Come, Listen to the Story!

Remember the beginning of the theme song for "The Beverly Hillbillies," an old TV show from the 60's..."Come, listen to the story of a man named Jed."  One line in that song kept singing through my mind during the final week of May.  That line was "So, they loaded up the truck and they moved to Beverly!" only I sang a slightly different version. Mine went, "So, we loaded up the van and we moved to Washington, D.C.!"

Come, listen to the story of a (wo)man named Cindy...That final week of school was a whirlwind!  I nagged my middle school students to get their library and textbooks turned in.  I checked in, repaired and stored what was returned and printed bills to send with the  deliquents' final grade card.  I finished training my library clerk to replace me next school year.  I checked off my exit papers with the school district and almost fell asleep in the midst of Esperero Canyon Middle School's 8th grade graduation ceremony.  I said tearful goodbyes to fellow teachers who've been my support team for the past 13 years.

Happily, Tim flew in to Tucson the evening of my final work day.  Our son Richard had arrived home from Wheaton College two weeks earlier for his last chance to spend time with high school buddies before our final move. 

Actually, I should note that this final move followed two earlier ones this spring.  On April 8th, prior to Tim's reporting to FBI Headquarters in Washington, D.C., our daughter Jillian helped us shove all of our furniture and much of our household goods into an air-conditioned public storage unit, to be left there until our return to Tucson...whenever that might be.  On April 29th, after camping out in our home, sleeping on an air mattress loaned to me by a colleague, I moved my wardrobe and basic pots & pans into my next-door neighbors' casita (guest house) as we call such accommodations here in the Southwest.  I needed to move out because we were fortunate to find a family to rent our home; however, they needed to move in by the end of April.

One driving question about our final move was..."Will everything fit in the minivan for this cross-country road trip on Memorial Day weekend?" We not only had all my stuff to load up, but we also planned to mount our bike rack on the back to carry our two bicycles back east since Tim and I hoped to take advantage of all the biking trails surrounding Washington, D.C. 

This "will there be room" question was especially worrisome since we had not planned to squeeze Richard into the van, too. The original plan was to put him on a flight back to Chicago before we drove out of town.  Yet, we soon decided that he needed a vehicle for the summer to get back and forth to his summer job.  And since Tim and I could easily use our bikes or the D.C. Metro system to get around, we allowed Richard take the minivan to Chicago for the summer, provided he first accompanied us to D.C.  So, did it all fit?  Take a look...

This is a view of our fully loaded van from the rear.

Packed to the gills, there was still room for my seat along with our upright vacumn in the center.

I rode here with Richard's snowboard resting just above my left shoulder.

One last minute retrieval from the public storage unit was Richard's snowboard which he hopes to use over Christmas break on a ski trip with his buddies.  I've felt hemmed in when crammed into an airline seat, but believe me--this trip surpassed that claustrophobic feeling! 

We high-tailed it out of Tucson at 3:30 a.m. on May 27th, breathing a prayer for travel safety and thanksgiving for the wonderful friends we'd known here.  We arrived at our apartment in Arlington, Virginia around noon on Memorial Day, 35 driving hours later.  Just enough time to unpack the van, try a nearby restaurant for dinner and get a good night's sleep before saying goodbye to Richard before he departed on his final leg of this road trip.

"Well, now it's time to say goodbye to [Cindy] and all her kin.
And she would like to thank you folks fer kindly droppin' in.
You're all invited back again to this locality
To have a heapin' helpin' of her hospitality.

Y'all come back now, y'hear?"