Going into Saturday was well, a little scary knowing I had some expectations of ridding myself of some material possessions, and counting on this being the “fuel” for my excursion across the U.S. and through Mexico,   🙂   Go Friday night I was a bit antsy….anxiety-filled…

Thursday, I began to feel the levity the tasks at hand, and I headed out to Chapel to just reflect – however, I stopped by Nancy McGee’s and just caught up – for about 3 hours – as she said, it was the first time we were not talking through vehicles, on the street, me here, there, and everywhere – literally just hanging out and chatting – I liked that new self I had become! 🙂  Arriving back home late but ready – I thought for the challenge at hand!

Friday was heading to the local Uhaul in the morn at Big Daddy’s (love that name) on 113 – chosen since it was close to the storage in Felton, DE. Credit card denied, – AWESOME! Calling Mexico and Bancomer, clearing for use in the United States again, trying 5 minutes later, success!  Realizing that my Mom’s Honda is overheating-C to H in 30 minutes- NOT good  🙂  Nursing her car back to Seaford, then myself to Felton Storage to see what we are dealing with, make it to the storage facility, find pod #85, – open the sliding door to the Pod – literally, boxes to thereof….trying not to think about he volume in front of me – loading, loading, loading, big items first!   🙂  Uhaul loaded to the hilt – I mean from 11:00 AM – 4:45 PM – constant and in a mode of little concentration and 100% doing doing doing – loading desk heavier than three people combined weighing 180 pounds, lol…(take a look at this awesome desk on my facebook page – 🙂  still available if you want a desk to last through – well – anything! 🙂 – loading the mattresses, beds, lamps, another desk – ohmygosh, WHEN did these get so heavy?!  🙂  – dresser, (light compared to the King Kongs mentioned above….- friend Nancy McGee stopped by and heaped organize and toss – not to mention the Arizona tea and fish taco – to DIE for – thank you! –

Finding two bottles of wine – Merlot and Chavignon from when I lived in Butler more than 13 years ago – in the pod – ?  That was hysterical – grabbing those wondering how the quality lasts in a pod – full to the hilt – heading to Jeanine Kleimo’s for a visit!

Jeanine and Chuck have been assisting with bringing Exchange students into the country for a VERY long and extended amount of time, something special to my heart in recalling so many individuals ilk Firdavsi – Berkay- Azu, Lisa, Seb, Vika, I’m, TONS!! – and coming here was a homecoming of sorts – but the best was yet to come! – swimming pool (finding cleaning the pool initially was very relaxing! – then ribs piled HIGH – bulletin through 4 glasses of Lemonade and countless glasses of water showed me the amount of water I had sweat loading in the humidity! – then corn on the cob – potatoes, crumb dessert with ice cream – MAJOR WOW dinner, MAJOR…..:)  DELICIOUS! – we talked, chatted, handmade arrangements to unload some furniture that might linger and could be used at the shelter Jeanine helps operate/supervise –

In leaving this evening and having the chance to catch up with Nancy and Jeanine, I flash forwarded to what my experience will be like NEXT summer and hope it will be even more filled with memories like we have had so far with my friend Linn as well, full of encounters not being able to cashing while I was teaching but packed with laughter and memories!  🙂

Leaving Jeanine’s and headed home, it was a restless night – knowing it was expected to be at Bargain Bill’s at 4:00, um yes, 4:00 AM as people been buying then – I remember this fact about flea market gatherers, and was not sure I was up to the task after a grueling unloading day – yet….I tumbled out from the alarm at 3:00 AM, headed out in the dark, arrived, began unloading in a chosen spot somewhat central to the lot – people had come by and bought over half the smaller collectibles I had as I was unloading, lol – this is in all respects legit too – Bubba – who I need to go back to – ended up buying collectible steel cars I had, my collector’s Michigan helmet signed by Woodson – let me tell you, people did get some deals yet – the mentality of letting things go you have had for years – was all through me – in all honesty by 2:00 PM I only had half the truck left – and $160.00 in hand – paying for my rental as well as the Uhaul – and giving me some extra incentive to sell more that remained in the storage – thank you who came out and helped so much! – I have to find the certificate of authenticity for Bubba and go back for the helmet follow up – I knew at the point of that item that I was able to get rid of all and a whole lot more…:)

I met an individual at the market that wanted to but a file cabinet – yet he had little money on him and he had arranged for the DART bus to pick him up – oh- I knew about the inconsistencies in the DART bus and what if he could not take the cabinet he wanted on the bus to Millsboro?  He relayed stories to me about his girlfriend being called slow by his former neighbors, and although a little short in the department of being completely a social wallflower – he was a nice guy and I felt – help him out.  SO yes, using the Uhaul, and packing it, and offering him part of my lunch when asked what I had ( I felt I was sharing on the playground!)  and amid seeing Danielle Levredge and Josue, as well as Kathia! WOW! – I loaded his cabinet, and him, lol., we headed to Millsboro.

Through the beginnings of rain, and him trying to call DART to cancel the scheduled stop and me losing minutes (little I had) on my tracfone – (yes I still have that Amber Matthews from the gift ages ago from the New York-going students!) – We arrived at his apartment in Millsboro – unloaded, I met strangers I did not know watching tv in his apartment, (it’s kind of awkward walking into a house with someone still in a towel, watching tv, on the couch, with a file cabinet saying hello!) – and then the 4:00 AM timezone starting hitting me- yes, I was finally exhausted – driving down the lane and having someone run up to the truck telling me I left the slide door open down the road awakened me briefly….:)

Headed over to Bethany with the Uhaul, meeting Linn Duryea in the parking lost of the bank to pick up Money I transferred into my Libreton Mexican account to pay for – yes – my truck! –  (still feels like I am dreaming it has been too long for driving) – her stating I have the money, you got the powder? – LAUGHING – sitting in the parking lot DID feel kind of shady  – LOL – (wondering when I am going to get my income tax I filed like 4 MONTHS AGO to help with this cross-country TRIP! and pay friends back! – HINT!) – coming back to Seaford with a tiredness of the last 2 days I never knew I had…..-

Crawling into bed at like 3:30 PM – Saturday – amazing I did better than the money I spent that day amend some slight rain bursts – then up at 6 PMish, back in the Uhaul and on my way to Soroptomists to drop donations off, then back to Cambridge to see Jeanine about my kitchen table to donate – get this….(I love this fact)

I bought this Country kitchen table my first year out of Edinboro College as a student – from AMES! – and still it exists and is rocking’!  – SOLID yet it is compressed wood – we made a del that Jeanine would get this to redo the top in tiles like the table she has inner kitchen – I thought it fitting it would continue to exist – so we head over to the shelter she manages – I open the back sliding door, and my Dad’s voice in the gruff kind of short response saying, “Whatta ya doing?  Give them all they need”  – it made me JUMP when I heard it – I mean, this was a VERY urgent prompting, and knowing I was worried about having enough $$$ to cross the East side of the U.S, yet I knew this was right –  I unloaded almost everything to this shelter as they would benefit the most from it – and my truck was empty again – amazing to see the eyes of the guys (nice rhyme) as I unloaded desks, kitchen appliances, scanners, printers, everything – back to Felton to the storage – 8-ish and getting dark….

Loading clothes out the wazooo – truck packed again, and back to Seaford by 10:40 PM…tired yet?  Amazingly – I was full of energy still, yet stopping by Arby’s on the way home I downed the milkshake fries, and Beef n Cheddar – my first one in over a year and a half – it was the best one based on the progress we made that day!

Game changer – INSTEAD of going back to Bargain Bill’s on route 113 and paying for a spot for tons of CLOTHES mainly – I took the advice of my friend Nancy – headed to Georgetown where I heard there was a market set up –  saw two vehicles, and wondered, here?  Ironically, right beside El Mercado – backed in, lifted the back door – BOOM! – explosions of people came by asking where I had acquired the huge Mexican flag – Thank you for that Ms Lamb!  we engaged in Spanglish among the Latino/Hispanic community and it was off – one lady that was a regular there literally opened boxes for me I did not know – who served as an auctioneer for me holding up items to the crowd, yes, crowd! – sweat pouring off of main waves – yet the truck contents diminishing, the last bed mattresses disappear – individuals from Haiti began to appear too now – clothes by the TRUCKFUL disappear – two cokes brought to me to revive me during the heat – 175.00 later – and meeting three families that heaped me clean up the garbage, talking-to younger children in Spanish about my upcoming trip, the heat – I walked away, 2 cokes, and 2 Arizona teas –  dazed from this experience because of being able to rid myself of so much – yet directly seeing a group of people benefit – I realized amazingly how much it was the right choice to come here instead of route 13 at Bill’s! – dazed by the success, I came home, had to shower to remove three layers of sweat – Mom’s ca could not drive me back from Felton – so we both headed int he uHaul amid rain to pick up items I had, oh yes, there was more –  at Charlotte Vaughn’s house – a small,high Country table, two large speakers, a wheelbarrow, and then to the Fields’ to YES! – pick up my Mountaineer! – thanking the Fields’ for storing, maintenancing, and caring for the XC icon! – but not inspected! – 🙂  Following closely to the storage – literally unloading items that were 4 times my weight but all IN!  YESSS……truck empty –

Returning the Uhaul to Big Daddy’s (laughing) – driving back in my Mountaineer downing two large Arizona iced Teas –  I have to tell you – it had been ages since I had been behind that particular driving wheel, and it did not feel the same AT ALL – driving through several storms, dropping clothes and left over post Sunday items off at Goodwill – kitchen table and wheelbarrow in the truck (anyone need one of these things to buy cheap?!!!  🙂   – home – out to Pizza KING!  YES! – literally drinking 7 glasses of sweet tea – Chicken Cheddar enchiladas and boardwalk fries, and realizing how parched I was from the humidity of the weekend – this can be measured in drinks obviously as I KILL the liquids post humidity day –

Arriving home and realizing, I STILL have a pod full of items and how did I ever keep and maintain so many dry “THINGS” – UGH – literally THINGS! – double UGH – yet the experiences I had were because of those possessions, and I jumped back, hearing My Dad’s voice – meeting the people I did meet – they helped me unload so much even if at major bargains to them, trying to retrace the rapid movement of all these actions in this process, I treasured the going back and cleaning up my past – through this whole process – it makes me tired as I retype and review how the past two days progressed, but wait until you see the pictures I add of all this later – LOL – it’s time to officially register my vehicle with DMV and let me tell you, being behind the wheel has never felt sweeter – just wondering how unloading the next batch of items will go – where, when, and then – on the road to Mexico!  I also realized, I would rather be short hundreds of dollars heading to Mexico, barely making it there, and be in my Mountaineer and doing the things I did, the way I did, and meeting the people I did, for the long haul.  Strangely, I have less anxiety of that upcoming adventure than the one I had this past weekend – 🙂   Life is funny….:)  Thanks for coming along with me on this journey as I wind down this last week – out of DE and to Mexico – I am a little frustrated as the 1500.00 plus due back from taxes to help me visit my family in PA, as well as cushion the trip to Mexico from here was a major element, but then this angry – stubborn stance that – not wanting to rely on others for the success and way I feel good about an experience – is way more important.  I feel like saying, keep the money you owe me, even though if I owed you money you’d be on my doorstep – I will find a way without your empty promises and walk away a better person for it….:)