When we accepted a job with Zillow part of our negotiations with them was the relocation package. Instead of having them pay a company to move us, we decided to take it as a cash bonus. We were hoping that we could do it cheaper and pocket the left overs. (We haven’t added it up yet but I think we did do it cheaper.)
We wanted to save as much money as possible, but we also wanted to have a good experience. Instead of renting a Uhaul truck to move, we decided to buy a 24 foot long enclosed trailer. It sounds crazy because it was crazy, but my dad helped us a lot. One of my dad’s hobbies is buying and selling things. Vehicles and houses being his main interests. He has a knack for it, so we told him whatever he thought was a good deal was good by us. He also volunteered his time and truck to drive it for us.
My dad found a good deal on a trailer and picked it up for us. We got it about 2 weeks before we moved so we were able to park it in our yard and load it up at our leisure. It made packing and loading so nice! Every night after kids went to bed Chris and I would spend a few hours loading it. The day before we left, my parents and Chris’ grandparents helped us load the last bit. Chris is a master packer and he had that thing LOADED full. I was amazed that he got as much to fit as he did! We had no room leftover in the trailer, and we got all our stuff packed, so it ended up being perfect!
The morning we left my dad came and hooked up his truck to it. I was extremely nervous (my mom even more so) that it would be too big and heavy for his truck, but it was fine. He pulled it out of our drive way with no problems and they were good to go!
We had planned on driving through CA but my dad had to get the tail lights looked at on the trailer at a Uhaul place. The uhaul guy said that the trailer was overloaded and that in CA my dad would get pulled over for it and the cop wouldn’t let him drive until he emptied some of it. So we decided to drive up through Nevada instead.
We decided that we were going to go the same route but we would go at our own passes. We had never traveled this far with kids so we were assuming we would have to stop a lot. My dad’s load (my mom was with him so my parent’s load) was heavy so we knew they’d be slower than us. We each had separate errands to make so we left our house and went our separate ways.
We had to return the car we had rented while our old van was having issues and before we bought our new one. We also had to get our oil changed and breaks worked on so we’d feel comfortable driving our new van such a long distance. We didn’t leave Phoenix until after noon. My parents were about 2 hours ahead of us.
We passed my parents just passed Las Vegas Nevada and just kept going. We were doing a lot better on time and stops then we had thought we would. And kids were doing great! At about 8 we called my parents to see what their plans were. They wanted to stay the night in Ely, a town in Nevada. When we called them we were getting pretty close to Ely and we were both feeling pretty fresh. We decided that we would go on to Twin Falls ID still another 4 hours away. (There was NOTHING in between Ely and Twin Falls.) I was getting tired but Chris was a trooper and drove to 1:00 AM. Twin Falls was just over half way! Since we made it to Twin Falls we knew that it was very likely we’d make it to Seattle in just two days instead of the three we had planned. We were even more surprised because of the late start we had made that day.
The next morning we had to leave the hotel at about 8 to make it in time to meet our land lord at the house for the final walk through and to make sure we could get keys that night. If we didn’t meet him Thursday night we were going to have to wait until Friday night to get the keys. That would make us lose the whole day on Friday and defeat the purpose of us making it out earlier.
My parents also left about the time we did, but from Ely. They also were having some tire problems on the trailer. They put air in the tire and made it about 2 hours and stopped to check it. It was flat again. They decided to put more air in it and hoped to make it to Twin Falls on that tire. (Where we stayed the night before.) We talked about waiting for them, but we both agreed that we would end up passing them later anyway so they encouraged us to go on. My parents did make it to Twin Falls and were told that the tire wasn’t the issue, it was the whole wheel. They had to find a place that could replace the trailer wheel which set them back several hours.
Meanwhile we kept on going and were making great time. We flew through Idaho and Oregon. The kids did great! They had their tablets, and movies to watch and Chris’ Grandma had sent presents for them to open along the way. They really did amazing on this trip. We joked that we had trips to Thatcher that were worse than this one. (Thatcher was about 2 1/2 hours away from Chandler.)
In Washington we realized that our windshield wipers were awful so we stopped for new ones, but that was as crazy as our trip got. We made it to Seattle at about 5:00 PM and we had a few hours to kill before we met our land lord for final walk through. We drove around our new neighborhood. Showed the kids their preschool and their park.
When we got into the house they were crazy. They were running and jumping. (They acted like they had been in a car for two days straight…weird.) They loved the house! The house was pretty much what we had remembered and we were very excited to be home!
Since our stuff was still with my parents we decided to get a hotel that night and to meet up at the house to unload once my parents got there. My parents were actually making really good time and they made it about 2 1/2 hours from Seattle that night. They stayed in Yakima and got up early the next morning to make it to the house about 10:30 AM. They didn’t have any more issues along the way and the new tire did the trick!
We drove just under 24 hours in the car and went just under 1500 miles in two days with two young kids. My parents did it in 2 1/2 days pulling everything we owned. It was a great trip and I am still amazed at how well the kids did! I am also looking forward to flying home to visit instead of driving!
we are all set for our long drive!
Got some donuts before our long long drive
kids getting their wiggles out before the long drive
Kids did so great on the drive, played tablets, watched movies, or slept!
Lil just smelled her feet and determined they stink!
Love when both kids sleep at the same time!
Goodbye Arizona desert!
So different than Arizona!
