Is it only Sunday?!

Friday, as you've read, was a day of running around trying to prepare for the house to change hands AND the bike trip to begin. It was a long day, beginning with driving Remy to a 7:30 appointment in Kalamazoo.

Saturday also began early, because there was much to do. I started gathering and organizing things left in the house about 7 a.m. I taught a piano lesson 9-10 and then continued. Friend Annie, who was planning to help me, was called away on a family emergency, so I soldiered on, on my own. It was sort of like biking into the wind. I just kept my head down and kept moving. But after a while, with Katey and Trevor so eagerly working outside (and doing amazing things, btw!), the pressure started to build. Vickie called me around 2:00. She said, "How are you doing?" and I burst into tears. The voice of overwhelmedness had been playing in my head for at least an hour, and her question brought the feelings to the fore.

She said she was on her way. Right about that time, I also heard from my mom (who lives closer), and she also said she'd come. -- You should know that I had hoped to be OUT by 2:00. I had no idea how much work was left to be done. I had purged so much and was down to one plate, one fork, etc., I thought this would be pretty easy. It wasn't -- Mom washed dishes and cleaned up a bit in the kitchen, while Vickie and I continued to haul things to go to Goodwill and to store at Annie's house. Mom carried Goodwill stuff to her car and made a run there. It helped to have others involved, to have someone saying, "Where do you want this to go?" At one point, Vickie said, "Why don't we finish up in here before we move on to that space?" -- I was getting pretty ADD moving from one room to another, probably part of what gets me overwhelmed.

As things were finally starting to get emptied and organized, and my next task was to pack the car and the bike, Katey and Trevor's family members came to celebrate their new house. They had told me they had invited a few people over and wanted to make sure they wouldn't be in my way. I said that I thought, if they stayed in the front room, it would be okay. It was tough. There were quite a few people. Remy was already kinda freaked about all the stuff moving out and the new (2) people who  had been hanging around. Having people over to eat involves a kitchen, whether you mean for it to or not, so there was a lot of activity going on in the areas where I was working, with the unintended consequence of me getting pretty stressed out.

It probably would have been better for me to take the allotted time till noon today to get things cleared out, and to postpone my journey till Monday; but I didn't know that when I made the reservation for the ferry; so I had to get going. I finally "finished up" at the house about 10 p.m., made another trip to Annie's, and made my way to Sue's to sleep. I set the alarm for 7 a.m., but fortunately I woke up at 6.

I walked Remy in the rain, made yet another run to Annie's to empty more stuff out of the car, because I didn't know if Tayler would have anyplace to put her stuff, I had so much in the car. I also needed, when I got back to Sue's, to move things from the bike panniers to the car. (I could barely lift the bike onto the rack last night.) Another stop to leave a last box at Goodwill, and I made my way back to Sue's for one of her wonderful banana pancakes. I know she'll scoff about the "wonderful," but I just love the things she puts in them. And having someone make me a delicious, healthy breakfast is a demonstration of love to me.

Sloth showed up just before 9:00 to get on the road, but I was still eating. When all was finally in readiness, we took off, stopping briefly for hugs for/from Betsy, Isabel, and Vanessa. Then Sloth and I cruised by 120 Eastern one more time to get my rainbow flag for my bike. The new owners were already there, and Katey made some reference to them "cleaning up the mess [I] left." I felt bad. I felt bad when I left last night, and I felt bad when I heard her say that, but I wasn't sure what I could do. I remembered moving into the house nearly 15 years ago, and the garbage bags full of clothes and all kinds of other items in the attic and basement, and how I figured out what to do with everything and got rid of it AFTER moving in, because I didn't have time for painting and fixing up before moving. And yet, I didn't know that previous owner. I didn't know what her circumstances were or why she had left so much stuff. Katey and Trevor and I have gotten to know each other a little, and I felt really terrible that they had to clean up after me. They so wanted to walk into a beautifully clean new place, ready to set to work on painting, refinishing floors and all.

Sloth and I made our way to Richmond, then west to Walker, to 3 mile, and to the trail head. The city riding wasn't fabulous, but it was Sunday morning, so it wasn't too bad. The trail was great, especially after the drizzle ceased. We even saw some sunshine. Remy was a great, little rider. He was a pain to get back into the carrier after we took breaks, but overall he was a real trooper. He even survived a shoe clip failure fall that occurred early on (as did I). As Sloth and I were nearing Muskegon, I checked my phone and discovered a message from the ferry service saying that this afternoon's ferry was cancelled due to mechanical issues. After I told the voice mail, "You Suck!" I contacted my family (Dean, Louise, Valerie, and Stephanie) who live in North Muskegon, and eventually we connected at the ferry site. The ferry people agreed to hold my bicycle overnight, so all I had to bring back to the Derks abode was the pannier pack from the back.

Louise drove me back to their house, and Remy and I are relaxing while Louise, Valerie, and Stephanie go out to eat to celebrate Steph's birthday. I'm going to do some stretching and maybe take a shower before they get back. Dean isn't feeling well, and he's downstairs, so maybe I'll go hang out with him, as well.

Remy seems to be taking everything in stride. I don't know how much he'll like being kenneled away from me on the ferry tomorrow, but I suspect it will be a lot less stressful after a car ride to the ferry than after an extended bike ride of over 45 miles. (Sloth and I missed the turn off to the ferry and put in an extra 4 or 5 miles, I'm guessing.) Interestingly, that's about the distance I had figured out for tomorrow in Wisconsin, but now I will be arriving much later than the departure time I had counted on, so I may have to rethink tomorrow's destination.

Tayler picked up my car from Sue's house late this morning. I will update her on where I expect to end up late in the day tomorrow. I learned lots of gems from Sloth, both about him personally and about his solo biking experiences. Having someone fun and interesting to talk to definitely made the first day of riding go by quickly. We arrived at the ferry around 4:00, even with the detour. I felt as though the pace was doable, so I'll keep planning with that in mind until I feel stronger and can make the planned distance without exhaustion. Then perhaps I can add some miles.