Its been a long summer with lots of things going on. We had Coty arrive and now its time to send Corvin away to college. All of Corvin’s friends have already left for college and he has nobody local to hang around with. He was ready to leave. Friday afternoon, we picked up a rental minivan from Hertz. Because Coty was with us, we didn’t feel we had enough space to move all of the people and stuff on a 7.5 hour car ride.
Come Saturday, I was all business. I was loading the minivan early with Corvin getting all of his things loaded. We also had a bike rack on the back of the rental. Eventually we nervously agreed that we had it all and put everybody in. I would be going to visit him in about a month if he forgot anything and they do have stores. Ohh, I should mention, he is going to the University of Wisconsin, LaCrosse.
The drive up was generally uneventful. We had the normal gas, bathroom, and food stops we make on any long drive. When we did get to the university, Corvin went into the dorm and checked in to get his key and instructions. From there, we unloaded the car. 5 of us took stuff up for the first trip. There are no elevators in this dorm and he is on the 4th floor. Before we got too much stuff in the room, we adjusted his bed to make it in the loft position. Then Corvin jumped up and started making his bed.
With his bed made, all five of us plus his roommate Ben came down to get the next load. We managed to get the rest of his stuff up with this one final trip. From there, Corvin started unloaded and we just watched. Remembering back to when I was in college, I knew we needed to leave to let Corvin get acclimated to his new surroundings. Besides, we were just standing around.
We all got hugs and went on our way. We would spend the night in LaCrosse and then visit for a bit in the morning before heading back to St. Louis the next day. So the girls and I headed out to Grandad Bluff. Coty had never been there before, but the view is amazing and we were looking forward to the view.
We spent a bunch of time up there enjoying the view and being silly. This was going to be our new family group for the majority of the rest of the school year (when Corvin wasn’t on break).
We were going to spend the night at Stoney Creek Hotel. We stayed there the year prior when visiting LaCrosse to see the university and found it to be a wonderful place to stay. Coty was impressed!
She saw everything and stopped for photos whenever possible.
We were all fans of the pool area. A large hot tub next to an indoor/outdoor pool.
A really cool moose outside.
Maybe its love???
Somewhere along the way, we even found time to drive a few miles over and visit Minnesota. Thanks to the dude at the welcome center for taking our photo!
Sunday, we got a hold of Corvin and he had about an hour before a meeting he needed to attend. He brought out a basketball and we chatted and shot hoops.
With hugs and some tears, we finally had to say goodbye to Corvin. Its weird leaving him as he’s been our child (and always will be) living under our roof for 19 years. Now he is taking care of himself.
We didn’t do much on the way home except stop to visit Bessie The Cow.
We thought we would be doing more on the way home, but the girls just wanted to get back. So drive we did. Its a life changing event for Danelle and I having a child out of the house, but part of the growing up process. We are looking forward to seeing how he grows and changes.
Hogan Haake