After Scott got settled into his new job, and had the rental house secured, we started the next step of moving our animals. We were so lucky to find a landlord that allowed pets. I'm not sure what I would have done if this hadn't been an option.
Our first move was the cat. Scott's work holiday party was the first weekend in December. We figured that it would be a good chance for me to meet everyone so we planned on me flying up for the weekend and bringing the cat with me. In the almost 11 years we have had her, I cannot ever remember a time when we had to put her in a carrier and take her anywhere. She wasn't about to go willingly. The first test of the cat carrier would be when we went to the vet to get her "Official Certificate of Veterinary Inspection", basically saying she was healthy to travel. Getting to the vet took two tries, and one canceled appointment. I won't go into all the gory details, but I will say there were a lot of tears and begging on my part before I realized that she wasn't going to just walk into the carrier on her own. I googled the best ways to catch a cat and, you know what, it was so much easier after that. So the next morning off to the vet we went.
Whew, after the vet visit I was feeling really good about this. We just had to do this cat carrier thing one more time and then we would be there and it would all be over. Two days after the vet visit we loaded up again to head to the Medford airport for our journey north.
From pretty early on, we had decided to check Lae'ula with the luggage. I was not convinced that she would be happy with being shoved under the seat in front of me for very long. I did not want to be that person on the plane with the screaming child (cat!). I knew this was the right choice when she insisted on telling everyone in the airport terminal what a horrible cat mom I was for shoving her in this confining crate. Oh well, no matter how much she yelled, she was contained and safe until we made it to Alaska. Oh my naiveté!
You might notice in the photo above that there is another person checking a dog on this flight. I watched this person carefully so that I would feel like I had a better understanding of the process. Well, you can imagine my surprise, and slight panic, when they made these people take their dog out of the crate so that TSA could inspect it. Surely they would not make me do this, right???
Yep they did. My heart is racing telling you this story because it was the closest I have ever come to having a panic attack. I made it very clear to the two very nice TSA agents that I would not be removing my cat from this carrier, as she would escape and run wild through the airport, never to be caught again. They gently removed me from the line and proceeded to take me to a different area of the check in. They informed me that I would be taking her out of the carrier, and that I needed to calm down. They came up with a plan on how we were going to do this, and again told me that I needed to calm down. I acknowledged their plan and then told them how we were really going to do this. They opened the carrier, I pulled my cat out and held her so tight to my chest that I could feel the air going out of her lungs, but I was squeezing her so hard that she couldn't possibly breathe back in. I kept telling her what a good cat she was and how this would all be over soon. It seemed like five minutes, but I'm pretty sure it was 30 seconds, and she was dropped back into her crate and safely secured again. As I wiped the tears off my cheeks, the TSA agent turned to me and, with a gentle hand on my arm, told me again that I needed to calm down, it was all over. I felt so silly. In hindsight I am so glad that I did not know that I would have to do this.
When I was finally settled in my seat on our plane (thank God for the free beer and wine they serve on these flights!), the flight attendant came up to me and asked me my name. When I told her, she handed me a piece of paper. My initial panic was quickly relieved when I reassured that Lae'ula had also made it safely onboard. We were on our way.
It was a quick turnaround trip for me, but a relief to have half of my family officially moved. Now it would be six weeks before Scott and I would see each other again, and almost two months before we would all finally be living in Alaska.
Thankfully, the time we were apart fell during the holiday season, which is always super busy. This made the time go faster. I can't tell you how many people thought it was sad that we would not be spending the holidays together, but in all honesty, we have rarely ever spent an actual holiday together. With Scott's 24-hour shift schedule, and me traveling to see family, we learned early on to adapt to celebrating a holiday on another day.
The hardest part of being separated was being the single person responsible for either moving out of our old house, or moving into our new one. I had the responsibility of selling our house, coordinating with the movers, and wrapping up everything in Oregon, while Scott had the responsibility of getting new accounts set up and meeting various people at our new house to get things activated. It's amazing how many official papers we signed via scanning and email.
Everything seemed to be coming together for us. I can't think of one thing that didn't really go as planned. But there were days when I waited for the other shoe to drop. There had to be something that would go wrong, right? It was just after the first of the year, when we had spent a month apart, I was super overwhelmed with selling our house, I was sad to be leaving my job that I loved, and I had begun the process of saying goodbye to people, when I had this overwhelming feeling that something was about to go wrong and the whole plan would fall apart and I would never actually make it to Alaska. I couldn't do another night of eating the random food we had left in our cupboard so I ordered Chinese and picked it up on the way home from work. Now, you should know that I am a big believer in signs and that everything happens for a reason. I just needed that sign that would convince me everything would be ok. That sign came in the form of my fortune cookie that night.
Deep breath!!! Everything would be fine.
Scott would be coming back soon to help me finalize the house for the movers. The plan was for him to take Mack back with him on his return flight. This meant another trip to the vet to get our travel certificate. Thankfully, Mack likes adventure; and he especially loves his vet. Dr. McInnis made me cry when we left because he was so sincere when he said goodbye to Mack and wished him luck with his new adventures.
The ironic thing about flying from Alaska to Oregon is that you spend way more time in airports than you do actually on a plane. It's an hour and a half from Ketchikan to Seattle, an hour from Seattle to Portland, and an hour from Portland to Medford. But based when you travel, it's hours of waiting time in each airport between each flight.
Nick and Stacy also planned a weekend trip to come up and help us prepare. It was crunch time. The movers would be here in two days and we needed to have everything ready to be packed and loaded.
The boys spent two solid days going through the shop, the garage, and the house. They took a load to the dump and a load to goodwill. Nick's friends came by and took some stuff. Nick and Stacy took a pickup load back to Nevada with them. But still, we looked around and wondered how in the world we had accumulated so much stuff!!!
I really didn't think this day would ever come!
Bright and early Monday morning the movers arrived. It had done nothing but rain for the past 48 hours. The skies cleared just after midnight and the thermometer dipped to below freezing once again. Getting the big moving van up the driveway covered in a sheet of ice became quite a challenge.
After taking stock of everything that was left to move, we were told that it would take two days to pack the house and then a third day to load everything into the truck.
It was very strange to just sit back and watch strangers pack everything you own. I originally asked if we could do this step while I was still working but was told that it would be easier if I was around so that I could answer any questions the movers might have. That meant a lot of sitting around waiting for them to ask me something. I felt bad not helping, and I definitely didn't want the moving crew to think I was supervising them. They kept reassuring me that this was totally normal. Maybe in their world, but not in mine.
During the few days of working with the crew, I overheard some pretty funny conversations between the movers.
"I'll just jam it in this box. I'm sure there's room."
"I think that was supposed to come apart."
"Ugh, another IKEA piece of furniture!"
"Has anyone seen my drill?" (The drill would later be found in one of the boxes labeled "office". Don't worry, we shipped it back to them.)
And finally at the end, they said to me, "Thanks for not helping us." (This was sincere, as it was easier for them to do their work if I stayed out of their way. Since they were in responsible for the packing, they didn't want me doing any of it and risk anything getting broken.) They did also thank me for not having any secret things hidden under my bed!
Two solid days of packing later, I felt like I was living in a fort made of boxes. Thankfully this would just be for one night.
When the movers walked in Wednesday morning, they told me that they should have everything loaded up and be done around lunchtime. The plan was for me to leave the house the same time the movers left. I would be spending a few days with my parents before making my journey north. When it was 7:30pm and the movers were still loading the truck, everyone was getting cranky. They had put in three very long days of hard labor, and I still had a four hour drive over a snowy pass. We finally said our goodbyes close to 8:00pm. There were a few items still left in the garage that they would come back for in the morning. At this point all of us were ready to be gone.
Even through we were done at our house, the moving crew still had to take the truck back to their warehouse, where they would then transfer everything to our official shipping container. The shipping container would be hauled up to Tacoma to be placed on a barge. It would then be delivered to Ketchikan 3-6 weeks later.
Meanwhile, Scott and Mack were making their way back to Alaska. I love this picture because of the questionable look in Mack's eyes. He had never had a real "crate" before. As soon as we knew we were moving we bought a crate at the local Petco and worked to acclimate him to it. He knew that something big was up at this point because Scott had loaded that big crate up in the car with him.
The thing about Mack is that he is always up for an adventure. He's really good around other people and animals so we didn't worry about him freaking out at the airport or on the plane. He would do just fine getting through his TSA inspection!
You just wish that you could explain it to him in a way that he would understand. What he knew of the past six weeks was that daddy left and didn't come back. Then the cat left and didn't come back. What he didn't know was where everyone was going to. Scott and I would FaceTime and night and Mack could hear them over the phone but he couldn't figure out where they were. Some nights it practically broke my heart when he went from room to room looking for them.
But here they were finally getting ready to make their big trip.
Scott said this was the worst part because Mack saw him as Scott was getting off the plane and started whining for Scott to come back and him. There was nothing Scott could do but keep walking away from him.
When they boarded the second leg of the flight in Seattle, Scott waited and waited for the flight attendant to bring him the slip of paper saying Mack was on the flight. He panicked as the plane started pulling away from the gate and he still hadn't heard anything. He finally got her attention and made her go check with the pilot to make sure he was loaded. Thankfully the pilot confirmed he was onboard. Scott was sure for a moment that he had lost the dog!
Meanwhile, in the middle of all of this packing and moving adventure, we were lucky enough to sell our house! We actually sold it to the guy who help Scott put it in 20 years earlier. Because he had done most of the prep work for the house, he waived all of the inspections. This drastically cut down on the time it took to close, not to mention all of the costs involved. We wouldn't officially close on our house until after both of us were up in Alaska, but we left knowing that it was pretty much a for sure thing.
Moving truck loaded and on it's way back to the warehouse - check
Scott, the cat, and the dog all safely up in Alaska - check
The house in the final stages of selling - check
One last photo before I left...
I will be the first to admit that there were a few tears pulling out of the driveway that night. Tears of sadness for everything that we were leaving behind. The house where were raised a family and made our home. The community where we made wonderful friends. The careers that allowed to us to provide for our family and save a little extra for our adventures.
But there were also tears of relief that this step was finally over. I had one more big adventure before arriving at my new home. Stay tuned for that update!
