Issues of a Nomad's Existence: A Complaint

Darling Wife and I continue to make preparations in keeping with our stated purpose to migrate back across the country next year. It has long been our intention to sell most of our furniture, saving only a few choice items, like our bed, which would free us from our material burdens and make our flight considerably easier. This measure would allow us, in theory, to transport the remainder of our household goods in a POD, and drive ourselves and our canine companions across the plain in our roomy sedan.

As the end of the month approaches, and bill-paying time is once again upon us, financial thoughts and budgeting aspects fill my waking hours. Consequently, I contacted PODS this past weekend to get a price quote for our relocation. The courteous and helpful British woman I spoke to took all of the specifics and told me - brace yourself- that it would cost $4, 305! I promptly hung up the phone.

Can you fathom it? That is an outrageous fee when we'd still have the expense of transporting ourselves, and we would have all of the packing, loading, and unloading to do. I think you could almost hire professional movers for such a sum.

So I turned to the poor man's moving friend, U-Haul. Darling Wife and I drove such a vehicle across this vast nation of ours when we moved to CA more than three years ago, and it was not an experience I wanted to repeat. Driving the distance isn't so bad - we'11 be doing that anyway - but doing it in a moving truck is not fun. The winds on the deserts and prairies struggle to turn you over or push you off the road the entire time, and it's a constant struggle to keep the contents of the truck from shifting around turns. I can handle it, of course, but I really didn't want to if there were any other way. We also have the car now, which we didn't have before, and which we'll have to pull that behind us. That adds additional difficulties to the driving. And then there are the dogs; having two dogs in a moving truck for almost 3,000 miles doesn't sound appealing either. But what are we to do?

According to U-haul's website, we'll get nine days to load and unload the truck and make the cross-country journey. That's a bit tight, don't you think? And it will cost almost $1, 500 for the truck, another $450 for the car trailer, plus there's the considerable expense of gas. So we're still looking at over $2, 000 even with this "cheaper" option.

It's almost enough to make us want to sell all of our belongings, save our money, and start fresh once we return to the civilized east. Fear not, I haven't exhausted all options yet. I just needed to vent.