Our travel from Massachusetts to Maryland (Travel: Day 5) was pretty uneventful and I didn't have my camera out so no State Welcome signs this time :(
However, we had a wonderful time visiting family and friends here in Maryland. For the first few days we stayed with Grammy and she had a whole list of things to get done with us. We went swimming in her water aerobics class, visited her friend Madge who is a retired clown, and took 3 rambunctious dogs to the vet (consider this dog mix: a Great Pyrenees named Marlene, an Anatolian named Julie, and a tiny rat terrier named Chipper.) Unfortunately, we don't have pictures from that adventure.
We also visited the wonderful Houman family and are currently sitting at the table of Barry's Aunt and Uncle, Ted and Beth Howe with blueberry muffins that Ansley made late last night for our breakfast :) It's a beautiful morning here and despite the malfunction of our alarm clock, we are excited to hit the road for Kentucky where we'll be staying in Mammoth Cave National Park.
Morning pictures from the field beside Papa Howe's house :)
Until next time, (and I'm not sure when that will be because who knows when we'll have internet next!) we bid you "adieu".
I've spent the past three days cudgeling my brains for the cheapest possible way to move from Maine to California.
Consider my dilemma: one coracle + three coracle-loads of impedimenta + "the magical answer X" =
Maine-->California on a starving newly married student's budget.
At first, a Uhaul sport trailer seemed like the answer, but adding everything up changed my mind: $530 trailer rental, $180 for hitch installation, $90 extra in gas = $800. Plus the less convenient driving and increased wear on the coracle...
So we looked into shipping
There were two main ways to ship: (1) lots of boxes UPS or Fed Ex (2) one big pallet shipped freight
Option 1.
UPS and Fed Ex ship boxes at different rates depending on weight and dimensions. I discovered that relatively small boxes of heavy items (like books) in the 80-100lbs range would ship for about a dollar per pound. That was a decent rate. Large boxes of light items (like clothes), ended up in the 2-3 dollar per pound range. That was a terrible rate.
Option 2
aprox $500 for 521lbs
You do the math. That's an incredible rate. Mind you, that took literally dozens of phone calls and quote requests. Furthermore, we are angling to load and unload at businesses with loading docks, which cuts about $150 off the shipping price. We won't ship the freight for another 10 days because we don't want the pallet to arrive before us.
Stay posted for final price details:)
_____________________
Christy:
But packing wasn't the only thing we did during our sojourn in Massachusetts. We also spent some good time with my parents, ate lots of good food, went hiking in the rain, and almost got eaten by savages!! (See accompanying video)
Now we're off to Maryland where we'll visit my Grammy, and Barry's Papa, Aunt, and Uncle for a couple of days :)
We're off to CA by way of Massachusetts, Maryland, and several other stops, namely some National Parks! We plan to record our roadtrip on this blog so stay tuned for further updates! This is the first installment beginning at Barry's house in Maine.
Just before heading to the car
All ready to go, in front of the faithful Coracle!
Look! Zero miles traveled! And notice the outside temperature. It was very hot!
John and Aunt Lyn giving us a grand send-off
Willard Froggle, our faithful traveling companion ever since our first roadtrip together in Spring of 2009.
Our friend, Lauren Lombard, adventurously agreed to take some pictures at 5 am the morning of our wedding at a coastal sunrise location that we had scouted out several weeks earlier. We weren't sure if we'd still be able to do it because of the weather, but it worked out that 5 am-7 am was the only time when the reports predicted slightly clear skies!
Thank you, Lauren! We LOVE the pictures!! :D
Barry waiting along the coast to see me in my dress for the first time.
Lauren also took some pictures at the wedding
Our guestbook tree
Homemade "barry" pie (served with homemade coconut icecream!)
