Birchtree Farm

After arriving back at the house, we found Karen's sister Sue and her husband Jim carrying things out of the house and stacking them in the driveway. Ken's dad and Karen's dad and mom were also helping. The pile was HUGE - apparently everyone had been at it for a while. We had initially looked at the truck when we picked it up and said "no problem, it'll all fit". Now we looked and said "it'll never fit!" We started loading, heavy stuff first and Karen's dad took the role of making sure that every available nook and cranny was filled with something. Loading the truck basically took all day and then some. We had a farewell dinner with Karen's work group at 5pm, so we showered and changed and headed off at about 4:15pm. Sue and Jim and Ken's dad had left by then, so it was just Karen's parents who said they would continue to pack the truck. We just needed to have room to pack the bed and the dog crates and a few miscellaneous items the next day.

We got back from dinner at a little after 8pm, and they were still there. It was now a jigsaw puzzle, with odd-shaped items left to fit in, and trying to get them all in and leave room as mentioned. They finally went home with our assurances that we could do the rest the next day. And so to bed...

The next day was Sunday, and we got up, had our last breakfast at Casey's Malt Shoppe, and headed off to church. They had a farewell lunch for us, and then we were back by about 1:30. There really wasn't that much left to pack, but between getting that done, doing the little bit of vacuuming that needed to be done (Karen's mom had basically cleaned the house already), wiping out the fridge, and getting all the trash out to the road, we weren't ready to leave until 5pm. We said goodbye to our neighbors Geri and Gary, and headed for Albany.

Normally from Ransomville to Albany is about 5 hours. With a large truck however, you need to take it easy, especially when you (Karen) are not used to driving something that large. Once on the Thruway we aimed for about 60mph and let the traffic pass us. We drove as far as the Port Byron rest area, and stopped for dinner. We also checked the truck tires and the front tire on the passenger side seemed soft. Sure enough, it was only at 74.5 psi hot. They are supposed to be filled to 100 psi cold. So before getting back on the highway we stopped at the air pump and it took all three minutes (75 cents please) to get it up to about 95 psi, which we figured was safe. So, we headed out again.

At about 10:30 Ken called to say that he need a break to rest his eyes. We stopped at the next rest area that came up, which might have been Indian Castle, and took a half hour nap. Ken said it was the first time he'd ever woken up and immediately started driving. We finally made it to our hotel after midnight.

Continued in Part 3....