MOVING = YUCK

When we moved to Knoxville from Idaho Falls Andy and I chose to move through ABF - you pack they drive! This was nice because we didn't have to drive a big moving truck clear across the country. Not so nice was the "you pack" part. I, being 6 months pregnant with Grayer, left Andy with most of the lifting/carrying of boxes and furniture up and down the stairs - both in Idaho when we were loading the truck and in Tennessee when we were unloading the truck!

When Andy and I knew that we were moving to New York we did just the opposite. We decided that since it was a shorter distance we would try driving the moving truck ourselves and having someone else do the loading and unloading! We just knew that this was going to be a great plan and when moving day came we were so glad we weren't the ones in 100+ degree weather packing up our truck!
We also decided that it would be fun to all ride in the truck together and tow our car so that we could keep each other company on the 12 hour drive! We also decided that we would break the drive up into 2 days and drive 6 hours one day and 6 hours the next, that way Grayer wouldn't go nuts in the truck! We just knew that this was going to be a great plan too so we made our hotel reservations in Columbus, OH and pulled out of town! Grayer was so thrilled to ride up "front" with us in the truck and thought that being so high where he could see out over everything was the coolest thing!
We didn't get out of Knoxville as early as we wanted to on moving day but didn't think much of it because we didn't mind driving into the night while Grayer slept, but as luck would have it not even 3 hours into the drive our truck broke down! It's a good thing I have Andy because I immediately panicked and started freaking out -- what were we going to do? It was 10:30 at night, we had nobody to call for help, we were stranded on the side of the freeway!!! But Andy, being the level headed man that he is, calmed me down and said that we just needed to call the S.O.S. number of the truck company and they would take care of it! Long story short, we called, they sent a mechanic to come and fix the truck and 2 miserable hours later we were on our way again. By this time it was 12:30 am and we had 2 choices either keep driving to make our hotel reservation which was too late to cancel but not get there until 3:30 am or just stop and pay for another hotel and get some rest. We decided to stop, tomorrow could only be better right? Wrong. The next day we were on our way again when not even 2 hours into the drive our truck broke down again -- Baah!! This time we were lucky enough be close enough to a truck stop and were able to pull off!! Another 2 hours were wasted as we waited for a mechanic to show up and fix the truck that was supposedly fixed the night before. This time we asked a few more questions but in the end were assured everything looked fine and that we shouldn't have any more trouble.
Although we were a little weary and frustrated that we had now lost a total of 4 hours off our trip we continued on our way, and..... WE MADE IT!!! We had a few scares where the Engine light kept flickering on and off but the truck did NOT break down again!!

Obviously we still have not taken advantage of the "perfect" way to move which we have decided is having someone do it ALL for you!!!! But I won't complain, after our long a day of driving it was nice not having to do any unloading!!

p.s For those of you wondering the truck company refunded us a good chunk of our money -- Yeah for Happy Endings!!

Enjoy the following "Moving" pictures...

(Grayer buried in the very last load of laundry done in Knoxville)


(Grayer playing in the empty cupboards)

(The BIG moving truck! This thing was filled to the brim, plus our car that was packed full too!)