We all know the saying

But hate when it is so bloody true. We make plans and the gods laugh. Let me tell the Goddess is having a royal belly laugh right about now. Seriously ROFL. Actually she is probably having those uncontrollable giggles – know the kind, like when you were a kid and there was nothing, no threats from your mother that could get them to stop and in fact made them worse. Yeah, that’s what the gods and goddesses are doing right about now.

We were going to leave bright and early Tuesday. That clearly wasn’t going to happen. So then we were going to leave early, like by 10 am Wednesday. Nope, not that either. Our little caravan was on Route 80 heading east passing all the exits that had been homebound ramps at just before 3 in the afternoon. Merrily we rolled along still keeping our goal of Winnemuca NV before we would lay our heads to sleep. Yeah that didn’t happen. I am writing this from Fernley NV, just past Reno.

Among the things that delayed us, amused us, and humbled us:

Last Saturday we have our House Cooling party which was really lovely. Our friend Anna brought us a cake that said “Happy Trails Dharma & TGF”. Okay it actually had our names but you get the point. There was a veritable gang of children most who had never met but one would never have guessed. They ran rampant through the house, inventing a game as they went. Wyatt, our dog had great fun with them, getting pets and fed Capri fruit drinks. There were people who surprised us with their presence and others who we missed. Two friends, one that we had only known online for years now, drove up for Southern California, just to be able to say goodbye. Blessed, that was definitely the feeling.

At the party Alex, the partner of a school colleague of mine, insisted that we had to call her to help us pack. She came over on Thursday and Friday, worked her tail off, kept us focused, passed lots of tips and reminders, and made us laugh.

Sunday Sue and Sarah came by to pick up furniture they had bought from us. They came to get a “big boy bed” and matching dresser for Isaiah, our nephew of choice. We did one last dinner together, at Ikea. I found it convenient and perhaps planned that it didn’t allow for a lingering goodbye and tears were withheld. We ran home from there to meet with Jennie who was picking up various things from me. Added to the loot were several bags of groceries out of fridge and freezer. Earlier in the week I had bestowed her a few bags from the pantry. That woman shouldn’t need to shop for weeks! She brought me a gift, the appropriately titled “Knitting on the Road”. It’s filled with sock patterns. Tres cool.

Monday Izaac the Amazing Mover came with his buddy Steve, who has the most beautiful blue eyes. Before he arrived however Ruthie came over with a mocha for TGF and a soy latte for me from Peet’s. One last indulgence of such fine purveyors of caffeine. Alex also came back to help us with the last minute packing and to help keep us sane. Actually TGF had to go down to the lot to pick up the truck with Izaac, and as ONeil’s Budget was a hopping place thing took awhile before she, Izaac and Steve showed up. A surprise came through the door at some point. At first I was so distracted I though this vision in a beautiful dress was the woman from craigslist that was supposed to pick up the orange chairs. But no! It was Jennie coming by to see us off and drop off another gift(!) for me. It was a lovely drop spindle and the most beautiful cake of roving in lovely shades of blue. TGF rolled her eyes and we pointed out how small and portable this was, far moreso than a spinning wheel and certainly WAY smaller and lighter than her dang full size arcade game that we were hauling back to Ohio! The woman from craigslist, or rather her husband did show up and take the chairs - Yeah! She also wrote me a lovely email thanking me for them telling me she loved them and that she had said prayers for our safe journey. Blessed all around.

After that things went long. Some might venture to say this is where things went terribly long and terribly wrong.