Last Morning In The Big Easy

Operation Move Murph N Mutts is coming to a close. Basics are unpacked, Stuff that needs to be secure is secure and the dogs are settling into their new home.

Before I departed I had to go to Cafe Du Monde for some beignets and coffee.

They were rather good indeed.

Then we went to the river and I took a couple obligatory tourist pics.

Then I walked with Murph to his new job, wished him luck, and then I went to the airport shuttle pickup point and I'm heading to the airport now. 

This was quite the journey. Thousands of miles and thousands of pounds loaded and unloaded. Looking forward to getting home.

N'Orleans Crawfish

In between bouts of unpacking there's opportunities to sample the local cuisine.

Today: Crawfish boil.

Looks pretty good, tastes better and it takes effort to eat and is a fun experience. 4lbs of crawfish were gone real fast.

Operation MMNM - The Unpackening

The trailer is now empty and I'm now tired.

Ammo and rifles are cunningly hidden in closets as movers arrived right as we got the last stuff out.

Now, will the house sink into the swamp with the added weight of all this ammo? Or will it stay?  

He doesn't have huge tracts o' land, but it's a nice house indeed and should serve him well.

Now to help direct the movers and get more stuff unpacked.

Didn't believe me about the chickens in the last post?

Feral New Orleans G. Gallus domesticus.

Operation MMNM: New Home, Old Tricks

Time from arrival last night to first Belle escape from the backyard: 35 seconds. 

Time this morning from release to the yard to Murphy escaping and chasing a chicken (yes there apparently are chickens running around loose in New Orleans): 10 seconds.

 Little flaw in the yard fence enclosure plan- pathway from yard under house to open world is wide open. Belle found that and ran under the house to the front where I was unloading in record time. That will need to be fixed right quick.

Louisiana: The Murphy and Mutts Have Landed

Safe and at his new place. 

Now the fun with unpacking begins.

Operation MMNM - Louisiana

Just made it to the Louisiana border.

Thunderstorms, driving rain, howling beasts in the back, nothing can stop us.

Under 40 miles to go to get Murph n Mutts to their new home.

Atlanta Operation MMNM Hits A Slow Spot

And we're stuck in traffic in Atlanta. Murph (the man) is going out of his mind. So is Murphy the dog for that matter.

We were delayed in north Georgia due to having to find a place that could print and fax, and finding one was not easy. This was due to some last minute real estate issues that had to be dealt with ASAP.

So now we are all sorts of stuck in Atlanta's stop n go traffic, mainly stop and less go.

The dogs are crying, Murph is losing it and other than that we can look forward to unloading thousands of pounds of stuff in the dark. Yipee.

Departing NC Off To NOLA

A great night with a most gracious host.

Keads made us feel very welcome and put on quite the spread for us.

Now we're about to head out.

Keads helping add air to the trailer tires, as they surely need some.

We're all loaded up and ready to head out. New Orleans here we come and the chance of Murph having yet another tantrum in traffic is assured.

Arrived Safe In NC

We've arrived safe at our most gracious host here in North Carolina.

Not a bad trip, and yes the trailer did actually make it all this way.

We met up with Keads with no problems and had some fun I'll blog about later.  Now it's time for some food.

Up early tomorrow to head to New Orleans.

Operation MMNM Departing

Watching Murph pack is rather entertaining, shoving in last minute stuff into the trailer willy-nilly.

Dogs are ready to go big time.

Finally all is loaded and we're about to go.

Operation MMNM Day 2

The trailer currently looks like this:

All I have to say is that without the massive help from Stretch with moving the ammo, and Proud Hillbilie loading rifles (the ones subsequently lost in the inevitable kayak accident when Murph demanded going down the Mississippi to get to New Orleans), it could not have been done.  Bruce, Rebecca, and Murphy's neighbor the other Aaron also came to help load and were an immeasurable help. 

After loading we did some touch up painting around the Lair.

Amazingly there's still stuff that needs to be loaded before we go.  Will it all fit? Will the trailer actually move with all this stuff in it? Stay tuned.

Upstairs, Downstairs, Upstairs....

It's Day One of Operation Move Murph N Mutts - The Loadening

Murph is off getting the trailer and doing some last minute stuff about town.

I'm moving the armory. From the top floor to the basement to position it for loading in the trailer when it arrives.

I half expect it to not all fit.

Lugging boxes and wrapped rifles and crates of ammo down stairs and repeating ad infinitum sure counts as a workout. 

Hmm, this one weighs quite a bit, must be a Garand....here's one with a bolt and an Enfield outline...

You can never have too many guns or too much ammo except when you're moving.

 I have not yet had coffee as there's none to be found in the house. That's a serious workplace violation I tell you. This could get serious.

The stairclimbing continues.

Destination NOLA By Way Of WV

Since Op Sec on Operation Move Murph N' Mutts has been formally blown, I can finally comment on it here.

Yes, I will be heading to WV to help him get to New Orleans on time. Prayers are appreciated in advance.

Mainly I'm there to keep him on course and get him back on track every time he says "Hey look, squirrel!". Otherwise, we're going to end up hitting every museum, historical site, and dive bar on the way down. Not that that is bad mind you, but he needs to get there on time. Oh, yeah I'm helping to pack and unpack as well.

Thankfully, we will be staying at a secure and gracious location on the way down. Friends are good to have.

Yes, I will bring my infernal naviguessing device to make sure we get there. My bet is he's forgotten to put the maps in the vehicle so we're going to rely on tech to the routing rescue.

I'm currently trying to slam a week of work into two days so I can make this happen, so it's a little hectic right now.

Expect updates on the progress of Operation Move Murph N' Mutts as we go.

Normal Blogging Now Resumes

I've been out of contact as we just had the joy of being approved to close on a house and then actually moving.

Combine various issues arising in the closing process. Thank you Bank for your spurious objection that was resolved once we proved a negative to your satisfaction, one the day before closing. And thank you, FHA for delaying closing for a week after making an issue the day of the closing - how about being proactive and finding the "issues" before the closing, it's not like this was a surprise purchase. So after almost being homeless, we closed at 5:30 pm the day before the movers came for our stuff. Lots of fun and some new gray hairs as a result. Only downside to the new house - the driveway is even more vertical than the last - I mean we can ski off that sucker in the winter and it is at least a blue square if not a black diamond. To put it simply, the moving truck could not make it up the hill.

Adding to the fun, Comcast instead of making the account a transfer to the new house completely canceled the internet and TV and phone account completely, rendering the house without all such services.

Then right after Comcast came and installed the services, Vista crashed. You know its bad when the only message you get is "Corrupt System Volume". After much cursing, restoring and hoping, it has been brought back to life, and a neglected complete backup of the data and pics on the computer was hastily made. Note to others - do your backups regularly and do em often. But all is well and we finally have internet access again at home.

So Coming up shortly, I will post on the incredible Great Lakes wreck dives I did last Sunday, complete with pictures.