The Bassett Pioneers!

3/16/2015

Today is the 29th anniversary of the day that the Bassett clan arrived in Maryland.  Jeff had accepted a transfer with IBM from California to Maryland, and we were all excited about the move.  About the only thing we knew about where we were heading was that Gaithersburg, at that time, appeared to be a small town.

While Jeff and I were in Maryland on a house hunting trip, we found a house to rent, while our house was being built.  The new house, compared to our one story, flat roof home in California looked like a mansion!  Four bedrooms and 2.5 bathrooms - what else could a woman want?

As we neared our departure date, we had dinner with my parents and Jeff's parents to say good-bye.  Putting distance between myself and my mother was a good thing.  Leaving my Dad behind was a completely different story.

We stayed the night before our flight in a hotel near LAX since we had an early flight in the morning.  There was a bit of a struggle to find a hotel that would allow us to bring our small dog, Devon, inside our room.

I don't remember what if anything we ate for breakfast.  We were all very excited and the boys had never been on a plane before.  Just before checking in at the gate, we gave Devon a sleeping pill so that he wouldn't become agitated during the flight.  His crate was in the belly of the plane along with the suitcases.  Before the flight, we met the pilot and the boys told him that Devon was down with the luggage, and the pilot promised that he'd make sure some heat was turned on in the baggage compartment.

Since it was a long flight, each boy had a bag of goodies - snacks, and small and quite things to play with.  Remember this was long before laptops and portable electronic games.  

Once we landed in Maryland, Jeff and I had to corral (for there is no other word to use) the boys, the luggage and the dog.  There were suitcases for each of us, as well as hand luggage that carried things that we hadn't wanted to place in a suitcase - just in case the suitcase was lost!

Bus after bus arrived at the curb to take people to the rental cars.  We tried to wait our turn for each bus, but there is no easy way to load five people, lots of baggage and a dog.  Finally, when a bus approached, Jeff just stood in the doorway and waited (along with those behind us) while we managed to get ourselves on the bus.  

When we had left the plane, we went through the exercise of counting kids, dog, hand luggage and suitcases, just to make sure we didn't leave anything or anyone behind.  When we finally go to the rental car area, we again did our count of people and bags. 

The ride from Dulles to Gaithersburg took "x" amount of time and it was still winter here.  The boys were fascinated by everything.  They looked out the windows as we moved on the interstate toward our awaiting hotel rooms.  We had booked adjoining rooms, so that we could keep an eye out on the boys and make sure that they didn't become too noisy.

IBM put us up at the Marriott hotel and the hotel we had stayed at in Los Angeles, had contacted the local hotel to tell them that we were coming with three boys and one dog.  What a delightful surprise when we entered our rooms and found a basket of snacks for the boys as well as a doggy bowl with treats for Devon!

That was day one of our new life in Maryland.  Jeff and I, along with the boys, have never regretted our move.  In fact, I think it was one of the best things we did for our family.

P