The Journey

So, here it is. I need to write this post to turn the page and get this blog caught up to the present day. If you are planning on reading to the end, you might want to get yourself a nice cup of tea, and maybe a snack or two. This story may get a little long.

I left off last winter after my apartment flooded. I spent six weeks living in a suite style hotel. During that time I made the decision to retire from my soul sucking job and move to the Pacific Northwest. My friend, Beverly took pity on me and invited me to stay with her until I was ready. It was a gracious offer and one that I will always be indebted to her for.

After my retirement on May 15, I spent a couple of weeks at Beverly's house packing up my belongings. and preparing to move across the country. I had three large boxes that were stuffed full to the brim. I sent them with a company called Send My Bag. They shipped them for less than $300, and were the easiest company to work with. They picked up when they said they would and had them waiting for me when I arrived at my new home. If you ever need to ship something heavy, I highly recommend them. The rest of my things came with me on the air plane.

The transmission in my son's work van gave out around the time that I was retiring, and I needed to off load my truck somewhere. It was a reliable vehicle and I'd just put over $800 getting the electrical system working on it. But the truck was a 1998 model and had over 320,000 miles on both the engine and transmission. I knew that I was unlikely to recoup any of that money. I was pleased to be able to leave it with my son who has put a little more work into it and is enjoying it's use.

Before I left, my church threw a party for me that made my heart melt. It was one of the rare moments that I strongly questioned taking the journey at all. I had spent a quarter of a century with these people. I'd seen quite a few of them grow from infants and toddlers to fully grown adults with infants and toddlers of their own. I doubt that there is anything in my new home even remotely similar to what I had.

To top that off, Beverly and Lynn decided that they needed to see where I'd grown up. We loaded up in Beverly's van and we took a tour of the Drew Valley neighborhood of Brookhaven, Ga. The first stop we made was to the house that I spent my formative years in. There was no one home there, but the neighbor next door let us see the back yard from his back yard. It felt a bit strange for me to be there. I think that Beverly felt that I needed to say goodbye to there also, but I had left there many years before and have rarely turned back. We had lunch at the 57th Fighter Group. It is in a smaller airfield know as Peachtree DeKalb Airport. I think that they both liked it. I had grilled halibut and redneck caviar. They both seemed to enjoy themselves, but I was ready to head back to Beverly's. I was leaving on a flight in two more days and I still had a lot to pack.

I was able to pack all of the necessities that I needed. But after the large boxes were sent and I looked at what I had left to physically carry across three airports I began to panic. Not included in the picture is the bag with my CPAP  and medications in it. I knew after the bags were packed that I'd taken all that I could carry with me. Luckily the larger bags could be checked and not carried far. I could stack the small carry-on on the handle of the carry-on. My purse was stashed in the front pocket of the small carry-on, and I could use the strap of the CPAP as a cross body strap. I had been advised to request disability transport through the airports, but chose to ignore it in Atlanta. That was a huge mistake. And not one that I made twice. By the evening of May 31, I was packed and ready to go. Beverly and I had to be up at 4:30 am to get dressed, and leave for the airport. I had a 7:30 am flight to catch.

The trip to the airport with Beverly was where my emotions began to go a little awry. Neither Beverly nor I are chatty in the mornings, and it was good. As we drove past all the neighborhoods and landmarks that I'd known all my life, the reality finally set in that I was leaving the life that I had worked so long to build.

And so I was off. Soon I will write about the flights and my side trip to Chicago. Thank you for staying with me for this rather long tale.