We’ve been on the road again. Almost four weeks ago, we packed up our Honda Civic again (this time with significantly less cramming) and headed back to Chicago. This trip was not the joy ride we experienced driving from Chicago to Playa del Carmen. This time we were on a mission. We needed to traverse over 3,300 miles in a week or less. 6 days of 9-13 hour driving days, including almost 2 final hours in a ‘Welcome to Chicago’ melee of traffic congestion.
After a week of waking up early, driving, eating fast food meals in the car, driving, dealing with our cat peeing in the car, driving, and never getting quite enough sleep in motels along the way, we were ready for a break. But we were on a mission. Since we had made the decision to stay in Playa del Carmen for some indefinite (probably several years) period of time, we also decided to rent out our Chicago condo to ‘real’ renters. We had been renting to John’s younger brothers, two single twenty-somethings. They were getting a bargain basement rate on our 3 bedroom fully-furnished, oak wood floored, maple cabineted, granite countered, Wicker Park condo, which they used as headquarters for countless pizza deliveries and a respectable number of kegger parties.
A former co-worker of John’s had expressed interest in our place, and a deal was struck. We had a real contract, a security deposit and even an early first month’s rental payment (no more goading the brothers into paying their rent). Woohoo! We were in business. Except our new renters had their own furniture, kitchenware and bed linens. So, everything had to go. And we mean everything! We had three weeks to sell, store or give away everything we had accumulated over the course of our lives. Sounds like a long time. Believe us … it isn’t.
People told us that letting go of everything would be liberating. Well, let us tell you, selling off furniture we thought we’d enjoy for the rest of our lives at 10-20% on the dollar didn’t feel all that liberating. We felt sad in the beginning … a sense of loss. After about 2 weeks, we started feeling despair. We still had a LOT of stuff left. What would we do with it all?! Libby was determined to find good homes for everything … researching the wish lists of all the charities she could think of. We made some quick cash by selling CDs at music resale shops and miscellaneous items on eBay. (Who thought a never used can opener would go for $56?) After almost 3 weeks, any sense of sadness was gone. We still had a bunch of stuff left. Where was the nearest fricking dumpster so that we could just dump all this fricking stuff out! #$@!*?^)@!!
But we managed to get rid of almost everything, stuffed our car with goodies to take back to Playa, and stored ski boots, high school yearbooks, and winter clothes with our parents. (Thanks Mom and Dad and Mom!) Along the way, we managed to have some good times too. We arrived in Chicago just in time for Lukapalooza (Luke family extravaganza) where we caught up with many of John’s relatives whom we would not get a chance to see again in the coming weeks. We took in both a Cubs game and a Sox game. We are equal opportunity Chicago baseball fans, although being Northsiders, we lean towards the Cubs. HOWEVER, the Cubs game we went to had to be one of the worst baseball games we have ever seen, while the Sox game was a terrific game — fun and engaging. And during our final Chicago weekend, we reunited with some old friends at the beautiful Lake Geneva wedding of our friends, Nick and Molly.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to spend as much time with our family and friends as we had hoped, and we completely missed seeing some people. Despite this, so many people were a great help to us, and we’d like to take this opportunity to thank them.
- John’s dad for driving out to our place to pick up a carload of stuff for storage at John’s parents’ house. Also for making and helping Tim move his bed and Bowflex out of our place in the nick of time, the day before our estate sale. AND also for driving out ot meet us at a halfway point when John’s mini-PC (a Shuttle) was finally delivered an hour after we left Chicago for Playa.
- Libby’s mom and brother, Laddie, (and his understanding girlfriend, Jenny) for buying and removing much of our furniture and allowing us to visit it in the future. Also to Laddie and Jenny for the Sox tickets.
- Barb (John’s sister) and husband Ray and their kids (and 3 out of 4 of our favorite nephews) R.J., David and Nathan for inviting us into their home after our condo had been rented out.
- Our college friends, Pat and Loni and their great kids, Max and Ian, for allowing us to stay with them in their beautiful home near Dallas, TX Tuesday night.
- David and Melanie, for party planning help, endless offers to use their truck, and a few days extra to get out of the condo and clean the place.
We are now on the road yet again, returning to Playa del Carmen. This trip, we hope, will be another joy ride. We have chosen to take a new route, as there are still many, many parts of Mexico we have not explored yet. So, you can look forward to reports on the new places we’ll be enjoying over the next nine days.
The beaches in Veracruz have brown, coarse sand and the settings aren’t especially picturesque. But hey, it’s November and we’re in swimsuits at the beach. Esta bien!
