Saturday, June 4, 2011

On the Road!
By Michael


All packed up and heading off to get the girls

Well, it didn't go as smoothly as planned, but we broke free. And after a totally traffic-free, Friday night drive up from D.C., we woke up this morning in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

No traffic? How is this possible, you ask?

Timing, Robertson timing.

Rather than show up to the closing on time at 4:00 p.m. (all packed and ready to go), sign papers, and hit the I95 at rush hour, we called our agent an hour before the closing to say we would have all of our stuff out of the house prior to closing, but we were still using the garage as a staging area and would have to return. I felt terrible. (Fortunately, the buyers are friendly, reasonable, and understanding.) We'd spent the previous 48 hours in a state of increasing panic as we realized how much remained to be done and how much would not fit in our tiny car and trailer.

The closing went smoothly and we arrived back at the garage at 5:30 p.m. to wrap things up. At 9:55 p.m. we'd packed, we'd left a lot of stuff behind (thank you Shawn!), we'd picked up the girls from our dear friend's home (thank you Kelly!), dropped off several boxes with her to mail across country for us (thank you Kelly!), and hit the road. At 1:00 a.m. we were checked into our Hershey motel, spent.

As we continue our journey to Mexico, it is clear the car is going to struggle. The temperature stayed in the normal range last night, but I had to downshift for every slight grade. I don't yet know what our gas mileage is, but it won' t be pretty. And unfortunately, we're not dropping off the heavy dining room table and chairs (this is a long story...) until Montana, and after we attempt the Continental Divide at 6,600 feet.

The girls were awesome, they've been real troopers throughout this whole transition. Today it's their turn as we give them more of our attention and spend the day in chocolate town.

--MR

5 comments:

  1. Enjoy your path across the country! We are sending good car thoughts your way.

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  2. This is beginning to sound a bit familiar:

    We drove to Mexico from Oregon (not as far as you by any means). Mama, Papa and five kids in a loaded to the hilt Ford Windstar. Left Oregon, arrived a few days later in La Cruz de Huanacaxtle, Mexico to visit friends for a few days and drive home again.

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  3. Fascinating! I look forward to reading about your adventure. Just reading your post stressed me out (in a good way) :-)

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  4. By the way, the part about the car struggling reminds me of going camping as a kid in southern Europe. We had a tiny Renault 4 car with a tiny overloaded trailer. Trailer tires were overheating so every time we would see a body of water (river, creek, lake, puddle?) my cousin and I had to jump out of the car with buckets and cool off the tires :-). Good luck!

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  5. Wow! I wish I were along! Love you guys! Got the video for Bryce today. He felt so special,thanks.:) Be safe. Be safe. Be safe. HB

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