The rain gets its last digs in as we hit the road. It had rained all night and wasn't letting up anytime soon.
The motorcycles were getting a bath of a life time while sitting on the trailer behind Tiny. I can only imagine how dirty these bikes will be by the time we roll into Tucson!
As we headed down I-5, our sites became focused on Astoria, OR. No particular reason, just a way to navigate around Portland and over to Hwy 101. We were pleasantly greeted with sunshine as we pulled into the Astoria Safeway parking lot.
Our destination was refined as our spirits were buoyed with the glimpse of the sun. Onward to Cannon Beach! We hoped to find reasonably priced accommodations since it is off season, but more importantly find one of those cute little mom and pop places so often found in small towns. We found the mom and pop "look" with Mc Bees. Not so sure about the reasonable price, even though we were given a discounted walk in rate (who affords these places during the tourist season??).
With room in hand, we went in search of a beer to celebrate the first day on the road. Bill's Tavern seems to be the destination of choice for a number of people in the area. Not a bad place at all. Bill brews a variety of Ales. The Blonde Ale is quite tasty!
Before heading back to the room for the night, we walked to the beach and took in the sunset. God's twinkle in the sky (oops, eye) for the end of our day!
We are ready to close out the chapter for living in Washington State. To say that we are exhausted is an understatement.
And why the exhaustion? We spent 5 days packing and loading the moving trailer. After a bit of research and pricing, we decided on working with a common trucking carrier - Old Dominion. We didn't even know they offered moving services until we tried to rent pod-type units from a company called Units. Unfortunately, Units does not have a franchise in the Puget Sound region; however, the Units rep Melissa kindly turned our focus to Old Dominion. What's cool is that you don't have to use the whole truck. You pay by the linear foot for the space actually used. Then OD boards up your portion of the trailer, back fills with a non-perishable commodity and sends the trailer to it's final destination.
On Friday (Oct 24), the 28' trailer was delivered. We had 3 business days to load up the trailer. The weekend gave us 2 bonus days. We needed every bit of those days to make it happen. Even with selling 50% of our furniture, thinning out clothes, and in general giving stuff away, we still have more stuff than either of us realized.
Dave and I did most of the loading ourselves. Dave's son, David made a welcome appearance on Saturday to help with the heavy lifting....thank goodness. After a while that ramp up to the bed of the truck became our nemesis; especially in the rain (3 of the 5 days).
We finished on Tuesday (Oct 28) just in time for the trucking service to come pick up the goods. Talk about cutting the timing close! Finally tally, 18'. The trailer is on it's way to Tucson where it will wait for us to call and give a delivery date. I can already tell you that I am not looking forward to unpacking this puppy.
Now we wait for the final inspection on the rental before we can leave the area. That happens tomorrow. Friday morning we are on our way to the new chapter.
Sunshine or bust!
