From KC to Nashville
We must have looked like an interesting group because we had the cats up front with us, and their cages took about every extra bit of space left up front. Of course they cried for the first 20 minutes—I think they were egging each other on. But there were no accidents in the carriers, so I’d call it a success. Unfortunately, whenever we stopped, Pickle would start crying again when we started back up. I did hold the cats most of the way, so they were pretty spoiled, taking turns out of the carrier. Pickle was a bit of a challenge as she kept wanting to get up on the dashboard. Rambo was an angel for the most part, as he was fine with chilling on my lap. Eventually we just left Rambo out for the second half of the trip, as he found a comfy hiding space behind my seat and pretty much just chilled out there.
In Nashville
Our stop in Nashville was wonderful. We arrived early enough to go to Tyler’s final football game of the season, which they won in the last minutes of the game. They’re very impressive for their age group. Sunday night we carved pumpkins, and per the usual, Tyler and I got the most joy out of the goopy innards of the pumpkins. This was our second year in a row carving pumpkins with Dan’s mom and brother, and we hope we can keep up the tradition. Overall it was a really special visit, and we were glad to be there for Judy’s (Dan’s mom) birthday.
The Rest of the Way
Maryland had some flurries, but nothing compared to the snow we saw in New Jersey (started about 1 mile after we crossed the border). After the beautiful warm weather we had in Nashville, we did not expect to encounter snow. Fortunately we’d had a good night’s sleep in Pennsylvania (thanks to Dan’s mom), and we weren’t in a huge rush to get to NY if it meant unloading the truck in this weather, so the slow traffic did not bother us too much. Dan was anxious just to be there because he wanted the NY traffic part to be over with. Thankfully the weight of the truck actually helped us feel more secure in the traction we were getting.
We anticipated arriving at our apartment about noon, but even though snow cleared up before we saw the city skyline, we still didn’t arrive until after two. It was, however, raining in NYC, so unloading wasn’t a whole lot of fun. Things to learn from us: finding a parking spot close to your front door is not easy. Finding a legal parking spot close to your front door is even harder. Carrying boxes 43 steps up over and over gets old real fast. When we finally got a legal spot on the street (thanks to Sara who saw a car pull out and stood in the space until Dan could move the truck), we switched to taking breaks after every fourth trip up. We used those breaks to sit for a few minutes, and spend some time cleaning.
I still can’t believe that the Landlord did not clean the place before we moved in. I guess that’s what we get for pre-market pricing. Those of you who know me well know that I’m not the cleanest person in the world—I have been a cleaning fanatic since we arrived. Dan and I have been scrubbing every square inch of this apartment. I still don’t feel like I can walk barefoot, or even in my socks, because the floor still needs a good scrubbing. I’m making it sound worse than it really was—I just went maniac on the idea of living in someone else’s dust (80% of dust is dead skin cells). The place is really looking great though!
After all those trips up the stairs, we decided to have delivery for our first dinner. It was only right to have Chinese. And you better believe we had them come up to our door—we were not going down to meet them at the front door.