50 bags of garbage and homeless

This is minutes before driving 3 and a half hours home from the dealer.  The aura of confidence you see is from the 45 minutes of driving training I received.... how hard could it be, it's only 40 feet long and pulling a car. My brother and I successfully made the trip home, a little scary.... John drank beer and heckled me from the back of the bus all the way home;-)

Kinda a sad moment, we turned in my Acura MDX and our family van for a Honda CRV (which we'll pull behind the bus).

Moving is certainly stressful but also an interesting exercise.  I'm not kidding when I say we threw away 50 bags of garbage, the accumulation of stuff and trash over time is amazing.  Jen and I actually enjoyed the process of getting ride of most of our stuff.

They use a really cool fork lift to lift the PODS onto the truck.

We consider this trip more than just a drive around the country, we wanted to push the limits of change.  To simplify life we decided to get rid of most of our stuff, or at least that was the goal.  For two months we sold stuff (thank you craigs list), gave away stuff (a special thanks to pat and jenny's garage), threw away stuff, and donated stuff.  To cap what we could keep, we ordered two 16' storage containers from PODS.com, whatever didn't fit in them is no longer with the Little's.  If you've never seen these things, they drop them on your driveway, let you pack them, then pick em up and store them until we are ready to have the containers shipped, which can be any where in the country.  It's a little expensive, but fits our situation perfectly.

Packed to the edge.

Taylor and Campbell helping with the move.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xtDiVoErRPQ&hl=en_US&fs=1]

This picture pretty much sums up how we feel at this point.  Moving is brutal but is now done, we officially gave the house to the new owners yesterday, Monday.  Sunday night we had the neighbors over for one last bonfire, and marshmallow roast.  We took the opportunity to burn some furniture and last odds and ends as well.  Jen and I came back into the house after the party to find Campbell passed out on the living room floor....  good night Campbell, good night house, good night good times on Pendleton Mills!

Our route

Phase one complete