House Camping - Part II

What does a family do for six weeks without all of its stuff?!

Temporarily losing access to our belongings has already helped us realize how much we don't need. We can be happy with a lot less than we think! This has really been an interesting experience: we've seen the gracious outlay and offering of furniture and furnishings from friends; we've been served meals by compassionate friends who noticed we were in over-our-heads during the days leading up to Moving Day; we've had physical help lifting boxes, desks, etc., getting everything where it needed to be in time for the movers to pack the shipping container. It's been one blessing after another, albeit exhausting both mentally, physically and emotionally.

In summary, the "house camping" is going well. Here are some of the highlights:

It's a little harder to get out of bed since it's on the ground, but we're very thankful we have one so comfortable.


We still have cable television and the cable company's DVR to record our favorite shows. We held out one 19" television from the movers which will eventually be packed into pickup and driven to our new Palmer, Alaska home. Until then, it sits waiting on a shaky card table. The biggest adjustment is that we watch tv seated on either on a cat-scratched love seat, a high-back chair or the floor.

Dinner is held in the same place since Moving Day, just now it's on a card table surrounded by folding chairs. We've been eating off paper plates and borrowed cups and glasses. We're in the process of eating whatever combinations of boxed foods and canned goods we can that works toward baring the pantry shelves. Takeout and delivery sure looks better and better over some of the options we're left with, but Rebecca does a great job of keeping it tasty. What's on the menu is likely because it was passed over several times before. But these days, even the dinner choices we make can potentially lighten the load we'll take to Alaska.


Internet access is still available and we have all of our computer equipment on or around a combination of folding tables (have you picked up on our folding table decor motif yet?). Now, we have a great view out the front windows and the family remains close-by as all I've described above is on the first floor.

When the movers did their work, they left with all the kid's toys. The reality this was coming occurred to the kids a little late as they held-out scarcely a single toy except one water-logged hula hoop that was left at the back of our rented property. With the idea coming from neighborhood yard sale signs, we decided to re-populate the house with a few yard-sale-priced toys that we could leave in Kentucky on Departure Day. This means Erin and Jillian are now the owners of two $10 bicycles. These bikes are getting a work-out as they represent the lion's share of their outdoor play things. Yet pointing to another truth the move has reminded us: less stuff = more use of what you've got. These bikes have greater value now than they ever would have just weeks ago. It's all they've got and now they're much more special. Even if Erin's bike is too small for her!

Here's another fun moving story: We've taken our 3 girls to Gattiland a LOT. If you haven't heard this name before, Gattiland is a Chuck E. Cheese-style kid restaurant/play place. For what seems to be years (at least to the kids) , we've suggested that when they get those tickets-turned-points for playing all the games that they just keep adding them up rather than spending them on the little junky stuff. Any kid can get the stuff out of the glass displays on the floor, even with just one good turn at Colorama! (...uh...why do I know this information?!) Seriously...what kid never looked at the "good stuff" on the back wall, considered the 72 points they held in their hand and didn't feel a little dejected for being 3,928 points shy of the toy they really wanted?? With leaving Kentucky, and perhaps the last Gattiland we'd see in a long while, it was time to cash in the Gatti points.
We went up to the mobbed prize counter with our points card and handed it to the young man standing on the other side. He scanned our points card just a second before letting out a serious "Whew!" under his breath. This led us to believe it had been a while since he'd seen one with enough points to permit pulling a prize from the back wall. We were Gattiland royalty this night. We walked out of that restaurant playground with not one, but two Nerf guns!You should have seen the green eyed monsters flanking our girls on the way out of the building!
And these Nerf toys are the very "inside" toys they've been playing with since Moving Day. We outfitted 14-yr-old Katie with her own (I can hear it already "Dad, why'd you write I have a Nerf gun on your blog?...I'm so embarrassed!") and a wall target that all three can shoot at. They have fun, as does the big kid writing this!

So, as I began this thread, I will end it: the "house camping" is going well.

Erin and I look to the calendar and see only three weeks until we pull out and start our Alaskan Road Trip. It's just about time to focus on preparing all that will go into our actual trek, the subject of posts to come.

Rebecca and I would like to thank everyone who responded so kindly to the post that mentioned the kids were getting nasty comments from their friends about the move. It surprised us to see how many friends were ready to defend our kids...sounds like family! It's important to mention that everything is fine now and all the relationships are back to normal. Fact is, this is as rough a time for our kid's friends as it is our own children. We have to keep in mind we're not the only ones trying to "get over" the upcoming separation! Another valuable life-lesson to share and remember.

Shipping Day

For two days, we've been watching the moving company guys pack everything in our home into boxes. Now, with the 53' trailer set in front of our home, it's time for all of our personal possessions to be loaded and made ready for the 5-week journey to Alaska.

That's not where it started. To leave this entry as some sort of summary that you might get in passing would defeat the whole purpose of this web journal. The truth of the matter is...we are in the midst of a HIGHLY EMOTIONAL event. That last statement has manifested itself in different ways with each person in the family. Two of us decided to get in a big argument over a pop tart instead of admitting that it was just venting fear of the big change. One of us unraveled because a favorite toy was packed up; the true pain was actually from mountains of boxes that represented the time to leave our friends was near. Over the past week there have been similar stressful moments randomly popping up. It's interesting to note some of the kid's friends have even been providing their own share of emotional surprises, further complicating the situation for our girls. Like the "BFF" who told one daughter she was "tired of hearing about the move" and that she "wished [my daughter] would just leave already so [her friend] didn't have to hear about [the move] anymore". Stuff like that just adds to the drama and doesn't really help quell the ball of nerves we're all wrestling.

But back to the story...
As I write this, the moving guys whisk one hand truck load after another...up our driveway, up the ramp and into the container. It's going to take the rest of today and most of tomorrow to get all of our belongings loaded. The last thing to go will be our beds. This brings a little peace, just knowing we'll have at least one more night of sleep in our own beds!

For those with an interest in the logistics of this part of our relocation, this paragraph is for you:

Tuesday - The moving company shows up with a 50' tractor trailer loaded with packing materials and send three guys to break down and pack up our entire home. Whatever is not set aside and identified as such is packed and on its way to Alaska. Anything not marked, whether intentional or accidental, goes. Like the accident that I didn't set out my airline flight kit that has all my charts and maps for my next flight assignment in four days! OUCH. I've already called the airline and fortunately they'll have a loaner flight bag waiting for me. The manager I spoke to was very understanding as he had made a similar move once.

Wednesday - The moving guys arrived at 7:30am with the fancy blue semi and finished packing at approximately 3pm; we are officially living out of a limited number of pants, socks, underwear, towels, etc.

Thursday, Shipping Day 1 - Movers showed up at 7:30am in the tractor truck and no trailer. The Louisville container ship yard was supposed to dispatch a 53' container to arrive at our home at 9am for the movers to start packing but, for whatever reason, it didn't arrive until a little after 1pm. Before arriving, the trailer was taken to a weigh station to get its "light weight", the weight before it is loaded with our stuff (a.k.a.- tare weight). The late arrival at our home meant our movers were sitting on my front lawn doing nothing but waiting for 4 hours! And that's where we are up to the moment - loading.

Friday, Shipping Day 2 - Once the trailer is finally loaded, the movers will hook up their blue big rig to the industrial-looking, rust-colored container and take it back to the weight station to get its "heavy weight". The difference between the heavy (gross) weight and the light (tare) weight is the weight of the load. My company pays for any load up to 18,500 pounds and we are responsible to pay for any amount over that figure. Just 1,000 Lbs over will cost us approximately $1,500, so coming in below that amount is very important.

Once weighed, the container is taken back to the Louisville ship yard and prepared to change transportation modes to heavy rail. It's very possible that the container will be double stacked like you see in the picture to the right. It will take the train 10 to 14 days to get to Tacoma, Washington where it will change transportation modes to sea shipping. It will take about 2 or 3 days to get loaded aboard a sea-going vessel. The trip to Anchorage, Alaska will take another 10 to 12 days. Once in Anchorage, the container will be unloaded and be placed in a warehouse. The container's transportation will change modes again, back to trucking. Once the delivery date is set up, it will travel the final 40-miles to our new home in Palmer, Alaska.

The projected arrival date of the container is June 16, just a couple days before Erin, Holly and I expect to finish our 4,500-mile drive. And a nice surprise I learned about Tuesday...the movers will haul all of our stuff into our new home, take it to the right room (marked on the side of each box), UNPACK the contents and remove all the packaging garbage!! What a break! I thought that was all ours to manage and was very delighted to get that bit of information.

Closing out this entry, the movers are finishing up for the day. With the garage and entire basement loaded(two-thirds of the house) the container is only halfway full!

These are the highlights up to the moment. What's immediately next is to move in our gracious neighbor's "loaner furniture" and set up whatever is needed to make the house camping doable for the next 4 weeks. June 6 (Departure Day, or D-Day) is coming and before we know it Erin, Holly and I will be headed westward on our adventure. As soon as we get the house set up to live in, the focus will clearly shift to preparing for the long journey. Those preparations will be the subject of several upcoming entries.