Tomorrow it's time to go. Seems like it got here awful quick, after wishing and waiting for the day to arrive. We're not ready, but they say you never are - that's why you do the "Haha" - because the date is set in stone. No procrastinating, you either go or don't go - and the fleet leaves without you. So we go!
Mere mortals would never have attempted to accomplish what we did this month. Tom got slammed with work - a good thing since work = $$$. Unfortunately, his boat prep list is very long. The there was his Captain's License Course in San Diego. Two weeks, 80 hours, homework every night and the weekend in between. They tell him after he starts it "Don't plan anything this weekend. You'll need to study!".
Naturally, that was after we'd already scheduled the movers to come on Sunday, because we'd need at least all day to pack on Saturday. Dawn had already spent the week before packing. Nothing considering there was twenty years of "stuff" that had to be moved or disposed of. Then there was the garage sale Saturday AM... We finally sent Tom "home" to the boat in San Diego with the two cats at about 10:30 pm Sunday Night. He still had to do his homework!
The movers were gone, so was Tom, the cats and even Anne. I was alone with a mess - dust bunnies covering where the beds, sofas, and other furniture had been. A smattering of items that were somewhere between trash and Goodwill worthy. Another load to go to Tom's shop, which we'd move later after we got to Florida. It was sad, but hopeful. It's exciting to start a new chapter in your life, but scary and you can't help but wonder if you're doing the right thing.
I stayed and Anne's that night, she was finally in tears earlier when Tom left, after holding it together for so long. She was glad to have me stay over and have one more farewell dinner. I got up the next day, went back to the house and cleaned up the mess so it was move in condition. It was late by the time I drove down to San Diego.
Three days later I drove to my mom's house in Tucson with the cats. Of course I was delayed by several hours because of a missing orange cat - Chico couldn't be found. We thought we might have left him at the Shelter Island Marine where we'd stayed the night before. He's been known to get off the boat... After several hours of searching, I found him asleep on a headliner panel - we'd not quite finished that project!
Tom drove out on Friday after passing his test with flying colors. No rest for the weary. Saturday morning we left the cats with mom and drove my loaded car to Florida. We thought we'd NEVER get through Texas! We made to our hotel late Sunday night, and had to meet the mover at 8 am the next day. By lunchtime all of our CA belongings we safely stored in Panama City, FL. We spent the next few days getting a FL drivers license, opening bank accounts, arranging insurance, etc. We flew out Thursday afternoon, mom picked us up at the Tucson, AZ airport at about 10 pm. The cats were happy to see us, we scooped them up Friday am and drove to San Diego. We had to move the boat off the police dock on Saturday morning because our time was up there.
What were we thinking - that we could get all this stuff done in a MONTH??