Getting Settled in Minneapolis

 Minneapolis, MN

I like big trucks and I might be lying.

Getting Our Stuff

Last month we pulled the trigger on having our POD moved from western Washington to just outside of Minneapolis at a warehouse they own.  We could have then had the pod delivered to our house if we had one but our apartment building doesn't have a place for a POD to be dropped off so we had to get a rental truck, drive to the warehouse, and unload it ourselves.  I only found out we could do this while trying to figure out how we would move into the apartment.  It's a pretty good option if you can't have a POD delivered to your doorstep.

When we got to the PODs storage facility, Donna ran in and let them know we were here.

They pointed to a POD unit behind the warehouse that was set out especially for us.  You set up your move day online and if you miss it, they charge you.

Moving ourselves may have been an optimistic choice due to our 50+ year old backs.  It did save us some money, which is good.

Soon we started moving our stuff from the POD to our truck.

Another action shot!

While we moved stuff I walked around to take a photo of the impressive warehouse with tons (literally) of people's stuff in it.

This is an after shot of the POD

This is Donna feeling triumphant after we moved all of our stuff into the van and it fit!

There was a nice loading bay for our van while we unloaded it.  We also noticed our van was customized by a local artist.

Our stuff is now happily in our 9th floor apartment.  It only took about 6 hours for the whole moving process, but wait there's more to the moving story!

When we parked the van in the loading bay, I set the parking brake and it went to the floor.  I was a little worried when this happened but forgot about it while we moved.

The pedal would lift if I pulled it up with my hand and while I pulled the brake release.

It turns out the brake broke so I had to call UHaul roadside assistance.

They told me not to drive it and sent a technician out.  He arrived exactly at the 1.5 hour estimate and looked at the situation.  He told me the sensor was broken and that the brake wasn't engaged.  This meant, to him that it was drivable, which was all I needed to hear.  I wanted this move done!  We chose to avoid highways just incase the parking brake locked up while we were driving.  I drove with my left foot holding up the parking brake pedal so it wouldn't beep beep beep at us the whole way.  This made the drive slightly less stressful.  We both flinched every time the "Towing Brake" engaged when I took my foot off the gas thinking the parking brake was engaging.  We made it back to UHaul before they closed and told them exactly what the technician told us to tell them, "The technician told us to let you know that you have a faulty parking brake sensor."  The dude said okay and then moved the truck into its parking spot and came back in to get us checked out.  He said he heard the sensor beep beep beeping as he moved the truck.  Once we had our final receipt we ran out of there.  On the way out I pointed to a cable that was loose under our former UHaul.  It had been dragged on the road the whole way from the apartment building.  I told Donna that I bet that's the broken parking brake cable and she agreed.  NOT OUR PROBLEM ANYMORE!

We are so happy to be in our apartment with all of our stuff.  We are highly incentivized to get rid of stuff so that we have less stuff to move next time, maybe even next year.  

We Are Very Happy With Our Apartment

This is our apartment building on one of our dog walks.  There are plenty of places for us to take Francis for walks during this warm weather.

Our apartment is a 2 bedroom 2 bathroom 1286 sq. ft. apartment on the 9th floor of a 35 floor building.  There is a door person here 24/7 and they are incredibly helpful. There is free coffee and doughnuts weekdays if you get up early enough.  The big complaint is that retired people get the doughnuts before the younger crowd gets there and we can confirm that I almost got the last of the doughnuts the other day :).  Our apartment comes with heated indoor parking and we pay a little extra for a reserved spot. We learned during our month stay in Kansas City that a reserved spot is worth a small fee.  Our apartment also has an indoor pool, gym, a gender-neutral sauna, a sauna in the women's changing room, an indoor dog relief area, rooftop tennis and basketball during the summer, and it comes with free basic cable, internet, heating, and water.  The only thing we pay for utility wise is electricity. 

Retired people grabbing up all of the free doughnuts!

 There is still a lot to do but we are starting to feel more settled.  As I type this, Donna is reading the newspaper and getting us free tickets to the Lynx, a professional women's basketball game on Monday.  Newspaper subscription has it's privileges!

That's it for today.  If you missed, "We Have Landed in Minneapolis", check it out.

Let's Roll Out - On The Road Quick Update

Kirkland, WA

Just a mobile post to say we are on the road!

This is what a loaded van looks like  

Seattle, It Isn't Goodbye, It's See You Later

Kirkland, WA

The Final Day 

We have arrived at our final full day in Washington.  We are sitting in a largely empty apartment waiting for Podzilla to come and pick our stuff up.  We are also waiting to do a walkthrough with our apartment manager to try to maximize our deposit return.  I went and go doughnuts at our favorite place this morning, Factory Doughnuts, and we are eating them while drinking our coffee.  Seattle is known for its good doughnuts but those are fancy cake doughnuts that are good for The Instagram.  We like the good old fashion deep fried raised doughnuts so that is what we are eating. The box says it all!

We do deserve a doughnut!

While enjoying our favorite doughnuts, we also think about all of the other great things here in the Seattle area.  We have great Friends, there are great breweries, there is great nature, and the weather makes everything green and misty for most of the year.  We will miss here but we look forward to all of the other "heres" we will experience on our journey. 

What Francis is doing right now

Thinking back

We have been here for 5 years (2 in a high rise in Seattle proper and 3 in Kirkland) and enjoyed our time.  We were going through memoires yesterday and thinking of all of the good times.  

We took multiple camping trips to the San Juan Islands visiting all the islands you can visit by ferry.

I got invited to watch the first public training day for the new Seattle Kraken Hockey Team.

I was invited to see 2 games and we won them both!

The 2nd game had a much more elaborate introduction sequence for the team.  

We got to use our Library card to get into various museums around Seattle.

Francis enjoys the woodsy dog park here in Kirkland.

We volunteered for the local Greyhound rescue helping turn out the dogs (play with them in a field) once a week on Monday nights. 

I can't really fit five years of memories here in one post.  I guess this is why I am starting this blog.  It is 2022 and I hear everyone has a blog.  I know YouTube or Instagram would be more popular but one of my goals is to write more and those other two platforms don't really fit the goal so a blog it is!

The two takeaways I want you to take away from this post is that in 2022 you need a blog and a library card.

We hit the road tomorrow and won't have fast internet until next Monday.  I am trying to figure out what I will do on the road.  It may just be a cell post that says, "I'm here!  Things are going well!  Pictures soon!"  But wee will see.  I change my mind a lot because I can.