I never thought the day would actually come. Mark and I had been talking about it for years. It always seemed in the distant future, always looming but never a reality until Wednesday.
Even though it never felt real, we have always been preparing for the move. Over the past 4 years we were donating, selling, or trashing our belongings. We wanted to minimize as much as possible.
I quit my job and we traveled to Asia for a month. We spent about a week and a half in Laos and then 2 and a half weeks in Thailand. (that blog coming soon).
We landed in JFK Friday at 4am and we drove upstate that night. There was a bad storm so it took us over 6 hours to drive the normally 3.5 hour drive. In hindsight we should have stayed in Brooklyn overnight and drove upstate Saturday morning.
Saturday we finished packing up stuff and cleaning.
Sunday we ran errands and picked up our truck. We were very annoyed because we originally wanted a 10 foot truck but the 12 foot truck through Penske was much cheaper than Budget and U-haul. When we went to pick it up it was a 16 foot truck. We called customer service and they said there are no 12 foot trucks at all in our area. We kept explaining that we booked the 12 foot truck and our confirmation said 12 foot but she just didn’t get it or care. We had no time to return it and book a smaller one through someone else so we had to deal with the giant truck, which we did not want to drive across the country.
Sunday night we had a going away get together with friends. We went to a brewery from 3-7pm and people came and went. Sunday is when the move finally hit me. We have been surrounded by boxes for months and sleeping on a mattress on the floor in the living room but it never hit me until I had to say goodbye to my friends. That is definitely the hardest part about moving. I am going to miss my friends so much and I really hope we stay in touch and visit each other.
Monday our friend came over to help us load the truck which was awesome. He was a huge help. It only took an hour and a half to completely load it. Because it was such a huge truck it was pretty much empty. So annoying.
Tuesday we woke up and were very thankful we loaded the truck the day before. Tuesday was so cold and snowy! We had a lot to finish up Tuesday. It was our last full day in Binghamton. And we also saw friends that couldn’t make it Sunday night.
Tuesday night was nice. Our other group of friends had a farewell get together for us with pizza and cookie cake. It was a great way to spend our last night.
Tuesday night I was anxious and panicky! It was happening- the next morning! Wednesday we woke up before our alarms and got right to work. We did our last minute stuff and loaded the mattress. I walked through the apartment saying goodbye to it. It was a shitty, run down apartment and everything was broken and falling apart, but I loved it.
Mark was driving the giant truck with our life’s belongings in it and I was following behind in his car. It was strange to see my 32 years of life fit in boxes in the back of a u-haul.
So the actual road trip-
Mark got handy dandy walkie talkie’s for us to easily talk to one another. We left Wednesday around 9:30am. We got a pet friendly hotel in Indiana. Our ETA was 6pm but we knew it would be a little later because we would be stopping for lunch, dinner and to check on the cats. What we didn’t expect however, was to get in at 12:30am! How the hell we added 6 and a half hours to the trip, I will never know. My eyes don’t do well driving at night for long periods of time so every hour or so we needed to pull over so I could rest my eyes. LeeLee was so funny. She came out at every rest stop to sit in the passenger seat or lay in my lap.
For some reason the hotel clerk couldn’t check us in. I stood there for 20 minutes before we were able to get in the room. Thankfully our hotel room was right near the back door. We had to bring in the cat crates, Mark’s instruments, my laptop and my hula hoops. All stuff that couldn’t be in the cold. We let LeeLee out in the room and she slept in bed with us but Raffie is so skittish that we didn’t want him hiding somewhere in the room so we left him in the crate. He cried all night.
Mark was up at 5am and ready to go. I was not. I kept waking up but finally got out of bed at 8:30am. I felt like I could have slept 5 more hours. I was so tired. Mark went to grab us some continental breakfast and I opened the shades to get some light. What I saw was snow! I yelled out, “NO!!!!!!”
We then got ready as quickly as possible and loaded the car quick and booked it out of there. We were on the road by 9:45am. We drove through a snow storm for about 2 hours. It was scary. We both drove very slowly. We saw so many car accidents and cars in ditches. At one point I saw a dog running on the side of the highway. I pulled over and got out of the car to try to get him. It was snowing hard and windy so I could barely see him. I called out to him and he ran away. I felt so bad but there was nothing I could do.
A little while later I saw a car in a ditch way down a hill. It seemed it just happened. I saw people in the car. I couldn’t pull over at that time and even if I did, they were so far down a hill that I wouldn’t have been able to get to them. I called 911.
Once we got passed Chicago the weather cleared up.
Again, our ETA to our hotel in Iowa was around 7pm but we didn’t get there until 11:30pm. I was so tired during the drive that we pulled over a few times so I could nap. Also, we were very confused with the time change. As we drove more West we went back an hour. Very confusing when you have an ETA and are counting down hours of driving.
Once we got to the hotel the hotel clerk goes, “You didn’t inform us you were bringing pets.” I said, “Yes, I did.” She looked confused and worried and says, “Ohhhhh okay, well did management inform you it’s an extra fee for pets?” Of course they did not but we were here in the middle of the night with cats so take my credit card and let me in the room! I didn’t say that but that was the sentiment.
The next day, Friday was our last stint to Arvada, CO. I ate so much at the continental breakfast. We left around 10am and we were pleased that our ETA was 5pm but once again- somehow, some way, we didn’t get to the our new apartment until 11pm!
The drive into Colorado was nice at least. We loved driving through Nebraska. There was so many cool things to see. We saw our first tumbleweeds which was surprisingly satisfying to see blow across the highway. There were so many cows! Like thousands of cows! I love cows so I enjoyed seeing them.
We stopped in Applebees to get a late lunch around 3pm. We were happy that we were making great time and only had a few hours to go but again, at some point in the drive we went back another hour.
As we drove into Colorado we saw the big “Welcome to colorful Colorado” sign but sadly we passed it! We saw it too late. I really wanted to go back to it so we had to turn around and go all the way back which added 30 minutes to our trip. Worth it. It was so windy. We took some pics and ran back to the car and truck.
We then stopped at a rest stop that was full of tipis. Interesting.
Colorado welcomed us with a beautiful sunset.
I was so hungry so we decided to get Chili’s to go. It ended up taking so long. I passed out in the car while Mark was getting our order. Somehow after getting our food we still had 30 minutes to drive to the apartment.
Thankfully we left our sleeping bags easily accessible. We grabbed those, unloaded the cats, the instruments and my hoops. I scarfed down a veggie fajita and passed out!
The next morning, Saturday I woke up at 8:30am which in NY time was 10:30am.
Friday night and Saturday morning I was an anxious mess but I feel more calm now. I took a nice long, hot shower Loas and Thailand style- no shower curtain. I soaked the whole bathroom.
My thoughts on our new apartment- it is a nice sized apartment. It is a normal sized apartment. It will take some getting used to because our last apartment was huge. It was 2 bedrooms, a huge bathroom, walk in closet, giant living room, big bedroom and kitchen with a large porch and attic that spanned the entire large apartment. We had so much storage.
This apartment is one bedroom, a very small bathroom, a kitchen, dining area and decently sized living room that I am sure will serve as a storage room for all of our boxes. It will also be Mark’s office. He has to get a desk.
The apartment was advertised as a first floor apartment but it is basically a basement apartment. When I look out the window the ground level is at my chest. I am worried it will take a lot to heat the apartment. There is one small window in the bedroom and one small window in the living room. They both look out to the dog park so we will see a lot of dogs pooping. There are no lights in the living room and one sconce in the bedroom. The apartment is very dark so we need to get a lot of lamps. I’m sure electric will also be expensive since we have small windows and will mostly want to keep the blinds closed since people can see right in. Also, we were under the impression that we were going to have a porch but we do not. That is disappointing also because now we do not know how or where to store Mark’s bike. It is in the living room and I have a feeling that is where it will stay.
Saturday, Mark’s friend came over to help us unload the truck. It didn’t take too long but the weather was cold and snowy and everything was icy. We loaded everything into the kitchen and living room. That is when I realized that we didn’t get rid of nearly as much as we thought we did.
Yikes!
Andy invited us to go to dinner with him and two girls. We drove into Boulder. It was freezing and snowing but beautiful.
Minimalism
We ate at a restaurant called Next Door. I had some delicious tomato soup with grilled cheese. We then went with them to a bar where a band was playing and people were dancing Ska. It was fun but I was exhausted. Andy and Co. were going to go hit up another bar but I was falling asleep so Mark and I went home.
Sunday we woke up and got to work! We unloaded a ton of boxes and unpacked. We made a huge shopping trip to Target.
We have been eating out for about a month and a half for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. We can’t wait to go grocery shopping today and cook home cooked meals!
So far our two hallway closets are set up, the kitchen, the bathroom, and some of the bedroom. We are going to be looking for bedroom furniture and living room furniture in the next few weeks.