So it has almost been two weeks since I made my way down the coast in a moving truck. Not exactly my first choice in vehicles for my drive of the coast, but what can you do?
Two Friday's ago, arriving into SFO, I got off the plane with a heavy heart and a long night and day ahead of me. After everything that happened that week this was the last place I wanted to be and the last thing I wanted to be doing. A few of my friends from work were good enough to pick me up from the airport and drive me up to my place. As I frantically ran around the apartment packing up the things I had collected over the past year, more friends from work arrived to see me off.
It was great to see everyone that night, and to have an apartment full of friends. It slowed my packing down slightly as well did the wine, but it was well worth the company. We ordered some burgers from the bistro up the street for my final meal in SF and then they all headed off to a hookah bar for a bit. I finished up all of the packing that I could do that night, leaving only a few things to be thrown in a box and my bed to be packed in the morning. Shortly after that they arrived back and we headed to the Fishbowl. It was great to get out and actually spend some time with everyone, although I have no idea where the energy came from. There were a few going away rounds, something I ended up regretting the next day. We left the bar and I said my goodbyes to everyone but Nitesh, who was nice enough to stay and help me load the truck the next morning.
My alarm went off around 8am, rousing me into a world of pain. Everything caught up with me mentally and physically and I just wished for more sleep, but alas there was no time for that. I packed up my bed, grabbed a big cup of coffee, and headed downtown on the 38L. After signing some forms I was off in the truck in no time. As I pulled the truck up my street I saw that there wasn't enough parking to get me off the street so I just double parked in front of my place and woke up Nitesh. Packing up the truck too a bit longer than expected, probably because we were both nauseous from the night before.
We got the last of my things in the truck, left my keys on the counter, and hit the road. Not long after I remembered the surprise I left Jer in the fridge. We had both been gone for two weeks, my trip being unexpected, so there was a lot of rotten food awaiting him. Sorry again Jer, I planned on cleaning that up. After dropping off Nitesh, I went a little further down the road and pick up my buddy Chris, who had graciously agreed to drive down to LA with me and help me unpack the truck. He was also nice enough to have packed up my desk for me since I never made it back into the office. It was a bit later than we had expected to hit the road as it was already 12:45pm so we grabbed some sandwiches and got on our way.
As we rode down the 101 the weather was great and the views were spectacular. California is really a beautiful state. Once we got out of San Jose we got moving trying to make up the time lost in the morning. The trip, we were expecting, would take 8 hours and at this point it was looking like we would be unloading in the dark. After an hour or two I decided to check my phone to see if we were still going the fastest way, which of course we were not. Although we could have taken the 101 the entire way down the coast, Google wanted us to make our way over to the 5, so we took the next exit and headed east. I'm glad for the scenic detour as it took us past this reservoir.
After we hit the 5 the trip was glad-fully rather uneventful. There were more great views, like this one as we approached the home stretch.
I pulled up to the house around 7 or 8... well more accurately, we pulled up to the apartment around 7:30 and got to unloading as fast as we could. We met a few of my neighbors as we blocked all of their cars in with the truck to unload. By the time we were done it was dark and we were both exhausted. We setup the TV, threw some of my home-brews in the fridge and I ordered some pizzas. As we waited for the pizza to arrive I ran over to the convenience store to grab the essentials: hand soap, milk, and hot sauce. After a beer and some pizza I was out for the night.
Another friend of mine from work, Kris had recently relocated down in the LA area and the next day he agreed to help us drop off the truck and get some grub. Of course this couldn't go smoothly, when we got to the truck it wouldn't start and Kris was already on the way to the rental place with his wife. Luckily there was an ADT security guy nearby and his supervisor had cables to jump the truck. It wasn't too long before we were on our way and with some creative use of the emergency brake and engine revving we filled up the tank and returned the truck.
Kris and his wife Reni had been at the rental place for some time, but it was in Beverly Hills so they went for a stroll while all of this was going on. With the truck returned we hopped in their car and headed to Santa Monica for a brunch that at this point had become lunch. After we ate, it was still overcast, so instead of heading to the beach we took a tour of the 3rd street promenade. On the way home we made a pit stop at the whole foods and I got some supplies to survive on. After a few rounds of You Don't Know Jack Chris' brother, who happened to live in LA, picked him up so that he could drop him at the airport in the morning.
If it wasn't for all of my friends this crazy weekend would have been a lot crazier, I'm sure I couldn't have done it without them. So, thank you all so very much, everything really helped a lot more than you might realized.
