Not quite ready to go

So this is Pat writing. I keep trying to write, but am so exhausted that i don't have the energy!

We are leaving this Thursday for this great adventure, and I am in a state of numbness at present. In the past 12 days, we have cleaned up after a wonderful party for Jay and Lindsey, packed up mostly all of our personal belongings as well as some furniture, rented a UHaul and brought box after box to our upnorth house, and came back home to finish up. "Finishing up" means putting the rest of our stuff in locked storage, and leaving the house in some presentable shape to rent, as well as pack for our 2 1/2 months cross country.

We leave with much ambiguity: our boxes are not unpacked upnorth and we have to figure out where and how to put our things there, so it is unfinished; we have no renters as yet for our Ann Arbor house. So far we leave not knowing who may rent it, how long, and if it will even rent. We are not sure where or when we will return in late April, it is really unsettled. It struck me last night that if we don't return to Ann Arbor, we haven't even said good-bye, we;re just sort of leaving town. I do want to do this, I do want this adventure, but I am grieving the transition, the huge change this all entails. I am putting voice and words to these emotions because i think it is so important to acknowledge them.

We are both feeling them, and able to talk about it together, though I tend to just get pretty withdrawn, and Dan gets more talkative. Different styles, but both going through all the feelings of a huge transition---retirement, spending the winter in another location, moving houses, etc. wonderful times ahead, we are sure, but the getting there is filled with many emotions.

So, read on, and stay with us, as we travel the country with our intrepid dog, Gus.

And oh, yeah, p.s., we leave behind ALOT OF SNOW!!!! This, we will not miss!

My goose, which is about 14 inches high, is covered in snow!

We are back in Ann Arbor. In the last week, we have packed up most of our belongings and hauled them up north. What is left in the house is most of our furniture, but almost all of our belongings have been moved up north. So essentially, we are now residing up north. This has been exhausting, as all of you probably know because of your own moves. I am on autopilot, and just moving from one task to another. We emptied the entire 17 ft Uhaul truck up north . We got help with some of the furniture. Wally helped me load in A2 and Don Ranville helped me in Cedar. Without their help I don't know what we would have done. It didn't help that we are in a cold wave, and yesterday it was about 12 degrees in Cedar with six inches of new snow.

Pat has been working relentlessly on packing and on things in each house. We are whipped. Now all we have to do is pack up for California and get the house ready for potential renters. We've both been working non stop and are ready to get this over with and to get on the road for our next adventure.