travels with toby

And what a journey it was! Truth be told, everything went off without a hitch and we’re amazed and so grateful. In case you missed my post about moving to L.A., click this link to read all about our decision to move back to Los Angeles. Following is a recap of our 7 night, 8 day journey across the country from Minnesota to Los Angeles, California as well as a recap of the beginning of our new chapter in retirement.

The movers came on a Friday in late October. Our driver was very amusing as well as efficient. You could tell he knew what he was doing. The driver gets local help to load and unload the truck and we apparently had the “A team” helping him load in Roseville. He made the comment “some days I think boy, it’s going to be a long day” but our load was not that kind of day. The three of them got the truck loaded in 4 hours. Next we picked up the rental van that hubby would drive and then headed to lunch. It was just my daughter and me at dinner as hubby was too tired to go out due to him staying up most of the night prior preparing for the moving van. We had such a lovely meal at the Highland Grill and even shared a dessert. Hubby and I slept on the floor our last night in our previous house since all the furniture was on its way to California. We left the next day.

For any gallery, click on any image to open the gallery to see larger images and to see captions.

I had hoped to get on the road from Roseville, MN early enough so that I wouldn’t have to drive at night. Alas, that is not what happened. Instead we left town about 4 p.m. and got to our first destination in Des Moines, Iowa around 8:30 p.m. We were tired and hungry and hadn’t yet figured out the program for our cat Frankie. It all worked fine but I remember struggling to stay awake that first day/evening and, in fact, at our last rest stop I splashed water on my face and that seemed to help. I would repeat this a few more times in the coming week as I’d find my eyes getting tired most days around 2:00 when we had about an hour’s drive remaining.

One positive of leaving so late that first day was the gorgeous sunset we enjoyed through southern Minnesota and into Iowa. It was stunning and I think I shall never forget it.

It was our first time on the road with our very sensitive cat, Frankie. He turned out to be the world’s best little traveller! He’d curl up on the console next to me and sleep the entire drive. Our vet gave us drugs to relax Frankie and I thought it might be a good idea to give it to him before bedtime so that he wouldn’t wake us up in the middle of the night. That didn’t work so well the first night as he could tell there was something in his food and refused to eat it, so I didn’t attempt that again. After the first two days we got our routine down for Frankie. We’d get to the hotel, check-in, then park near our room and bring the cat in with his litter box and food. Give him water right away and then feed him. He would then check out every inch of every room we stayed in and he didn’t meow that much. He was no trouble at all!

We planned this trip so that we wouldn’t be driving more than 5 hours each day. And that worked fairly well for the most part. We would typically leave around 11:00 to arrive at our next destination just after check-in time in the afternoon. We made pretty good time and we were only delayed on interstate 40 once when there was repaving of one of the two westbound lanes. Getting down to one lane then driving past the repaving section delayed us maybe 15 minutes.

We’d typically stop at fast food places for lunch and get take-out from nearby restaurants for dinner and eat in the hotel room. Fast food included Burger King, McDonald’s, Subway and convenience store sandwiches. We had our first In-N-Out meal in the Denver suburbs where my cousin and his wife met us but darn it, we forgot to get a photo! It was nice to see both of them. I had some really good take-out meals and at least one not so good meal. The really good ones included salmon meals in Ft. Collins, CO and Santa Fe, NM. The one not so great meal was the deep fried wings and sweet potato fries in southern Colorado which was truly in the middle of nowhere. Both of these were terrible. That was also the really old hotel in a chain that I won’t mention here. I may or may not have gotten bed bug or spider bites at this hotel.

We stayed in seven cities starting in Des Moines, Iowa. Then onto Kearney, Nebraska. We routed our trip through Ft. Collins, Colorado to see one of hubby’s buddies from high school and to meet the new wife. They brought us dinner which was delicious and it was so kind of them! Next stop was that middle of nowhere town in southern Colorado that I don’t want to mention. That was also the stretch with the high winds. There was a wind advisory posted on the highway and I noticed several semi trucks had pulled off on the side. I was gripping that steering wheel so hard my shoulders ached when I got out of the car. That was probably the scariest stretch and the wind gusts were up to 60 mph I think. Regardless, those were some very strong winds! The next day’s drive through southern New Mexico on the way to Santa Fe was a lot of climbing, descending and twisty turning roads which was a bit challenging, and the scenery was stunning. We had wind nearly everywhere with the worst of it in southern Colorado. After Santa Fe we stayed in Holbrook, Arizona, another very small town and we got take-out from a Mexican food chain with great reviews. That meal was also very enjoyable. Our last night was in Needles, California where a pizza place was conveniently located across the parking lot from our hotel. I didn’t really want pizza but they had a varied menu and those wings, potato wedges and small salad that we ordered was one of our favorite meals on the road. It was also the warmest since it was right next door.

My daughter made me several playlists on Spotify so that I would have something to listen to on the road. I didn’t listen to all of them but I did really enjoy several of those playlists. I think my favorite was the one labeled “mama goes to l.a.” I found some new favorite songs like Bidi Bidi Bom Bom by Selena, Home by Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Talk Too Much by COIN and Used To Be Young by Miley Cyrus. It really helped pass the driving time.

I didn’t anticipate getting emotional crossing into California but yep, I surely was. It’s nice to be home.

We hired North American Van Lines, doing business in Roseville with the Beltmann Group, to move our stuff. And what a great decision that turned out to be! Everyone from the salesman to the guys who put our extra boxes in our car to Wayne, our driver, and the A team in Roseville who removed all the stuff we told them to take and put it into a huge moving van. Then Wayne and one helper put the beds, the table and the entertainment unit together when they arrived at our new home. Just a great experience with everyone. I highly recommend them if you’re doing a cross country move. The next gallery are photos of when the moving van arrived in California.

We had the help of a real estate agent here in the San Fernando Valley to find us a house to rent before we arrived. She found us a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom house with a big backyard and patio not far from our friends. We had some plumbing issues at the get-go but things seem to be working correctly now. But we had one more adventure: raccoons! Right before the plumber left for the last time he wanted to make sure the cover was back on the crawl space on the side of the house. He apparently didn’t secure it because a night later raccoons were attempting to get under the house. You’ll see a photo below of how we secured that spot.

Frankie is enjoying the backyard and even has a new friend already. A gray tabby cat with white paws showed up in our backyard a couple of times, the last time he and Frankie were checking each other out.

We’ve been here nearly two months and the weather has been so nice!! Most of the month of November temps were in the 70s and sunny most days. We are loving the warm climate. It’s rained only a couple of times in a month. I’m doing my daily walk for the most part and am enjoying all the things blooming as well as cactus plants. One of my favorite plants, the bougainvillea, was at peak bloom when we arrived and they’re still beautiful a month later. I’m just loving the many plants and flowers that I am not used to. The gallery below shows some of the first photos from my walks in my new neighborhood as well as the bird of paradise and roses in my front yard. I also live just blocks away from where a famous scene was filmed from the movie ET with Elliot riding his bike and ET is in the basket.

All in all, we know we made the right move. It’s so nice to wake up to sunshine most days and to be warm. It does cool down at night so be sure to bring a jacket if you’ll be out at night. I could get used to this. Of course winter is coming but it won’t be anything like what we’ve been used to the last 30 plus years in the frozen tundra of Minnesota. Instead of shoveling, I’ll be harvesting oranges from our three orange trees and then hoping to give most of them away. I can’t eat that many but they sure are sweet! Yes, so many positives of living in southern California.

It is nice to be home.