Day 2

We did it! We actually got all the paperwork done. We got all the packing done. We are officially on the road.

Of course, it took us 2 extra days.

Our original plan was to leave on Tuesday in the morning. After working late into the night on Monday, we realized that instead, it would take the whole day on Tuesday. 'No problem,' we thought, we would leave Tuesday night. Ah yes, that was mighty fine thinking…. Do you know what goes into taking all your worldly goods, that used to fill up 3000 sq. ft., and then slowing eliminating your things, and packing your memories into storage while trying to fit what you need into 800 sq ft, and then continuing to eliminate the rest to storage, while packing what you need into less than 70 sq ft? Let me tell you that it takes a lot of thinking, consideration and planning. It went a little like this,

“Yes, we should take this… no, that won’t fit in there, maybe we will only take half of it, no, that won’t fit either… Okay, I guess we don’t need it.”

There were so many things that went into the process of elimination that we had to bag it for the night on Tuesday, and decided to leave the next morning. We were sure that we would be done by 10:00 AM on Wednesday.
Of course, that didn’t happen either.

We were working like soldiers until finally at 3:00 PM, we went back into the condo to find that there was nothing left to take. We had done it! We were ready to get on the road.

And yet....we couldn’t get off the island, until we ran the myriad of last minute errands that we kept forgetting to do that prior week. We started on the South of the island, went North a bit, and went from the East over to the West, up North a bit more back over to the West again, and then it happened! We were finally driving off the island over the bridge. We couldn’t believe it.

Of course we still had to go to Poulsbo to take our last box of items that wouldn’t fit into the van to storage. We had one space left in the floor of our 10’ X 10’ room and the huge box literally slid right into that space with only an inch or two on each side! We placed the vacuum on top of the box and gave each other a high five.We didn't plan it, but it was perfect... and we were done! Everything from our former life that we kept, fit. We were ready to head off into space. On our way out of Poulsbo, the sun was setting on the blue sky and we got one last pink glimpse of the beautiful and breathtaking, snow-covered Olympic Mountains.

We had planned to go straight to Edmonds, where we lived for 8 years to stay with friends and say goodbye. One last ride on the ferry. There is something so beautiful and fun about the ferry, it was wonderful to have a last trip over the amazing Puget Sound. This night was so breathtaking. The sky was filled with hot pink, cotton candy cloud puffs defined with orange highlights. The water was dark and calm, though we were starry eyed and bursting with anticipation.

It was wonderful to see our old friends again and the kids were so happy to play. Yet that night, I went to bed with one thought.

‘We no longer have a town to call home.’