Moving Emma Home- Saturday/Sunday December 21-22, 2024

     Emma's last day of work at the co-op in the Hudson Valley was Tuesday, December 17th.  We've been planning on bringing her and her stuff home this weekend.  We've done a lot of prep work this summer, demolishing much of our old basement and building a new space for her there.  We tore out all the old wooden paneling on the walls and made a big space for her there.  We've had waterproofers, drywall guys and floorers come in over the last few weeks.  In fact, the new laminate floors were just put in on Tuesday, covering up the ugly old asbestos tiles.   It's not quite an apartment because it doesn't have kitchen or a bathroom, but it is space where she can spread out a bit and have to herself (more or less).

     Christmas break for us started after school on Friday afternoon, but we waited until early Saturday morning to drive to Emma's place in Leeds, NY.  We were up before the alarm went off at 4:30 am and had Abby at Grandpa and Grandma's where they were going to have her over night.  She loves going there, and we knew that Grandma was planning on making gingerbread houses with her.  There was snow falling in big enough flakes that it makes you feel like you're in hyperspace when you stare into it, so the first part of the drive wasn't great.  It the winter solstice, so the sunrise didn't come until sometime around 7:30.   We got to Emma's place shortly after 11:00. 

     As we were driving up, we got a couple of texts and a phone call from Anna who wanted to know if we wanted help.  She has the weekend off, and decided she was "bored" and was willing to drive up to be an extra pair of hands.  We put the odds at about 50-50 as to whether she would drive up or not, but sure enough, she did.  She came at a little after 1:00 when we were out getting lunch and the U-Haul truck.  It was the first and only time that Anna would get a chance to see where her sister had been living.  Since her apartment was over a restaurant, Emma shared stories about how she heard "Happy Birthday" being sung several times a night and the noisy political rally that they had back in the fall.   

     There was a lot of packing and cleaning to do, but we weren't exactly surprised by that, since we knew what Emma's bedroom can look like.  There were lots of bags of garbage to take out to the dumpster behind the restaurant she lived over.   We were told that we couldn't really wet mop the floor because the water leaked down into the restaurant below when Emma tried it earlier.  We brought a vacuum and cleaning supplies and Julie took charge of the situation.  First, the bathroom, then the bedroom, then the kitchen and living room.  Our goal was to get everything in boxes by 5:00.  We had learned our lesson when we moved in, and we decided to hire two movers to come to load the truck up  for us.  That way they could negotiate the couch out the doors and down the stairs, which were a little slippery with the falling snow.  We had hired them for two hours of work, hoping it would be enough.  They actually finished loading everything into the U-Haul in an hour.  We were happy to pay them for the two hours we had planned on and gave them a tip on top of that because of the amount of work that they had saved us from doing.

     Julie had arranged for the same 6' x 12' size truck from U-Haul that we had used for the move in the spring.  The day before, we got a call from U-Haul saying that people in Cheektowaga needed a trailer.  They asked us if we would be willing to attach a trailer to the back of our truck.  If we did, we would not have to pay for mileage on the truck and could use the trailer if we wanted.  We said that was fine with us, but the trailer ended up being in the way.  We couldn't unhook it to load the truck, so the movers ended up packing everything into the trailer instead.  That was fine because the knew what they were doing and packed it up well, but it left us with an weird situation.  The truck we were paying for was mostly empty except for a few cleaning supplies and the trailer which we weren't paying for was packed full.  Whatever.  It worked, though we did take it slow because of the trailer and couldn't back up much at all.

     The four of us went out to dinner at the barbecue place that Julie and Emma had found back in the spring when they were apartment shopping.  It is called the Barnwood and was just over the bridge and down the road from Emma's place.  Emma ended up treating us all to dinner because of our help, which was very nice of her though it feels odd that she has her own adult-type money now.

     After dinner, the girls decided that they were up to driving all the way home.  Julie and Scott went back to the apartment for one last walk through and a little bit more cleaning.  Then we went to a nearby hotel in Coxsackie where we had stayed at in the spring where we knew the parking for the truck and trailer would be easy.  We were surprised to see the entire hotel was being renovated.  There were tarps and sheets hanging everywhere and piles of drywall and other building supplies in the public areas.  Our room was fine, though, and we needed to turn the heat up so that we could take the chill out of our bones from the day's work.  We got a call from Anna that snow was becoming an issue around Rochester and we relayed the info to Emma.  Anna powered her way through to get home, but Emma and Chili were a ways behind her and Emma was getting tired.  She wisely checked into a hotel outside of Syracuse and spent the night there.

     We were up again today and on the road by about 6:00 am.  The woman at U-Haul told Julie to take it slow with the truck-trailer combo and not go over 50 mph.  That made it a very long, slow drive home.  It was also single-digits cold.  In the car, Scott noted that the temperature at sunrise was 1° F,  Once we got to Cheektowaga, it felt warmer because it was in the teens by then.   It was a little around 2:00 when we started unpacking the U-Haul and got everything piled into the basement in a little over an hour.  As we are typing this, Julie and Anna are picking up Abby from Grandma's.  Then Anna and Emma are planning on setting up everything in her new space.  It's good to have her home, just in time for Christmas.  Abby has been looking forward to having "my Emma" back.  The house will certainly feel fuller with her here again.

 

Saratoga Springs, NY- Sunday, October 13, 2024

     When Emma and Scott woke up, they went to the hotel's gym to exercise.  Scott walked a total of 2 miles on the treadmill and Emma used a couple pieces of equipment.  After breakfast, we went to the pool, which looked big and inviting, but the water was very cold.  Even after being in it for a while, the water still felt cold.  We didn't spend a long time there as a result of that.  The morning had started and we went to explore Saratoga Springs- Scott, Julie and Abby in our car, and Emma in hers.

     The temperature was cold outside too.  It was in the 40s and the light rain was coming and going all day.  Our first stop was the National Battlefield where the turning point battle of the Revolution took place.  We had been here once before, way back in 2004, which was before the blog!  We took the auto-tour of the park with 3-year old, almost 4-year old Anna then.  Scott didn't want to do the whole tour of the park today because we were planning on doing other things with Emma, plus he hopes to come back here as the 250th anniversary gets closer, in 2027.  He did want to go to the bookshop at the visitors center though, so we drove about 20 minutes to get there and then had to climb a big hill up from the parking lot.  We looked around the bookstore, and Abby bought a stuffed bluebird- the state bird of New York.  Scott had seen enough though, and the stores in town were starting to open, so we skipped the rest of the visitor center and headed back to Saratoga Springs.

     Julie wanted to first stop to be Starbucks, so we parked near there and rendezvoused with Emma.  We were right on Broadway, the main street in Sarasota Springs, and the location of a lot of high-end shopping.  We didn't make it very far down the street today, but the three girls spent a long while and a little bit of money in a store called the Saratoga Tea and Honey Co.  There was a wide variety of teas available, of course, and in the back, there was free honey tasting.  After that, we went to a store called, Impressions of Saratoga, which specialized in Saratoga merch, including lots about the horses and horse racing (but nothing about the battle, Scott noticed).  

     By then, it was approaching noon, and Julie wanted to try a place she could see across the street.  It was in the apparently high-end Adelphi Hotel and is called Morrisey's.  We felt a little underdressed in our sweatpants and t-shirts.  In fact, we ended up getting seated on the patio, out on Broadway.   It was chilly outside, but they had us sitting under some large heaters that hung from the side of the building, so that helped some.  We ordered, but the food took a longer time than we expected.  We ended up paying a lot (about $100, including tip) and ended up wolfing it all down in about 10 minutes.  We asked for our check as soon as the food came.  Emma had sushi and Abby special ordered some pancakes, which they ended up making from waffle batter.  It must have turned out pretty good because all three of the girls ate those.

     We ended up leaving lunch quickly because when Julie had realized that we were going to have a cold rainy day this morning, she started looking for a plan B that wouldn't have us walking in the cold in Saratoga Springs.  She found a fall foliage train tour that left from a station in Corinth, a little more than 20 minutes from where we were.  The name of the railroad is the Saratoga, Corinth & Hudson Railway.  (Apparently Corinth here is pronounced Cor-INTH, not COR-inth like in other places.)  Apparently, the train has run as a tourist destination for about three years, and the owner was among the people that talked to the passengers on the ride.  The train departed at 1:30 and the 12-mile ride lasted about 90 minutes.  The conductors and the other staff that were on the train were very friendly and eager to talk to the passengers.  We rode in a 1950s era lounge car.  It was heated, and gave us a chance to warm up as we rode.  Emma and Dad both napped a little on the ride.  The biggest complaint about the ride was that when the refurbished this car, they made the floor plan so that the chairs face inward, toward the center aisle.  If you're taking a train to see the foliage and sites, you really want to face out the windows more easily.  The chairs themselves were comfortable, but you had to sit twisted in them to see out the windows.  The windows were also fogging over quite a bit, but I'm not sure how much you could fix that.  You could get up and walk around, but we didn't very much.  Scott and Emma both went out into the open air car that was the next car from ours, but neither stayed there long due to the cold wind and light rain.

     When the train ride was over, it was time for us to part ways with Emma.  Abby didn't want to let her go, but did.  Emma has to work tomorrow, on Monday, but we don't.   She ended up doing a little more shopping in Saratoga Springs.  We were not sure what to do from there.  We were originally thinking of finding a hotel room somewhere down the road, and then stopping a few places on Monday.  The rain and Julie's problems (both her tooth and a twisted ankle she had gotten at Santa's Workshop) made us think that maybe we would be better off going home.  We certainly could have driven home and gotten back at a reasonable hour tonight.  Once we were on the road, we realized how much the cold had taken out of us today.  Abby took an hour and a half nap in the car, but Mom and Dad were both dragging.  It's hard to drive when it is both raining and dark, so we decided to spring for one more hotel room and stopped at Oneida Lake, near Syracuse.   It was a good stop to make, and if we really want to, we can still get home at a relatively early time tomorrow.