Moving from one end of the United States to the other is quite the undertaking! Especially when there is no moving allowance and you can only take as much as your van can carry. I totally sympathize with the pioneers now. Michael left for Maryland at the first part of October. It was up to us to pack up the house and move everything. We knew that we wanted to be together for Christmas and weather was a large concern. After Plan A was not going to work, we came up with Plan B. In the end Plan 4734 was the choice. hehehe.
Money was a major concern, it costs a lot to move. After making 5 loads to the local landfill, giving away our furniture and donating tons of things to Goodwill we packed the remaining items into a mini-storage for retrieval at a later date. My heart and much much thanks goes to Megan, Collette, Ryan, Dylan and Kristi for supporting, cleaning, painting, feeding and lodging our family. We then packed our van and Chaiya's Kia with as much of our personal items as possible and headed out on I-40.
New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Tennessee, Virginia and finally Maryland. Worst hotel ever: Super 8 in Pulaski, TN ! I wish we could say that we stopped and had fun but we didn't, everyday we just plowed on down the road. It was too cold most places to do anything but run from the cars to a hotel room.
Thayne made the announcement half way there that our new 'home' was a bit crowded. He claimed he needed a bit more room. Every nook and cranny was packed tight.
Meals were sometimes at very odd places. We stopped once in Oklahoma at a convenience store to eat. You can tell they were all thrilled about this choice.
Never buy a cheap car top carrier! We had really bad ice storms that we drove through in New Mexico so by the time we got to Texas the seam had completely ripped out. Only by angels was nothing lost. It held together for miles and miles until we found a gas station and bought a very expensive roll of duck tape. My dad would be proud. The contents within were salvaged and there was a lot of road cinders in the bag.
Number one thing I would do different is pack one bag with clothes and daily personals. Instead of having 6 different bags to drag out every evening. My children are honestly angels for the most part. Thayne was nearly perfect the whole 6 days on the road. We needed another driver to give Chaiya and I a break , it was hard. No one complained and everyone got along. I had packed different activities, books, games etc... but I did break down on the afternoon of the third day out and purchased a dvd player. Thanks Kristi for the Toy Story movie....I now have it memorized. I wouldn't recommend this way of moving.The best part though is that we were able to do it all without any debt at all. Eventually we will fly back to AZ and drive the rest of our stuff here in 6 months or so. Granted our new home echoes a bit for lack of anything but moving boxes; we are here and for the most part happy!
