Big Update Part 1

It's been about 3 weeks since I last posted, and I've had a hard time getting enough access to internet to post an update. Much of my time has been spent taking care of moving things: finding a place to live, registering the cars, job stuff, getting a bank account, etc. I'm at the public library right now, using the free wi-fi, so I thought I'd squeeze in a quick synopsis of the past 3 weeks.

Friday, June 25: Summer School finished without a hitch.

Saturday, June 26: We picked up the truck and car carrier from Penske. The 26-foot truck, even though it was the biggest they had, looked smaller than we remembered. About 9 Latter-Day Saints helped us load the truck. Our neighbor Bob Paxman, the husband of Sofia's piano teacher, agreed with the others that all our stuff was not going to fit in the truck (I had expressed these feelings to Cristina before, but she wasn't convinced until a third party with eyes on the actual truck confirmed it). It was a hard day for Cristina. Lots of tears with the stress of having too much stuff, of having to quickly decide what wasn't going to go, or making a plan B to get all our stuff moved.

The truck got expertly loaded within a few hot, sweaty hours. After consulting with Bob about our options, he suggested we get a second smaller truck. We made some calls. A Penske place in Glendale had one 16-foot truck and a tow dolly, and gave us a good price. We had about 2 hours to go pick it up.

We got the second truck and spent the rest of the evening boxing up the little stuff. After you get the major stuff packed, there's still all that little stuff left over. That's the worst part of moving.

Our beds loaded on the big truck, we slept at Maria Del Mar's house. When I showered, the water pouring down my face tasted like sea water. It was all the salt from my hair, from all the sweating all day.

Sunday, June 27: Claire and Luis came over and helped us pack more. If we needed more LDS help, Aaron told us to call around 4, when most would be done at church. Peter and Roben (and Wesley) came over to say goodbye, and help pack a bit. We really hoped to be done with loading the 2nd truck before 4, but when Peter saw all the stuff we still had to do, he advised us to call our LDS friends.

About 5 LDS helpers came to help load the 2nd truck. Bob was a crucial help again, after spending all day loading with us the day before. We will forever be indebted to Bob Paxman!

It turned out that we had more room in the 2nd truck than we anticipated, so we took our washer and dryer, and some of the furniture that we had decided to leave behind.

Unlike our move from Florida in 2004, we did not leave any pans or baking sheets in the drawer under the oven.

By 11 pm or so, the house was completely empty except for the last stuff in the fridge, which was going in a cooler. We didn't have time to clean the house (vacuum, clean the bathrooms, etc.) but after the exhaustion of loading the trucks, I decided we'd pay someone to come clean the house instead of staying up half the night cleaning before we hit the road. Money well-spent.

Monday, June 28: After a good night's sleep at Maria Del Mar's house, we packed up the cooler, loaded the car and van on the dolly and carrier, and headed out of town.

Almost as soon as I got on I-10 at Baseline, the check engine light came on in my truck. All the gauges read normally, so I didn't pull over. I called the Penske roadside assistance number located on the visor. After being on hold for 20 minutes, a got a human and they advised me to stop at a Penske repair place in Tucson.

Cristina had the camera, so all the "road" pictures are of me in the big truck, towing the van

The Penske guys were extremely nice and got working on the truck. Cristina and I sat in the "cafeteria," drank coffee, and waited.

Two hours later, the guy in charge came in and gave us the scoop. The truck's turbo was shot (a critical part of a diesel engine) and if it wasn't fixed, we'd never make it to Florida. Unfortunately, the nearest replacement part was in Phoenix and the earliest they could get it would be the next morning. We could be on the road by noon the next day. Another option was to do a truck swap: Penske would hire a moving company to unload our truck and load it into a similar-sized truck if they had one. That would take a minimum of 4 hours, but likely longer. Knowing that would still put us way off our schedule, plus the small detail that we had a motorcycle packed in the back of the truck, which is technically not allowed by Penske, we chose the fix rather than the swap. The good news is that Penske paid for our hotel and dinner. We spent a few hours on our cell phones switching all the places we had booked to stay at. 2 of the three just switched our nights, but the KOA in Van Horn, though willing, couldn't because their cabins were already booked for the following night. No one charged us anything extra to switch nights, and the KOA in Van Horn gave us a full refund. Sometimes things go well, even when things seem to be going badly!

We booked a nice hotel in Tucson for the night (hey, Penske's dime...why not?) and booked a dumpy motel in Van Horn for the following night.

Penske also extended the return date for us to return the truck in Gainesville. So basically, we got a free date night in Tucson, albeit with all our wordly possessions in tow. Penske allowed us to take the van off the carrier, so we didn't have to drive either big truck around Tucson. After a nice dinner at a Greek restaurant called Opa!, we went to the movies (our last trip to a Harkins...and we still had two Harkins cups!). We did a double feature: Grown Ups and Knight and Day. Back at the hotel, we slept well with no need for an alarm clock the next day.

Dinner at Opa!

Tuesday, June 29: Breakfast at the hotel was lovely. I even worked out a little in the fitness center. We called Penske around 9 to check on the truck, and they said it was done and ready to go!

One last thing Penske did to take care of us so well was they topped our tanks off for free. Penske is a great moving truck company! I don't think they could have been any nicer or done anything different to make things go more smoothly.

Our blissful little stay in Tucson ended, though, and the reality of driving across the country began to set in. It was a long day, on arguably the most boring, unattractive part of the trip. No big cities (and few small ones too) sit between Tucson and El Paso. Just 300 miles or so of big old nothingness. And after El Paso, it's not much better.

Imagine 10 hours of this

We crawled into Van Horn around 11 pm, checked into our dumpy hotel, and drove to a Wendy's (one of only 2 eating places open that late) to get a little bit of dinner.