Leaving Minnesota

It was crunch time.  We had to chose which items were crucial to our trip (backpacks, hiking boots, cook-wear, curling iron? etc.) and which items we could store.  Everything we are storing is going into totes for storage in Vickie’s mom’s basement in Austin.   We are only storing personal items, some clothes and irreplaceable things, like our pictures & memorabilia.  Any other items that don’t fit into either of category must go!  Although I thought we have done an admirable job of reducing our clutter, it’s still amazing to see the excessive stuff we have accumulated.  For instance, somehow we still had 9 pairs of scissors, 7 bottle openers, 10 children’s games (our daughter is 23).  I had to sell everything that we didn’t need and couldn’t store….which means almost everything.

I turned to Craigslist to sell these accumulated treasures and heirlooms, and discovered that I had no idea what I was signing up for.  When I got the 1^st few requests via email or texts, I was polite, you know, Minnesota nice.

“Will you take $350 for it?  I’ve got cash.”  That was the 1^st email for a solid oak Amish computer desk and hutch with 5 panel doors, dovetail construction, ball bearing glides, in ‘like new’ shape that I am sure we paid north of $3,000 for.  I was ‘blowing it out’ for $600.  “Sorry, I can’t take only $350, but I will go down to $550. Let me know”.

Next, it was, “I’ll give you $300 if you can deliver it to Blaine”.  “Sorry, I will take $500 but I can’t deliver it Blaine because I don’t have a truck”.

Then, “I can only pay $250 because I am a single mom”.  My response, “I can only take $450 because I am an unemployed, soon to be homeless dad.”

Then, “I’ll give you $200.  Do you take checks?” Finally fed up I shoot back, “ I would rather chop it into little pieces and burn it in my front yard than take a $200 check from you…please go away.”

Finally, someone offered to pick it up for $425. “SOLD!” They show up with an old rusted out, jacked up, redneck pick-up truck ¾ full of tools, pieces of cut lumber, miscellaneous 5 gallon buckets full of only the lord knows what.  They don’t have any blankets and only one strap to secure it.  We chuck it in the back on top of everything, throw a strap over it and send them on their way.  I ask, “How far do you have to go?”, “Not far, just Houlton, Wisconsin.”  “Good luck”.  The desk we had pampered for years, never even placing a glass of water on for fear of leaving a water ring was now bumping around in the back of POS pick-up with a 50/50 shot of even making it to its final destination.  Oh well…….it’s called letting go.

I went through this same exercise with all of our earthly possessions.

Once our stuff was gone, we loaded the last of the items to be stored into the sprinter and headed down to Austin for the final drop off and say ‘goodbye’ one more time.   From there we went to Lanesboro to visit Wayne and Joni at Finnridge.  We stayed two nights, enjoyed some great food, good conversation, and had a few fancy cherries…along with the beverages they were floating in.

We stayed an extra day visiting so we needed to pull a long 14 hour day to get partway to Florida.  The next day we got the service light for the sprinter van and had to make a trip to the dealer in Mobile, Alabama for about $400 worth of service.  That wasn’t in the budget for April!  But finally on Thursday night we finally made it to the Destin area.  Here is the picture of our 1st official campsite at a Florida State Park.

Next post…….The Wedding