Trip Log

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. I've been mixing trying to get the basic tasks of the move done, with the even more basic task of trying to recover from the trip.

So, we left Phoenix late Wednesday to get out after most of the traffic cleared, and pulled into our friends place in El Paso at about 3am (420ish miles).

I was pretty wasted from the previous weeks chaos... So when our friends most graciously offered to have us stay an extra day with them, we most gratefully accepted.

Having well recovered with a decent nights sleep, and a good days company, we again decided to set off later than originally desired...

...this time because a major tropical depression had formed over the next major destination point on route, New Orleans... in fact, there was a full blown cyclonic storm stretching from Austin to the Florida atlantic coast.

Next leg, El Paso to Austin was about 580 miles, when we stopped for a late dinner around 10pm (the Texican in Austin, very good food, most of it house made not brought in, and excellent service), and waited another couple hours for the rain to clear between there and New Orleans.

We left Austin about midnight, drove down through NO (Mel had never seen it before), and stopped for breakfast with a friend in Kenner (just outside of New Orleans) around 10am (about 500 miles). He also led us to a great dogpark where we all played with the boy, and the dogs, for a couple hours of much needed off the road time.

From Kenner, it was a relatively short hop (220 miles) over to Pensacola for dinner etc... with another couple of friends, and a couple hours of socialization, before the final leg down to Lakeland.

That final leg was about 470 miles, and with the timezone change and fuel stops... and some slowdowns due to REALLY REALLY thick fog, we finally pulled in around 10am Sunday.

We've been running around the last two days doing the basic errands required so that we can sleep, eat, live, work etc... but tonight we can actually mostly relax. We only have a couple more "must do now or soon" things to deal with over the next couple days...

... then I think I'mna try to sleep for a bit..

You know... like... a couple weeks...

Trip Log:

Origination: Chandler, AZ- 05-07-0159z

Termination: Lakeland, FL - 05-11-1459z

Total time enroute: 97h 58m

Total engine on time: 35h 59m

Total rolling time: 31h 58m

Total en route miles: 2,222.22mi ctd.

Total enroute average speed: 22.9mph

Average driving speed: 69.49mph

Total fuel: 145.9 usgal

Average fuel economy: 15.229mpg

Total fuel cost: $559.78

Avg fuel cost per gallon: $3.839

Fuel cost per mile: $0.252

Food cost: $196.94

Sheared Clean off

So, we just drove 75 miles of twisty mountain roads, 180 switchbacks, 7 mile long up and down grades over 10%... In the dark... Towing a 28 foot 13,500lb trailer.

She actually rode pretty good, smooth and quiet, and not too much push on the downgrades... Good trailer brakes help a lot there, as does a good weight distributing hitch.

Did the last 10 miles on the freeway at 70, then a couple miles on city streets, light traffic, but through some busy major intersections.

Finally, we pull into our destination and see this:

Holy bleeding christ.

We were driving for god knows how long, with one wheel missing.

f you take a closer look you'll see, the studs were sheared clean off.

The really scary thing is... we didn't notice a thing wrong, nor did any of the cars that saw us on the road. The trailer rode fine the whole time, no weird sounds, no problems...

 Just... you know... 40 pounds of tire flying off in some random direction at 60mph...

...hopefully not in or into any of the residential neighborhoods we were passing.

 If we'd caused a car accident I'm sure we would have noticed that... I'm pretty obsessive about checking mirrors when I'm driving the trailer... But I couldn't see the tire the way my mirror was adjusted (I would have in daylight, just not at night).

 If it happened on one of those twisty downgrades... It very well might have killed us.

 I'll investigate further in the morning... It could have been any number of things.

 Scary...

I am sick of the last six weeks

The last six weeks have been double plus ungood.

This is a long story, but I really need to get it all out, at least to vent.

Ok... here goes.

So, just before we left New Hampshire, after a month of looking for a house and being repeatedly disappointed (a couple were sold out from under us, a couple weren't available 'til March or April etc... etc...), we managed to sign a lease on a house in Laconia.

Laconia is the biggest town in the New Hampshire lakes region, and largely the center of activities for the area. It's a nice place, an old mill town, and it still has a lot of the original 19th century architecture.

If you're a biker, Laconia has additional meaning, because it's the home of the third largest motorcyclist gathering in the country (after Daytona and Sturgis); Laconia bike week, held the week of fathers day every year.

The house wasn't exactly what we wanted (we wanted rural, or at least private, on some land if possible), but it was near the big lake (less than a mile from Winnepesaukee), pretty big (5 bedrooms, over 3000 square feet including the partially finished basement), in a nice quiet neighborhood but still close to everything, and it had a big fenced yard (important for the dogs). It even had a good sized pool off the rear deck.

So yay, new house.

Now all we had to do was drive back to Arizona, get our stuff and our dogs, then haul all of it, and us, back to New Hampshire.

How hard could that be, right?

**No, I wasn't silly enough to actually say, or even think, "how hard could that be" or "what could go wrong". After DECADES of extremely painful experience, I most certainly know better. Ask those questions, and they WILL be answered, THOROUGHLY.

Yeah... So that's when the REAL unfun started 

Actually, to be fair, the prelude to the unfun started on Christmas day, when Mels 93 year old grandmother (who lives with Mels dad) had a stroke, falling and breaking her hip in the process.

Now, our original plan was to drive back to Arizona over new years, spend less than two weeks with Mels dad (one week of which I was supposed to be at a clients site in Seattle), hook up the trailer, pack up the dogs, and head straight back to New Hampshire.

The second part of that got screwed up just before we left.

Mels grandmothers injury put her in the hospital for a week, after which she was transferred to a rehab clinic. The plan to deal with Grandmas injury was to have her come home from the rehab clinic the following week, and get a live in home care aide.

From a practical standpoint, what that meant to us, was that we couldn't stay with Mel's dad, because the spare bedroom would be in use by the home care aide.

So then, the plan was to stay with Mel's best friend (none of my friends in the area were in a position to put us up for a couple weeks). Unfortunately, her housemate (who is also her brother) objected to living with a two extra adults and a teething baby for a few weeks (understandably. It's a small house, and there's not a lot of noise isolation).

What we ended up having to do, was stay in a hotel; which should have been fine, since it was only supposed to be for a couple weeks anyway.

Sure, it's not cheap even in a room with a kitchen (it ended up being about $450 a week at an Extended Stay America. You pay more for the kitchen, but spend a LOT less on food and drink), but it's certainly tolerable.

So... then we actually set off...

The trip itself was pretty nice actually, minus the repeated ice storms. We got to hang out with friends and family we haven't seen for a while, and I got to meet family I hadn't met before; always good things.

Unfortunately, towards the end of the drive, I started coming down with something.

From about January 4th (when we checked into our hotel), I had a full blown flu. From the symptoms, likely H1N1 aka "Swine Flu", which has been widespread this flu season.

Meanwhile... 

...actually, while we were driving from NH to AZ...

...the client changed their schedule.

So, instead of being onsite the week of the 6th, I was supposed to be onsite the week of the 13th.

From one perspective that was a good thing, since I ended up being sick the week of the 6th and wouldn't have been able to fly out there anyway.

Unfortunately, we were planning on LEAVING Arizona the week of the 13th (we were supposed to take possession of the house on the 15th). Moving the onsite a week later, also also meant staying in AZ until at least the 20th, and for logistical reasons the 25th.

So, we changed our plans again, and extended our hotel stay to the 25th.

Then, the Friday before I was to leave, the client cancelled the onsite week entirely. So, yay, I didn't have to fly while I'm still sick, but we'd already prepaid for a hotel through the 25th (had to prepay or it was 20% more expensive), and rejiggered everything else to make the 25th work. We couldn't change it all back.

Turns out that the later date would have been necessary anyway however, for four reasons:

First: At the same time as my client was being fickle, our new house in New Hampshire had a pipe burst. A large portion of the house flooded, with significant water damage; and the house wouldn't be ready for us to take possession until at least the 1st of February, possibly later.

We planned on, and agreed with the owners to take possession of the house on the 5th of February (that way we could leave the Friday before, and drive over the weekend, giving us plenty of time to get there).

Second: The next week, the steering on our truck failed while Mel was driving it.

Thankfully no-one was hurt, but the entire steering mechanism and part of the suspension were badly damaged, and needed replacement (with a newer design, heavier duty setup from the factory).

The failure was due to defective tie-rod ends (which it turns out were subject to a recall). The tie-rods were covered under the recall, but the parts that were damaged or destroyed because of them (and the associated labor) were not. The repairs, all up, including a rental car for five days, ended up costing about $3,000.

Third: Money...

By January 31st, between repairs, hotel bills, additional meals, additional travel expenses, and unreimbursed expenses from work (they're being paid on my check this Friday), we had to lay out a HUGE amount over our planned and budgeted expenses for the month.

Then there's the AMEX bill, covering all the previous travel and expenses, and purchases from December (moving is EXPENSIVE).

Then there's the actual BUDGETED travel expenses, and all our regular bills and expenses (truck payment, fuel, food, insurance, phones, medications etc... also budgeted).

Combined, our total outlay Jan-1 to Jan-31 (which, to be fair, included paying most of the bills and expenses from December) was somewhere around $17,000 (and no, I don't make NEARLY that much a month. In part it was covered by expense reimbursement, combined with pretty much all of what I took home in January, and part of what I took home in December).

That's nearly double the outlay we had planned for the month.

That $17,000 meant we wouldn't actually have enough cash to complete the move ($4,200 in rent and security deposit on the house, and $2,500 in travel expenses for the drive. Hauling a trailer, 3 people, and 2 dogs 3000 miles is EXPENSIVE) before February anyway.

Fourth: At that point I was still sick, and getting sicker.

The flu seemed to subside around the 14th or so, which was good. Unfortunately, the flu led to a sinus infection and bronchitis, which was not.

The sinusitis and bronchitis hung on for a while, but I was managing the symptoms fairly effectively with medication (I take adderall, and a very strong anti-inflammatory anyway, and it just so happens that the combination makes a pretty effective treatment for the symptoms of sinusitis and bronchitis).

Unfortunately, I take those medications because I need them to function properly. When their effects are being taken up relieving symptoms, they aren't actually making me functional.

Worse, the medications also masked the fact that I wasn't actually getting better. I was just staggering along being propped up by the wonder of modern medicine.

Some time around Friday the 24th, I started getting sicker again.

MUCH sicker.

For the first week I thought it was just a combination of sleep deprivation, and a relapse of the flu.

Meanwhile...

We couldn't extend our stay at the Extended Stay America past the 25th, as they were fully booked. Unfortunately, this is the time that peak golf travel season hits Arizona, and rates at any of the extended stay/kitchen suite places went from $450 a week, to $700 a week, basically overnight.

Thankfully, rather than find a place for a week at a ridiculous rate, a friend agreed to let us stay with him 'til the end of the month (when we planned to leave for NH).

Unfortunately, he got sick that week as well (though not from me. I was past the contagious stage then, and it turned out to just be a bad cold or maybe a light flu for him).

And I kept getting sicker...

By Sunday the 26th, I was pretty much in bed 24/7. In fact, from the 26th until today (February 13th. 19ish days ), I've pretty much been sick in bed, minus changing the actual location of said bed.

A couple times I've felt better for a day or two, only to be slammed back down even worse afterwards.

Anyway, our friend was sick, and he needed his place free of a teething baby and two houseguests in order to rest.

So, we ended up transferring from our friends place to another hotel a couple days early, and swallowing the $700 for a week (six nights actually). At least it was a much nicer place than the ESA (a Hilton garden inn, with a 2 room suite. Funny thing was, it was actually only $40 more than the ESA would have been).

Unfortunately, I couldn't enjoy the nicer surroundings, because I was pretty much out of my head sick. By that point, it was clear that my Bronchitis had developed into pneumonia.

And then life got more complicated...

At that point it was ALSO very clear we wouldn't be leaving AZ until WELL after the fifth. So, we asked our new landlords if we could take possession on the 15th.

Initially they agreed. Unfortunately, a few days later, they insisted that we take possession on the fifth, and pay a full months rent for February, plus the deposit etc... and that they wanted the full amount by the 5th.

Apparently the husband (who had initially agreed to our request) was fine with what we wanted to do, but the wife wasn't, and she was making the decisions.

After I told them this was unacceptable to us, they agreed to prorate the rent from the 5th, but no further.

I told them I was perfectly willing to pay from the 15th, ON the 15th, whether we were there to take possession or not; but that we weren't going to pay a full months rent for a half months occupancy (or likely less, given that we wouldn't even be able to LEAVE AZ until at least the 15th... frankly I doubted whether we could get to NH before the end of February). I thought it was kind of silly to lose tenants over a matter of 10 days rent, and that if they agreed to the 15th I would be willing to send them half the security deposit immediately.

Well, that wasn't acceptable to them.

So as of February 1st, we were stuck in Arizona, no longer having a new house to bring our stuff and our selves back to.

We started looking for a new place immediately of course.

And we had to change venues again...

By the 1st, it was clear that Mels grandmother wouldn't be coming home. Between her injuries, the stroke, and her dementia, she can no longer be cared for at home, even with an aide. She's still in the rehab facility, but when they release her, we're transferring her to a 24 hour care facility.

This is really for the best. She needs 24 hour care that she can't get here.

That also meant that the spare room in my father in laws house would be available to us again (of course, it ended up being available the whole month, and we could have avoided wasting $2,000 for a months worth of hotel charges, and god knows how much more on a bunch of takeout/restaurant meals for when we didn't want to use the kitchenette... but we didn't know that at the time).

So, not knowing how long it would take to find a new place to live in NH, and rather than pay for more hotel rooms, on the 5th we transferred our operation back to Mels fathers house.

And I kept getting sicker...

The day we moved over my father in laws house, I basically collapsed into the bed, and I've barely left it since.

The last eight days have been really bad, with low to medium fevers, sweats and chills, lots of pain (particularly joint pain, and stomach pain), a nasty cough, myalgia, stomach and intestinal issues, sinus problems, photophobia... it's just sucked frankly.

Actually, yesterday (the 12th) was the first day since the 24th that I didn't have a fever.

The only compensation has been that for most of the past week, the pneumonia has knocked me out for 10 or 12 hours a day. For the first few weeks of this crud, it was bad enough to keep me from sleeping, but NOT bad enough to knock me out.

Oh and by the by, my wife, and my 10 month old son have ALSO been sick for the last three weeks (since the week with our friend), though thankfully it's just been a mild flu or bad cold (it can be hard to tell) and a touch of bronchitis for them.

...Of course, it's also kept THEM from sleeping  until the past few days as well.

Combined with the boys MASSIVE teething issue the past month or so... (he's cried more in the last six weeks than he did in the entire previous 9 months)... I pretty much hadn't slept the entire month of January.

Basically I was averaging about 2 hours of not particularly restful sleep out of every 24.

And then of course there's been the stress issue. The money, the mad rush, the uncertainty, the not having a place to live... You could say it's been a LITTLE bit stressful.

Between being sick, and not sleeping, I was pretty much a zombie for most of January (unless I was taking plenty of adderall, nasal spray, and anti-inflammatories, which you can't do all day every day).

Oh and of course, stress, sleep deprivation and exhaustion make illnesses worse, and make healing much harder. Frankly, it was probably the sleep deprivation and exhaustion that made it progress to pneumonia in the first place.

The bad news...

I just spent most of my second month (and half my third month) with a new employer, dead sick. For two weeks of that, I've been damn near useless.

I've been so sick, I've barely done any useful work in the last two weeks (I've been doing a lot of reading and research, and a little bit of writing), and I haven't been on anything billable for four weeks.

Also, I'm still in Arizona, a month after I was supposed to be back in New England, with at least a few more weeks to go before I actually make it back.

They're somewhat less than thrilled with me at the moment.

The good news...

I've got two pieces of good news actually.

First, the pneumonia seems to have broken. I haven't had a fever in over 24 hours, my coughing is greatly diminished... the only major thing really left is a particularly nasty sinus problem... and I think that's really a leftover, not a new sinus infection.

Second, we found a new house... and it's damn near exactly what we were looking for, at about half the price the Laconia place was (though it is MUCH more remote... which is both good and bad). Even better the owners are going to work with us on a lease to buy option. We're in the process of signing on it now (more on this house in a later post).

Ok, vent over... 

You know what's not fun?

Two adults, living out of a suitcase for a month, in one room, with a 10 month old teething baby with growing pains.

And trying to work during that time.

And when all three of us manage to get sick twice.

And the sleep deprivation that comes along with all that.

We haven't been writing much, because... all of the above.

I'm sick as hell... can't think, can barely breathe... and I've had about 20 hours total sleep, no more than 2 hours at a time, in the last week.

Such joy.

The return leg...

So, we haven't actually died on the road, nor have we taken over two weeks to get from New Hampshire to Arizona... Mel and I were both hit with the flu, while we were on the road... which is always a joy; and have had a hard time shaking it off.

After the nightmare that was the trip out, we had decided we were going to try to relax more on the way back. Unfortunately, we left a couple days late because of work, throwing all our plans in disarray... and then the flu.

The first "day", we ended up not actually leaving North Hampton, NH til Midnight Sunday morning.

We decided to take the backroad route through New Hampshire, Vermont, and upstate New York; running most of the 450 miles between New Hampton and Rochester on twisty mountain 2 lane "highways"... which, late at night with no-one around, is... rather interesting...

It's surprising how well the new Explorers (that's what we rented for the trip) handle, and the V6 has a fair bit of grunt. I took advantage of the clear weather, and clear late night roads, and we made pretty great time all the way out to western New York.

We didn't actually get on an interstate at all until Schenectady; so about 200 miles on backroads at the beginning, and the last 40 were on state routes and county roads. 

Shortly after dawn Sunday morning, we stopped for the day at a friends place off to the west of Rochester. Mel had slept along the way, so she hung out while I slept for a few hours. Once I got up, we went out to a great dinner with four friends we hadn't been able to see in person in a number of years.

18 hours down, 4 friends visited, one good meal had with said friends... not bad...

Again, we didn't head out til quite late... around 11:30pm, but that was part of the plan. Well... 10pm had been part of the plan, but dinner with friends ran a little long. That said, we had made great time on late night back roads and deserted interstates, and figured we'd be able to do so again. 

... and then the ice storms came back...

We had intended to get to Columbus Sunday night (about 375 miles from Rochester), but some time before midnight, the ice storm we had been hoping to avoid closed in on us. We went from averaging over 70mph, to under 50mph... and a nervous 50mph at that. The black ice for the last 120 miles was scary bad

At one point, while stopping for gas in eastern Ohio, we actually slid down an entire off ramp, across the intersection, and partway up the onramp opposite.

So yeah, for safeties sake we decided to stop for the night at that point, and only made it to Cleveland (230 miles). That mean an extra 140 or so miles to reach Mels aunt and uncle in Macomb Illinois on Monday (580 miles).  

Did I mention that I was working the whole week? Yeah, I would work in the morning, start driving in the afternoon, and finish up my day before getting to sleep for the night. 

So, the ice cleared up around noon, and we grabbed lunch, and hit the highway again, for what was actually our first long stretch on the interstate during daylight.

We made it over to Gary.. actually Hammond, Indiana (345 miles) by dinner time (well... 7pm), and had a semi-famous smashed burger and a shake at Shoops (pretty good burgers and shakes actually... thus why Shoops is semi-famous). 

... and then the ice storms came back...

The 225 non-stop, and mostly non-interstate miles from Hammond to Macomb (driving right by "Ron Swanson actor Nick Offermans home town of Minooka) took almost 5 hours, most of them white knuckle icy miles in limited visibility at reduced speed.

At one point I watched a pickup truck actually spin on the road in front of me... and recover, managing to drive off safely. 

We finally pulled into Macomb a bit after midnight, and managed to get a good nights... well, 7 hours or so, which for me is a lot... sleep; and had a great morning through early afternoon with Mels aunt and uncle, their who's about Mel's age, and her cute little daughters.

Three days, four friends, and six family members visited... two ice storms weathered...

We left Macomb about 2pm, and were planning on hitting Kansas City (about 300 miles and almost none of it interstate) for dinner and to visit with Mel's middle brother and family, but we couldn't work a schedule out, and decided to push on to Topeka (360 miles). 

We could have easily made it to Salina, but this being new years eve, we didn't want to be on the road too late, and settled in to our hotel abou 10pm, again to get a good night sleep, prepping for the longer push to Colorado Springs the next day.

... and no ice storms were forecast for the next day...

We left the hotel 10am new years day, heading for a lunch meetup with my good friend of 10 years, Jeffro of the Poor Farm. 

... and then the ice storms came back...

By the time we made it to Hays, the ice and snow was blowing hard. 

The only good thing about the combination of 30 knot winds, heavy snow, and 12 degree temperatures, is that the wind is too high for the snow to   on the highway.

I've really got to stop saying "if the weather holds". Every time I do, it doesn't. We ended up spending about 2 hours sitting out the heaviest part of a mini-blizzard in Hays Kansas.

You know the snow is bad when you go in for lunch clear, and come out an hour later to 4" on your car.

You know it's REALLY bad when by the time you finish clearing the car, you've got to go back and clear where you started over again.

We had to get back on the road to make sure we made our hard deadline of Colorado Springs that night, and the snow started to let up, so we set off around 3pm from Hays (about 320 miles, and a time zone change). 

It cleared up about an hour out of Hays, and we managed to stay clear for... oh, all of about 2 hours. 

... and then the ice storms came back...

This time it was so bad that they actually closed I-70 down around us. The ice was so bad on the grade up to Limon, that a bunch of vehicles slid off the road.

Literally, as we were pulling off the Interstate into a truck stop in Limon, the troopers were closing the interstate for 20 miles both sides of Limon. Eventually they closed it all the way from east of Limon, over to strasbourg, on the approaches to Denver.

... only we were heading downgrade into the springs along 24, so lucky us, we could keep going.

24 was not significantly distinguishable from a luge run, and that's all I'll say about that.

But we made it to our family dinner... a little late... but we made it. The Springs was actually clear, and the ride into town was really quite pretty, with the lights and the hills etc...

A few things I had forgotten since I last slept in Colorado Springs:

1. Much of the city is at around 7000 foot altitude
2. 7000 feet is pretty high
3. There is considerably less oxygen at 7000 feet

Hypoxia aside, we had a great day in the springs, stayed longer to extend our time with some family... I may write about that in the future... and so I could get some work done.

Day five, 7 friends, 11 family members visited...

Our original plan was to leave relatively early, and make it one long day to our endpoint in Arizona. We ended up not leaving Colorado Springs quite late, so changed our plans, deciding to stop for the night in Santa Fe (335 miles), so we could have dinner and hang with another friend.

A few things I had forgotten since I last slept in Santa Fe:

1. Much of the city is at around 7000 foot altitude
2. 7000 feet is pretty high
3. There is considerably less oxygen at 7000 feet

As an aside, I can recommend the Santa Fe Bar & Grille, we had a great dinner there, with excellent service, and a great beer selection.

I can also VERY STRONGLY recommend Tecolote Cafe. It's honestly one of the best places I've ever eaten, and it's cheap, with amazing customer service to boot.

Again, I worked til about 3pm (in the aforementioned cafe in fact), and then we ran down to Mesa (460 miles), getting in around 11pm.

Six days down, 8 friends, 11 family members visited... 

So,  being sick the whole time, and having to work 'til the afternoon most days, not great.

Being stuck in ice storms almost every night... really not great.

Being able to take our time, visit and relax and hang out with friends and family we haven't seen in years... really great.

Off on the road again

So, after exactly one month in New Hampshire to get settled in the new job and find a house (we've managed both. We've rented a house in Laconia from Jan 15th); we're on the road back to Arizona to pick up our truck, trailer, stuff, and dogs.

Our original plan was to leave Thursday evening, but work had me on standby to work on site at a client in Columbus, OH next week. That was postponed, but we didn't get word til end of day Friday, so we delayed departure to tonight.

We have to get out of the northeast by tomorrow afternoon to avoid another ice storm, and to get the rental back by tuesday (which probably isn't happening because of the delay. It'll most likely be Wednesday).

We're taking the northern route, from New Hampton, NH to Mesa, AZ, via Rochester NY, Macomb IL, Colorado Springs CO, Albuquerque NM, and Flagstaff AZ, and visiting some friends and family along the way.

Holy CRAP Moving is EXPENSIVE

Holy CRAP Moving is EXPENSIVE!

So I just totalled up the costs of the move to date...

Reimbursable expenses alone; only covering the actual trip up here, rental truck, fuel and mileage, meals, and hotels...

$4,788

... damn...

That's not including any of the expenses for temporary housing, restaurants, food etc... for the 26 day house hunting trip.

... and we've still got to drive back to AZ, then back from AZ to NH again (revised est. cost $4,300).

Surprisingly, the biggest expense isn't the fuel, its the hotels and the food. Fuel is actually smaller than either.

Our original estimate of total moving costs was $8,000, so we're looking at about $1000 over budget, or about 12%.

... of course, as I said, that doesn't include the increased costs for this month, restaurants, fuel etc...

Mad Rush - Day 1 - AAR

Lessons Learned--

Point one: When the voice in the back of your head says "maybe you should do this thing just in case", you should generally listen.

In this case, it was "put a CB in the rental". I have a CB for my truck, but it's not a handheld. I don't happen to own a handheld CB at the moment. I thought about getting one to take in the rental with me, but I figured... "ehhh, what the hell, I probably won't need it". I also neglected to bring my handheld amateur radio, again thinking, "ehh, we're not going off the interstates, it'd be nice to have, but I probably won't need it".

I was wrong. I needed it. Badly.

Remember that adage, better to have it and not need it, than need it and not have it? Yeah...

For lack of information and preparation, we ended up stuck in the midst of literally thousands of trucks, for 5 hours, and 40 miles, of cell dead zone; with no way of getting information about what was happening, or why; and no information about the incoming weather.

The rental truck was supposed to have weather radio, and it does, sort of. Unfortunately, it's not NOAA weather radio, it's satellite weather, and is dependent on the Sirius working. For some reason, it wasn't. We got several sirius stations, but not weather or traffic; and we couldn't call them to fix it. There was no AM or FM local traffic or weather coverage either (thank you very much clear channel), just sports talk, top 40, and spanish language; with no local news, traffic, or weather.

So, I'd made myself blind and helpless, with the wave of a hand.

If I'd been able to listen to the truckers, I could've got off the highway, turned around, and taken an alternate route... or just gone back to El Paso to hang out with Rod. And when it came time for the I-20 split, I could've heard their reports about the nastiness that was coming, and continued down the I-10 down to San Antonio, which stayed clear.

Yeah, it would've added miles, but they'd have been safe and clear miles, and I would've at least been able to make Dallas (or maybe stayed south for Houston) by stop time tonight.

Point two: Internet connected apps are great. Use them, enjoy them... don't depend on them. 5 hours in a dead zone, with no information, NOT FUN.

Similarly, and related, OnStar, SyncServices and other connected vehicle systems that offer emergency assistance, information, weather, traffic etc... don't work in cell dead zones.

We were using an android weather app for weather mapping. It's awesome. We can see realtime weather maps, radar, forecasts etc...

... except when there's no data connection, for hours...

Point three:  Pack the Gear, Check the Gear, Maintain the Gear; so that when you NEED the Gear, you HAVE the Gear.

Prior Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance.

When making long distance, cross country, or back country trips in rental/borrowed vehicles, make sure to prep the vehicle, with at least the critical elements, of the same gear and supplies you prep your own vehicle with.

If I get into trouble with my truck, I know that I have the gear and supplies to get out of all but the most severe situations. I can self rescue, or safely wait out to rescue. With this rental truck, as is... we've got SOME of the gear and supplies we normally have, but not enough to be confident.

Yeah, we'd be safe until rescue under normal circumstances... but what about abnormal, but reasonably possible, and easy to prepare for, circumstances?

... Like, oh, say, an ice storm in northwest Texas maybe...

So, first thing I did after we ate dinner, was hit up wally world for supplies and gear we'd neglected to transfer from our truck (just a few little things. The one thing I'm unhappy not having is some recovery gear, but it's a rental. If it needs recovery, I shouldn't be doing it, I should be calling someone from the rental company to do it).

Second thing, was to go buy a CB/weather radio, a 12v power lead, and an external magnetic mount antenna (factory rubber ducks aren't worth a damn, particularly in rough country. We radio geeks call them "portable dummy loads" or "flexible test resistors" for a reason).

I will not be blind and helpless again like that if I can avoid it.

Mad Rush - Day 1 - Bloody Hell!

Well....

That sucked.

So, we slept in a little bit this morning, thinking we'd be well ahead of the weather, and still be able to make Little Rock, or at least Hope or Texarkana, before we wanted to bed down.

.... and we would have been.

But for this:

http://www.elpasotimes.com/latestnews/ci_24581851/border-patrol-agent-injured-rollover-accident-near-sierra

Which, by the by, is nowhere near the full or true story. More on that in another post, another time.

What it came down to, was that we were at a dead stop, or slow crawl on I-10 for about 5 hours.

Even better, we were in in a cell and data deadzone for most of that time. Thankfully we had plenty of gas, plenty of drinks and snacks, and audiobooks (and didn't need to use the bathroom).

We first came to a stop a couple miles past Texas state road 34, mile 87. We had literally dozens of emergency vehicles, mostly border patrol, but some county sheriffs and texas highway patrol, and some local ambulance and fire; racing back and forth by us for hours... Even worse, they were inspecting trucks and trailers for the first few of those hours (which, I suspect, is WHY it was hours, not a few minutes).

... as I said, more on that another time, in another post.

After crawling our way a few hundred yards at a time, with 2-20 minutes stops in between, up to mile 107; we were shunted off I-10 onto Texas 1111 in a "town" called Sierra Blanca.

It was after 3pm at this point, with over 4.5 hours spent moving those 20-ish miles.

Even better however, was that they were not allowing access to the eastbound lanes at all. They forced us into a diversion route. It took us almost 20 minutes just to make the turns from the off ramp, onto the state road, under the highway, then onto an unmarked road paralleling the highway, for 13 miles; with a Sheriff's vehicle or Border patrol vehicle blocking all egress from the road, and all access to I-10.

So, we made those 13 miles at about 30mph, in convoy with the hundreds of trucks that had been stopped, finally making it back onto the highway at Van Horn, about 40 miles from the I-10/I-20 split.

By now it was 3:45, 5 hours from when we had first come to a stop.

Now... the whole idea of leaving Friday night, had been to get through Texas before the nasty weather hit Saturday night; then through the southeast before the nasty weather hit Tuesday; and into New England before the nasty weather hit Wednesday.

Basically, were trying to run between the storm systems.

Unfortunately, by the time we got back on the highway, and particularly by the time we hit I-20 around 4pm; the weather had overtaken us, and we started to get some pretty nasty wind, ice rain, hail, fog etc...

By 4:45, we had passed 4 major injury or multi-fatality crashes (a couple we could see directly, others... I've seen a lot of accidents... barring a miracle, they were not surviving those), and the weather map looked like this:

On the ground, it was a hell of a lot worse. We were alternating between torrential rain, frozen rain, and near whiteout conditions; with over an inch of ice, slush, and hail on the roads, high winds, driving frozen rain, and ice fog. Our windshield wipers could barely keep up (though the heater had no problem keeping us comfy... It dropped from 39 degrees to 23 degrees in a matter of minutes).

So, the second we got data signal back, we booked the next hotel we could get into (in Pecos), and white knuckled it the remaining 15 miles or so.

Between the I-10/I-20 split, and our hotel (a total distance of 43 miles), we passed a total of 7 major injury or multi-fatality accidents, including 5 rollovers, and a three car multi-rollover (with one vehicle over the guard rail between the travel lanes of an overpass, crashing down to the roadway below). That doesn't include the half dozen cars we saw off the road (including one in front of us, and one across the median) , two we saw actually spin (one in front of, one across the median from us) and the several wrecked semi's pulled off into the median.

They closed both the I-20 and I-10 behind us, a few minutes after we got off the road. A T-Dot official came into the hotel while we were checking in and told everyone. Their crews were filling up rooms quick.

Every hotel room in Pecos was full before 6pm tonight; and the 18 wheelers are filling up all the local parking lots. There's at least a dozen of them in the Wal Mart parking lot alone; and there must've been 100+ in and around the flying J.

I found out later that they had pulled so many wrecks off the road in this sector of the I-20 alone, that their tow yard couldn't handle them. They used that same local Wal Mart as an overflow. I counted 11 total writeoffs in the Wal Mart parking lot when I went by there later... and who knows how many in their local tow yard(s).

I can say without any exaggeration; that was the single worst day of travel I have ever had, that didn't involve the death of someone important to me.

Mad Rush - Day 1

Starting out in El Paso this morning, 410 miles down, about 2500 to go.

As soon as I finish writing this we're going to head to the car and go, so we can figure a 10am start. We slept in a bit (since neither of us managed to fall asleep 'til 3 or so), and took the time for breakfast.

We're going to decide on the road whether we're stopping, or pausing, in Dallas. If we hustle, we'll make Dallas for dinner time, depending on traffic. Unfortunately, then there's dealing with Dallas traffic.

Basically, if we stop for dinner in Dallas, we're probably stopping for the night.

Otherwise, again if we hustle, we can get to at least Hope Arkansas, and maybe as far as Little Rock. That would be nice, since it would make tomorrows run to Johnson City a much more pleasant, short day.

Meanwhile... it's nothing but 800 or so miles of Texas...

Mad Rush - Day 0.5

So, we rolled into El Paso shortly before 2am... or rather to a holiday inn on the east side of the city, so we don't have to cross town in the morning.

We ended up leaving about an hour later than planned, then made a couple more stops than we planned (the little man was being a bit fussy this time around); so our actual drive time was about what we expected.

We found what looks like a decent place for breakfast just down the road, Bad Ass Coffee... could be interesting.

I'm used to our truck... 490 miles before I hit "e"... This brand new exploder we rented does get better mileage, but the ridiculously small tank is an irritation. It's only 16 gallons from totally topped off, to the low fuel alert. It's only 410 miles from door to door, and we had to stop twice (topped tanks in Tucson, then refueled fully outside Las Cruces NM). 

At this point we're thinking sleeping a little late, and stopping in Dallas for the night. We'll see how we feel when we wake up. 

Oh and we took what will most likely be our last opportunity to eat In-n-Out for a while...

... The boy approves. He likes the fries (he'd be one of the few. Love the burgers, but their fries aren't great).

A Mad Rush... Through a Damn Blizzard... Awww hell no...

Sonofabitch...

Well, we'd planned our trip to be Sunday through mid-day Thursday, arriving in Weymouth, MA in time for Thanksgiving dinner, then heading up to my Aunt Helens place in New Hampton, NH.

Further, we were planning on staying on the 40 through to eastern Tennessee, and stopping at Mels aunt and uncle in Johnson City, so that her uncle can see the baby (he's in ill health and can't travel anymore); and stopping in to see my Aunt in New Jersey (again, so she can see the baby).

...looks like nature has other plans...

If we followed out original plan, we'd be driving up the I-95 corridor in the worst part of this weather, for three days (a 5 day total trip, of appx 2900 miles).

Yeah... no... we're not going to do that.

Well, first thing, we've decided NOT to drive up with the trailer first time up. We're going to drive up bare vehicle, leaving the trailer and the dogs, with Mels dad. This will make our trip faster, with better fuel economy, and, given the weather... not suicidal.

I REALLY do not want to try to haul 20,000lbs and 60ft by 8 foot 6" of combined vehicle on northeastern roads, on a holiday week, in that weather.

... and in the long run, it will be easier to find a house without having the trailer and the dogs to worry about.

We'll come back after Christmas, pick up the trailer and the dogs and do the trip all over again, only slower... but at least we should have a house to take the trailer and dogs too by then.

Second... we're not taking OUR truck. We rented a brand new Explorer (the company is paying for it, not me). It'll be comfortable, safe, 50% better fuel economy (using much cheaper fuel. Diesel is NOT cheap in the northeast, and can be a pain to find off the major highways), it'll save the mileage and maintenance on our truck, and it should be a faster drive in it.

Plus, we'll have it the entire month, in Boston and New Hampshire, and it'll be a lot easier to get around Boston with than the 23 foot long 7 foot tall Truck of Doom.

Third.. we're not leaving Sunday anymore. We're leaving tonight if we can manage it. We've already done all the prep work we need to do in Phoenix, we've just got to finish packing, and packing the truck.

So, tonight, we scoot out of here, and drive until we need to stop to make sure we get a rested and early start tomorrow.

This should give us all day Saturday and Sunday, and most of Monday, before the bad weather hits.

When we were going to take the trailer, our route wasn't even really a question. We were going to have to backtrack from Kearny to the I-17, then north to I-40.

Without the trailer, we're a lot more flexible. Right now, we're trying to decide if it's quicker/safer/easier trying to take the backroads through the mountains of eastern Arizona and New Mexico up to Albequerque to take I-40; adding 200+ miles to the trip backtracking to I-17 and going up to the 40 through flagstaff; or adding 150 miles and taking the southern routing across Texas.

Right now, we're leaning towards Texas; because it's been raining hard all night and all day, and 385, or 585 miles of mountain roads, in the wet, to get to ABQ, vs the broad, straight, fast highways of Texas... yeah...

If we want, and the weather is good, we can still visit Mels family in Tennessee. Depending on how far we get tonight, we could be there Sunday night, or Monday morning.

... Or we might just push straight through, take the midwestern route splitting off I-40 in OKC, straight up into New Hampshire; and try to get to New Hampton on Tuesday, instead of Weymouth mid-day Thursday... we'll decide while we're on the road, based on conditions and the time we're making.

UPDATE:

Ok, we're definitely leaving tonight, and we've got our route and schedule planned out:

We're leaving in an hour-ish (around 1800 mountain), and will be aiming to hit somewhere around El Paso before we stop for the night on day 0.5.

Full day one (Saturday): It's on to somewhere around Hope Arkansas... we may stop in Dallas for dinner with Mels brothers (she hasn't seen them in like 4 years, and they haven't seen the baby yet). We may even stop for the night, and just accept the 4 or 5 hours lost travel time.

Day two (Sunday): We head to Johnson City TN. If we stop in Dallas for the night Saturday that's a bit far, so we may not make it to Johnson city, in which case we'd stop in Nashville, or Knoxville, and head to Johnson city in the morning, stopping there for lunch, and doing an overnight rest, making it day two or three.

Day three or four (Monday or Tuesday): It's on to Medford, NJ, and my aunt Maureen, who hasn't met the baby yet either. That's a relatively short day, for flexibility.

Day four or five, (Tuesday or Wednesday): It's just a six hour ride from NJ to New Hampton, NH., or just a four and a half hour ride to my dads place in Weymouth, MA.

If we push, it gets us off the roads entirely before the snow starts Tuesday night... and gives us a day of flexibility if we have any problems, or if we want to take some time to visit with family, before the snow gets really bad on Wednesday night. If we relax, we're still off the road before things get bad on Wednesday night.

Boston In a Mad Rush

... Well, technically Weymouth, then somewhere in New Hampshire, but very definitely in a mad rush.

So, I start the new job December 2nd with a few days in Chicago for orientation, and they're working on my first engagement already. I may be traveling right back out the following Monday to a client around DC.

Which leaves us with a difficult decision...

1. Wait to move to NH until I get a free week or so, living in AZ and flying to clients out of PHX in the mean time (which means we'll still need to move... find a six month short term rental; because we're 2 hours from the airport where we are now), then take a week PTO to do the move

OR

2. Pack up and drive to Weymouth in the next few days, to be rested enough to fly to Chicago on Monday the 2nd.

After careful consideration we've chosen option number 2...

Which is going to be fun lemme tellya.

The GOOD news, is that we've been living out of one small room the last couple months, so it's a matter of hours to repack the truck and the trailer, and head on out.

The BAD news is that I need to put two new tires on the truck, and fix or replace a trailer tire (it's losing air... I'm probably going to do both; get a new tire, and get the old one repaired to serve as a second spare). I also need to do a full fluid change on the truck (and no, it's not something we can put off 'til after... I should have done it before the trip from Idaho to AZ), and I need to get my power steering rack inspected, because it's being wonky.

So the next few days are going to be crazy.

With a loaded trailer, it's a 4 day drive pushing hard, or a 5 day drive taking it easy... we're going to take it easy.

That means, in order to get to Weymouth in time to eat thanksgiving with my family, we need to leave Sunday morning at the latest.

... I swear, I'm not a masochist...

Falling over, but at least into our own beds

It's amazing how fast the miles are eaten up, when you've got the cruise control locked at 84mph.

No matter how fast though, there are still 1500 someodd of them, between the reception hall, and home

No matter how comfortable, smooth, fast, and well appointed your car is, it's still not very fun having to spend 24 driving hours in it.

Doing it for the second time in just less than a month, while still recovering from pneumonia... Yeah not fun at all.

So the numbers... 1522 total miles (including a detour or two), at an average road hours speed of 65.6mph. We did it in 24 on the road hours with about five hours in gas and food stops, for 19 hours actual drive time; so our actual driving speed average was just about 80mph (which is about right, since I wasn't kidding about having the cruise locked at 84 almost the entire way).

That's actually a lot better than we'd planned. It's pretty hard to make a road hours average of much more than 50mph on most trips; and an actual driving speed average of 80 is DAMN good.

Our average mileage en route was 24.4mpg, for a total of about 63 gallons of gas burned; which was also a lot better than we'd planned. This is especially true, because we were doing 84 the whole way (including through the mountains, both up and down). During some stretches where we were limited to 74 (I kept it to plus 9) I was seeing sustained 28.7mpg.

We did two overnights, taking it a bit easier than the last trip; so our total time enroute, was 41 hours, for a total trip average of about 37mph.

However, even taking it easier, and much more comfortably; we still managed the trip in 7 fewer driving hours, and 13 fewer hours overall than with the truck and trailer. Don't even need to talk about how much better average speed, or how much less fuel etc...

Oh and no blowouts, and no mechanical damage.

Overall... It was a much better trip than the first time. The kids were great, the car was as comfortable as any car can be for so much time in it, and we enjoyed some audiobooks along the way.

The kids are freaking out about how awesome the new house is, and the dogs are freaking out at how awesome it is to have the girls back.

We're just exhausted, and are about ready to fall over for a day or so.

Not Quite Back yet

We're still unpacking here... Will be for a while I'm sure, but in particular, at the moment we don't have anything but the basics sorted.

Added to that, we're both still sick.

Moving is draining, physically, emotionally, temporally, and financially (ooohhh boy has this been WAY more expensive than planned... several thousand dollars more expensive than planned and we 'aint done yet).

Too draining for blogging to resume quite yet. Lots of stuff to blog about, lots of stuff written or partially formed... just need a couple more days to sort things out before we're ready to really blog again.

So watch this space for content in the near future.

Idaho, We Are Here

Two days late by plan, and after a grand total of 31 hours of driving and/or idling (we spent a fair bit of time idling by the side of the road unfortunately), and 54 hours grand total (the last 18 of which we spent driving and/or idling by the side of the road)... WE HAVE ARRIVED AT OUR NEW HOME.

Because of the heavy, and not necessarily very stable trailer; I did all the driving this time (which is why we only stopped after three hours the first night. After a long day, I was too tired, and in too much pain to continue).

Yesterday... well, I was certainly too much pain, having had to deal with three tires blowing on two occaisons, including two just 3.5 miles from home (still dealing with that one actually), and god knows I was tired; but I was also wired, and we made the full 18 hour haul (including the time spent dealing with the blowouts) in one long go.

In the process we drove through five states; and Idaho twice (leaving Idaho to travel through Montana, and back in to Idaho) because there is no good way to get to Sandpoint from Pocatello by road, without leaving the state.

It was a total of just under 1600 miles, including a few side trips. I havent run the numbers in detail yet, but we burned about 140 gallons of diesel, at an average of right about $3 a gallon.

Amazingly enough, not only did the dogs behave themselves for the most part; but they had a grand old time... and so far they love the new place (there are DUCKS to chase!!!!).

Now, onto the REALLY hard part... Unpacking.

God help us...

Blowout

Just lost 3 hours to this:

Location:Blackfoot,United States

I brought THREE jacks with me: a 12 ton high lift bottle jack, a 4.5 ton low profile high lift floor jack, and the normal screw jack that stows under the seat of the truck.

The bottle jack decided that it wouldn't take any load at all. Seems like a bad seal.

The floor jack work fine, until it was about 2/3 up to its full extension; when suddenly it wouldn't lift any more.

That's usually a symptom of a jack over its weight limit, but there is no way a 4.5 ton jack should be overloaded by a max 5 ton trailer (ok, lets say it's overloaded, and it's 6 tons instead of five... STILL).

The one that actually did the job, was the little screw jack that comes with my truck. In fact it worked perfectly, quickly, and easier than the floor jack... It weighs about 2 pounds, the floor jack weighs over 100...

The reasons it took 3 hours were threefold:

1. I tried the floor and bottle jacks first, and NEITHER decided to work
   
   
2. I didn't think the jack that came with my truck would WORK for something like this, so didn't try it until I had already workd a dozen different angles on the other two jacks
   
   
3. I refuse to run without a spare, so we stopped by a tire shop off the next exit, and got one (which took about 45 minutes, including the time for the detour. The tire shop took 20 minutes to mount and balance the tire on our existing (and thankfully still good) rim.

I made a half joke after remounting the new spare on the trailer tongue "Now we're good, so long as we don't lose two at once"...

862 Miles down, 694 Miles to go, and some numbers to run alongside

So, as of 2230 pacific time (we're running the trip on Pacific, since we are starting and ending on it) last night, we've made 862 miles, in 15.5 driving hours plus 2.5 hours of meal and gas stops.

Our driving average is 55mph; and excluding overnights, we're making a real average of about 49mph.

It's not so much that we're "taking our time", it's really a combination of three things:

1. the trailer prefers to be driven between 63 and 72mph. Below that and we're a gear low to keep in powerband (and yes, you need to keep in powerband when you're towing a heavy trailer) and the fuel economy goes to hell. Above that, and the trailer sways more than is prudent, and the fuel economy goes to hell.

2. We've transited several major urban areas, across Arizona, Nevada, and Utah; in ALL of which was extensive construction. Also, we were on a 55mph piece of road the entire time we were in CA (us 95), and it actually IS a 55mph road, with lots of tight curves, whoopdedos etc... (it would be nice on a motorcycle, at a leisurely pace).

3. We spent a lot of time on long and steep uphill grades. We've basically been climbing the entire time since we left Phoenix; climbing from Phoenixes 1200 or so feet, to Ogens 4300 or so feet, summiting around 6500 somewhere in south central Utah.

Once we hit the plateau in between the big passes in central Utah, we were able to maintain an almost 70mph average; and our fuel economy went up to 12.8mpg, our best at 70mph for the trip. Our best overall for the trip was 14.8, but that was on a flat, smooth stretch of highway with no stop and go, but traffic restricted to 60mph for about 100miles.

Our worst mileage for the trip so far is 8.4mpg, on several of the long, steep grades; where we were lucky if we could maintain 3rd gear.

Our normal unladen fuel economy is 16-18mpg around town, and through the mountains, and 21-24mpg highway (depending on how much we put the boot to it). So yeah, it's a big drop, but it's actually a lot better than most trucks would be (a gas truck hauling this same load would likely be 5-7mpg), and it's about what we figured on.

We're going to be on the road again shortly... After checking the load, the lugs on the trailer and the truck, tire pressures and topping fuel and fluids (which we do at every fuel stop. You don't mess around when towing heavy loads).

We've got 694 miles to go, no more major urban area (Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Butte, Missoula, and Couer D'Alene, none of which count as major) to transit, and only a couple major grades to deal with (coming out of dubois up to Butte, then into and out of Missoula, and through lookout pass over to Coeur D'Alene) we should be able to up the average quite a lot. I think we can maintain 70mph most of the way, and average 60mph including stops for today.

We plan on making it to the house late tonight, with 12 driving hours, and 14-15 total hours (which is about what we did yesterday) under the tires.

Should be pretty.

Trailers Here...

...And it's a big bastard.

So am I, and you can see the scale thereof. It's a 28'x8.5' haulmark, optioned up the wazoo. Most importantly, extra internal D-Rings, upgraded wheels and tires (and most importantly, upgraded sealed permanent bearings), and upgraded electric brakes.

In Just 7 Days

We'll be on the road on our way to our new home.

We're changing houses, cities, states, regions. We're packing up 2 adults, 2 kids, and 3 dogs and transferring the whole family 1400 miles due north.

This plan has been in the works for months (since August actually) but sped up due to our rental house in Scottsdale going into default and going up for short sale. Total notice: 2 1/2 weeks.

Luckily for us we'd already laid the foundation for moving, just not that quickly.

So next Sunday we'll be leaving for our new house near Sandpoint, ID.

Content will be very sparse and emails responded to very slowly.

Chris will be writing a more detailed post about this tomorrow.