Out of the Apartment!

Today was the day, and the ups and downs continued just as with the earlier days this week. I'll spare the details here, but thanks to Reggie Shouse for coming to my rescue...again!

I had way more stuff still hiding in corners and cubbies than I realized before. Still, the 10x21 storage unit kept welcoming me back. Here are some views at the end:

A few from the ground

A view from "above" holding the camera above my head

Yes, that's all my stuff, spanning 21' deep. Well, everything there is mine, but I actually have more--an entire car (floor to roof, dash to bumper) full AND a decent load of non-perishable food that my parents moved earlier this week. Hard to believe!

So, I'm out of the apartment and in Elyria tonight--it feels good. I'll be back in BG on Monday to take care of some business and play some golf (note: golf is "free" with my student membership--I'm not paying for golf, yet), and then start the Bum Tour at a cookout with my academic cohort. I'll try to encourage someone there to try something new as an official start to the "The Time is Now" Tour as well.

Oh, and my MacBook is fixed and back in use, so I'm online and mobile!

I need sleep. More soon!

Exhausted

This has become one of the most exhausting moves ever...and I move frequently. This is my 3rd move in 3 years, and my 8th move in 15 years. Seriously, I'm beat.

In all honesty, I would probably be dead or crying in a corner somewhere if I did not have such amazing friends. I just can't do it alone, and some year I will remember that fact in advance.

Everything is coming together. The apartment is 99% empty, I'll run a few more things to storage in the morning, deliver items to Goodwill, pack my road trip items in the car, and get the place cleaned before the carpet cleaners arrive (hopefully). Then it's off to my parents for the weekend.

Still no laptop--I hope it's ready on Monday when I come back into the vicinity. In the meantime, I may not have any updates (but my parents do have multiple computers, so we'll see).

The phone interview with MIT went as well as can be expected. Everything else yesterday did not go as expected: Budget transferred my truck reservation to a dealer 27 miles away without telling me, I lost a few hours of daylight packing, it felt like about 120 degrees with 90% humidity while packing the truck, the truck was just barely large enough, and the storage unit was just barely large enough (pictures forthcoming). Plus, I had to pull in a friend to unload the truck at 7am this morning in order to get the truck back on time (ran out of time last night). Oh, and it rained, but that did not really mess anything up.

All that being said, it still could have been worse...much worse. It would have been much worse without friends to help. Thanks, friends!

I took a break today and played a round of golf (perhaps my last free round on my student membership--time will tell). I also had two good meals today.

For any hosts on the tour, my books are printed and I'm looking forward to sharing copies with you all. Until then, I need to finish in Bowling Green and get on the road. Cheers!

Packing (still)

Imagine packing all of your belongings...no, just imagine clothes...you are packing all of your clothes, but you have two packing objectives.  Objective 1: pack clothes for a month-long road trip, that might need to last you for an indefinite future, into portable containers/luggage. Objective 2: pack all of your remaining clothes to be locked into a storage facility you likely won't be near in the foreseeable future. Keep in mind the road-trip is not hiking the Appalachian Trail or backpacking through Europe--it's traveling through mid-western suburbia and being hosted by many different people along the way. Yes, I intend to look and smell "respectable."

This describes my existence tonight.

In other news, I had some revelations tonight and posted them to my other blog. I won't take up the space here, but if you want to read my insights, take a look at the post.  It's called Identity of a Pack-rat.

Furniture moved!

The furniture is moved!

My favorite part of this scene is that the couch looks ready for hosting in the storage unit!

That being said, this is supposed to be Dave's Tour Blog, not Dave's moving blog. So, what did I learn from this tour-preparation phase worth noting?

• One relatively skinny looking guy really can lift and move a washer and a dryer (individually) with his bare hands.
• A 10x22 storage unit actually seems small when you have furniture and appliances you don't want stacked.
• Standing around while other people move your stuff is awkward. If ever doing this, be sure to have some activity planned like cleaning the kitchen, or perhaps doing push ups to show them how strong you are.

I'll mark this down as a "the time is now" moment for me, too. This is my first time hiring movers for anything. I must admit that now truly is the time! Next time, maybe I'll pack more quickly and have them move everything.

Every day brings new...

Let's see, after a very short sleep, I woke up this morning to get my car serviced and ready for the big tour.  $500 later, I hope it is ready :-|  While waiting at the dealership, I discovered that my MacBook Pro battery had a problem--stopped off at a service center in Toledo and found out I have a defective battery. The problem is covered under warranty, but I really hope I get my laptop back before the tour starts (the new MacBook Pro uni-body design does not allow user-replacement of the battery). Ugh. So, any web stuff between now and then will need to be done from the iMac desktop.

I ran a buch of errands today, including Goodwill donations. Oh, I promised moving pictures. Hold on a minute...

OK, here are a couple of pictures from tonight:

The movers arrive in about 12 hours to haul out the furniture, washer, and dryer.  Tonight I'm making sure they can get to everything scheduled to depart.  I'll get the rest with a rental truck on Wednesday.

Also today, I updated the maps on my Garmin, so I'm GPS-ready for the tour. Additionally, I officially added a Jimmy Buffett concert to the tour on August 12 in PA! This is going to push my Arkansas visit around just a bit, but it should all work out.

I guess I should post my job search updates since they are bound (hopefully) to interfere with the tour. I scheduled a phone interview with MIT today--this Wednesday at 10:00am (right after I pick up the moving truck). Wednesday will be all sorts of fun!

Time to sign off--I have much to finish tonight.

Pre-tour and such

I spent much of the weekend on the road for my "pre-tour" schedule.  Sorry, I neglected to get any pictures :-(

On Thursday and Friday, I was in Alma and Mt. Pleasant (Michigan).  Thanks to Jamie & Chris for their hospitality on Thursday evening, and thanks to the Stack family for hosting me on Thursday & Friday night. Although the trip was pretty quick, it was fantastic seeing such great friends again.  Marty Stack was visiting from Japan, so it was really fun getting together again.  Jamie treated me to dinner on Thursday at Freddie's Tavern and then a giant melting ice cream cone at Doozie's Ice Cream.  Later that night, I caught up with Marty and friends as they were wrapping up role-play gaming (oh the memories!).  Marty and I headed back to the house and caught up for a few hours.  I slept with a very affectionate gray kitty cat Thursday night.

On Friday, the weather cooperated for Jamie and I to play 18 holes at Riverwood.  In between nines, we had lunch with Jim Kridler at Bennigan's.  It was a real treat both seeing "Dean" Kridler again, and also having the absolute best Monte Cristo sandwich ever!  I think Jamie and I have both played better golf, but it was fun.  Marty, Jim, and I had dinner on Friday night at the Braveheart's Pub--I ate fried mushrooms and actually enjoyed them!  After dinner, Marty drove me over to the Alma College campus so I could gawk at the "new" residence hall, Wright Hall.

Of course, it would not be a trip to Alma without Pizza Sams!  I guess I can add this to the "time is now" tour for me--my first Sam's pizza with anchovies (and without cheese if I remember correctly).  We also visited the local 7-Eleven for a six pack of Killians.  Mmmm, beer and pizza!

On Saturday, I drove to Ashland, OH to celebrate the wedding of Kathy Reynolds and Mark Crites--you can see pictures of the location (private residence) at their site.  It was fantastic--sunny (well, by the time I arrived), excellent food, and good times!  It was also great catching up with Jennifer Schreer and Dustin Brentlinger--too long between visits, way too long. The wedding was the day before, so this party was a casual "loudest shirt" event.  If anyone sends me pictures, I'll post them here. (I'm so sorry--my roadtrip gear bag was not prepared for this pre-tour). Oh, I do have a picture of the bride and groom:

Since then, I've been packing. Keep in mind that "packing" also means stuff like cleaning up 3 years worth of financial documents in a box.  My parents came today and helped me pack--mostly the kitchen which is a HUGE chore.  I love my parents, and I was very fortunate to have their help today!  We had Domino's Pizza for dinner--yum!  I'll snap some packing pictures tomorrow before the furniture movers arrive on Wednesday.  I disassembled the entertainment center, so the TV is disconnected. The stereo is still running, though, and I still have the internet up and running.

Sad to be moving, but excited for the tour to begin!

Move becoming reality

I'm really looking forward to starting my travels and getting some photos posted!  Until then...

I hired a moving company today. I am truly excited! They'll be moving my major furniture and appliances into my storage unit for a reasonable hourly rate.  I'll still be moving stuff with a rental truck, but it will be much more manageable without the big stuff.  Whew!

I received much anticipated feedback from my advisor today regarding Ch. 5 of my dissertation, so I sincerely hope to have that completed by the end of this week.

In addition to dissertation work and the start of packing today, I counted my change jars.  I'm happy to say that the first leg of my tour might be funded by 2 years worth of change!

More communications regarding the tour schedule today, too.  Changes will happen daily I'm sure.  If you know anyone that might want to be on the tour route for either a visit or as a host, please get them in contact with me.

Cheers!

Excitement builds!

This little idea is already producing some exciting results!  In the past week, I've enjoyed several e-mail exchanges with friends who are contemplating some fantastic new endeavors!  I'm not going to share any details now...let's just see how it all unfolds.

To those of you already making plans--FANTASTIC! (and, thank you)  To those of you still considering, please keep considering.  I'm really looking forward to sharing in your endeavors as part of my adventure!

Preparations begin

Today is the first serious day of moving plans. It was also the first day I did not play golf this month.  I updated information with my car/renters insurance, rented a storage unit, bought a lock for the unit (because I can't find either of my other two locks from previous moves), investigated health insurance options, and reserved a moving truck.  I'm still looking into professional moving options for big furniture, but I've also put out a call for healthy youthful assistants for the move--my back got a little sore today just looking for something in a closet. Landlord says I might be able to stay an extra weekend into August 2--that would be a nice buffer!

I have not started packing anything in the apartment, but I consider strategies every time I look around the place.  What to pack immediately, what to keep until the last minute, what to take with me on the road, what to take to my parents' house…all that stuff.  One of the weird things is food…what I will consume, what I will give away, what I will store at my parents…all that stuff.  I may need to plan a menu for the next two weeks in order to accommodate.

Still waiting on dissertation (draft) feedback so that I can finish the thing, get it submitted, and get a defense date scheduled.  The tour schedule is more complicated with that detail still open.

I also applied for a job today. Yet another facet of this whole situation to keep things interesting and in flux.

Soon enough, the journey will be underway. With all of this preparation, it's not exactly Kerouac's On The Road, but that's to be expected when you're 36 and getting ready to live on the road in the 21st century.

Tentative Tour Stops

It's going to take a little time for the tour schedule to develop, mostly because (a) I'm focused on moving out of my current apartment and (b) I am desperate to get my dissertation defense scheduled. In anticipation of a fall semester job, most travel will happen early-to-mid August.  Tour will be extended pending continued delays in the job search.

Until the tour schedule is under way (which will appear in the calendar section at the top of the blog), I will list potential tour stops here:

MIDWEST
Cleveland, OH
Bowling Green, OH
Mid-Michigan
Clarion, PA

EAST COAST
Schenectady, NY
Richmond, VA

SOUTH
Conway, AR
Gallatin, TN
Austin, TX
Jacksonville, FL

WEST COAST
Vancouver, WA
Alameda, CA