Candi and Michael ~ On The Move

Tales from Grenada and Beyond

Operation Grenada ~ Moving Ourselves to the West Indies

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My fantasy of living in the Caribbean is coming true – for 3 months at least.  We’re traveling to our heart home of Grenada and, for the first time, it will be more than just a couple of weeks.  We think we’ve been coming to Grenada for 25 years.  Not every year, but most years, and some years more than once when we were trying to launch our idea for a Villa resort (see the post The Original Dream ~ a Boutique Villa Resort in Grenada West Indies for more background).

After abandoning that dream, being in Grenada is more relaxing.  Before it was lots of meetings – with our Lawyer, architects, the Government, construction manager, etc., etc., etc.  Now it is just a few meetings to move our personal lives forward.  Last year, we became Permanent Residents of Grenada and, hopefully, on this trip we will become Citizens and will maintain dual citizenship with the US and Grenada.

Packing for Grenada has always been a challenge.  Luggage can’t weigh more than 50 lbs. and we’re only allowed 2 bags each before hefty charges are levied.  This has marginally worked in the past with each bag at its weight limit, plus heavy, carry-on bags all filled with photography equipment, computers, presents for friends, as well as our personal items squished in.  This year, being here longer, we need/want to bring more with us, plus we have Mick and his stuff.

Figuring out how to get Mick to Grenada was a real challenge.  The openings to the cargo area in the airplanes that fly to Grenada are too small to take a crate large enough to hold Mick – we tried flights from both Miami and New York – no go.  I tried looking at coming down by boat but couldn’t find anything workable – freighters no longer accept dogs.  We even tried the option of flying to Barbados (on a larger plane) but couldn’t get Mick from Barbados to Grenada at a reasonable cost, plus we heard some horror stories of animals getting caught in quarantine there.

Finally, we worked out a way to have him accompany us on the plane and I upgraded our seats to Business Class bulkhead seats so he could lie at our feet and not spill onto the aisle.  More on that adventure in another post.

We also had to figure out a 3 month storage option for the things we travel with in the US and a place to store our car.  We definitely didn’t want to leave our car at the Miami airport for three months.  Michael had a great idea to store everything in Venice (where they have car as well as regular storage because of the snowbirds) and we would loop back that way after Grenada, on our way to New Orleans – our next stop.  Great idea.  Next, we would need to rent a vehicle one way to get from Venice to Miami.  We needed to rent a van because we had so much luggage, plus Mick.  All doable, but lots of planning, logistics and coordination.  In the end, it looked something like this for a Thursday departure from Venice –

Monday – pack for Grenada,

Tuesday – pack up our house items and pick up a local truck from the storage facility (leaving our car there),

Wednesday – load the truck with help from a local man, drive to the storage facility, load everything into the storage space, return the truck, pick up our car, and clean the house

Thursday – final cleaning, pick up rental van to take us to Miami, drive back to house and pack van with all our Grenada bags, drive the car and van to the storage place to put final items in our unit, leave our car, give Mick a quick dog park run and head to Miami.

PHEW!  Usually, we leave a day between packing the storage unit and leaving to allow for more leisurely cleaning and final organization, but after we had everything scheduled and planned, we decided to leave on Thursday, a day early.  We wanted to see an outdoor Chihuly exhibit near Miami in both daylight and at night and the exhibit was only open in the evening on Thursday night, so things were a bit rushed.  Plus, I had a really bad head cold so I wasn’t fully feeling well.  Fortunately, we’ve now got packing/storage down to a science and we were still able to get everything done and get on the road in time to see the Chihuly exhibit so Michael could take pictures in the late afternoon light as well as after it got dark.

Another thing we did to prepare for this trip that ended up being brilliant was signing up for TSA Pre-check which assigns you a known traveler number and allows you to bypass the regular security line and procedures at the airport because they have already checked you out – including fingerprinting you during the application process.  I had been getting this perk for free the past couple of years because of my previous business travel but it is hit or miss and when it was a miss at La Guardia airport and, horrors – I had to wait in a long line, take off my shoes, pull out my liquids and my electronics after being spoiled by the luxury of fast security pass throughs, I knew I wanted this perk, guaranteed, every time I fly.  Michael wasn’t thinking he’d sign up since he travels so infrequently now, but thinking about bypassing the security hassle in Miami when we also had Mick was too good to pass up.  TSA Precheck is a wonderful option that is $85 for a five-year clearance and it made all the difference when we were in Miami.   If you travel with any frequency, check it out.  You can pre enroll online and make an appointment to finalize paperwork and to get your picture taken – the appointment takes about 15 minutes if you pre enroll.  Very Cool!

We also needed to find a pet friendly hotel near the Miami airport for Thursday and Friday night and schedule a Venice hotel for our return.  This has been our most intricate logistical move to date. We ended up staying at the Sofitel – Miami airport, a completely lovely hotel that was very accommodating.  Fortunately, they were running a weekend special so it was also affordable.  On our way back, we will stay at the Holiday Inn in Venice.  The Holiday Inn hotel chain has upgraded their facilities nicely in the last few years and they are a great, pet friendly option.  We’ve stayed at their other locations and have been very satisfied.

We had a good reminder to always be ready early in case of a problem when we both went out early on Saturday – Michael to mail a package back to Venice storage of things we needed for our 2 days in Miami but didn’t have weight allowance to take with us to Grenada and me to walk Mick.   Evidently someone tried to access our room which had an electronic lock and double locked itself when they made multiple attempts to enter.  I came back first and my key wouldn’t work.  I thought my key was deactivated because it was our last morning and it was 11:30 AM.  We had asked for a late checkout at 1:00 PM and I thought it was just a timing issue.  After going back downstairs and getting new passkeys made – twice, I knew we had a bigger problem – one that we found out was more complicated than we expected.  The bellhop’s master key didn’t work and engineering’s magical override gadget didn’t work either.  They eventually had to disassemble the whole lock to get us in.  We had plenty of time – we were all packed and were catching the 1:30 airport shuttle, but I could easily imagine the stress if we were pressed for time as the engineer tried to hurry through the long process of disassembling the lock mechanism.  Good planning averted a potential disaster – Thank you Michael for always wanting to be ready early!  Clearly, the adventure was beginning.

Farewell Key West ~ C & M “On the Move”

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A small number of the moving boxes

Two weeks ago we began packing up our belongings in Key West to get ready for our move to the Outer Banks.  For Michael, this entailed disassembling the shelving for his photography equipment, packing up all his cameras, lights, stands, computer, printers, paper, props, etc.  and then packing up our hammocks and stands. For me, it was disassembling the kitchen and bathroom and packing up jewelry making supplies.  For both of us – packing clothes and putting everything back in the same places as they were when we arrived and doing a general cleaning.  Tuesday is garbage pick up so we emptied the refrigerator Monday night except for some breakfast food.  Since everything was packed and cleaned, we planned to eat out for lunch and dinner on Tuesday.

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the sign that facilitated our easy move

On Tuesday, we loaded the U-Haul with the help of a man Michael hired.  Michael had arranged with the town to mark the two parking spaces in front of our house as tow zones for Tuesday so we could park the truck right in front as we loaded.  On a really small street like ours, this was essential and gave us peace of mind.   If the parking spots had been taken, the truck would have blocked the entire road in both directions and we would have been frantically trying to load everything fast or hiking boxes a block or more – not a good thing.  It took about 3.5 hours to load the house contents, drive to the storage unit, add in what was stored there and get back to the house to park the truck until morning.  The saved parking spaces worked really well and this idea will be added to our list of traveling tips that I am compiling.   We spent the remainder of the day doing final organization; having a great lunch at the Blossom Cafe and saying good-bye to the owners, Shannon and Jose; taking Mick for a last dog park romp and then going out for a final dinner at The New York Pasta Garden –  good, easy meals with staff who have become friends.  I’m really going to miss Jose’s Cajun delights and the great Italian food at NY Pasta Garden.

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Black Cat relaxing into the long ride

Wednesday morning, we captured our cat before she left for the day and wrestled her into the cat carrier.  We headed to U-Haul to add the car carrier, got the car loaded and headed on our way with the thought that we’d grab breakfast on the road.  It’s easy to forget how hard it is to find a truck-pulling-a-car-carrier friendly location that you can pull straight into and then out of without having to turn around UNTIL you get on the road and try to find one (gas is hard enough).  Note to self: Feed the husband before embarking or bring good food along in case there are no easy places to stop.  This will definitely go on the list!

We drove from Key West to a Holiday Inn about 150 miles out of JAX the first day.  Criteria for the hotel: 1) pet friendly 2) able to pull into parking lot easily, have plenty of room to park and the ability to leave without having to do a 26 point turn and 3) a good on site restaurant so we don’t have to drive the truck with car carrier to another location and figure out parking (are you seeing a pattern here?).  FYI – if you haven’t checked out Holiday Inns for a number of years, we were very pleasantly surprised.  The hotel was lovely, had good-sized, nicely furnished rooms, great bedding and a good enough restaurant (and a great parking lot).  I would definitely stay with this chain again.

Our goal for the Outer Banks is to shed enough stuff so we can fill a smaller trailer and pull it with our car.  I think this is doable.  The houses we have rented are much more fully furnished and accessorized that we expected so we can sell or give away another whole level of stuff.  We started this in Key West but the house was pretty small and didn’t lend itself to a lot of clutter while we opened up boxes and consolidated or jettisoned items.  We’ve got 4 big boxes of paperwork to review and scan plus another 4 big boxes of old photos that will be scanned – that will be 8 less HEAVY boxes to load up.  We will also be getting rid of small appliances, dishes and clothes as well as putting a few more “good” things in long term storage that we want to keep but aren’t worth moving from place to place.  We had also packed up all of our large sized cleaning products when we left JAX which filled 4 boxes – everything we don’t use in this second move will go and we will just buy small sizes going forward.

Travel Day 2 got us to JAX early enough in the day that we could go to our long term storage and take out the boxes of photos to be scanned, a bicycle and a few other items we’ll be selling and putting in some items we will no longer travel with and then rented a car to do a day and half of errands and appointments.  While we were in JAX we visited our UPS store (our mailing address) to pick up last week’s mail and packages, both of us went to the dentist for a cleaning, Mick had a Vet appointment, we did a little shopping and I got a facial from my favorite esthetician Kim at Bella Skincare Studio(heaven!).  We went to dinner with our friend and Michael’s photographer buddy, Holly Gordon, at India’s restaurant and had a great meal and dinner conversation.  We were now ready to depart early Saturday (after breakfast) and drive 2/3’s of the way to the Outer Banks.

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Good travel buddies

Good drive on Saturday.  Each time, once we get started, we let Black Cat out of the carrier (which she hates to be in) and let her roam around.  Mostly she either lies on top of our laps or on Mick (believe it or not) and sometimes he lies his head right on her!  They are good buddies and great travel companions.   Mick has always been a great car dog, this trip was much easier for our cat than last time.  She is really becoming a road warrior.

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Mick is always ready to ride shotgun

We stayed at another Holiday Inn – right distance, easy on/off of the highway plus the 3 criteria for staying  – pet friendly, large parking lot, restaurant on site.  This hotel was really large and looked fairly empty so we parked along one side.  When we walked Mick in the early evening we were in for a huge surprise.  There was a family reunion happening – 400 people converged on the hotel and every parking spot of the side of the hotel was taken.  Michael had maybe 1 foot on either end of the truck to try and maneuver out – YUCK!  As we were discussing what we were going to do, I noticed 4 young men talking by one of the hotel doors.  We walked up to them and I asked if they knew who owned either of the cars parked next to the truck.  They did and the driver was just coming out of another door.  They yelled to him and he came a pulled out which gave Michael enough room to get the truck out. YEAH!  We pulled way around back, and pulled out saw horses to block the closest parking spots so it would be easy to get out in the morning.

When we left early the next morning all those cars were still parked so we would have been in a real pickle.  New note to self: make sure to have a way to block off spots around the truck to we don’t get blocked in.  Hopefully the lists I’m compiling will help others travel more easily and joyfully.

Next stop: Duck, North Carolina – a small town on the Outer Banks, just north of Kitty Hawk.

 

The Big Sale

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We hired Emilie back to manage the estate sale for a number of reasons – A. I had no idea what people will pay for our ‘treasures’, B. She would handle all the advertisements and approvals, C. She would tag each and every item up for sale and D. she had the knowledge about how to run the sale, when to discount, etc.  This ended up being a great investment of money.  Because of Emilie’s and her partner Charlotte’s experience in running estate sales and long-term, excellent reputations in JAX, they drew a lot of dealer traffic that probably wouldn’t have come otherwise.  Faye, a friend of Emilie’s and an ace sales person, was a fabulous addition and helped sell a lot of the bigger items.  We sold about $5K between pre sale activity and day 1.  Charlotte’s husband said there were 18 estate sales happening at the same time and we had the most traffic.  I’m sure this was because of Emilie and Charlotte.

It was funny to see what sold and what didn’t.  Some high ticket items that were priced really well didn’t sell, but things Michael and I were planning to throw away sold right away. Emilie had said you never know what people will buy so we let them price everything.  (We figured we could always toss things out after the sale.)  On day 2 we dropped prices by 25% and had another great day clearing about 3K.  A lot of the higher priced items went on the second day and we realized a lot of people came to browse the first day, hoping things would still be there and discounted on day 2.  Day 3 was the big surprise – nowhere as many people overall and most came in the morning to take advantage of the 50% off discount and purchase items before they sold.  We sold another $2K of items and Michael connected with a local charity representative from BEAM (Beaches Emergency Assistance Mission).  They agreed to send a truck on Monday to pick up many items that didn’t sell and then again right before we left to take any items we needed to keep until our departure.

Overall, we were very pleased with the sale. We learned that you need to think about what the minimum price you want for items in case they don’t sell until Saturday and balance that with wanting most things to sell in the first 2 days.  The biggest surprise was that we had a beautiful oriental rug that didn’t sell at all even though the 50% price was way lower than we felt comfortable selling it for.  I then tried to consign it but couldn’t get a guarantee that it would sell (and we wouldn’t be around to pick it back up) so we ended up donating it to charity.  BEAM couldn’t take it (too big) but we got the Vietnam Veterans of Jacksonville to take it and 3 other large rugs that were in good shape.

We set the sale 3+ weeks before we left to give us time to get anything left picked up before we left without pressure.   Michael was originally concerned we wouldn’t sell enough, I was concerned everything would sell and we’d have nothing to live with – in the end it worked well – we negotiated with our friend Janice, who bought our couch and coffee table, to pick them up the day before we left.  Another friend, Dorothy, bought our Adirondack chairs and again left them until the end and Michael negotiated to have the TV stay an additional 2 weeks (although I don’t think we watched it once).  The bed stayed until 2 days before we left and then we slept on a king sized blow up bed.  Note to others – don’t sell your dryer or gas grill without a hold policy!  LOL!

Cell phone images 2014 - 0033By the last night, everything we sold or donated was gone and we had a lovely dinner on our deck sitting on 2 plastic chairs our friends Jack and Carole Varney loaned us and using a U-Haul box for a table.  Sort of felt like when we first moved in together and were starting from scratch.

Next step will be the actual move.