In case you hadn't heard, in July 2006 my girlfriend Willow got a job with a show in Las Vegas, and because she needed to be there by August 6, we needed to pack and move VERY quickly. Of course, moving plans never work out smoothly. Here's a quick rundown of how the packing, moving, and drive to LV went.

July 20 - I take Willow's car in to the shop (a Chevy dealer, as her car is a Chevy) because it's been having an idling/stalling problem and because I want it tuned up before we drive it cross-country. They won't be able to start working on it until the 21st. I tell them that I need the car back by Saturday the 22nd because I need to pick up Willow from the airport. Here I'll point out that after I drop off the car I have to walk 15 blocks in 90 degree heat to get to the subway station so I can go home.

July 21 - Get a call from the shop. The Check Engine light is out and without it they can't use the car's computer to diagnose what may be the problem (apparently they plug in their sensor to the computer and it makes the CE light flash in a pattern that indicates the problem). Taking care of this involves taking apart the dash, which means about $300 in labor (Are these mechanics worth $100 per hour in labor? Somehow I think not.) I say go ahead.

July 22 - Expecting a call from the shop, I stick around the apartment. 11:30 a.m. rolls around and still no call; I know the place doesn't do any real mechanic work on Saturday except for oil changes so I'm wondering what's up. I call, the guy I've been talking to (Chris) is off that day, as is the mechanic who was working on the car. The guy who answers the phone can't find anything to tell me on the car's paperwork, so he doesn't know if the car is done. I say leave it there. They're closed Sunday so I'll have to wait until Monday to talk to Chris. Willow has to take a cab from the airport. Meanwhile I call our friend Jeff Quick in Philly and we make arrangements for him to visit us before we leave for LV.

July 24 - I call Chris at the shop, he apologizes. He tells me they got the light replaced and know what the problems are and should have the car ready by Tuesday the 25th. July 25 - Car is ready, Willow and I pick it up (yay $1200 repairs!) and buy a bunch of boxes from Staples. We start to pack. As we don't know if this move is permanent or just temporary, we've decided to leave much of our stuff in storage and only bring what we need, rebuying essentials when whe get to Vegas (it's actually cheaper to do it this way than to move all of our stuff twice in a short period of time). This means we need sealable boxes for shipping, and boxes for storing (which don't need to be sealed, the lids can come off, etc.). Apartment quickly becomes filled with boxes without really seeming to make stuff disappear.

July 27 - We go to a storage place and rent a space there. They have a truck service they subcontract which we can use for free to move all of our stuff at once rather than a carload at a time, we just need to load and unload the truck ourselves. We make arrangements to use the truck Saturday morning from 7am-9am (storage place says we have a 2-hour window of time). As we plan to leave town on Sunday, that means we can put all the big stuff in storage Saturday, clean the apartment, sleep on the old futon mattress (which needs replacing) that night, throw out the futon and drive away on Sunday. 90-degree heat.

July 28 - Car won't start and is idling rough, essentially the same problem I brought it in for the previous week. Takes 10 tries to start it. As it's after 5pm, left voice mail at Chevy place for Chris to call me because we're supposed to leave in 2 days and I just spent $1200 on a problem that wasn't fixed. 90-degree heat.

July 29 - We're up at 6am and start getting stuff ready for the truck. At 7 a.m. we get a call from the truck dispatcher, who is not happy that all of our stuff isn't already on the curb waiting for us to load it. We say we were supposed to have a 2-hour window, he says it was supposed to be outside at 7 a.m. (I don't know about you, but I don't like the idea of leaving my stuff on the sidewalk, especially when you consider how much dog poop gets left on the sidewalk and where they place the garbage bags for trash pickup; plus it's been raining off and on and I don't want my stuff soaked). I tell him we don't have much and it'll only take about half an hour. The driver (whose only job is to drive the truck, he doesn't load or unload) tells us the dispatcher wanted him to leave when the stuff wasn't on the curb. AT 7:30 a.m. the dispatcher calls again and says we need to go. I mention again that the storage company said we'd have a 2-hour window and the dispatcher tells me "I can close the truck door right now." I manage to get 5 more minutes out of him and we load up a few more boxes, then follow the truck to the storage place to unload. Funny thing is, the storage place doesn't open until 8 anyway so the dispatcher was being a hasty jerk for no reason ... if our stuff was ready at 7 a.m. it would have meant we'd wait at the storage place for an hour. I complain to the storage place about the dispatcher, put it in writing, and they say they'll have their manager take care of it. We unload our stuff into storage. Car takes 5 tries to start. 90-degree heat.
   I get back to the apartment and call the shop, as I haven't heard from them yet. I speak to Chris, he says "Oh, the voice mail goes to the receptionist's desk and as on weekends it's just the service department here, we didn't get the voicemail ... can you bring the car in on Monday?" I tell him no, we're leaving for Vegas on Sunday, and when I tell him that I spent $1200 dollars for him to fix a problem and now I expect to pay someone else more money to fix that same problem, he says "When you get there, if it's still doing this, take it to a Chevy dealer and have their service manager call me, I'll have him talk to my service manager and we'll work something out." Of course this does not reassure me, and I contact my bank about what I need to do to file a dispute about the $1200 charge (short answer: get another mechanic to say in writing "This is the problem, the first mechanic should have caught this, they did not repair it"). Faced by a bunch more boxes (which we had hoped to put on the truck but now have to do a carload at a time), we call our landlord and say we're moving out on the 31st instead of the 30th. He had mentioned having an open house on Sunday to show the apartment but said that there wasn't much interest at the time.
   While I told the cable and utilities companies to end service on 7/31, I still needed to return our cable box, and today was the last day we could do that (they closed Sat at 5pm), so we had to run out to the cable company at 4:45. Only on the way back did it hit me that by turning in the digital phone unit, that meant I no longer had internet access. Doh!

July 30 - More packing. My phone was off in the morning while I was charging it so I didn't get my landlord's calls that he finally had some people answer about the ad and would be coming by at 1 p.m. ... so when they did show up I was a little surprised and the place was a mess. Ah, well. More trips to the storage place, and a big pile of boxes to mail out from the post office. Mind you, we don't know where we're staying in Vegas at this point so I have to send them general delivery and pick them up at the PO when I get there. 90-degree heat.

July 31 - Trips to post office and storage place. 90-degree heat. Shave the long-haired cats to help them get through the long car trip in the heat (Willow's car has no AC, it's from Washington state where you don't really need it). Clean the apartment. Pack the car. Get on the road at about 8 p.m. We realize we have too much stuff and make an emergency stop at Staples so we can ship some stuff via UPS. Problem: the stuff we'd ship isn't in unmarked boxes, and they can't ship it. I ask, "So it has to be in a plain box or wrapped?" He says, "Yes." I buy some brown wrapping paper and shipping tape and wrap these items in the parking lot. Repeat: 90-degree heat. I bring them back in, he says, "I can't ship those, the paper might tear or get wet and UPS won't ship it." I consider killing him but instead wearily tromp back to the car, wedge these items in, and continue our drive. We stop for the night in Cranbury, NJ, because the cats are hot, we're hot, and we're tired and frustrated.

Aug 1 - I get up early to go to the post office to mail these three big newly-wrapped boxes. Car dies on the way there. Won't start. Call local Chevy dealers, none of them can look at the car until late Wed (tomorrow) or Thursday. I call a tow truck to take the car to the hotel (as it still contains most of our stuff). Tow truck driver says he could tow it to the shop his company uses. After unloading the car, we do so. They can't look at it until tomorrow but at least they're closer than the Chevy places are. It's now 1 p.m. and we're stuck here for another day. As Willow has to be in Vegas for a meeting on Monday the 7th and it's a 4-day drive, we can't wait until Thursday to leave, so I call around for car rental places. Note that we're stranded at a hotel. Note also the 90-degree heat. The rental places fall into one of two categories: (1) those that will come pick you up from your location, but won't let you take a care one-way past the Mississipi River, or (2) those that will let you take a car one-way out to Vegas but won't come pick you up. I make rental arrangements (more on that tomorrow) and settle in for the afternoon/evening/night.

Aug 2 - I rent a car from Enterprise (category 1) with Willow, drive an hour to Cherry Hill, NJ, to pick up an Alamo (category 2) car, drive back to Cranbury, load up the Alamo car with the cats and our stuff, drop off the Enterprise car (4 hours later!), and we're on the road again as of about 1:30 p.m. And of course we have 90-degree heat because the whole country is having a heat wave. Fortunately both rental cars have AC. Because we are so far behind schedule, I suggest alternating naps and driving and try to drive through the night to make up for lost distance. This works until 1 a.m. when we're both feeling tired. We stop at a little town, park in a parking lot, and try to grab a couple hours' sleep before resuming. Can't get comfortable in the car so after an hour we give up and rent a place at a cheap nearby motel. The room smells musty, the AC barely works, and it's a little spooky, but at least there are no bugs. 90-degree heat.

Aug 3 - We get up at 6 a.m. to start moving again. This day is pretty uneventful except for when Willow gets pulled over for going 75 in a 55 zone (although I told her the speed limit in the area was varying between 55 and 65 she for some reason decided to go 75 and missed about 5 miles of 55 signs to the contrary). The cop ran her license and let her off with a warning when she saw that Willow had no moving violations. I teased her about being a criminal for the rest of the day. Stopped that night in Abilene, KS at a Holiday in Express. 90-degree heat.

Aug 4 - Drove out of KS and into CO, through Denver and over the mountains. During this day I got a call from the car place in Cranbury, NJ ... the car is fixed, turns out there was a loose electrical connection in the car's computer for the fuel system (hmm, and who was working on the car's computer just a week before?). I tell them I'm in Colorado and will make arrangements for the car next week (as well as to talk to them about getting a written statement for my bank dispute). While driving through the mountains we see some bighorn sheep grazing by the side of the road, it was pretty cool. I was feeling alert so we kept driving until about 9 p.m. and then had a hell of a time finding a place to stay because the first two towns after the mountains had no vacancies. Fortunately the third town had a spot and we stayed there. No internet access, though, and I wanted to download some mail and send out some emails. Ah, well. 90-degree heat. Called the bank to update them and verify what I'd need to do to file that dispute.

Aug 5 - We reach Vegas in the afternoon. 90-degree heat ... but it's a dry heat. ;) Because of the time change between NV and AZ we're here a little earlier than I expected and we consider stopping by the apartment where we'll be staying (it's not ready until Friday), but check-in takes longer than expected so we decide to just take it easy, unpack the car, and enjoy not being in a huge rush any more.

So the pre-move was bad, the early part of the move was REALLY bad, but the later parts were uneventful or even enjoyable. Glad we're here, and I dread what the next move may entail.