Thursday, March 22

Yesterday we drove all day but my stuff is finally here!

We drove through wine country which was absolutely gorgeous. It took a while driving up and down the right road to actually find the freight company but other than that things went smoothly. It was warmer in Santa Rosa, and really sunny. It felt nice. Everyone we talked with acted like my being from Wisconsin was the most novel thing since sliced bread.

We left Eureka around 4:30AM and got to U-Haul in Santa Rosa at 8:30AM. By the time we found the freight place it was 9:45 but they were luckily still there. I had called around 8:30 and left a message to let them know we were coming because it's a tiny terminal and apparently holds really inconveient hours of 7AM to 10AM weekdays. No one acted put out when we got there; they were all really nice and also said there used to be a sign on the road directing people to them but someone plowed it over and the city had new laws not allowing them to put it up there again. What also didn't help is that the whole length of Dutton Avenue the numbers appear to be pretty random, going up and down and up again, odd and even numbers on both sides of the street. It's as if someone was drunk as they figured that street's numbering system. Or else the street used to be much shorter and they added to both sides of it. I really have no idea how street numbering really works; I just know it usually makes a lot more sense than that.

It took about an hour and a half to empty out the freight cube and load up the U-Haul. We wanted to get some road time under our belts so we drove for about an hour to Hopland and stopped at this awesome solar powered place called Real Goods, which also had this huge store full of eco-friendly items. I wanted to buy so many things but we don't have any money except for the bare necessities at the moment, so I had to refrain. There was a button - my favorite one - that read: Feminism - the radical notion that women are people. There was another one that I always like but am not sure how people would view me if I wore it: Things just haven't been the same since that house fell on my sister. It just makes me laugh.

From there we drove down the street about two minutes to Hopland's blink-and-you'll-miss-it main drag to find some grub. The pub Mike thought served good food now only serves ale so we wandered across the street to this place called Bluebird Cafe. They had an old-fashioned counter so we sat at it and shared a strawberry malt and a french dip sandwich. The food was pretty overrated and way too expensive all in all, but the atmosphere was quite charming and the malt was maltalicious. Then Mike got in the U-Haul and I got in line behind him in my car. We drove home with my stuff. It was gloriously beautiful and I had the windows down and the moon roof open for most of the drive plus Girlyman in my CD player. There were so many beautiful things to look at while driving and it was a nice day for a drive.

When we got home Mike insisted, after a short time resting as we were both beat, on emptying out the U-Haul. Thursday morning we were both very glad that this work was done.