We are leaving ... this time for real

    We finally pulled out of the yard on Monday, September 30, at 10:42 AM. I was expecting to feel excited and happy but in reality I felt tired and kind of depressed over how much work it took to get to this moment. We have been packing and selling off stuff for 2 years. We have had boxes stacked up on the porch for months. We spent the last Thanksgiving and Christmas eating from plastic plates and using borrowed serving platters because ours were packed up. We weighted every box and estimated the bulky items that could not go on our scale. Our trailer was packed with about 4,600 lbs of stuff and was packed to the max. And while the four-wheeler took up a good amount of space in the trailer, we obviously found a way to put boxes and bins around it. 

   We started out going north on highway 27 to the Turnpike. We moved along slowly at 40-50 miles per hour. We took the Turnpike north all the way to I-75. In Ocala, we got off the interstate and made our way to highway 301. This road took us all the way to I-95 just north of Jacksonville.
   As we were driving, we were calling mom and could not get hold of her. At around 3 PM, Steve called the Sheriff’s Office to do a well-being check on her. We were about to drive into Georgia when the deputy called us back to tell us that she fell down and could not get to the phone. He helped her up and Steve talked to her. She said she did not need ambulance. We expected that something like this would happen but really did not think it would happen on the first day as we were leaving the state. We have been begging Granny to move in with us or someone else for several years but she is intent on living by herself. When we talked to her the next day, she was feeling better. Uncle Otto and Aunt Sally will go see her at the end of the week.
   We decided to call it a day just south of Savannah, Georgia. We were both tired and stressed out. We were worrying about the truck making the trip – our load was definitely pushing it’s limits.
   We stayed at a very nice Best Western hotel. We picked it because it had an indoor pool. What we did not think to ask about was whether the pool was heated. The water was ice cold but Stevie and Hannah could not stay out of it. They were jumping in, swimming back and forth while we watched them from the edge. However, we did enjoy the hot tub.