The POD

Moving Day is here:

Its been a crazy month- bought a truck, gave a 30 day notice for our apartment (which they are now trying to rent for $2200- that is $650 more than we pay now- a 42% increase - crazy, bought an RV and we have been packing and purging daily.  The month overall has flown by but the last two weeks have seemed to drag with the constant worry about where to put the beast.  See we got this HUGE RV (32') which we attached with a hitch (3-4') to a large SUV (about 16') so we are practically a semi truck driving down the street and we show up in this little downtown neighborhood feeling like we brought a horse home as a family pet in a tiny apartment.  It took us 2 hours to figure out where to park the thing.  I am sensing a "rookie mistake" list again...

Rookie mistake #1: Actually thinking we would fit anywhere near our downtown home

Rookie mistake #2: Trailers dont have brakes- so we can't unhitch or the thing can just roll away- how did I not know this? Advice: Buy chocks and a hitch lock right away- or better yet, before you purchase a TT (travel trailer)

Rookie mistake #3: Not thinking about #1 or #2 on the 6 hour drive home

Rookie mistake #4: We are TALL and we didn't even know that SC isn't really conducive to something so tall.  Downtown has low hanging trees- and yes, our first parking attempt was met with some branches- but luckily Josh is quite good at maneuvering the beast and no damage was done

Rookie mistake #5: Not checking the weather...So remember those roof gashes and missing vents- no big deal if it doesn't rain and we are in a drought right so we are good for a few days until we can get it to the repair shop- but NOOO- it rains THE NEXT DAY- little "hurricane" type squall knocking down our deck furniture kind of rain.  We were warned that it might (thank you Sharon) and tarped it up before any further damage was done.  Josh brought it to someone the next day to repair the roof, awning and recaulk seal all the windows.  We still need to deal with the refrigerator and the fresh water tank though.

Rookie mistake #6: Assuming a "72 hours permit" to park an RV on the street was indeed 72 hours- well it is not- its 36 hours to load and 36 hours to unload.  Opps.  First time we parked it was for a good solid 2 days plus a bit- but no one said anything so we though we had done it right... that is until we got it back from the shop and parked it again thinking 72 hours means in-a-row... then we got a warning that we had to move it... but where to... we searched high and low, even had some friends offer us their empty spot- but it ended up being too small (darned beast)- luckily we did find somewhere for $10/night- its just a parking lot but that is all we needed.

Today is Fri 9/25 and its moving day- the POD has come and we are full force packing that thing.  Its 16' and we just don't know how we are going to make that work- time will tell.  I was super impressed with how the POD company works when it comes to how to deliver such a huge container.  You should watch a youtube video on it- its a pretty great contraption and doesn't take much time at all! 

For the record PODS wasn't our first choice as we were quoted some ridiculous amount around this time last year from them- we looked into Relocubes, U-Boxed and ATB but PODS won for these reasons:
1. We can store the unit (ATB you can not- you have to get your stuff out on a specific day)
2. Well built construction (u-hauls u-boxes are just plywood and tarps and we weren't confident that would be good for 3 months solid)
3.  Good square footage- we liked that we could just get one big unit instead of a bunch of smaller ones that might get separated from eachother.
4. Relocube was a high contender with well built units, ability to store and you can load as many cubes as you need and only pay for the ones you use- BUT they ended up being more expensive due to their high monthly storage fee
So PODS won.

We pack up Fri, Sat and Sun.  Monday we get our RV back on our street to finish packing that up (for 36 hours)- and then Oct 1st we begin our adventure.  First stop- San Diego/Temecula/Julian.  Yes we realize this is the wrong direction to get to our real first stop in Portland BUT we need to do our traditional Julian Apple picking, go to the Zoo one last time and look at Temecula thru the lense of "could we thrive here?"- so we are almost out but we aren't going to be too far right away.