We made it to State College!

But it took us 13 hours!!! On Thursday morning we picked up our Penkse truck in the POURING rain. Nate headed to his old roomie's place to pick up his long lost grill now that we have a backyard and deck:) And then we headed to our friend Rebecca's who moved into our old place. We helped load her stuff into the truck and then headed to our place around noon to unload all her stuff into our old bedroom. Then we had lunch- thanks to Rudy and Vicky for bringing it over! Oh, and when we got to Rebecca's, the sun came out! So we did not have to move in the rain, just a really really hot and sunny day:)

Then we had more friends come and help us- Martha and Kevin Kohl, Hannah Daman, Rhiannon, Paul and Katya, and more! We got everything done so quickly- it was great. We even had help cleaning up at the end so we got to give our keys to Rebecca and have a great dinner at Bertucci's- after much needed showers:)

Friday ended up being a chill day which was nice- we hung out at the Damans. Nate sold one of our desks- yea! Put our "new" bikes in the truck and other last minute errands with his Dad. Friday night, the Bottchers came over and we celebrated! There are a few pics of this on fb.

Saturday morning the Daman-Papia clan got up early with us to have breakfast which was so nice, we said our goodbyes and headed out- Nate in the big yellow truck and I in our trusty Taurus. We got about 45 minutes into our drive, almost out of MA, and stopped for gas (it's generally cheaper in MA than in CT and NY). We filled up, I went to the bathroom, got back in the car....and it didn't start:(! Couldn't believe it. We had had the car looked over a few days before and got the green light for a long drive to PA, but apparently not:(

We called AAA and they came- the first guy came really quick and checked that it was not the battery and found out it was the starter. He said it was shot. But the regular mechanic he sends people to was out of town on vaca, being a Saturday in August, this was not surprising but very disappointing. He recommended we go to a Firestone Place in Auburn, about 13 miles away. So we called AAA again to get a tow this time. The second guy came pretty quick as well and we all piled in, leaving our unlocked Penske truck at the gas station- praying the whole time for God to keep our stuff safe. After traffic from a fatal car crash we made it to Firestone, where they were gonna charge us over $300 for a new starter! We were also right next to a Sears Autozone so Nate ran over there and asked for their quote- $200! So we had the car brought over there...where they quickly told us the part was more than they thought :( But at this point we didn't have a lot of choice, so we asked them to just do it as fast as possible. We walked across the street for some lunch, thinking we were gonna have to kill 2 hours, but they called us in 45 min and by 1 pm we were back on the road. We got our truck, all stuff still there, and quickly left MA!

We made it the rest of the way to PA without trouble, in the expected 7 hours or so. And when we arrived at our new place, our new neighbors and co-workers helped us unload right away which was SO helpful- and we even dropped our truck off that night.

I wish I had pictures to show of our entire adventure and our new place, but in the process of waiting for the tow truck I dropped and broke our camera:( so here are the last of our photos for a little while, documenting the beginning of our crazy time.