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Before the Trek
Today was another whirlwind day, as we made our final preparations for the move. A series of unfortunate events resulted in Hakan accompanying me on a 30-minute drive to New Mexico to retrieve our moving truck a day early. Luckily, they gave an extra day at no charge. Once we arrived at the place, everything was going well until the gentleman behind the counter disclosed to us that the carriage for my personal vehicle was not going to be available until the following day at another New Mexico location. That meant that I had to leave my personal vehicle at the store, bring home the moving vehicle, load the truck the next day, and hope that we had enough time to still drive the thing to pick up the auto transporter. To make matters a little more interesting, the gentleman returned from the inspection of the truck to inform me that the vehicle had a bald tire, so I could not use it. He offered me the next-closest size to the one I ordered, and it came with an additional 6 feet. The extra space is nice, but the thing gets more difficult to drive as it grows in length. As an added bonus, one of the dashboard lights came on as I was driving the truck home.
The silver lining to all of this was that I was able to load our things that were in storage (my grandmother’s shed) a night earlier than I expected, giving us ample time to load the truck on the day we had planned. With some excellent help from family and friends, we had our kiddies supervised, the truck loaded, and the apartment clean in almost no time. I was able to get the vehicle transport with no difficulty, and Kira and I had a fun time finishing the last few chores before my dear grandparents treated us to breakfast for dinner at their house. And the dashboard light turned out to be no big deal – the truck was just about a gallon short of coolant, which is easily fixable.
All things considered, today was a very smooth day. We will forever be indebted to my wonderful family here, for all of their detailed consideration for our comfort. My aunt and uncle not only babysat the kids and helped load the truck, but also treated us to a spectacular Sunday dinner, and then loaned us their air mattresses to sleep on for our last night in the apartment. We had a cleaning crew that would put professionals to shame, so the place looks like a palace now. It’s a little annoying that this is the cleanest it’s been in 4 years, but we won’t get to enjoy it.
We are excited to begin our new adventure, but very saddened to leave the family and friends here. After dinner at Grandma’s this evening, Avey sobbed and sobbed the whole way home at the thought of leaving. I’m grateful that she has so many wonderful memories of El Paso, and the people here, and I’m glad that I got to become more familiar with the city where I lived as a young boy.
Tomorrow begins our trek. Wish us luck! The next post will be from Illinois!