The Move

It was only 5 weeks from the initial offer on our house to the day we left Georgia for Minnesota. Packing the house was surprisingly easy, we just did a little at a time and it was never stressful. The cats actually LOVED having so many boxes around to lay on.

We reserved a 16 foot Budget truck but realized all of our things might not fit in it so we ended up going for a 24 foot truck instead. Our only "bump in the road" happened on Thursday morning (the day we were going to pick up the truck) when Budget called Eric and told him they didn't have a truck for us. WHAT!?! This felt like an episode right out of Seinfeld. We had a reservation (even confirmed it!) and they didn't have a truck for us?? What is a reservation for then!? After a somewhat stressful afternoon we decided to bail on Budget (even though they said they might have a truck Friday morning) and we went with Penske instead. They were wonderful! Even gave us a small discount because they felt bad for what happened with Budget. All I have to say is NEVER USE BUDGET TRUCK RENTALS.....Use Penske!! :)

Thursday night we had a lot of help from friends to pack up our truck. Thank you to Michelle, Kelly, Greg, Val (&Isla!), Alan, & Jason!! It only took 3 hours! After getting the truck all loaded we had one last meal at Cali N Titos and dessert at Yoforia. I have to say our house was depressing to look at Thursday night with it mostly empty.

Friday morning we had one last breakfast at Big City Bread with friends and then finished loading the truck and car. Thank you Karen and Kelli for helping too! Here is the truck, mostly packed on Friday morning.

See this ramp, I managed to fall/slide down it at one point during loading.

Friday, we went through a whole bunch of emotions.... being sad to leave our first home and friends, worried about the long drive and how the cats would do in the truck, a little nervous about the closing, but also happy to sell our house and to be moving back to MN. We drugged our cats around noon and headed to Michelle & Kelly's house for some last hang out times. On the way to Michelle & Kelly's we realized that the cats were not happy. After a quick stop at the Vet to see if we could get any other drugs we were ready to go. Now we just had to wait. Anyone that knows me understands that waiting is not my strong suit. When the time came to go to the signing I was a big ball of nerves and had hives all over my chest, neck & face. Once we got to the lawyers office everything went smoothly and quick! Within 20 min we were no longer home owners!

We headed back to Michelle & Kelly's to pick up the cats and to get the car loaded onto the trailer we were pulling behind the massive truck. Unfortunately I never got a picture of the full magnitude of our haul but you can imagine what our car would look like attached to this right??

Michelle & Kelly helped us get the car situated (after having to drive out of a crazy southern afternoon rain shower) before we said our goodbyes. Obviously there was a lot of crying for me during our last days in Athens.

We took 129 our of Athens to 85 and we were doing great until we hit traffic. FUN.... it took a half hour to get through traffic around Atlanta. The first stretch of our trip took an hour longer than we anticipated but we still arrived in Paducah, KY on time because we forgot about the time zone change. On the way through Tennessee we got to see a pretty sunset behind the mountains in Chattanooga.

The first day of the trip the cats did....ok. Before getting to the hotel though they were getting antsy. They obviously didn't want to be locked up anymore. So, we let them out of their carries and they calmed down a bunch. They were even more happier to get to the hotel and stretch their legs. So were we! We had a class of wine (compliments of Michelle & Kelly) before going to sleep around 1:30am.

We planned to sleep in but we woke up around 8, got our free breakfast, drugged the cats again, and hit the road onto MN! This time we decided to let the cats roam the cab of the truck for the whole day. They did great! They mostly lied on the floor but every once and a while one of them would jump up onto the seat with us.

We planned to be entertained by Harry Potter 7 book on CD for our 22 hour journey.... but unfortunately the CD player didn't work. So we talked (a lot), played mad libs (again compliments to Michelle & Kelly), and took pictures of the scenery....or myself :)

One of the cats literally hanging out in the cab

One the 2nd day we made it through Kentucky, Illinois, Wisconsin and right on into Minnesota. We drove through a ton of farm land.

Once we got into Wisconsin we decided to get some dinner at Culvers. If you don't know what a culvers is, it is a fast food restaurant (more like Chick Fil A but without the Chicken) that serves great burgers, shakes, fried cheese curds, and....sweet potato fries!?!? I was so excited to know I can still get sweet potato fries in the North!

After 12 and a half hours on our second day we finally made it to MN. We pulled up to my parents house around 10:00. We (including the cats) were happyan unloaded our truck at Eric's moms house. Thanks to all of our family who helped unload the truck! You made it so easy & quick! It took less than an hour to unload!

Driving through Wisconsin with the clouds, MN off in the distance...all clear and sunny!