November 2004
 
By November 18, we had dismantled our water beds in Virginia, and had packed some things like books and photos. We were camping out in the house in one bedroom "Not to be packed" on an air bed borrowed from Graham.

We packed the Sierra with heavy stuff like vises, teak planks, and liquids the movers would not take.
     
On November 19 the packers arrived and packed up about half of everything, so at the end of the day the Kitchen looked like this
 
The next day, on November 20, the packers arrived with an augmented crew, and the loaders (a different specialty) also arrived. Because the semi could not get up the driveway, everything was loaded in a small truck and shuttled -

- down to the road in front of the house where it was then transferred to the 51 foot semi.

 
   
On Monday, November 22, both we and the semi left, separately, to travel south. We went as far as Savannah. The next morning, November 23, we were up early and away at 04.30 to travel the 4 hours to Spruce Creek. The semi was there ahead of us (due to having traveled for only the statutory 11 hours on the Monday but managed to get from Herndon to Ocala, a 14 hour trip for us !!!).
   
Everything was unloaded in 3 1/2 hours. Very efficient, except the house was chaos inside. We slept on the small bed in sleeping bags and left on Thursday, 25th, to spend Thanksgiving with the Kenudsons in Gainesville (an hour north).
   
The day after we headed north again, back to Virginia, and to camping out in the now empty house.

 
We planned to move the trailer to a campsite at Lake Fairfax, near Graham's house, and live in that when we moved out of 7610 before the walk through and closing. Graham had the day off on November 29, so we met with Eric and Graham and drove to Plains, where they helped hitch up  the trailer. We needed FWD to get going, and with Graham driving we towed it back to Centreville.
We had two events on the way. At the first right turn everything stopped, wheels locked solid. This was half way across a (luckily lightly trafficked) intersection. The problem proved to be a too-tight breakaway switch wire, which had snagged and pulled out the switch. The second was on Interstate 66, on a section with substandard shoulders, when we heard a loud bang and a slapping noise. Suspecting a tire blowout, Graham gradually slowed and pulled off onto the verge. Crawling under the truck and the trailer on the ditch side (traffic was passing at 60 mph on the other side) all the tires looked OK. Then Graham spotted something dangling, and it proved to be the strap attached to my new Roll-n-Lock bed cover, which we had rolled back to hitch up the trailer, and which had flapped in the wind and wound around the universal on the drive shaft. It had finally snapped and the bang was the bed cover retracting. There was a third event, when Graham cut a corner and the trailer clipped the curb, witnessed by Eric and Joyce following in the Caprice, but we did not feel it in the truck and so we do not count that one!
 
We arrived OK at Lake Fairfax. It was raining, and the temperature was about 40F, with a biting wind. We tried (unsuccessfully) to put some water in the trailer tank (more on this later), and slithered around in the mud trying to back the trailer into our slot, and get it level. Finally  got the electric line connected and turned on the heat pump to warm up the interior. However, we went back to 7610 to sleep.

 

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