This whole moving thing sure does require a lot of planning. I have never lived outside of Washington State my entire life. I have also never really had to coordinate a very involved moving process. Every move up until this point has been with my family, where my mom coordinates everything and I just do what I'm told, or I have been moving from dorms back home or from furnished apartment to furnished apartment. I have never had to think about packing up a kitchen full of nice dishes, or a living room full of new furniture. But, alas, there is a first time for everything.
Lately, Josh and I have gone back and forth on several decisions. Should we bring our car or sell it? Should we ship our stuff and fly out, or drive a U-Haul across the country? When should we plan on arriving in Chicago? Originally, I was all for calling in this moving service that moves all your boxes and then packs and moves all your furniture and ships it on pallets to your desired destination. I had visions of my apartment being moved in record speed and me leisurely waltzing out the door to the airport for my short four hour flight to Chicago where I would arrive at my fabulous new apartment and begin unpacking my things. This bubble was burst when my brilliant husband pointed out a very key fact to me: we will not be able to ship our stuff and leave the same day expecting it to be waiting for us at the door. In fact, we have no idea how long it will take our stuff to arrive. Yikes. Maybe I don't like this idea so much.
So, we move to plan B. Somehow, Josh convinced me that driving a U-Haul across the country together would be a lot of fun! Now, I'm not traditionally a big road-trip kind of gal. The drive from Seattle to Spokane is enough of a car ride for me, so it is hard for me to imagine what 8-12 hours in a car for four days straight would do to me. Also, this may come as a shock to some, but I complain a lot. The thought of the amount of complaining I could do in that time period scared me, and made me worried that poor Josh wouldn't even survive the first day with me as co-pilot. But, I forced myself to think of how many wonderful memories we could create by doing this trip together, and how fun it would be to tell our kids someday about how the two of us, and our trusty bratty cat Lena made the drive from Seattle to Chicago. So, I got psyched about going on a road trip. Until I looked at how much U-Hauls cost. OUCH. To get a big enough truck for all our stuff, plus a trailer that can tow our car, plus insurance for both was a pretty penny. Don't even get me started on how much gas it takes to fuel a 17' truck that gets 10 miles to the gallon.
Now we are back to the drawing board. We both would still prefer to do the U-Haul route if possible because it allows us a little more control over where our stuff is and when everything arrives in the city. Plus I really want to go to Yellowstone and see Mount Rushmore. Our decision of mode of travel now rests on the relocation budget of the company, so we are waiting for that to come in before we finalize our plans. Hopefully we will have a better idea by the end of the week so we can set an official moving date and start finding a place to live, which is a whole 'nother story!
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