Leaving Pennsylvania part 2

It’s Tuesday night. We cleared out all furniture we needed to get rid of and boxes of good ole stuff we’re not going to take. Will we be able to fit the rest into the truck? On Wednesday morning we start loading the truck with boxes ready to load, next come the clothes washer, dryer, and freezer, next more boxes and bed frames, then more stuff and more stuff. Wednesday night the truck is half loaded. Throughout the day either Eric or Katie has come to me to kindly tell me, ‘Dad, I don’t think you need this anymore. You should get rid of it. Katie has good reasons and Eric just says we don’t have room. I used to think when I went to estate auctions and looked at the stuff people valued and spent their lives collecting that you could tell something about them from their stuff. Is this happening to me too? My life is changing and perhaps I don’t need some of the things I thought were necessary in the past. Yes, I agreed to part with my weight lifting stuff and exercise bench. I left some good landscaping tools, I parted with a good 10 speed bike. There were many others. I laid out ten of my clocks and called a fellow I met last Saturday and told him he could have all or some of the clocks for a ridiculous price. He bought 6. I threw in some spring clamps and other miscellaneous items. (I still packed up over two dozen clocks, still have a dream). On Thursday tensions started to build. It was my plan to have the truck loaded by noon and ready to move out of the drive so our dumpster could be picked up. The dumpster was already filled and as it was we were expecting more snow that night. I had to call the trash company to postpone the pickup. Finally by six the truck was loaded. It was then Eric informed me it was illegal to strap my lawnmower on the bumper so I had to leave that too. Guess that means we’ll have to get a townhouse or a few goats. At 6:20 we went to a dear friends house for dinner. After dinner Sharon, Eric, and I returned to the house to finish cleaning. We covered 20 feet of curb in front of our house with contractor trash bags for the trash pick up the next morning. We left the house at half past midnight and went to our motel room. At 4:15 I woke up with a nagging thought I’d forgotten something. So in the dark I grabbed my glasses and went to the house. I got my glasses out of my pocket but then found out they were Sharon’s. Couldn’t use them! I check out my fear and found out all was well. Oh well, at least now I can go back to sleep. But when I got back to the motel room I realized I forgot Sharon’s glasses in the house. A cold, stress, and lack of sleep has its way sometimes. I retrieved the glasses and went to bed. I was the last one up the next morning. Closing went well, we had some lunch and in a snow blizzard set off for Chattanooga. One last misadventure. Because it was easier for me to follow Eric in the truck than for him to follow me that was the overall plan. We knew there would be times due to traffic that the positions would rotate. So after passing a truck weigh station I slowed up to allow Eric to pass and then I got right behind him. He seemed to have an easier time keeping his speed up and I was pleased to be making better time. Then about 15 miles down the road he suddenly took an exit. Usually he called before making a exit. I followed him to the gas station and then realized I had been following the wrong truck. It was exactly like our truck. I called Eric and found out what mile marker he was at and was able to get back on the road and behind the right truck. That night (Friday) we stayed at Alan and Janie’s. Then on to Chattanooga where Nathan, Seth, Andrea, and several other of Nathan’s friends helped us unload. Sharon told me she was glad we were not moving into our house right away, she didn’t have the energy and Katie announced we should hire a cleaning company to clean before we moved in. But that adventure is yet to come.