The trip begins...

As I mentioned in the last post the drive lasted three days. We went through a total of 12 states. Some were more memorable than others. I guess I'll break this into a different segment for each state. Let the trip begin...

Virginia

What can I say about the state the state that I live in? Not much, especially since the portion of the drive in Virginia was only about 20 miles until I got to Maryland to pick up Louie. I left the house around 5:30 a.m. and about a minute later I encountered my first problem. I forgot my laptop at home so I had to turn around and go back to get it. That wasn't the way I wanted to start the trip. After going back to get the laptop I started the trip again. This time it took about 5 minutes to encounter my next problem. As I got on 495 in Springfield they had it shut down to one lane for the interchange construction. I had to sit in traffic for about 20 minutes to go one mile. I figured that was one last "fuck you" from the state I grew so tired of living in. I knew at that point I was making the right decision by moving. Twenty minutes later as I crossed into MD from VA I threw up two middle fingers to say goodbye to the only state I'd ever called home.

Maryland

With both my hands back on the steering wheel I forged on towards Louie's house. Sadly, the problems continued into Maryland. When I was 10 minutes away from Louie's house I called him just to let him know I was close. He did not answer. I wasn't really concerned, I figured he was in the shower. When I arrived at his house and rang the doorbell nobody came to answer. I got a little worried at that point. I called again and once again there was no answer. I called Priti's phone and she answered. It turned out they were both still asleep. Louie's phone was on vibrate so he didn't hear it. At that point I was already frustrated from the hellish 20 mile trip out of VA so the break waiting for Louie was kinda nice. When Louie was ready we jumped in the truck and really began the trip. About 5 minutes later it started raining. I was beginning to think this was going to be a really bad trip. Maryland didn't really have a lot of highlights, it's a state that I'm pretty familiar with anyway. The only thing that surprised me was Frostburg, it was kinda pretty. I'd never been there before but I was familiar with it because the Redskins used to hold training camp there. Also, Tom, aka Corn Dog went to Frostburg State University (does it still have State on the end?). I have nothing else to say about Maryland.

Pennsylvania

Our trip up to to this point has moved very well. It had stopped raining pretty quickly and now the skies were just overcast. That's perfect for driving. Pennsylvania is another state that I'm very familiar with being that all of my family is from there. The only highlight turned out to be another problem. We got caught in a major traffic jam in Washington, PA. We sat and didn't move at all for at least 20 minutes. I think we lost about 30-40 overall with the backup. The only good part was the 20 minutes we spent idling was right next to the Washington Wild Things stadium. Only sports fans can appreciate that.

West Virginia

This is another state that I'm pretty familiar with. My parents own a house in Shepherstown which is in the eastern panhandle. We were traveling through the western part of the state on this day which is very different from the eastern part that I know. The western part of the state is very old, gloomy and depressing. I've had that same observation each of the few times I've been in that part of the state. West Virginia happened to be the first stop for gas. We stopped in Morgantown which is where West Virginia University is located. It cost $71.26 to fill up. I knew at that point gas was going to be a huge expense. It's funny to look back now at the gas receipts from a month ago. I paid $2.57 at that station and I thought was expensive. Now most of us are paying over $3.00.

Four states is enough for this post. I'll do four more in the next post.

The sky is so bright I gotta wear shades

Where do I start? First off, I haven't blogged in about four months so I don't expect anyone to check this. I'll have to let you know it still exists. I'm going to try and post frequently now that I live 2,400 miles from most of you. I'm sure you know by now that I moved to Phoenix. If you don't, we probably weren't good friends.

I think that I'll break up the initial post into installments because there's so much to say. This post will focus on the drive from DC to Phoenix. We'll see how far I get.

The Plan

Drive from DC to Phoenix in 3 days. My friend Louie and I decided that it was possible. The distance is 2,400 miles and we figured that we would go 1,000 on the first day, 1,000 on the second and 400 on the third. The plan was to make the last day a short day so we could arrive in Phoenix mid-afternoon and unload the truck before the NCAA Basketball Championship game came on. Yes, this all happened a month ago. Here's the CliffsNotes version:

Who? Me and Louie
What? 2,400 mile drive in a 16 foot Penske rental truck
Where? First day: 1,000 miles to Springfield, MO...Second day: 1,000 miles to Albuquerque, NM...Third day: 400 miles to Tempe, AZ
When? Saturday, March 31st to Monday, April 2nd
Why? Because I wanted to move to Phoenix and I got a job here

Thank you's!

That pretty much covers the plan. I have to give a few thank you's now. The first and biggest thank you goes to Louie for helping me with the move. I really couldn't have done it without him. I owe him bigtime! Another big thank you to my parents for coming to town my final week and helping me pack and tie up loose ends. A big thank you to Louie's co-worker who loaned us his Sirius satellite radio for the trip. That allowed up to listen to the Final Four on Saturday and have great music the whole way out. I can't imagine what radio would have been like driving all day through remote areas of the midwest. My final thank you goes to Nick for recommending we stay in Springfield, MO. Not only did it set us up to reach our goal of a 1,000 mile first day but it's a nice town from what I could tell.

Rental truck

We went with a Penske because Louie found a 10% off google link for them. If you search for rental trucks on google you'll get some discount links for rental trucks. File that one away. Penske also gives a 12% discount for AAA members. I got a pretty sizeable discount when all was said and done. The total rental charge was $1,247.80. It would have been well over $1,500.00 without the discounts. Ya, it's expensive to rent a truck and drive it 2,400 miles. It's way more expensive to pay someone to move your stuff though. Oh, I spent between $700-$800 on gas too. Isn't that crazy? Anyway, the truck couldn't have been better. It hung in there and never gave us a problem. Big props to Penske. We saw at least five broken down U-Haul's along the way. If you take one thing from this post it should be to never ever rent from U-Haul. I could write a huge post on the horror stories friends of mine have had with U-Haul.

OK, in the next post we'll start the trip.