Thursday is MOVE day!!

We have been busy packing, okay, so Stu did the majority (thank you sweetie, love you!). The walls are patched and painted, we pick up our keys on Wednesday, we move on Thursday and hopefully get our new DirecTV service installed that day and our Internet on Thursday (Friday at the latest).

This will probably be my last post until next weekend while we unpack and try to make some sense out of the chaos. But I can promise you we'll be enjoying our rooftop terrace every chance we get (when the weather cooperates). Keep your fingers crossed that all goes as planned!

Getting ready to move!

Yesterday we went to see our actual apartment after the previous tenant moved out this past weekend. These first photos are from the landlord's father's apartment with the exact same layout.

This apartment is two floors directly above ours, same layout/size. And no, there is NO diswasher in our unit...we supply all appliances. LOL! Oh, as always, click any photo to see a larger image.

These photos are from the recently vacated apartment that will be ours, currently being painted, cleaned and any needed repairs done. Can't believe I forgot to take a photo of the master bedroom and bath. Cheated and used the master bath photo from the above apt. The master has a nice room darkening roman style window cover that we bought from the previous tenant. The other windows will eventually get sheers.

We will have a huge open living - dining - kitchen great room area. The three bedrooms are a bit smaller but we are pretty sure we can fit our king bed in the master, queen in one guest room and queen iffy in the third. Plan B will be queen in our room, main guest room and our single+ in the smaller guest room. It will all work out. We also have permission to put bigger, nicer mirrors in all three bathrooms (all FULL - yup, three showers).

The views from all the rooms are wonderful...a ton of windows in the main living area lets us see the city and the mountains around us. I have a window that opens over the kitchen sink (my only UGH is the size of the round sinks) so I can see the city. Then there is the full rooftop terrace! Oh my!! We can't wait to see the city lit up at night and watch the gorgeous sunrises and sunsets.

Many of the apartments have a bench or truck outside their doors, a place to sit things down when you unlock the door maybe. Since we have FOUR benches, one will be painted for just that purpose! As it stands now we will be busy PACKING most days. We get our keys the morning of July 2nd and will be meeting with our mover this afternoon to confirm a price and hopefully set up to move that afternoon.

When we left the apartment yesterday, we walked to the end of our street, around the corner to our bank. Just up the street is the Supermaxi we prefer as well. We will be going more often and buying less since we will be walking there and back. A bit longer is the walk to our primary care doctor and our pharmacy (although our landlords also own a pharmacy and we can have next day delivery) as well as the BIG mercado, Feria Libre. From our apartment we can head the opposite direction and quickly find us in El Centro. At the end of our street is the Rio Tomebamba which is the river that ran behind our temporary apartment where we stayed on our exploratory visit. Stu is looking forward to riding his bicycle as well as walking along the river.

So what are we doing now?

How did we move all our stuff?

I know I've discussed this in various back posts but it was hit or miss. I keep getting questions about how we moved all our stuff and thought I'd put it all in one post.

At the Airport

Also, note that not everyone moves in suitcases like we did. Many folks ship pallets or shipping containers full of their stuff. Each person must make their own decisions about what is important to THEM. We had made an exploratory trip so had a general idea about what to bring other than clothes.

This is what flew with us on American Airlines, December 2013. We flew business class which gave us THREE FREE bags each! We paid $150 for each additional bag, thus our three extra bags cost us $450. Also, by flying business class we had a weight allowance of 70# each bag!

• FIVE plastic Sterilite footlockers purchased at Wal-Marts in our local area.. We initially thought we could make it with only four but as we continued packing things, five it was! We purchased luggage straps and put one on each one as well as a TSA approved lock with a flexible hasp.

• TWO large duffle bags:
  Kelty X-Large was used for Stu's scuba bag and gear
  
  
  Northstar Diamond Ripstop Nylon Duffle was used for all the last minute clothes from our cruise and two weeks on the road, visiting with family & friends
  
  
• TWO High Sierra Rolling Duffles
  

• TWO High Sierra Rolling Carry-ons (with removable backpacks)
  
  
  
• TWO Personal Carry-ons:
  Stu carried a laptop bag and I carried a tote-bag with my purse and other necessaries.

The next post will give more detail about what we packed in the above luggage!

Happy day one, finally on the road!

Well, we are finally on the road...moving towards our goal of living in Ecuador. The day was busy with winterizing the RV and general clean-up of the rig. We wanted to leave everything clean and shiny inside but also had to leave it with all the slides pulled in. No major hassles, just time...

The truck is loaded to the gills - all the footlockers are in the back, protected from the elements with a tarp. The back seat has all the regular luggage and the a few bags filled with last minute items. No seeing out the back window!

We finally pulled out of our driveway a little after three PM when a couple miles down the road I remembered that I hadn't cleaned out some of the food stuff in cabinets. Gulp....well, better than being in Georgia or Florida when I remembered. So we quickly turned around, opened the slides enough to get to the cabinets and pulled out the crackers, nuts, sugar, peanut butter and rice mix. Most went to our neighbors who were also the recipients of everything in our freezer.

So, back on the road at 3:30, the weather forecast was calling for rain and sleet tonight. No matter whether we drove to Chattanooga, Cookeville or Crossville - the weather was determined to accompany us. We opted to head to Crossville where we would grab a late lunch-early dinner at Cracker Barrel and grab a room at the Best Western close by.

Good thing...before we got to Crossville it was raining, then sleeting, then as we pulled into Cracker Barrel - IT WAS SNOWING! It had turned back into freezing rain by the time we pulled out and we were doubly glad we'd gotten a room for the night when we drove over I-40, headlights for as far as you could see. Obviously an accident or maybe just treacherous roads to the west.

So now we're all snugged into our hotel room, heat on high, coffee at the ready and the only issue is the fact that, even after bringing in two different bags for me, I still don't have the one with my toiletries. Yup, in a third bag. LOL! Oh well, we'll sort it all out tomorrow night.