Life - Move, Stage 1

So I've been sort of stressed this past week. Two big things occupied my mind. The most immediate is the upcoming move. There are three stages - this weekend doing some packing and moving car stuff to our friend Todd's place, next weekend actually moving to the our temporary new permanent place, and the following weekend clearing out whatever is left).

The second thing is the honeymoon.

On the latter, the future missus and I both searched all sorts of sites, my sister's recommendations (she lived there for a bit), and a couple tour guide books we bought a while back. We were looking for a place that was reasonable in cost, somewhat spacious, and had no known horrors. Oh, and one more very important thing, which we only figured out after a week or two - available rooms.

I registered for a few of the travel sites, searched high and low for hotels, saved a few dozen, went over them with my other half, and then, when I went to check rates (or book), the hotel was booked.

So we'd repeat this process again. And again. And again.

This went on for a couple weeks.

Instead of riding, I'd browse hotel sites. I've been consumed with finding a place to stay. And finally, a couple days ago, we found a slightly out of the way place, really nice looking, and, well, a bit out of our price range. We'd already doubled our initial budget, then we went up a bit more. And now this.

But, you know, a honeymoon is a once in a lifetime thing. And though I could probably think of a lot of things I could buy with the cost of one night there, it's really sort of beside the point. We're selling our house without buying another one, we have a lot of equity in it, so we'll make, in a couple months of interest, enough to pay for the whole honeymoon, even if we stay at this semi-extravagant place.

So, with that in mind, yesterday we finally booked the hotel and the flight we'd been eyeing for a couple weeks.

Phew.

So that means I can ride, right?

Well, not really.

I did ride once. The big white van I have for the bike race has been pressed into service as a mini-moving van - if a 10 foot wheelbase with about 16 feet of floor inside could be considered "mini". It's needed shocks for a while but driving about 20 miles each way on local roads to the race, well, the shocks waited for a few years. But with a couple 200 mile days coming up, I decided I should stop procrastinating and get the shocks done. To put it in perspective, the van had traveled only 269 miles this year - 6 or so trips up to Bethel for the races.

I jacked up the van, the jack creaking in protest, and after getting the heavy wheel/tire off, I realized I couldn't get the rust shock bolts off. So I dropped off the van at the local garage and in the process went for my first and only ride this week. I had to get back from the garage and I figured riding the bike beat walking for a few minutes. So decked out in street clothes, helmet, lights (it was 11 PM), I had a quick 2 minute ride, most of it coasting. I got to turn four times. The swish of the tires made me ache for a nicer, more involving ride, but this had to do for the week.

We got the van back, shocks nice now, and loaded it up for the first Stage of the move - all the car stuff to go to Todd's. Any big carbon fiber pieces (hood, fenders), the stainless dual exhaust, the original wheels (and the tires on them), my big bike wheel rack, compressor, air tools, regular tools, workbench, jack, stands, ramps, maybe the big ladder.

In preparation for Stage 2, we also emptied the bedroom and living room into the PODS. Rearranged things so we should get by with one of them. The day the PODS moves is stage 2 - and that's on Friday/Saturday.

Two good friends, Kelly (he works with me) and Jenn (his girlfriend), came by to help with the packing and stuff. We got an insane amount of work done. I even had time to change the future missus's oil before they showed up.

So today is the final bit of Stage 1, the drive to Todd's. I want to edit the load in the van a bit, it should take an hour or so, then I'll be on my way.