Pax Gaea Human Rights World Post

Getting Under Way

What a wild, hectic and magical week we've had so far.

We were fortunate to receive an offer on our house on July 5th, only 35 days after listing but it came with the condition that we had to be ready to close on July 28th. So, armed with a list of "to do" items to satisfy the inspection and firm up our plans for Mexico we launched headlong into way too many last minute preparations. Intregal to this move was reducing our three bedroom house into what we could carry in and on the Land Rover so, with the house closing firm, I ordered a list of luggage and bike racks, brush guards and lights and had them sent to my dealership for installation (long ago, I learned that contracting out such services was a must as I have very little skill with a wrench).

On Monday, July 24th, I dropped the Discovery off at Land Rover Cape Fear figuring that two days would be sufficient time to have the vehicle serviced and the parts installed. We had knocked down the list of "must do" items to satisfy the terms of the close, and, except for packing of the remaining household goods and a chance to do a pre-pack of the vehicle on Wednesday, moving the household items to storage and a final pack of the Land Rover on Thursday, we'd get a good night's rest camping out on the living room floor, send the girls off for a last half day of school, meet with the real estate attorney at 10:00 a.m., pick up the girls at noon and be off to Ocracoke Island for a weekend of spiritual rejuvenation before heading south.

All seemed right with world on Monday as I arrived early at Land Rover. We still needed to try to find a buyer for Pen's Freeleander so, realizing I needed go to the DMV to get my vehicle registration renewed I took advantage of the early hour and arrived just as they opened and, uncharacteristically, was able to walk right up to the counter and hammer through the paperwork with no delay. I decided to exchange the rental car I was driving and drive the Freelander to the dealership to see if I could talk them into buying the car for little more than what I owed on it. My prospects seemed minimal as they were stem to stern with new LR3's and Range Rovers and just a few new Freelanders on the lot but I figured asking couldn't hurt. My sales guy Ron Suriano, who sold me both of my cars, hadn't heard the news of our moving so he was pleasantly surprised that we were taking the meaning of the "Land Rover Lifestyle" to the extreme. When I told him about the situation with the Freelander, he gave me this look and asked how much I owed and what I wanted for it. I gave him my price and told him I had it outside to inspect, but of course, these guys knew the car better than I did, having sold it to the first owner, then to us, and aware of ever wrench turned since it rolled off the factory floor in Solihull, England. As we walked to the car he turned to another sales guy and whispered "I think I have your Freeleander". Turns out Tom was showing a couple around the lot who just so happened to be looking for a good used Freeleander, saw mine when it pulled up and fell in love with it on the spot. And this couple was cool! 20ish, hip and looking for a great car like the Freelander. I spent a few moments telling them about this fabulous car and why we had to but hated to part with it. Things were coming together and we floated through the day.

Tuesday, however, took a dramatic turn. We woke with dim lights throughout the house and when Progress Energy arrived the discovered that, sometime in the last few years, one of our powerlines had been nicked and had finally failed. It looked as if they would have to run a new poweline but rigged up a temporary transformer to keep the power on and the air conditioner running through the start of a week long heatwave. No soon had the power come on then I went into the bathroom and found myself standing ankle deep in water. We quickly discovered that the water heater had failed and needed to be replaced! As me and the realtor scrambled to replace the water heater, the phone rangs and Land Rover was calling to say, good news the parts were installed and the brakes replaced... bad news, the landscapers who were mowing behind my car sent a rock through my rear window and it needed to be replaced... but no early than Wednesday. Now, we have a problem. With the Freelander undergoing inspection for sale and me with just the rental Liberty, all the things that needed to get done, specifically outfitting my new racks with transport boxes and ferrying over some items to storage were not going to happen on Wednesday. We tried to keep a healthy sense of humor as we lost a very important two days during crunch time.

We were able to pick up the Discovery just as Land Rover was closing but were warned not to open the back door for 24 hours so the window could seal. We spent all night Wednesday packing the house for the move. On Thursday, the crew from All Pro Movers did the near impossible and moved the entire contents of my house into storage in 3 1/2 hours. Problem was, we still had to sort through what we thought we could take and I wasn't able to pick up my storage boxes from the Army/Navy Surplus store until almost 4 p.m. and began my pre-pack starting around 7:00. Heat and darkness worked against me and, at about 10 p.m. I came in to help Pen with sorting and cleaning. She insisted I go to bed around 3 a.m. to get a few hours of sleep as I still had a full day of driving to do.

I woke at 6:00 to find Pen still sorting through the piles of stuff intended for the vehicle. We began packing what we could until 9:30, when we had to go to the real estate attorney's office to sign the final paperwork. We begged for a two hour reprieve to return to the house and finish packing and cleaning, jamming everything we could into the car and pull out of the driveway at 11:53 a.m. to pick up the girls and drive to Ocracoke.

To say we were overpacked was an understatement. The load was off centered, making the Land Rover lean precariously to the right thus making the 150 mile drive to the Cedar Island Ferry a bit of a nightmare. But I drove it slowly and cautiously and arrived in time to load onboard and drive very slowly to the campground at Ocracoke. The wind on the island was ferocious, making the task of setting up camp in the dark that much more of an ordeal. When our dear friend Julie arrived around 11:00, she found us near collapse, sitting on the bench, Pen functioning on 3 hours of sleep in 48 hours and me on 6 hours. She arrived just as the sky opened up with a furious rainstorm as we scattered into the only tent we had been able to erect and bore it graciously when we suggested she share it with us for the evening and we would set her tent up in the morning.

Pen, the girls and I slept the sleep of the dead but we woke to a glorious morning, set up Julie's tent and ventured off to the village for breakfast and supplies. The heat beckoned us to the beach and we played in the surf and tapped into the fabulous vibe that is Ocracoke. That evening we were assailed by swarms of mosquitos but made the best of it with our new friend Randy and copious amounts of wine and beer to accompany the constant slapping. We ventured into Ocracoke for a final few cups of coffee at the Ocracoke Coffee Company and bid adieu to Julie. We spent the rest of the day playing on the beach and enjoying our time as a family at the most inspirational place on earth.

We woke early Sunday and began the ordeal of trying to repack the load to make it less precarious and began the 15o mile drive to Herford, NC to visit Pen's mom and sister and to sift through the baggage to trim out some of the less needed items. We spent all day running around, picking up cables, locks, bungees tarps and anything else we could think off to help make the load better accomodate the four of us and our dog, Rommel.

This morning we got a late start and drove from Hertford. Despite having driven the road dozens of times, I took a wrong turn outside of New Bern and found myself in Kinston instead of Jacksonville putting me a few hours behind in Wilmington. We stopped in to say goodbye to Janice, Abi's godmother, and Karabella, Daneb and Novare, her three beautiful children, stopped by Land Rover to pick up the check for the Freelander and snap a few photos for Land Rover Lifestyle Magazine and finish up the banking from the close. We intended to make it to Charleston tonight but, with the late hour, my continuous obsession with load distribution and sheer exhaustion, we have hunkered down for the night in Georgetown, SC. Tomorrow we will try once again to get an early start and set our sights on Tallahassee, FL.

More from there or where we may lay our head down tomorrow.

posted by Dave Carroll @ 8/02/2006 09:51:00 PM