Our Trip #1 to Seattle had a slow start yesterday morning. (And for those many new readers that are old friends of Mike’s from Phoenix and Bothell, you can jump to the final paragraph if you are interested in knowing what kind of man Mike is...)
Although we were up and in the truck by 6:10am, we had to return to the house TWICE to retrieve keys – a key for the hitch mount bike rack and then a key for the bike lock. HAHAHA! But eventually (around 7:30am) we were headed north on I-5.
Of course, I had the music cranked and I was singing LOUD! The traffic was light and the weather was good. I had never driven with the bikes on the rack and it was a little scary seeing them bob up and down in my rear view mirror, but Mike had them secured so well that I had nothing to worry about. Nevertheless, I did worry just a bit.
By the time we were just south of Seattle the traffic volume increased significantly and I had to slow down. It was so cool to see the Seattle skyline as we wound through the city. I never get tired of that view.
And here we have Safeco Field and Quest Field. Go Mariners!
We went directly to Ballard where we had rented a basement apartment – sight unseen. Located close to my good friend, Jackie, and it had a fenced yard with grass for Sitka. While the location was good, the apartment was not what we were expecting and we were hesitant to unload the truck packed with our first load of belongings.
So what to do? Well, I didn't bring my laptop so we went to Safeway and got a Sunday paper to scour the ads for rentals. HA! Have you looked in the rental ads section lately? Don’t bother. No one uses newspaper ads anymore. So now what? We decided to drive around Ballard and look for “For Rent” signs and start making calls. Almost every call resulted in leaving a voicemail message. ARGHH!
By now we are frustrated and wondering what to do. That’s when we remembered that Kinkos/Fed Ex have computers for rent so we went to the Ballard Kinkos and got online to look at Craigslist apartment ads. And sure…there were lots and lots of apartments in our price range, but almost none that would allow Sitka, our beautiful 12-year old German shepherd. Whaaa…that dog traveled with us from Duvall, WA to Mexico and back…she was “dog-napped” twice (returned for ran$om)…we’re not about to abandon her at this point! One rental agent even had the gumption to ask, “Can’t you just leave your dog with friends so you can move into this wonderful apartment?” %$#&!!
Finally, we spoke with a woman who has a 4-plex for rent in Kenmore. She said Sikta was a possibility…and her husband was at the property installing a new kitchen in the vacant unit. We used Mapquest to find the property and off we went!
We were pleased to find that the whole unit has just been upgraded with new carpet, paint, doors and the kitchen is close to being completed. It has sliding glass doors out to a patio and a small, fenced back yard. IT’S PERFECT!
We got a rental application and agreed to complete it and be back at the property in an hour and a half. The husband and his son were going to get some food (by now it was 4:15 and we said we’d be back by 5:30.) However, we still had that fully-packed truck/canopy and the 2 bikes on the bike rack. The last thing I wanted to do was drive back to Salem with that full load.
Again, what to do? Get a room and spend the night? And then use Sunday to look for apts? But what if someone stole our bikes or broke into the truck? And then we had a thought. Storage! We went to the closest storage facility, rented a space, unloaded everything, stopped at the bank (we needed $40 for the rental processing fee and we had ZERO dollars between the two of us), and headed back to the apartment. We got there at 6:00, but husband and son were still working so it wasn’t a problem, plus we could now drive back to Salem with an empty truck. We had a fast drive home, but it was still almost 11:00pm when we pulled in. Thankfully, Betty had already fed Sitka so we fell on the bed and went to sleep. I drove about 550 miles yesterday and I was beat!
We had agreed to complete the application in Salem and email it back this morning. So guess what I’m doing right now? I’m scanning the application and other docs and getting ready to email our packet off to what I hope are our future landlords.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – when faced with adversity, Mike and I are the perfect team! I don’t know what it is, but in situations in which patience is short, tempers are hot and anxiety is high, we dig deep and “get ‘er done.” Seriously. I’m so happy to have Mike as my partner in this game called life.
I LOVE YOU MIKE!
Although we were up and in the truck by 6:10am, we had to return to the house TWICE to retrieve keys – a key for the hitch mount bike rack and then a key for the bike lock. HAHAHA! But eventually (around 7:30am) we were headed north on I-5.
Of course, I had the music cranked and I was singing LOUD! The traffic was light and the weather was good. I had never driven with the bikes on the rack and it was a little scary seeing them bob up and down in my rear view mirror, but Mike had them secured so well that I had nothing to worry about. Nevertheless, I did worry just a bit.
By the time we were just south of Seattle the traffic volume increased significantly and I had to slow down. It was so cool to see the Seattle skyline as we wound through the city. I never get tired of that view.
And here we have Safeco Field and Quest Field. Go Mariners!
We went directly to Ballard where we had rented a basement apartment – sight unseen. Located close to my good friend, Jackie, and it had a fenced yard with grass for Sitka. While the location was good, the apartment was not what we were expecting and we were hesitant to unload the truck packed with our first load of belongings.
So what to do? Well, I didn't bring my laptop so we went to Safeway and got a Sunday paper to scour the ads for rentals. HA! Have you looked in the rental ads section lately? Don’t bother. No one uses newspaper ads anymore. So now what? We decided to drive around Ballard and look for “For Rent” signs and start making calls. Almost every call resulted in leaving a voicemail message. ARGHH!
By now we are frustrated and wondering what to do. That’s when we remembered that Kinkos/Fed Ex have computers for rent so we went to the Ballard Kinkos and got online to look at Craigslist apartment ads. And sure…there were lots and lots of apartments in our price range, but almost none that would allow Sitka, our beautiful 12-year old German shepherd. Whaaa…that dog traveled with us from Duvall, WA to Mexico and back…she was “dog-napped” twice (returned for ran$om)…we’re not about to abandon her at this point! One rental agent even had the gumption to ask, “Can’t you just leave your dog with friends so you can move into this wonderful apartment?” %$#&!!
Finally, we spoke with a woman who has a 4-plex for rent in Kenmore. She said Sikta was a possibility…and her husband was at the property installing a new kitchen in the vacant unit. We used Mapquest to find the property and off we went!
We were pleased to find that the whole unit has just been upgraded with new carpet, paint, doors and the kitchen is close to being completed. It has sliding glass doors out to a patio and a small, fenced back yard. IT’S PERFECT!
We got a rental application and agreed to complete it and be back at the property in an hour and a half. The husband and his son were going to get some food (by now it was 4:15 and we said we’d be back by 5:30.) However, we still had that fully-packed truck/canopy and the 2 bikes on the bike rack. The last thing I wanted to do was drive back to Salem with that full load.
Again, what to do? Get a room and spend the night? And then use Sunday to look for apts? But what if someone stole our bikes or broke into the truck? And then we had a thought. Storage! We went to the closest storage facility, rented a space, unloaded everything, stopped at the bank (we needed $40 for the rental processing fee and we had ZERO dollars between the two of us), and headed back to the apartment. We got there at 6:00, but husband and son were still working so it wasn’t a problem, plus we could now drive back to Salem with an empty truck. We had a fast drive home, but it was still almost 11:00pm when we pulled in. Thankfully, Betty had already fed Sitka so we fell on the bed and went to sleep. I drove about 550 miles yesterday and I was beat!
We had agreed to complete the application in Salem and email it back this morning. So guess what I’m doing right now? I’m scanning the application and other docs and getting ready to email our packet off to what I hope are our future landlords.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – when faced with adversity, Mike and I are the perfect team! I don’t know what it is, but in situations in which patience is short, tempers are hot and anxiety is high, we dig deep and “get ‘er done.” Seriously. I’m so happy to have Mike as my partner in this game called life.
I LOVE YOU MIKE!
4 comments:
If you ever need a place to leave Sitka for a bit, you know where I live.
we'd also be happy to put you up if necessary, sitka and all. too bad the apt. didn't turn out to be what you expected. well, i haven't spent much time in kenmore, i went through part o it while running a half marathon some years back but we were on a trail. so, that will be a new area to explore when we can get together. anyway, you can count on us if you need anything.
teresa
Oh look how good your friends are, offering to take care of Sitka, or if you need anything. Wow! That is so great and sorry the apt. didn't pan out. You handled this very well, congrats. Yes, life is good and when you have the right partner, it's even better. Have a great week.
Steve & Teresa - THANK YOU for the offers...you never know when I might come knocking on your door!
Gloria - You are so right about our friends. As far as handling things well - we try. And the more difficult it is, the better Mike and I work togethre. Here's to good partners!
Have a great week everyone!
Post a Comment