With the help of the amazing organized effort (think barn raising) of our homeschooling group (over 30 people, adults, teens, children) we were able to pack up the entire house into a U-Haul and a half and drive from South Carolina to New Mexico.But it was a little more complicated than that.....
We had to leave the U-Haul with a friend that so generously offered to help John drive it and John's truck to New Mexico. But the friend couldn't do that until after the first week of January....after our buyers moved into our homes...and we were homeless in South Carolina.
So, to fill in some time, John, Jenna and I drove to New Mexico in my van pulling our pop-up camper..........along with our cat and 4 pet rabbits.
The drive was relatively uneventful, except that we drove a bit out of our way to try and fit a desired visit stop-over with our dear friends, Aeri & Skip in Houston, TX. We just didn't have enough time, so we had to loop back up in western Texas toward eastern NM.
My parents had taken Jackson & Jeremiah to spend New Years with them in Ohio with other family members. They were to drop off the boys on their way back to Florida with our homeschooling buddy, Jessie, and then John would pick them up after he flew back to South Carolina to meet with his friend and the U-Haul and a half.
Meanwhile, Jenna and I prepared our house in New Mexico. We had been renting it out for 7 years while we were in South Carolina, so it needed some cleaning and supplies. But we were very lucky that all of the appliances worked and it was still in good shape. We've read so many horror stories where renters have trashed a rental house, but out house was basically the same as the day we left it, for our temporary move to South Carolina.
We lived in New Mexico for 8 years before we moved to SC and not barely a day had gone by without one of us saying we missed our home and the beauty and uniqueness of New Mexico. When we finally drove over Sandia Mountain and saw the lights of Albuquerque spread out below us, we both breathed a sigh of relief, contentment, and joy. We were home again!
