August 29

Well, it's moving day.

The last 4 days have been spent painting, painting, painting ... fixing a few things, and painting! In between, we packed up the last remaining items in anticipation of the truck arriving this morning. I talked to the driver yesterday and he anticipated being here by 9 am, so we were up early and finishing up whatever needed to be done before he got there. He (Mike) called and said he was held up on the previous load and wouldn't be there till around noon. Actually, it was closer to 1 pm.

I met him up at Wal-Mart to lead him into town. Keep in mind, there was a college football game and move-in day for freshmen, so the whole way down the hill was bumper to bumper traffic. When we turned onto Shelhammer Dr., I looked back and that rig started to look awful big. I pulled over to the side of the road, and suggested to Mike that he ride with me to take a look at the streets -- after all, we live on a dead end, and there is no other way out. He said, "no problem," so away he went. He turned right on Pineview and backed down the street and cut the trailer in right in front of the house with no problem at all. It was a little unusual to see a 73-ft rig sitting out front. He came equipped with packing blankets and a nice long ramp.

We had plenty of help: Jack & Melissa, Joel, Tim Kubiak, my brother Jim and Mom. First thing on was Scott's motorcycle, which we sandwiched inbetween 2 box springs. Then the rest of mattresses went on top of that, then the couches. Other than that, our only other 'major' furniture was the bedroom dressers, and tons of boxes. They gave us 6 hours to load -- we finished in 5! But we were exhausted.

Talk about perfect timing ... the truck had just pulled out and the carpet cleaning people showed up. So, while they were cleaning, we ate supper at the Dinor ... Peg and I and Mom & Jim. By then the carpet people were done, and we did our last walk-through of 702, left the keys on the countertop, walked out and locked the door behind us. Bitter-sweet ... we left our home of 5 years, but yet we knew we were off to bigger and better things.

Essentially being homeless, we stayed at Seasons Inn (next to Nick's Place). Peg had seen Mary Ann Strand a while ago and she said she wanted us to stay there on our last night in town. She had saved a double room for us, and after an exhausting day, tried to get a good night's sleep, even though every muscle (even my eyelids) hurt!

Tomorrow, we would leave Edinboro.