Moving Cross County

I need to write down the wonderful, scary and sometimes really sad drive we had from Colorado to New York. I want to remember all of the little fun details for years to come.

Day 1: Wednesday, September 14
The moving company was scheduled to be at our house between 11am-2pm. D and I had packed up everything and we just kind of stood around waiting for the movers to show up. Around noon I decided to put the cats in the master bath/walk in closet so they would be out of the way. Our vet had suggested that we give the cats their calming meds the day we are moving so they will be calm throughout the house being packed up and moved out. So we waited...and waited...and waited. A little before 2 we called the moving company, and I think we left a message asking where the movers were. At some point we talked to the moving company and they had just left Denver. So, they were going to be really late. I think they finally showed up around 4:00pm. It took them a little over 3 hours to pack and load up the truck. I'm leaving out all the details about the moving company and the horrible experience we had because it's such a long story and I would rather write and remember all the good and fun little things we did on the drive.

We finally got on the road and left the house for good around 7:20pm. As the truck drove away and we loaded up the cats, Lizzy and our 2 birds the sky opened up and it started raining. As D and I stood in the house  one last time she turned to me and said, "It's as if Leadville is sad we are leaving" (because of the rain). We hugged, turned off all the lights, closed the shades and said goodbye to our home in the mountains. I have only lived in the CO house for the last 5 years...D has lived there for the last 16 and it's the longest she has ever lived in one single home. There are a lot of memories in that home and so much of the beginning of us is in that home. It's the first place we stayed together on our first meeting, it's the house that we fell in love, it's the house where we said goodbye to some beloved pets, and welcomed others into our family. It's also the place where we said our vows to each other and become Dr. and Mrs. We took a few special items from the home (the house # that we bought on our honeymoon as well as the custom made engraved stone that was in the front that had the address---D had it made 16 years ago when she moved in) and there are 2 pine trees in our back yard and it's where the large engraved stone is now. It feels like a little piece of Colorado here on Long Island.

As we drove away from Leadville it started to snow. Part of me was so happy to see a little bit of snow before we left, and the other part of me was scared because it was white out conditions at times and was thankful that I would not have to drive over mountain passes anymore in the snow. As we made it to our hotel I was so relived that we had finally made it and couldn't wait to get in and get settled and go to bed.

About 10 miles outside of Leadville, the tire pressure light came on in my car. When I have car trouble, or electronic troubles, I suddenly become a sailor and every bad word I know comes out of my mouth. Tire troubles is the last thing you want to deal with just as you are about to drive 2000 miles. We were staying at a hotel that was right across from the Subaru dealership where I had bought Max, so I was not going to worry about it for right now.

At the hotel they asked for my name and when they couldn't find it, they informed me that they were sold out. I had called earlier in the day and asked if they had any rooms and they said there would be plenty of rooms later on because it was not busy at all. Part of me wanted to make a reservation, but that would require me walking out to my car to get my wallet to get my credit card, and I was exhausted from packing, etc and what I was now learning was...I should not have been lazy. I look at D like...what are we going to do? The lady at the desk said I should try the hotel next door because they are pet friendly as well, so we waited while she called. Just a side note...it's very hard finding nice pet friendly hotels that will accept dogs over 25lbs and cats and more than 2 pets for a room. After several minutes I walk out and tell D that we should just drive to the hotel. We do and luckily they had a room for us. And they would accept our little menagerie of pets. They give us our room key and we start loading up the pets. As the trip progressed, we got really good at loading up the pets, luggage, but this was the first night and we were stressed, sad and exhausted. There may have been some cussing on my part..lol. We got the first load on the carts and head up to the room. We get to the room and try to key in the door. No luck. We try again and this time it works, but the dead bold is on. Suddenly a man appears and is about as shocked as we are that we are trying to enter his hotel room. I tell D to stay on the floor by the elevator and I will go figure out what is wrong. The manager had no idea who was in the room, but he quickly gave us another room and we got settled in our room.

The bed was uncomfortable and we both laid down knowing this was our last night for a very long time in Colorado. Plus, the fact that this was just the first night of a very long drive made both of us so anxious and nervous..but we were too tired to feel anything at this point.

......to be continued.