Well, by all accounts, the house should have officially sold today, and we already moved to Omaha last weekend.

My first thought, which repeated itself many times while unloading, was “How much stuff do we own?” Maybe I should back up a few days to explain. When we got the offer, we started packing. We had a huge pile of boxes. We rented a 4×8 U-Haul trailer and I loaded that, and the back of the truck for Reagan to deliver to Omaha that weekend. I fit all kinds of things in there, even Reagan’s scooter and had to search the house to find more things to load up, even before I loaded the truck.
So, for the official move we changed our mind on the plans and got the largest U-Haul trailer. When I picked it up, I even asked “That’s a 6×12?” I loaded up the kitchen, and had my doubts. So, we rented a truck afterall. We managed to fill that rather well too. What were we thinking?

Unloading must have been a sight for the neighbors to watch. We unloaded the U-haul, then started on the trailer. But the odd part was that we would take a full dolly from the trailer into the house, then return with a full load to place back into the U-haul. Then we would move things from the trailer to the U-haul, and more into the pickup. We had a plan. The empty U-haul was making a second trip to a storage unit that we didn’t need on hand. I filled the truck with items that would survive in the shed out on the farm.

Anyhow, I made the farm trip today. Things were getting a bit green, but not overgrown yet. I did happen to move the 16″ push-reel mower, so I pulled that out and mowed the driveway with it. I was just waiting, perhaps horrified, for one of the neighbors to drive by and see the newbie mowing with something so hopeless. It was fun anyhow, and the driveway and a parking spot was probably close to the size of the former backyard. At least the part you see from the road looked better. I also left a guard gnome standing out on duty.

I didn’t have much planned to do, but had been thinking about the road from Cooper to Rippey. There were some sweeping dogleg corners on it. I don’t need to be riding too much this week, as the stage race starts on Saturday. But I couldn’t resist. 3 states in a week and riding near the farm…sounded good, almost. Our road is dirt, and loose dirt at that. Skinny little road tires don’t handle that too well, nevermind my nervousness about shreading brand new expensive tires. I ended up on the RRVT north to Cooper and hit the road there. The road out to Rippey was decent, fun, and a perfect distance. I did a turnaround lap around downtown Rippey, then headed back with a tailwind pushing me back to Cooper at 25mph. Sweet.

I got to watch a phesant walk around, calfs stood up and watched me ride by, chickens scattered around a yard, and a little rat sized terrier of some sort took chase just outside of Cooper. 1-2 quick turns of the cranks, and the dog dropped back and decided to walk back home. Nothing like the sound of dog nails clicking up behind you. Weather was great, and the farm itself was completly quiet and peaceful.

I’m thinking of stealing the parting quote of Chuck Offenburger from the story he wrote about us. “Oh, this is going to be fun”

I think the ending of this day confirmed it all. Leaving the farm, I hit the eyesore known as Omaha. Something about this town, especially the west side, confirms most of our thoughts, and makes us so happy we bought Two Barn Farm. I did catch my revenge on suburbia when I saw the look of horror in the rear view mirror. I was stuck in standstill, rush hour traffic due to a lane closure, and everyone was blocking the merges from flowing smoothly. Apparently the women in a Lexus did not expect a huge, dirty F-350 to turn sideways and wedge itself in the few feet in front of her. I usually am calm, but once in a blue moon I have to call on the art of merging one learns in Boston. Well, to do a Boston style merge justice, I should have driven down the sidewalk first.