Alright, enjoy! [*Added later for clarification]
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Day 1: September 14, 2013
Movers arrived around 8:30am. Two guys. One guy was terribly ill and loomed on the verge of death. Some type of stomach flu. Poor guy. [The germaphobe in me cringed every time he had to run to the bathroom. Especially since we had already packed up the hand soap in the upstairs bathroom. Ack! Reminded myself not to use the upstairs bathroom and wash all the bed linens we left on the mattresses when we get to PA]. Took them just over 6 hours to pack the whole house up.
Once gone, we did some pre-cleaning. Broke down any remaining recyclables to take to Chicago [recycling center] and packed up any remaining items to drop off at a charity. Right before we got in the car, I realized we [almost] forgot the disassembled hard cat carriers we never used [which were sitting in the garage], so I said, ""Last chance to grab those cat carriers."
Alan shrugged. "We'll just put them in the trash."
So, we got in the car and that's when I realized, "Did the movers pack the soft cat carriers that were in the closet?" [The ones we had planned to use to actually transport the cats for the car trip].
Alan stares at me, "They sure did."
Crap. I start to go into panic mode. How are we going to transport the cats? And then I remember the hard cases in the garage. We can use those! But did we only have 2? Alan isn't sure we have all the pieces to put them back together and suggests we could always wrap the bottom with all the heavy duty packing tape that was left behind. [Is that not a man's answer to a problem or what?] I'm starting to panic again with visions of the tape busting and cats escaping.
"What if we only have two carriers?" I can tell Alan is getting frustrated with all my scenarios.
"We'll figure it out."
We drop off some [electronics] to recycle at Best Buy, swing by Goodwill, then head to our fav Chicago eatery, A's #1 Beef, the last time before recycling the cardboard boxes.
The second we get home we check on the status of the cat carriers. There are only two, but one is a large carrier big enough for two [cats]! I think God was looking out for us when we decided not to grab those carriers earlier for donation. But no sign of the screws. My tape nightmares are coming back to haunt me when I note the small compartment on top of the large carrier. Would we have put the screws in there? We pop it open.
BINGO! But there is only one set of screws. Oh no.
"The other carrier has snaps," Alan says. We are saved. No tape nightmares. [Thank goodness we didn't have to use the tape because I realized later how flimsy and thin it was. There's no way that would have held up with the weight of squirming cats inside!]
After some light cleaning, we decide to call it a day and head to the hotel with the cats. We will finish up tomorrow.
We were lucky enough to find a pet friendly Holiday Inn Express down the road with no pet maximums! They give us the key and Alan says to me, "It's a sign."
"What is?" I ask. He opens the paper envelope that our room key is tucked into and points to our room number - "112." The same number of the apartment we will be living in for the next six months in Pennsylvania.
I smile. There have been some bumps in the road already but they have worked out so far. I hope the rest of the trip continues to go smoothly. We're 1/3 closer to PA now. Tomorrow we leave the state of Illinois!
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Unfortunately for us, and despite my last paragraph of optimism, the next day would turn out to be the worst part of our trip, which I will have to explain in another post! To be continued...
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