Moving to Barbados: On the Road Again

 I love road trips. I never really went on any when I was a kid, but I love them.

I love the planning. Planning the snacks. Planning the best route.  When the kids were young, planning out games or movies for the ride.

So when we decided that once the house was sold that we would go on the mother of all road trips, I was excited.

I had it all figured out- our first few weeks of moving out of the house we would spend locally. Starting off with a treat to a luxury local hotel and then transitioning to something more practical to say our good bye's and wrap up loose ends. 

We would then venture to South Carolina to see my parents but ensure to  practice safe covid protocol and social distancing. Then on to Melbourne, Florida to see the rest of family and prepare for the last leg of the trip. Our final stop would be in Miami to board the plane to - Barbados.

It felt like a very solid plan and living on the road with a dog and only one child in tow sounded like an episode out of Tiny Home. I thought this would really show us what living minimal would be like and we were going to love the freedom of not having a house to clean and dishes to worry about.

It wasn't quite that dreamy.

First stop was the fancy hotel. We have a local hotel known for being older but cool and with COVID they were offering a deal and a whole COVID-safe stay. No room service or daily room cleaning/linen change but I was able to find a neat package of wine and chocolate strawberries. I thought my youngest would get a kick out of that. The strawberries that is. Wine was for mama.

Upon arrival we faced our first challenge- remember the trailer? Well, if you recall, we had the trailer, and while it was very helpful in getting all of our stuff around it wasn't the easiest to park. We finally maneuvered to three spots in the back of the parking lot and conquered first challenge. Inspiring me to create my first motto 'we can do this!'.

Second challenge- luggage. Since we parked a ways out- I had to fetch the trusty luggage cart to haul our billion suitcases inside. As you can guess though this thing is made to traverse hotel lobby marble floors and not asphalt parking lots. It was a rough ride but we made it in with luggage, only to find the room was- well- tight. 

Probably for a regular family with just three pieces of luggage it would have been fine, but with dog, dog bowls and 10 luggages (yes we needed to bring them all in as we couldn't remember fully what had what) we found the room a wee bit tight.

We aimed to pile the luggage in the corner and found a suitable spot for dog water. Challenge 2- defeated. Cue motto.

Our third challenge wound up being the dog itself. We just came from a house that the dog could run free in the back yard and for those awkward late night bathroom breaks, I just had to walk down, open the door and wait. Oh but now- now we have to walk down the hall, avoid all other humans (he barks at people, not cool), go down three flights of stairs, go out front to the designated dog area and then wait until he finds the most perfect magical spot for his business.

We kept a positive attitude though. The strawberries were delicious. The wine was wonderful. When we went to dinner they sat us a safe distance from the 3 families that were in the restaurant. After dinner we were able to get a s'mores pack and find an outdoor fire pit and have s'mores. 

But by night 2 I felt claustrophobic. The room was just too small. Perhaps going from a 5 bedroom home instantly to a one bedroom hotel room with two full beds was a little hasty. I decided that we should exit early and get to our second hotel which offered a kitchenette and separate living space. 

During all of this we found out that Husband would need to head to Denver earlier than planned to meet the move truck and receive his motorcycle. The youngest and I managed on our own the move to the new hotel and we spent the first night finding TV dinners to cook in the microwave of the kitchenette.

One aside here- kitchenette is a strong word here. It was more just a microwave and mini-fridge. Still great, but I thought we would be getting the Residence Inn hotel type kitchenette with small cooktop and full cookware. I had visions of us whipping up cute tiny meals on our tiny stove. But due to COVID they had stripped the room of cutlery and glasses. Vision denied.

Another aside- I did not realize that at age 12 my kid has not really had a TV dinner. This is NOT a commentary on the fact I cook or something- we just don't do them. Which was eye-opening as she got super excited about fettuccini alfredo literally in a box. 

I never thought a hotel could feel so spacious but now with dad gone, we each had our own beds and the dog had his own couch. Also enough room to spread out the luggage. It was like a mansion. Renewed visions of Tiny Home living came back to mind and I had re-invigorated my original motto 'we can do this!'

As with all of my girl-power motto's, the universe has a perverse sense of humor in putting me in my place to not get too slap happy. The dog was still waking at weird hours to go out which allowed me the opportunity to tap into all of my earlier years of martial arts training of defending myself. However when you are almost 50 and it's 3am of a hotel parking lot you start to feel less like "Bring It" and more like,  "Maybe they won't bother the little old tired lady with her barky dog". 

We had a few hiccups during our 10 day stay but overall it was a better choice than the luxury hotel. I felt like my youngest and I bonded more there than our entire time at our regular house. We ate TV dinners and popped pop corn in the microwave. We even cobbled together a full asian dinner one night and watched some Japanese movies on Netflix. 

When it came time to leave however, the universe was kind enough to ensure I remained less than slap happy. 

We found out Husband would need to extend his stay in Denver as our delivery was delayed. Instead of waiting for his return to Virginia, we agreed that I should head down to SC on my own and he would reroute his return flight to there. 

On the morning of our departure, I loaded our fifth luggage cart of the entire trip. As I began arranging things in the trailer it began to rain. I didn't know trailers were so slippery when wet and I almost ate it at least seven times trying to get the weight right in the trailer.

We can do this. 

And we did. With all of our items loaded up we headed to my parents. I cried a tiny bit in the car thinking that while things are always easier with my husband, it felt good that I was able to manage it on my own.  I think also leaving our home state of 8 years was a little bitter sweet without him there. 

Our South Carolina stay was much less dramatic. Aside from our challenge of loading the cargo case at 6am in the cold (see previous posts) we managed to come out of that hotel without issue. 

Our stay at my father-in-law's as well, went without incident and I was getting pretty slap happy by this point.

Cue universe.

Our last stop was at another fancy hotel in Miami. You would think we learned our lesson with the fancy hotels but, well, we didn't obviously. This one also was an older well known hotel but we booked a suite like room this time to ensure we had ample space for our last night in the USA.

I am not sure why, but it seems that when you have most things going on when you go to a hotel, your room is the furthest away. Husband wound up taking the service elevator with the hotel manager so he could get the majority of our luggage on the cart while my youngest, the dog, and I took the stairs to the room.

We got to the room first, and entered. We like to do a room check as we are now hotel veterans. However, I began to notice slowly but surely that the room had not been cleaned and felt recently occupied. As we entered the back bedroom, there were towels on the floor and two unmade beds. 

Now normally- this would have not been a big deal and we would have waited for husband and manager to arrive. However, with COVID, I don't know if I am losing it or just getting more paranoid of catching this thing, I kind of freaked. We are literally hours away from leaving the country, I did not want to get COVID. Imagine scenes from those movies where the scouting crew realize they are amongst something deadly- they all stop and slowly start to retreat. Abort, abort.

So I tell Naomi Don't Touch Anything and go to the hall. Now. She of course, is like 'why? what's wrong?' and in my typical tiger mom fashion I snap at her to just move and quit asking questions.

So we are standing in the hallway and husband comes rolling towards me. Now, we have been married for over 12 years. He usually gets my 'looks' but sometimes well, he misses them. As he rolls towards me, he asks from 20 feet away if there's a problem with the key to which I say no. Now at about 10 feet he asks if I'm able to get in to the room to which I say yes. Why I couldn't yell down the hall "the room has not been cleaned!" is beyond me now- but as they approached I felt validated when I said why we weren't in the room and the manager looked visibly upset. 

COVID has everyone in high sensitivity mode I guess but I appreciated he reacted out loud how I was feeling inside. 

As much as the universe does take me out of slap happy- it has an interesting way of also balancing it out. The manager wound up giving us the room right next to it for us to wait in until ours was cleaned and then gave us both rooms for the night. They were adjoined so it was like a mini apartment. Our last night did feel like the final episode of some Tiny Home series now. 

Our ultimate road trip had ended. We did it. I have to admit that I had to tap into Zen a whole lot along the way. From sliding around a wet trailer to not letting my COVID paranoia get the better of me, I did a lot of 'take a deep breath's'. I also found along the way I became better at it. Sometimes my first reaction is panic/freak out/yell at someone. But lately, I am able to initiate 'take a deep breath' mode some of the time and minimize the amount of panic/freak out/yell that happens. 

I'm ready, next stop- Barbados.