The Eighth Sermon to the Dead

 It's been a few weeks, but I thought I'd give a recap of our trip from Oregon to Virginia.  It's been an adventure to be sure, and it's taken a while to all sink in.  In a lot of ways, the journey and the culture shock give it all a veil of unreality. January 5th I left off our story on the Afternoon of January 5th.  We left our home in Amity at about 2 pm, and after our sheep/llama rodeo in the rain, we had everyone loaded and we took off for points south.  Our goal on the first night was Reno, Nevada, the Boomtown Casino Hotel.  In retrospect, that was ambitious (or foolhardy). If we'd left at some early morning hour, like we were intending, then it would have been doable. Leaving at 2 pm, it was nearly impossible.  Reno is 514 miles from Amity, or about 10 hours according to google.  Realistically, it's more like 12 hours, with stops for fuel and bathroom and etc.  That would put us in at 2 am, if it weren't for the weather. It was rainin...

 We were supposed to close on 12/22, and have 2 weeks to sort everything out for the move. Due to a snafu (The appraiser for the buyers put down it was a private road, when we actually live on a public road, and that screwed things with the VA) the closing was pushed back to 12/28. That gave us a week less to do the stuff we needed to do in two weeks.  So, we packed like crazy for the previous week, but still had to leave out stuff to live on. We intended to purchase a canopy on 12/23, that got pushed to 12/29.  Then, we found out, the canopy didn't fit. So we started to search for one: Used, new, anywhere from Seattle to Roseburg. There was no canopy to be found. Enter Colvin Ford.  They had a brand new 2020 F350 that, while it had a short bed, had a canopy. So, we traded our 2016 for the 2020 with 3400 miles. The previous owner had rarely driven it, and we're going to put more miles on it in a week than he did in a year. We have provisionally named her Black Betty ...

 Most of you know that we've closed on both houses (here in Virginia), but you haven't heard HOW we closed. Let me explain.  No, there is too much. Let me sum up: On December 28th, we knew the physical documents we had to sign for the Virginia house had entered the state of Oregon, but the Lawyer in Virginia had accidentally put the wrong address on the envelope. We signed on our house in Amity at 9 am, and hoped the documents would get to the title company by the UPS East Coast cutoff for return to Virginia. The title company thought that was 3 pm. UPS delivered to the title company at 9 am, but all they had was the buyer's documents for the Amity house. We called around to the lawyer and UPS, got the tracking number, and Etc. At 2 pm we found out UPS had the documents, at the Tualitan center. We could come get them, but we could not bring them back to the notary, get them signed, and return them to UPS. We hoped in the car, and drove to the title company, kidnapped the no...