Day 0 minus 1 (Sunday, November 14, 2004): The Load-in
by Andrew JohnsonThe movers had come on Friday and took away most of our belongings. We were assured that everything would make it on the truck, but it didn’t. Consequently, we had to make more hard choices about what to take, what to leave and what to give away. We still had all the office equipment plus half a garage when the movers pulled away. But we had this trailer…
We took a break and made our rounds to the neighbors, saying our good-byes. That was very difficult – it was finally hitting us that we were moving out of what was our comfortable haven for the past 13 years. It’s going to be hard to find a neighborhood and neighbors like this.
We knew that friends and family would pull together to help us get through this. It was Dave and Kayo’s turn on Sunday. Davo came over about noon to start helping load the trailer. Nothing eventful to report during the first part of the load-in. About 5, we broke for dinner at their house (along with Stew/Colleen, Sarah/Lauren and Mimi). That night, we went back to Shotwell to finish loading the trailer. Davo could have a second career as a mover – this trailer was packed tight, secure and attractive. Periodically, we’d double check our calculations to make sure we weren’t overweight (the trailer could only hold 2000 pounds safely). No problem. Except no one thought to look underneath to check the axel until we were fully loaded and locked. (Mind you, we STILL had a ton of crap left in the garage.) Turns out, we miscalculated. By a factor of 10. The trailer was grossly overloaded. The plan was that Davo would take the trailer back to their place and we’d pick it up after the closing and head out. Davo gingerly took off about midnight.
Lesson #1: Plans have no meaning when you’re moving yourself across country.
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