2007: A U-Haul Odyssey, Final Chapter

Every muscle in my body aches. There is a black mark on my right hand where my rings seemed to congeal with the steering wheel. I spent almost two and a half hours making the driving from Morgan Hill to SF this morning that usually takes just over an hour. More than once I grumbled, "What drug was I on to lug this junk and spend so much money and exhaust so much energy on this journey."

And I could not help but be drawn to so many historic jaunts across old Route 66 -- Kerouac, my extended family during the Dust Bowl coming to California to pick fruit, my ex-partner and I journeying through an ice storm in 1996 to begin a new life, me alone in 1998 with all my offsite belongings after experiencing the miracle of moving from renting to owning a piece of real estate in SF. Unloading and unpacking all the stuff, the value of putting all this "junk" (most of it at least 75 to 150 years old) came back in a flash. A marble table that was in the family home of my great grandmother in Montreal in the last 19th century, my maternal grandparents' dining room set purchased at the time of their 1924 wedding as well as flower pots from their yard in Kansas City and dating back to at least 1933. I'll try not to bore my devoted readers with stories behind this stuff, but the price tag to have all of these things in my universe could never be too high. Though I thought there was little emotion wrapped up in this trip, I am surprised to find now that it is much stronger than I ever realized. And, as someone who considers driving a Saturn around SF a chore, being free of a 17-foot truck is true liberation!

Thanks to all my blogger friends for the kind and encouraging comments along the way. Nothing could be more assuring than pulling into a 76 to put $100 into the tank and see a thoughtful comment pop up on my Treo. (Speaking of which, I may hold off on buying my iPhone. I really don't like the prospect of sending EVERYTHING in for repairs at one time. But yes, I'm sure I'll eventually buy one as part of the larger family of gadgets and gizmos.)