Moving 3,333 miles from Washington State to Florida is no easy task at this elder stage of our lives. After almost five years in the same home and ten years in Washington we had accumulated a lot of things in addition to the possessions we always thought we could never part with for decades.
Possessions are a funny thing as they accumulate because every acquisition becomes either attached to you via heartstrings or because you just might “need it” some day or because it previously belonged to someone whom you held dear. Nevertheless, we managed over the course of a few weeks to either give away, donate or sell probably 75% of everything we own. It was a freeing experience as if the weight of all those items was physically lifted from our shoulders. The more we parted with the better we felt.
Now we are reduced to three U-Pack pods whose combined area is the size of a small bedroom. A truck will deliver them to Florida and we have started a cross country trip with Snoopy who is also an elder at this point. He traveled all day like the seasoned traveler he was in his youth. We headed south on I-5 in a slight drizzle and made our way around Seattle on Hwy 405. The rain was light on Interstate 90 and cleared by the time we reached Snoqualmie Pass with its scattered patches of snow. We reached Ellensburg by lunchtime and ended today’s journey in Yakima. Ready to rest, we found a Best Western just off Interstate 84. A good day and a very nice spot to relax.
