And another pic… September 30, 2007

He really isn’t cussing up a storm, even though it looks like it. You can see part of a car that has just passed us, just ahead of that car is the exit we were headed for. You can also see the lines on the road, and note that we are on the shoulder. You would NOT BELIEVE how many cars pull on to that shoulder way ahead of the exit, to get off the interstate. It was unbelievable. Mike told me to get back in the car, but I was afraid of getting rammed from behind and having the car fall on Mike. So I stood and watched, and made sure the cars saw us. Most of them started to veer onto the shoulder, then saw us and got back over. One minivan got all the way on to the shoulder and I don’t think he saw us until I started waving at him to get back over. What a bunch of idiots. I guess there are some things that don’t change from state to state – bad drivers!!!

In Detroit September 29, 2007

Well, we made it to Detroit…barely! We stayed the night in Troy, Ohio last night to get a good night’s sleep. We got on the road at around 9:30 am this morning and got to my sister-in-law’s around 3:30 after making a couple of stops. After hanging out with her and our nieces for a few hours we headed for dinner with a high school friend of Mike’s and her husband. Now we are finally in the hotel room, and waiting on one of his brothers to get here with his girlfriend. We might go bowling. Haven’t done that in a while!

Somewhat funny story – we stopped on our way out of Atlanta to pick up a “plug” kit just in case we got a nail in the tire…and on our way from my SIL’s to dinner, we BLEW a tire! So the plug kit is useless. Thankfully there is a Belle Tire just down the street from our hotel room.

Here’s to hoping a flat tire is the worst of our worries over the next couple of months!

 And a cute pic of our nieces just because they are so darn cute:

Technology September 28, 2007

This is so cool…I am blogging from the car right now. Mike’s cell phone doubles as a modem so my laptop is online. It’s like dialup, but still cool and will help me pass an hour or so. Right now I’m checking the weather on our route to see if we’re going to drive through any crap. We got on the road around 11:30-11:45 I guess, so we should be in the Dayton area by about 8 pm. We’re going to stop overnight and sleep, rather than try to drive and get into Detroit around midnight. We’ll just get up early and drive the rest of the way tomorrow. Other than the wind outside, its a nice day for driving. There’s nothing worse than doing an eight hour drive in pouring rain.

HAHAHAHAHA. Some People. September 26, 2007

So I posted the car on Craig’s List Atlanta and it’s also going up on autotrader.com. I just got an email from someone who wants to know if I’d be willing to finance the car. They have $300 cash now, can pay up to $400 a month until the loan is paid off and will have about $3,000 in January to put towards it. She’s desperate, because her car just died.

This person is either stupid, kidding, or a scam artist.

Carmax Shmarmax September 26, 2007

One of our final things to do is to get rid of my car. Without going into too much detail, I owe more than it is worth, but I knew that and am prepared to pay extra on it. We figured since it is a 2004 Honda Accord with all the bells and whistles, that we’d get a decent offer from Carmax. Boy we were so wrong. I’m glad we went today to find out how much they’d give us, because we now have a few weeks to try and sell it ourselves, but what a pain in the ass! Basically, Carmax wanted to give me $10,000 and I’ve found several similar cars online (autotrader.com, Craig’s List, etc.) ranging anywhere from $13,000 to $19,900. So I’ve listed it on Craig’s List for $16,900, hoping that price will attract some buyers. Keep your fingers crossed for me. Carmax would have been able to turn around and put it on the lot for $17,000 and make quite a nice little profit. Makes you really wonder how great a deal their “no haggle” prices are. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate the auto industry?

Furniture For Sale September 25, 2007

The last items we have to get rid of before our move include a living room set, bedroom set and my car. The living room is up for $800, bedroom is up for $1200, or you can have all of it for $1800. Here’s what is included in the sale:

Bedroom:
- Headboard
- Footboard
- Rails
- King size mattress and box springs (Sealy posturepedic pillow top)
- 2 bedside tables
- 2 lamps
- dresser w/ mirror
- chest of drawers

Living Room:
- Sofa
- Love seat
- 2 end tables
- convertible coffee table
- 2 lamps
- 7 deocrative pillows
- 25″ tv

Here are a few pics. Leave a comment if you have any questions or are interested. Husband sold separately.

         

Comfort Zones September 23, 2007

Some people have comfort zones the size of Texas, mine is more the size of a zip code, or a small town. In 7 years I have definitely settled into my little zone quite comfortably. I like the luxuries of home – getting in my car and going whenever I want, a hot shower every morning, money to buy food, a nice big comfortable bed to sleep in every night, friends and a certain level of privacy. I am confident in finding my way around, communicating with people and existing.

This trip to Europe has nothing but uncertainty and that makes me nervous.  I think that’s why I’m not super-duper excited about the trip just yet. We don’t have any reservations for any hotels or trains or anything and flying by the seat of my pants is not my strong suit. We have enough problems trying to decide what to have for dinner each night let alone deciding what cities we want to visit or what sites to visit in those cities.

I read Kim’s blog about being in south east Asia on a 3 day trek with no showers or restrooms and I don’t know how she, or anyone else does it.

Maybe this trip and moving back to Australia will help me to be less inhibited. I don’t understand how I went from being someone who could leave home at 18 and move to the other side of the world and go to school and make new friends to being so unsure about myself.

Stand By September 22, 2007

Today we reserved our standby tickets to Europe. We head out on Tuesday, October 9th to London and fly back from Zurich on November 2nd. The days in between will be filled with London, Paris, Bern, Venice, Florence and much more. Guess this is really happening…

The Packing Begins September 21, 2007

Next Thursday the shipping company is picking up our boxes that are being shipped to Australia. So today I started going through my shoes and clothes to figure out what I will take with us and what I’ll put on the boat. The shipping is supposed to take 8-10 weeks, which would put it there around the first half of December if all goes to plan. I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about people whose shipment has taken up to 6 months!!

So in Box 1 is 13 pairs of shoes – and that’s just mine. I don’t know what Mike has! In Box 2 is several shirts, pants, skirts a dress and my denim jacket. I filled the suitcase I have here with clothes I want to take with me, and there are some clothes still hanging up that I will leave with Goodwill. There’s also a laundry basket full of clothes that need to be washed tomorrow…not sure what I’ll find in there, but thankfully I have another suitcase to take to Australia.

And this is before tomorrow’s HUGE early bird specials at Kohls sale…oh boy! I may have to go through a couple of cuts before I finally get to what actually makes it to Australia with me.

Success! September 20, 2007

We found the paper mill and bridge area and I took way too many pics. Check them out here on flickr.