in Texas at that time.
We got up very early in Austin at the Hampton Inn, got everyone up, loaded up the Spark and drove the three and a half hours east back to Friendswood. We were on the road just after eight. We had to drive quickly and had no time to stop for snacks or anything as we were in a bad rush to get to Friendswood High School’s field so that we could see Madeline and Emily march today as there was a field show competition there today and this has been the one and only opportunity for us to see them march this year. So we really did not want to miss it.
We literally made it to the high school with only minutes to spare. We ran to get into the stadium. Ten minutes of delay and we would not have made the show. As it was our timing was just about perfect as we were even able to get a good parking spot and everything and did not have to sit out on the painfully hot bleachers a minute longer than necessary to see the girls’ band perform.
From the marching band competition it was straight back to the Toccos’ house and the rest of the day was spent doing packing and getting all of the last minute stuff done and prepped as tomorrow we are traveling! I had thought all this time that we were flying out in the wee hours of the morning but it turns out that I was off by half a day and we are actually heading to the airport in the middle of the afternoon which is not nearly so bad.
We do not have anything large left in the house but there was a load to take to the storage unit today that had to be done with the little green car. I am going to have to take one final load there tomorrow as well. We had to get all of our stuff out of the Toccos’ house because they are beginning major construction work on the upper floor the moment that we are gone and all of our stuff is going to need to be out of the way so that they can do that.
Quiet day otherwise. Tons of packing, quiet might be the wrong word. The night before an international relocation is never trivial. Although as this is our sixth major move this year (NY to Texas, Texas to Spain, Spain to New York, New York to Panama, Panama to Texas, Texas to Nicaragua) I think that complacency is starting to set it and while we are getting better at the processes we are also getting to be far, far more casual about doing it. We can’t let that happen when we do the next big change from Texas to Argentina in January as that time we are going to be “gone” for so much longer and there is just so much more to go wrong during the time that we are gone. The ante will be far larger, so to speak.
Today is a big of just plain exhaustion. There is the overwhelming about of work to do today. There was the mad rush this morning, the short night last night, etc. We are worn out. And, of course, there is the post-SpiceWorld decompression processes. It has been a crazy week, as the Austin experience always is, and we just need some time to relax but we are not going to get that until we have been in Granada for a few days. And, on top of all of that, there is the stress as well as the excitement of our major life changes. Just so much going on, it is all very hard to believe.