As the previous post stated, I’m here, I’m alive and the move went relatively well. As the two before that attest to, the pre-move of my roommates went less than well. For a full description of that, see
Caspian’s blog. The only thing that he leaves out of his post is that at about 7pm I started really freaking out and absented myself from the apartment, which I wrote about in one of my earlier posts.
By the time we got my stuff packed into the truck (which took under half of the space--and this was no giant U-Haul: it was one of those little 10' ones) and cleaned the apartment up and packed up the remaining things that were Caspian and Nadia's and got them to NDG and unloaded them, the sun was just about up. I had originally wanted to leave Montreal at 10am but we all got to bed after 4am, the move having taken about 12 hours longer than we expected.
So, Caspian and I climbed into the truck at around 1.30pm and set off South-East.
Once we were outside the city, the traffic was almost non-existant and once we crossed the border into the States, the roads were virtually empty.
Despite the truck's size, it actually handled fairly well. I did grow up driving a boat-sized Lincoln Town Car, so I had some experience with big things, but this, obviously, was a bit larger than even that. And yet, it had good breaks and good pick-up and handled easily.
The drive itself was quite nice and Caspian didn't seem to mind playing to role of annoying passenger, especially as we drove through the White Mountains National Forest in New Hampshire, along the 302.
'Ooh! Look at that! And that! And that!'
'I can't,' I would grumble. 'I'm driving along this little two-lane road through mountains. I need to make sure we don't drive off a cliff!'
Still, what I could see was quite gorgeous. We stopped at one of the scenic outlooks not too long after having left the Forest and shortly before entering North Conway. So much green. And there were big puffy clouds along with storm clouds that seemed to threaten us most of the way (although we managed to avoid any really serious rain).
We got into Portland around 9pm which was about right, considering our stop for lunch and a few stretching/potty/coffee breaks along the way as well.
And then I found out that my friend lives on the THIRD FLOOR of her building. We'd just spent the previous day going up and down two flights of stairs moving Cas and Nad out of the old apartment. Ugh. We unloaded my stuff fairly quickly and then Kristin popped open champagne, which is always a bad idea for me on an empty stomach. I drank it anyway, as it seemed appropriate. My tummy wasn't too happy, but I survived and it was more the fatigue than anything else, I think.
We went out for some dinner and a pint of local brew, which was quite nice. And then went home and passed out.
K left early next morning to head back to the island. I had wanted to sleep in, but of course couldn't. Cas and I lazed around for a bit and then went to return the truck and to explore around a bit.
The first thing I noticed about this city is all the brick! Brick everywhere! Even the sidewalks are brick! Not yellow brick, mind you, the more typical red brick. It's a welcome change, I guess, from Montreal concrete. Caspian suggested that Portland looks like a cross between Halifax, Moncton and Ottawa. I figure he's probably about right, though I've only ever been to Ottawa. It does have a very East Coast port feel to it (imagine that, eh?).
So far, I have no complaints. It's no Montreal, that's for sure--and I knew that, obviously. I still have very mixed feelings about being back in the States, but those will probably persist for quite a long time, I would imagine. While browsing in one of the bookstores that I dropped off a CV at yesterday, I came across on of Bill Bryson's books, 'I'm A Stranger Here Myself' which is about his return to the States after two decades in Britain. Granted, 5 years isn't quite the same as two decades, but for me it might as well be. I've bumped that up to 'Next' on my reading list. It was published a decade ago now, but I suspect that it will be an interesting read all the same.
I'm still trying to digest a lot of images and sounds and feelings so I think I'll leave it here for now.
