Saturday, July 23, 2011 - It was a week and change before we'd be leaving. Our carefully laid plans to this point had, for the most part, panned out. There were some major exceptions to that statement. Dave's broken ankle in New Orleans at Mardi Gras was definitely a wrench in the plans. His recuperation necessitated us pushing back the move by a few months, which in hindsight was probably a blessing in disguise. We were barely ready at this point, now the middle of July, a move in early May would have definitely been out of the question.

It was late afternoon. I had just gotten back from my first 'real' driving lesson. According to our friend Michael, I'd done extremely well for someone who had spent most of his adult life avoiding taking the wheel of a car. And in his words, “Anyone who can learn to drive in South Philly will do well ANYWHERE.” I was especially proud that after the trips round and round in the IKEA parking lot at Delaware & Oregon I'd been told, “Ok, you are driving back to your place.” The shock and horror on my face did nothing to change the fact that soon I was sinking-or-swimming in Saturday afternoon traffic, ground zero, Italian Market. Taxi cabs and Septa buses aside, I kept my cool and eventually pulled up to the curb at 9th Street. I felt good. It had only been a week and a half since Dave brought Rupert home for the first time and our shiny (new) Honda Pilot had been and invaluable addition to the tasks at hand. Dave had been licensed for less than a month and we were set to embark on our 1100 mile odyssey in 7 days. Now all I had to do was pass MY test. “Flying Colors” was used to describe my initial success. This was however, only the beginning of what would become a nerve-wracking six day marathon... and I'm not even talking about the overall moving process.

*Thursday - August 4, 2011 - We had made it to New Orleans, not in record time, but were we in a hurry? There were plenty of headaches prior to our leaving, which I'll detail in my next installment, but the drive down had gone pretty smoothly.

There was still one thing left to do though: unload the truck into our storage space. First of all, why are we doing things this way? Well, we are subletting from our friends Rachel & Paul for five months, so we need a place to put all, or most, of our stuff until the New Year. Luckily the storage facility is three blocks away.

Thursday morning arrived all too soon. First things first, we needed to actually rent the space, which went smoothly. Public Storage, my hat is off to you! So much easier and professional than dealing with U-haul in Philadelphia! That taken care of we applied ourselves to the task at hand. I was dropped off with Jim at his place, where we'd left the truck the previous evening. Dave went on ahead to see if he could round up some cheap help over on Claiborne Ave (yes, when in need, it's always available). Jim and I piled into the big yellow taxi and headed down to St. Mary Street. When we arrived back at the storage facility only to discover the truck was 6” too high to pull into the enclosed garage. No matter, we parked just outside, the only problem would be that we'd be unloading in the direct sun. It was 95 degrees on Thursday, and the heat index pushed the actual feel to about 115. This was not going to be a light endeavor. One of the saving graces: our space was on the ground floor, in very acceptable air-conditioning, the others... Dave found three guys to help us. Annoyingly one of them skipped out even before we got started. Apparently he didn't want to work 'that hard' so he left. Yeah, fuck you too, buddy.

Wednesday - August 3, 2011 - Craziness. That's what this was... taking Rt 85 directly through downtown Atlanta, even after the morning rush hour. Dave wanted to drive, so I let him. I'm glad I did, my congested city driving is still rather nerve-wracking. I settled for the less nerve-wracking passenger position watching Dave navigate through it all. Any couple can probably attest that watching your spouse drive causes... 'tension.' This is something I have to ease into accepting, and just move on from it. We got through it all and out of the city in one piece. Atlanta: I have to say I'm glad I was just passing through. Not much more of Georgia now. Montgomery, AL here we come.

I felt a little bad taking over for Dave after about 2 hours, but it was time for his break. He'd done the hard part getting us out of Atlanta this morning, now the highway driving in Alabama was simple, open and sunny. As soon as we crossed into the state we decided to stop at the 'Welcome Center' which was truly the first sense I got of being in the deep south.... the trees, the lushness, and a different feel all together from the Carolinas & Georgia.

After we got out of the city this morning Jim had told us, “fly, be free, ” so we put the pedal down and scooted off down the highway. We weren't going to see Jim until tonight when he pulled in to Coliseum Street with the truck, but it didn't really matter, the rest would be smooth sailing right on into Nola.

A stop over in Montgomery for lunch then jumping on to Rt 65 southbound to Mobile. In and around Mobile and on to Biloxi, MS a number of flash storms dumped quite a bit of rain on us. the type of rain that keeps you from seeing more than 50-60 feet in front of you. A little unnerving, but still, that's what windshield wipers are for. And you know? There are STILL assholes that insist on speeding through weather like that. Perhaps they were some of the accidents we kept having to slow down to a crawl for? Nah, right?

Route 10 West from Mobile to New Orleans gave us some interesting sites, specifically the very long, elevated stretches of highway above the swamplands. Up and down, over miles and miles and miles of wetlands. This would be the case all the way into Louisiana and over Lake Ponchartrain. We were headed right into Nola now, and we'd just have to meet up with Jim at our final destination. We pulled into Coliseum Street at roughly 7pm on Wednesday evening, parked Rupert in front and shortly thereafter Jim pulled up with the truck. Wedging it in to the spots directly in front of the house we took a short breather before we met up with our friend Megan at the Avenue Pub on St. Charles for the hand off of the keys. I don't seem to remember what else we did that night, aside from hurriedly unpacking the car into Rachel & Paul's apartment, before we collapsed in exhaustion. We'd made it.

BUT, the truck still needed to be unpacked. Tomorrow. Just think about it all tomorrow.

Tuesday - August 2, 2011 - Roanoke, it's been fun. Leaving Virginia and descending the mountains was quite breathtaking. Once we finally got to the level plains and crossed into North Carolina both Dave and I looked at each other and said, “I wonder how Jim is doing on that?” He was fine.

We were headed due south for Atlanta and the driving was fine.

I have to say that for two relatively new drivers I am impressed with how Dave and I are holding it together. I had only been driving for a week before we pulled out of Philly on Sunday, July 31^st. And I had only gotten my license on Friday the 29^th. Dave had been licensed for about 3-4 weeks. Our 'green' status and our carbon footprint was going to take a hit on this trip though. 1300 miles in an SUV and diesel truck is a bit much.

Today was kind of boring, but the drive was relaxing. Dave has a limit of about 2 hours at a stretch behind the wheel, so I stayed driving for 3.5-4 hours. I'm actually enjoying it. North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia... in and around Charlotte got a teensy bit hairy, but we managed. At the end of the day we pulled in to a La Quinta in Norcross just outside of Atlanta and it was again time for martinis and food. Jim needed martinis, I stuck with some Leffe Blond. Separate rooms tonight, as our snoring was a bit much for poor Jim last night. (It's the least we can do.... I can certainly empathize) Back to the room for a night cap of Red Stripe and it was time to crash...

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More tomorrow.