Sheep Guarding Llama

Today we are shifting from dad’s house in New York to my Aunt Marlene’s house in Ohio.  We need to be out to Louisville, Ohio before one this afternoon so we are in just a little bit of a rush.  It takes about six hours, with all of the stops included, to get to Louisville so we needed to leave by seven to really be safe.  The car was basically loaded last night so we were able to get up and leave pretty quickly this morning.

The drive out to Ohio went fine.  We had some heavy snow as we drove up to Buffalo but after that it was not bad although the winds along Lake Erie were something horrible.  We stopped at Dunkin Donuts in Batavia to pick up breakfast and coffee to have as we drove.

It was almost exactly one in the afternoon when we pulled into Louisville and my aunt’s house.  I had to get set up straight away to get online for work, which was actually rather busy today.  Busier than it has been for me, at least.

I worked from the kitchen all day. Gwen, Mike, Cheryl, Denny and Don all managed to come visit in the middle of the afternoon and nearly everyone else was able to come visit by evening, including grandma and Aunt Gayle.

The family got pizza for dinner and we just all visited at Aunt Marlene’s house.  The girls had a great time playing with everyone especially my cousins.  The girls love getting to go to Ohio.

We had a really nice time and were in bed at a decent time.  We are very happy that we managed to come stay for two days before being gone for so long.

Second day at dad’s.  This morning our first task was to get the UHaul truck delivered down to Leicester. We got up and the girls slept in for quite some time.  Dominica and I were both up before eight.  Liesl and Luciana slept in until around ten.  We needed to be out the door by ten thirty.

Dad helped guide me out of the driveway with the big truck.  I had to back out, which was no fun.  But it went well and I drove down to Leicester and dropped the truck off.  Dad and Dominica each drove down and picked me up and we went to the Questra Lasagna in Mt. Morris for lunch getting there right as they opened at eleven.  Sharon and Leo joined us just after we arrived.

The food was really excellent!  I wish that we had gone there sooner.  Everything was great.

It was a very good thing that we got there so early. It took more than an hour and a half to get lunch without any dessert.  I had to leave everyone early and borrow dad’s Volvo and drive back to his house early so that I could start work for the day and only barely made it for the start of day meeting at one in the afternoon when we started lunch at five after eleven!

Everyone else went to Sharon and Leo’s house for a while and played with their kittens.  I worked for the rest of the day until about nine thirty in the evening.

Dominica did a bit of work today, getting the car packed and things ready so that we can travel early in the morning.  We need to leave by seven to have a good chance of getting out to my aunt’s house before I need to work.

We were still all pretty tired today.  But far better than yesterday.

Dominica and I slept in all that we could this morning.  We were up around eight thirty, though.  No time to really sleep in, there is a truck to unload today!  So we got up and dad went down to the barn to finish up the last little bit of building the storage unit down there.  It was almost ready for us.  So we had some coffee while he finished up and I did a little posting to catch up what I could.  I feel very far behind on everything after doing nothing but traveling, packing or now unpacking since Friday evening!  What a weekend it has been.  It is already Tuesday and I have not stopped moving yet.

We were down to the barn to get moving by nine thirty, I would say.  Aunt Sharon and Uncle Leo came down to help and Danielle and Mike came up too.  The first order of business was getting the twenty foot box truck into position which turned out to be rather a challenge.  It got stuck several times and needed dug out and chains put behind it and after many attempts we finally got it into a useful position to unload.  That was pretty scary, it was pretty stuck and it is huge.  Nothing we have could possibly pull that anywhere.  Of course, now we have to worry about how to get it out of the driveway once all of the stuff is out of the back of it which will be even harder as it will be so light at that point.

We set about unloading the truck with everyone there.  It is super cold today, twenty degrees or possibly below.  In no time I was wet with sweat that then froze to me.  My hair was all covered in ice.  I had ice on my beard and mustache.  It was so warm moving so much stuff, though, that I did not use a jacket all day.

Danielle was only able to stay for a little bit as she had lots of work to do but she dropped off Mike and the minivan that we were loading with stuff too since they are taking a lot of the office equipment with them including monitors, desks, espresso machine, UPSs, etc.  Mike was a huge help as he was able to do a lot of the heavy lifting with me.

It took about four hours to get everything unloaded, such faster than loading the truck.  We were all done around one thirty.  Perfect time for me to get to work.  It worked out really well.

It was such a relief to get all of that unpacking wrapped up.  The only thing left is to get the truck unstuck and down to Mt. Morris to drop it off.  We are planning on waiting on that until tomorrow, however.  We are all completely exhausted today.

Art and Danielle picked Mike up shortly after we were finished and Sharon and Leo decided to go back home and nap.  We ordered food in from Pap Roni’s (Davis’) in Pavilion and they delivered it so that we would not have to try to get a car out of the blocked driveway.

We got pizza, mac and cheese bites, onion rings and a sub for dad.  We were frozen and soar.  Time to just do nothing for a while.  I needed to work but was able to do so from the laptop just sitting at the kitchen table so went no where at all.

I spent the day working from my laptop.  Nothing too exciting happened once we had finished unloading the truck.  In the late afternoon dad and I went out and got the truck unstuck and lined up so that we will be able to get it out and take it back to UHaul in the morning.  We did not want that hanging over our heads all night as it might have left us with a disaster tomorrow. Now it should be pretty easy to just back it out and drive it down and be done with it.

Dominica spent most of the rest of the day doing bits of laundry intermittently between long bouts of sitting on the couch and reading on an iPad.  She is really worn out and needs a rest.

I managed to get a lot of posting done today both in tech posts and getting SGL completely up to date.

We all went to bed pretty early.   We are all tired and soar.  The girls wanted to stay up quite late, they had a slow day rather than a busy one and were full of energy all night.

Tomorrow morning we are going to take the girls down to Sharon and Leo’s to see the kitties and then we are going to drop off the truck and get lunch in Mt. Morris at Questa Lasagna which we have been wanting to try for a very long time but have never gotten a chance to do.

Today we have to drive, there is not too much alternative.  The trip has to be done.  We were at the Hampton Inn in Fishkill when we woke up this morning.  Everyone slept in to a good, reasonable time.  Dominica was up first around eight thirty and I got up around nine.  The girls slept in for a while yet.  Dominica showered and got ready and then went down and got breakfast in the hotel while I showered and got ready.  Then when she returned I went down and got breakfast myself (bagel and a muffin) and brought back some cereal (Lucky Charms and Honey Nut Cheerios) for the girls.

When I got back up to the room it was nearly ten and the girls were attempting to not get up yet.  But we had to get moving so they had to get up.  We packed up and were probably on the road around ten thirty.  We were not looking forward to this at all.  There was snow coming down even before we left.  We were hoping for a clear day but that was not very realistic to expect.

Today I led the way and Dominica followed me in the Acadia with the kids.  This made a huge difference in how she felt driving.  She was able to watch me drive and gauge how the road was off of what I was doing which made things much easier for her.  We were moving pretty slowly, only doing about forty to fifty miles per hour when we were lucky and dropping far below from time to time.  The Interstate 84 bridge over the Hudson had its official speed limit dropped to just thirty five miles per hour due to the weather.

We were able to move along pretty consistently and that was very important.  We did not make great time but we made stable time.  Our first stop was about two hours into the drive, Dominica wanted to stop at a rest stop.  I checked in with her there and she said that she was feeling pretty good because she was able to follow me and she was not really having any issues.  So we decided to press on and see if we could make it the whole way.  We really do not want to have to stop today if at all possible.

The girls were doing well today too.  They were in a good mood after being in the hotel last night and knowing that they will get to see grandpa as soon as we arrive.  Every time that I checked in on them they were very happy.  On the drive I finished reading “One Summer: America 1927” and then continued reading “Made in America.”

Driving the twenty foot U-Haul was exhausting.  It handled pretty well but I had to be very attentive the entire time and my feet and legs were never comfortable.  It is not a fun way to drive all day.

We only stopped twice on the entire drive today, the first time at the rest stop and the second time was at the Kanona Pilot travel plaza to fuel up again and to let dad know how close that we were.

Overall the drive went better than expected but we were very thankful to be pulling into dad’s a little after five.  We were so ready to be out of the car.

I set up the MacBook in the kitchen and got online right away to check in with work.  Shortly thereafter dad and I drove down to Pavilion and picked up pizza from the place that used to be Davis’ Pizza (I still have no idea what the name of that place is.)

We were very happy to have some dinner and get to relax with nothing to really do tonight.  We are very worn out.  We got off to bed at a decent time, probably around eleven.  The girls were awake a bit after we were, at least Luciana was.  They are so excited to be at grandpa’s.  The living room is, of course, strewn with toys.  Luciana runs into the house, opens the hall closet and has many toys out before we ever manage to even get up the stairs on most visits.

I managed to get a full night of sleep last night, at least seven hours.   Today is going to be rough.  We were up around eight.  We were supposed to get the UHaul truck around nine but we were overwhelmed with all of the stuff that needed to be done yet this morning.  There was so much packing yet to do before the truck was here or our professional movers was here.  Dominica called Bob, our mover, and rescheduled him from ten thirty to “we will call you when we are ready.”

We did some packing but had to run out and grab the truck at ten because they UHaul place closes at eleven and if we didn’t hurry we would not be able to get the truck today.  They had to call to tell us or we probably would have missed it.  The girls and I were waiting to go but Dominica had started doing other packing and had planned on waiting to get the truck.  So we are very lucky that they called when they did.

We got the truck no problem.  It was the same place that we rented the van from last time and were so happy with.  It was a little funny, actually, because last time we were doing the rental van and I was just about to go to the Amazon and Facebook interviews that ended up leading to the job at Change but Change was not in the cards yet.  This time I got to talk to the same guy and fill him in on everything that had happened.  It turns out that his wife is from Spain, in Galicia and he has been there several times.

While I was getting the truck back to the house Dominica and the girls went to Walmart to get chocolate milk and a few other emergency supplies to be sure that we would be ready for being on the road for a while.  She had forgotten that I did not have a house key.  I ended up hanging out outside with our neighbor Louis until she and the girls got back.  That was handy as we exchanged contact information in case we need to reach him when we are away.

It was about eleven when we were back and working on the house.  We called Bob and had him head down to start packing.  Dominica and I worked on getting as much more stuff as possible packed although Bob arrived pretty quickly, by eleven thirty, so it was time to start getting things really onto the truck.

Bob helped me get the truck, which I had parked across the street in the visitor parking area, backed up to the house and then we got right to loading boxes.  The first bit went pretty well.  We had lots of boxes ready and a lot of large furniture so that part was relatively easy.  Dominica tried to direct things while packing up as much stuff as she could but there was a lot of stuff still to pack which made things really difficult.

The packing was exhausting.  There was so much to do and we only had one person helping us. Although that was really a blessing because if we had more movers packing the truck everything would have been packed in no time and there would not have been time for Dominica to work on packing up the little stuff around the house.

It was thirty-four degrees for most of the day and dropped to freezing when the sun went down.  We started off with it being pretty clear but after not too long we got snow, then later we got sleet and by late afternoon we had heavy snow and driving sleet.  Even with it being so cold I was completely drenched with sweat and wearing nothing by a polo shirt, no jacket at all.  We even turned the house temperature down to fifty.  The weather was really worrying us as it was just getting worse and worse but there was nowhere for us to sleep in the house.  My rule was that one way or another we had to make it to Fishkill tonight to get us past the mountains on our side of the river.  If we could get there tonight I would be okay with it although getting all the way to dad’s tonight is by goal.

As it was we had Bob stay for about six hours.  The first three hours were really productive.  The last three was pretty wasteful.  Lots of little things and trying to figure things out.  It was so hard trying to determine what to do for the last few hours.

At about five Dominica sent me back to Walmart to get a lock for the truck (our existing one had rusted out) and to get more garbage bags as we had run out.  We were throwing out so much stuff.  Easily a dozen thirty or thirty-three gallon garbage bags of just trash left the house and another five of donations were still in the house when we were done and at least one large back of recycling!  I cannot believe that so much stuff was in our house.

When I got back from Walmart, where I had to really resist hitting McDonald’s to get food because I was craving it like crazy, Bob had already gone and Dominica had about an hour and a half of packing left in front of us.  We went as fast as we could and were probably on the road around eight thirty.

Dominica led and I followed in the truck.  She had a hard time driving in the snow and was not very happy.  The truck did pretty well, I was impressed with the handling for such a large vehicle.  I had very little problem driving it although there were some times that I had literally zero right side visibility and was not sure exactly what to do.

We made it to Fishkill where Dominica tried to stop at the McDonald’s for me (we had not eaten all day!) but missed the driveway.  We pulled into the big gas station on the northeast corner of the Interstate 84 and fueled up there.  Dominica came over and told me that she really could not go on tonight.  The road is hard for her to handle and the snow in the dark was too much for her.

There was a Hampton Inn right there by the gas station sitting right at the entrance ramp to I84 so we called there and they had plenty of rooms.  When we got there we were one of only four or five rules that were occupied, probably, so we pretty much had the place to ourselves.  We got a two double bed room which was nice and comfortable.  Not super cheap but we always know that we are going to get something really nice with a Hilton hotel and we get points for it so we like that.

As soon as we got into the room I headed back out alone to go to the McDonald’s to get food for the family.  While I was out I realized why I was craving McD’s French fries so much because they are really salty and I lost so much salt during the day from all of the sweat.  So that make much more sense.

I brought the food back and we settled into the room for the night.  We pretty much just ate and went right to bed.  We were completely worn out.  We had nothing left.  I took a hot shower for a while to relax a bit.  That felt good.  My feet, especially my right foot, were in a lot of pain.  I needed to get off of them.  I was thankful that we were not driving any longer as just driving the truck was hurting my foot a lot.

Luciana won the “sleeping with daddy” lotto so we took the one bed and Liesl and Dominica took the other one.  Liesl had an iPad plugged into the wall and opted to watch The Wiggles Go Bananas which blew our minds.  It has been years, easily half of her lifetime, since we have seen her watch that!  We were like “what year is it!?!?”  Liesl was just laughing and laughing watching it.  I wonder how much of it she really remembers and how much she just feels generally nostalgic about it.  Of course, she might watch it often without us necessarily knowing but I do not feel that she does.

Luciana fell asleep almost instantly, long before the rest of us.  She had been asking to be able to go to bed at least an hour before we had left the Peekskill house!

The hotel room was so warm that I opened the window in the room all of the way for a while before we got into bed. Even with it being only twenty-one degrees outside the room was way too warm.  I had had the heater off since we got into the room too.  So we decided to just leave the window open a few inches all night.  We were very glad that we did as even by morning it was never as cold as we would have liked it to have been.

I played about thirty minutes of Trivia Crack before drifting off to sleep.  So glad to be in bed.  These last three days have really done a number on me.  I am pretty happy that we are stuck with the stop tonight and the slower week now (because of the stop tonight we cannot attempt the crazy “drive to Houston eight hours per day over the course of four days” thing that Dominica had been pushing hard for us to do which was going to make both the drive and my work just impossible plus was going to cost a fortune in hotel bills too while not giving the kids any time with the family up here before getting down to Texas while only getting us to Texas two days earlier at best.)  So now we will be at dad’s most of the week and probably going to Ohio on Thursday morning and leaving Ohio to head to Texas on Friday night.  At least that is the plan.  We will have to see what the weather ends up being like before we make final plans.