The Couple’s Retreat, Beginning the Move

Friday and Saturday (Oct 22 and 23) Mama and I were away on a couple’s retreat with the church. It included as a main event seeing the production of Joseph at the Sight and Sound Theatre. Also included in the itinerary was a trip to a smorgasbord in nearby East Earl, PA for our lunch/dinner Friday afternoon.
We drove ourselves to the event since the movers were scheduled to come to the garage and begin loading the things stuffed in there on Friday afternoon with the apartment to be packed beginning on Saturday morning. Another part of the retreat itinerary were sessions with Bro and Sister Penechetti who pastor a church in central Philadelphia. They were delightful. I will have to write about those meetings later since I have misplaced my notes.
Mama and I do not usually do buffets because we do not normally eat enough to justify the expense of the entry price, but since it was part of the trip we went along and ate too much with all of our companions. After all, it was the last weekend we had to spend with that part of our family before relocating to far away Texas.
We left after a morning meeting at the hotel Saturday and got back home about 1pm Saturday afternoon. Chase was glad to see us since he had held down the fort for the first part of the packing and loading. Besides that, he and the Frenandez boys were out of money and hungry.
We were relieved that the beds would be left for packing on the truck until Sunday which meant we could get at least one more good night’s sleep before they disappeared. Since our bed is a little different, I had wanted to dismantle it myself to ensure it was done properly and carefully. We were up very early Sunday morning to get ready before the movers arrived and I got the chance to get the bed taken apart before we left for church.
Sunday night we elected to stay on airbeds in the apartment rather than going to a motel since we would be late at church for a “goodbye” there and the apartment would still need to be cleaned before we left it to the staff to prep it for re-rental. It turned out to be a good choice since I had the pleasure of packing more than could possibly fit into the little van for its last trip out of New Jersey.
A good portion of the finality of the move has not hit me yet since it feels more like vacation than relocation. I will be more in tune with the idea when we leave Hot Springs our way to Amarillo, TX.
At that point, I will have a whole new set of tasks to set to work on.