Today was a hellish adventure. Big time. Today was moving day.

It all started well enough. Woke up and drove to Budget Truck Rental place to get my 10′ truck. Ohhhh but they were out of 10′ trucks, so they automatically upgraded me to a 16′ truck! Yay! I don’t really enjoy driving something that big, so it wasn’t a good start, really.

Our first destination was to pick up a free couch. It’s sort of crappy, but it’s free and doesn’t smell like cat urine or smoke, so it’s light years better than the ones we’ve been seeing at thrift stores.

After the free couch, we were on our way to pick up a pretty cool “retro” kitchen table when the driver’s side windshield wiper fell off. It was raining pretty hard too. Oh, and I was on a pretty busy highway type thing.

Thankfully, I was able to find a parking lot and switched the passenger side wiper over to the driver’s side. Ugh. Not fun.

We got the table and then drove to Kent, where the shipping pod thing was. Before having it shipped to Seattle, we locked it up with a really hearty Master Lock. And before we went to pick it up, we forgot to grab the keys to that Master Lock. Thankfully, the terminal where the pod was stored had a handy set of bolt cutters. In about five minutes the lock was toast.

It took about an hour and a half to load the contents of the shipping container into the big ass truck. A few things were damaged in transit – lost a small shelf, but nothing major. And really, this part wasn’t all that difficult. We were tired and on the verge of soar – though at the end, we were both pretty exhausted.

So on to Ikea we went. A few things were needed, so we got those a few a others (you know how it goes). After schlepping the Ikea things into the truck, we were even more beat. I was dragging. But the work was only half-over.

Upon arriving at the new place, we had to unload everything and take it up a flight of stairs. Fun? No. We were spent and could hardly move. It was horrible. Ryan was supposed to help us, but he got into a car accident (he’s ok – so is the car, for the most part – it was some other guy’s fault). We were left without help.

Thankfully, Jasmine, our new next door neighbor, helped us out! She came out and asked if she could help. Normally, I’d say no – even if we needed a little help. But tonight we needed a LOT of help. There was no way we could have emptied the truck by ourselves. By the end of the night, I couldn’t move my right arm/wrist and my left knee gave out. Smartz was very beat too. Jasmine was very helpful! Yay!

The couch was the big dilemma. None of us were in any condition to move it. So Jasmine called the guy from across the street and he and I move it up the stairs (no easy task).

After such things, we returned the truck and headed over to Ryan and Jamie’s for some vegan pizza and pumpkin bars! Delicious! We are staying at their place one more night because neither of us had the energy to move anything else.

So yes, we are all moved in! Now all that must happen is the unpacking. After that’s all settled, I’ll take pics!

Here are some from today…

As promised, here are the new apartment pics. We will be moving into the place tomorrow – taking everything from the pod to a truck to the apartment. We still need to get some furniture (like bookshelves!).

I’m pretty excited about finally having a real apartment! I’ve not had one of those since 2006 (when Nikki and I moved out of the Lewisburg place on 4th Street).

Anyway, our new place will be quite a happenin’ pad, I betcha.

Here are the pics…

Yes, we got a place… but first the important news. We ate vegan doughnuts at Might-O! Sarah had her first Mighty-O experience and nearly died form a sugar rush. Funny!

We went there with Ryan, Taviri and Arkadi (I think I’m spelling that right) this morning. Woo!

And later that day, we met with the potential landlord to apply for a nice little place on 90th Street. After a few hours, he called and said we were approved! Huzzah! That was quick!

We’ll be moving in on Friday and buying some used furniture and stuff on Saturday. By next week, it should be feeling quite a bit like home. There will be photos of it soon, I promise! Woo!

Cannot wait!

Since we’ve got here, it’s been quite a whirlwind of fun. The first night, we hung out with Ryan and Jaime, which made me so happy to be in Seattle. The next morning, we hung out with Corby, who moved from Lewisburg a couple of months before we did. Ryan and Jaime, where we’re staying, live about six blocks away from Corby. Fun!

Our plan is to find an apartment, move all of our crap into it and then get jobs. We’ve looked at a few apartments, one of which appears to be a 1970’s bank – which is this close to being cool enough to move into … but not quite.

We’re putting in applications for one on 90th street, which is pretty far north, but in a good neighborhood and close to where Ryan and Jaime will be moving. There was another place, a house, that I really wanted, but no deal as they haven’t emailed us back (and provided no phone number).

This place on 90th has a garage. That’s dangerous for me as I have a list of scooters that I want. We’ll see what happens there.

We meet with the landlord tomorrow and hopefully everything will go well and he’ll want us. If not, we keep looking.

Before seeing the place on 90th, Jaime, Sarah, Prettypretty, Taviri and I headed to the park. Taviri and I played on the little jungle gym thing. He tuckered me out. Yay Taviri!

After we secure a house, I can finally move all of my legal and financial stuff to Seattle! I can’t wait for that. Since February, I’ve been basically “homeless” and/or traveling.

I’m feeling rather confidant and I hope that’s a good thing.

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To celebrate our move to Seattle, Calder has come up with yet another piece of fan art…

Well folks, we’re here! The day’s drive was pretty nice. Very pretty with a stop in Baker City, Oregon at the Oregon Trail Interpretative Center.

Mostly, we stuck to the interstates, which is not my favorite way to travel. However, it got us here pretty quickly, which, for today, was the important thing.

And now the trip is at an end. For me, it was a fairly short trip. I had a great time and thanks to all who read along with it.

It was Sarah’s first time across the country (by car), so I hope she enjoyed it. For me, it was my seventh, but the first time at most of the places.

In 2008, I have been in every state west of the Mississippi River, except Louisiana. Sorry, Louisiana, you’ll have to wait for another time. I think in 2008, I was able to visit 30 states. Not bad, really.

Thanks for reading, folks!
Here are the pics from today.

For those who followed me on Scoot 66, this day might look a bit familiar to you. This is pretty much the only time on “The Moving Trip” that I’ve covered ground previously covered on Scoot 66.

Today we hit the Grand Tetons and the Lava Beds of Idaho. We also traced a bit of the Oregon Trail. Just like on Scoot 66.

Now, there’s obviously a different feel here. For one, I’m with Smartz. I’m also in a car. It was a very different trip.

We’re moving out of the Wild West towns and into the immigrant trails towns. Both are pretty well gone and most definitely depressed. Dubois and Jackson, Wyoming were obvious exceptions – but we breezed through them (with the exception of a stop at the Ripley’s Believe It or Not Museum.

All in all, a good day.

Check out the pictures and get the full story.

We had a pretty amazing day today. Traveled well over 500 miles and saw a slew of very cool things. I’ll admit, it was a day crammed full of trains and I know that’s not everyone’s favorite thing – however, I think you’ll still enjoy parts of it.

We saw the landscape change from flat to rocky mountainish. Saw the snow disappear from the ground and appear on tops of peaks in the far distance.

We saw old towns, ghost towns, an old fort, cities, carhenge and hell’s half acre and so much more. We even ended the day by staying in the coolest motel of the trip so far! Yay!

Today was a very good day.

Especially if you like trains.
I do.

A lot.

But check out the pictures anyway!
There are a LOT of them – but, if you have some time, check them out. There are lots of captions too.

PS – Calder threw this together yesterday. At last! Our trip has a purpose!