The Bell Tolls For We…

In twelve hours we’ll begin a 36 hour journey that will begin in Cincinnati, have us go through Chicago, layover in LA for half a day, and then (finally) get to make the 12 hour flight to Auckland. In the meantime, things have not been slow. In the last two weeks, we’ve driven lots of miles, seen lots of friends and family, and on more than one occasion, forgotten which city we were in.

In mid August, my parents came for the weekend to help us pack and see our stuff off. The highlight was when I had moved 80 boxes from living room to front lawn, and had friends wait with me from 1 pm to 6:30 pm for the UPS Freight guy, only to be told we don’t live on a street, and we would have to deliver our stuff to UPS ourselves. I calmly asked the operator how it was she thought I got to my street, and explained that because a UPS driver decided that a “No Through Trucks” somehow translated to “I Don’t Have to Work” that I would have to pay extra, rent a UHaul, or find some other way to get my 80 boxes to them. I explained, again calmly, that this simply would not do, and they should call the police to verify that 1) we do live on a street, and that 2) trucks could deliver and pick things up. She told me that might be possible but that extra charges would apply. I asked (still calmly) did she mean that we would be getting a discount? What? was her reply. I said that we should be getting a discount seeing as UPS missed their window, not me, and that I didn’t think I would be paying extra for work not done correctly. She said she’d call back after she called the police. Five minutes later, another truck was on the way, no extra charges. Whew!

We then embarked on what I called our 2010 Victory Tour. What we won, I don’t know, but it sounded cool. We hit Chicago, Ft. Wayne, Grand Rapids, Detroit, and then ended back in Cincinnati. We had great visits, dinners, farewells, and see-ya-soons with lots of friends and family, the highlights being Volare in Chicago, Hopcat in Grand Rapids, and the NZ farewell party in Detroit.

Below are a few photos that encapsulate (sort of) the final days in the USA. More to follow…