Day 1

States covered: 4 (MA, CT, NY, NJ)

The movers arrived at 8:15AM, and there were three of them, so we were quite relieved. They even found space to park the moving van on the crowded Cambridge city streets!

Once they got going (and got over how much stuff we had packed into our apartment!), all of our stuff seemed to fly into those boxes. :-) We migrated around the small apartment trying to stay out of their way. We started out on the (bare) bed, where we both managed to catch a few minutes of sleep amidst the noise of boxes being assembled and packing tape being stuck.

The movers were amazing. They carried boxes on their backs up our front steps! Toward the end, though, they took the front door off of the hinges so that they could get things out. Unfortunately, that made the apartment incredibly cold, so we wandered around with our jackets on. [Todd adds that he even wore his gloves!]

By about 2:30PM, everything was packed and loaded in the van -- we were amazed, as we were sure that the process was going to take all day. After some last-minute clean-up in the apartment, we loaded the last of our stuff into the car, and away we drove!

Since we had eaten breakfast at 9AM, we were very hungry by the time we got on the road at 3:15PM. Giving in to early temptation, we stopped at the temporary McDonald's at the Framingham rest stop off the Mass Pike. (We ordered food from a trailer and ate our food in a trailer set up with tables and chairs in it.) But at least then we were not hungry.

From there we drove straight through to North Plainfield, but not before we had a few adventures. Near Hartford we drove through a five-minute snowstorm. The flakes were very big, as you would see in a major storm, but a few miles later, they were completely gone. We continued on through New Haven (waved to Tom Raich!), and on the way into New York City, we were almost sideswiped by a truck. Crisis averted, thanks to Todd's co-piloting skills and Steph's defensive driving! :-)

After about the fifth "Are we still in Connecticut?" from Stephanie, we finally arrived in New York. The George Washington Bridge was beautiful (the camera was buried in the back seat, unfortunately), and we didn't hit much traffic at all.

New Jersey roads became interesting very quickly! We almost missed a turn-off (unclear signage!) between routes 21 and 22. Grunting and gesturing by Todd caused Stephanie to screech to a halt on the fork in the road and take the right road. Yay! We also found out what a "Twp" was (it's a township!).

By about 8:15PM, we pulled into Chris and Bernedette's apartment complex and happily parked the car and got out to stretch.

After a delicous dinner (salad, spaghetti with the Minnella meat sauce, and bread) and a decadent dessert of Moose Tracks ice cream and home made chocolate cake, we settled down to watch a movie.

Tomorrow the plan is to relax, look at some cars for Chris and Stephanie, and generally have a fun and non-stressful day. :-)

We still can't believe that (most) all of our worldly possessions are currently on a truck!