Back online again!

Our trip here was mostly uneventful, but this is us, so it had to be just “mostly.”

First, our U-haul broke down on the morning of our departure so the husband started out a few hours behind us because he had to wait for a jump. Luckily, we were only going into North Carolina just north of Charlotte and we had planned a side trip to Ikea on the way, so we waited for him while eating meatballs and playing in the children’s section, which is a pretty good way to wait if you have too. He eventually arrived and we picked up the frame for the boys’ bunk beds, along with a few other odds and ends (of course!) and then headed to our hotel, which was lovely. I’d not stayed at a new Comfort Suites, but they are just the kinds of rooms for us, spacious, with a semi-separate living room/kitchenette combo, so lots of room to spread out to sleep.

The next day, our longest, we headed to the metropolis of Ripley, WV, though on the way we ran into falling snow in Fancy Gap, VA, which was very exciting for those of us who did not serve our mission in Alberta, Canada nor come of age driving in UT. So I was on the phone with the husband asking him what I should do in these conditions while trying not to be alarmed. I’m going to have to work on that while I live here in OH, huh? Our hotel there was a Quality Inn and Suites, and we wished the quality had been perhaps a bit more comfortable and smelled a bit less like smoke, even in our second room, but it was fine. The husband and the boys investigated the river running between our hotel and the freeway…and then fell into the mud. Did you know they have the same sort of red mud in WV that they have in HI? My unnecessary load of laundry got the mud out of everything except their pants, which I figured was pretty good, considering I had no stain remover. Apparently, my box of laundry detergent, stain remover, and our iron was the first casualty of our move. Where it ended up, nobody knows!

The final day, we headed into Shaker Heights, OH, which was the easiest part of our day. While we had 15 people or more show up to load the U-haul in SC, not to mention those people who graciously took care of the children, we had just one person show up to help us unload, so the husband and the poor retired bishop here (who is helpfully a very fit former wrestling coach who hikes the Appalachian Trail) unloaded the entire U-haul by themselves in the freezing cold while I corralled the boys who were wont to run out into the very busy street otherwise. They’re a little too used to living in a rural area, it turns out. At the end, when it was time to take the last batch to our storage unit, a few more folks turned out…but the U-haul died again. And then AGAIN the next morning! So after the husband got it started for a third time, he unloaded and stuffed everything away in the storage unit all by himself. In short, it was not our most successful move ever, but we made it and the husband’s back didn’t go out in the process, which was a tiny victory.

Now we’re here, relatively unscathed. And it snowed every day for a week after we arrived but not on the day of our arrival, and everyone keeps telling us what a mild winter this is, a sentiment that fills me with dread, but I’m ignoring those feelings with determination. Welcome to Ohio, ladies and gentlemen!