We probably let the move sneak up on us a bit, but I had realized from many consecutive years of packing up and moving that it will all take as much time as you give it. Therefore, I did not begin packing any boxes until the Monday before the Friday we moved. I cannot say that I regret this decision, because we had quite a bit of fun gardening and touring the city in those days that many other people would have been dealing with boxes and tape...but I cannot readily recommend it to you either. We went on a lovely walk in a marsh,
which was home to mosquitoes that came up from the ground in flocks, adding kindly to the red spots that we had from an intense season of Ultimate Frisbee. We also window shopped our way down some of the city's streets lined with galleries, knitting shops and small grocery stores. But, at the time we needed to do our very best to avoid acquiring any more food. For over a month we had been trying to eat through canned and dried goods to reduce the food with which we were moving, but at the same time being bombarded with dinner and lunch invitations by fantastic people and harvesting exorbitant amounts of cucumbers, pumpkins, broccoli, beans and zucchini from our garden. (In the end a fairly sizable load of vegetables and part of the contents of our freezer ended up being sneaked onto friends' doorstep at about 3:30 am the morning we were leaving, but luckily they actually appreciated it.)
Our garden has been taken over by friends, who we hope will have as much fun using and giving away the multitude of vegetables as we did. Unfortunately, we missed the ripening of our tomatoes by about 5 days, though the yield was promising to be enormous (we snatched a few green ones before we left). We will miss the tomatoes, refrigerator pickles and zinnias most of all.
But despite the things we regret leaving behind (which sadly includes Nathanael's family), we are both excited by this new place and the people God has already placed in our path. Our move itself was rather an adventure, which included the use of ABF upack freight services. We determined this to be our most fuel conscious and cost effective option for moving so far. If you want to hear more of the fine details of our packing, hauling, and some tips read that story here. The short version is that God sent just the right people to help us fill the last boxes, meet our time constraints, and pack the trailer with us in the midst of a mosquito infested thunderstorm. [And they were even tall!]
Our own drive south went smoothly, and included a cooler filled with cheese, the reading of Pride and Prejudice, incessant itching of mosquito bites, and (as we were retrieving our belongings) the exclamation of, "Oh look! A submarine!" from the mouth of Nathanael.
He was right.
