Gallup, NM, July 3, 2008

6 AM just East of Gallup, Tent Site #1. Brandy and Griffin asleep in our Coleman tent butted against a fence separating us from a scrubby patch, that adjoins the main road out of Gallup to Interstate 40....and apparently a major railroad track, which provided further punctuation for my sleep. We got here in the dark, after riding through the painted desert as the sun was setting, brightening the green sage and tussock and lighting up the layers of cloud.

Saturday was when we really got going with the move, and we finally filled 154 boxes. I actually have ceased to be astonished at the volume of stuff we have and now view our 600 cubic feet as a proud achievement in the never ending war we wage with minimalism. The movers did not arrive on Monday as promised due to their truck overheating with the hot weather. Understandable perhaps, but what will they say about high seas on the Pacific?

So Brandy and Griffin went on ahead of me to her Dads place in Henderson, NV while I finshed up at the house. July 4th had already started for the boys downstairs, Brad, Larry, Tony and Billy all rode down to the Beach on their bikes. Billy came back early telling me NEVER go to the beach with Brad and Larry. The others were too drunk to ride home and Lucky had to pick them up in Brad's pick-up. I left for Vegas around 8pm as they were all quietening down. At least you can say this for mid-40's partiers: they won't last until midnight.

Last ride in the Honda. Now illegal to hold a cell phone while driving in California. Ipods should be next - for people like me anyway. I stopped in Barstow for my last In'n'Out Burger and made the turn off to Henderson between midnight and one. Don heated up Pizza and poured me a Coors Lite. Then a blissful 6 hours until the final brutal purge at 7AM, collapsing the contents of 2 cars (the Honda and the Prius) into just the Prius, knowing that we have no home to send anything to. We spread the contents of both cars out on Don's driveway - Neighbors aghast - and one final cruel blow halved our volume...unloading the unwanted on an obliging Don for Goodwill and Trash. Of course we were unable to part with everything so sent a box back to Leah's to add to the 6 others we somehow think we will fly to NZ with.