30th June checked with the Storage facility that we still had our 8'*20' space. Despite the fact that I'd called at least on 3 previous occasions to confirm our booking, it turned out they'd screwed up. Simple as that. Not much we could do about it. But luckily I had researched other options and knew of another Storage unit facility closer than the original one in Santa Rosa by a long shot. It had a better rate per month and gave us an additional 10% discount for staying over a year.
2nd July we loaded some of the already boxed house stuff up and dropped it off at Storage. The next day the Celtic movers came. Not only did we have the 15' Ryder truck ourselves but they also brought their own bigger truck. We spent the day loading our Ryder truck with goods. It was obvious that we needed another day of the movers to help get us finish the packing. Making my Irish accent as strong as I could I talked to the owner of Celtic movers, a fellow Irishman, Martin Nolan. He was able to turn up 3 good guys for us the following day at short notice.
Not only did we have a need for more movers, but Jeff suddenly found out that we needed some very specific kinds of 3M tape to tape up the Speakers. 3M 232 to be precise, a low adhesive tape which should come off the speakers easily and without causing them damage. We spent about 5 hours driving around and searching the internet but we couldn't find any. In the end we figured out how to box them up with the 3M 232.
The second set of movers boxed the Speakers with great care, got them down the front door steps without causing any issues or problems and very good naturedly too. Especially considering that they each weigh about 300lbs.
We of course rewarded them handsomely for working on their 4th July as they really saved our bacon. We would never have been able to get all the stuff in to the Storage unit ourselves.
Monday 5th and Tuesday 6th July we ran around putting final pieces into storage, returning stuff to Home Depot and swiching out my daypack for the larger REI Vagabond model.
Finally Tuesday evening we were back styaing at Darren and Bonnie's house for our last night in the US. We had one last unsolved problem and that was the Alfa Romeo. We still hadn't got a buyer for it and we were brain storming all sorts of options to see how we could handle it. We thought of donating it to charity, abandoning it somewhere, having it stolen, shipping it to Asia, any number of wild ideas.
As we sipped a few Sayonara champagne drinks with with Darren and Bonnie, their neighbor Chip joined us as. As we were bemoaning the problem with the Alfa. Chip... well... chipped in. He said he'd take it for fun, see how he liked it and would sell it later. As things transpire it took quite some time and effort by our stalwart friends Darren and Bonnie and Chip to get it sold. We owe them a huge debt of gratitude.
Jeff had a bunch of stuff he needed to still sort through. In the end he stayed up all night getting it in order.
In the middle of the very early morning I woke up scratching. Uh Oh. I'm very very allergic to mosquito bites and I knew by the itch I'd been 'got'. The area Bonnie and Darren live in, Pacific Heights has more mosquitoes than where we used to live in foggy West Portal/Parkside.
The mosquitoes had had a feast while I slept. My forehead had two Klingon-like bumps, my right eye was so swollen it was practically closed. The left was a little less swollen and I could still see out of it. I was so upset. I felt so awful and looked so bad from the swelling and here I was about to fly to Hawaii to meet Jeff's Mom and Ken. Oh Great! Bonnie gave me a block of ice to reduce the eye swelling, which worked a little. At least it made my eye feel less irritated and swollen.
In the Airport I got a pair of sunglasses which helped tremendously in reducing the discomfort I was experiencing from my swollen eyes. They also camouflaged my face so I didn't look like Jeff had socked me one in the eye!
Finally on the plane with just our packpacks and camera equipment. At last we're on our way. Phew.
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