"if you are not living on the edge, you are taking up too much room"

Sunday, February 14, 2010

Moving day

Wednesday night we met up with 15 of our motorcycle friends and had dinner in Linden Indiana. I was a little worried about the place when our waitress announced that tonight's Chef's Special was 2 coney dogs served with chips. My assumptions were right and the food was totally forgettable. Maybe we should have ordered the "special" :-).

We are borrowing Niles and Deb Robinson's cargo trailer so we can haul Matthew and Mandie's stuff from Columbus Oh. to their new apartment in Lafayette. Now here is where the story gets a little funky. Niles and Deb are attending a goldwing event in Columbus this week end. Niles bought a Rampage motorcycle lift from a guy in New Jersey who used it once and didn't like it. The shipping for the ramp ended up being a lot of $$ so the guy volunteered to meet them in Columbus this week end and deliver the ramp to them. So, Niles and Deb are taking our truck and towing their trailer to Columbus Friday morning. They are meeting the guy and loading up their ramp into the trailer. We will drive their car to Columbus after work on Friday and exchange vehicles with them so we can do the big move on Saturday. Whew, makes me tired just talking about it. Anyway, Thursday evening we met them and our buddy Grumpy at Stookies Restaurant in Thorntown for the big vehicle trade.

Friday after work we headed east for the 4 hour drive to Columbus. We met up with Robinson's, picked up the truck and trailer and headed to our motel. Matthew and Mandie stopped in just as we were getting out of the hot tub. Mandie's Mom, Dad and two sisters were staying in the same hotel. They were going to go out and check out the night life and wanted to say Hi. Nightclubs are not our "thing" so we declined their invitation and made plans to meet them in the lobby for breakfast in the morning.

Saturday morning after our freebie motel breakfast we drove over to their apartment. They have been packing and sorting but still had lots of "stuff". I'll have to admit I was not sure we could get it all in one trip :-(. Looking around I told Rudee we had better call the motel and get another reservation since it looked like we would be coming back again tonight.
We started loading and packing and piling. That little trailer ended up holding a lot. Two hours after we started I closed the back door. The apartment was empty! We got it all loaded! I was a happy guy, at least until I realized I had another 4 hour drive and had to unload it all :-).
Our truck is a Dodge Dakota and even with the V8 engine the loaded trailer was a strain. The onboard computer told me we got a whopping 11.1 miles per gallon on our trip back to Indiana.

Back in Lafayette our daughter Amanda and son in law Ryan met us at the new place so we had some extra help. The unload went pretty quick despite us having to haul everything up the 15 stairs (yes, I counted them. Several times!!). We had everything inside in about an hour. Mandie, her Mom and sisters got busy putting things in their place. Too many cooks spoil the stew so we took Ryan and Amanda out to eat to thank them for their help.

Matthew starts his new job Monday morning. They start their training first thing with pepper spray certification. I did this back in my day as well. They do some classroom training and then you get to "feel the effects" of the spray :-). All in all it's a fun day (heavy on the sarcasm).

Sunday is Valentines Day. Make sure you give your special valentine an extra squeeze today. We don't have any big plans, just going with the flow and resting up. I'll keep you posted.

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