The Moving Story Part 1: Utah

I am not 100% sure why I decided to move on a Friday.  It would have been far more logical to move the next day, when I wouldn't have to request work off, but move on a Friday I did...not that it has any real bearing on the story...it's just a minor detail.

My parents were kind enough to come help me with the move, I hired movers to do all the heavy lifting on both ends, but didn't feel comfortable driving a U-Haul by my lonesome...or at all...I really don't like driving large vehicles...I mean, really, I drive a Justy...

So anyway, I packed my schedule (and my belongings) a bit tight for the day, here is what the schedule for the day was supposed to look like:

8:00- Pick up the U-Haul
9:00- Movers arrive and pack up the truck
11:00ish (but no later than noon)- Set out for Idaho
2:00ish- Arrive in Idaho and pick up the washer/dryer from the nice guy from Craigslist who was holding them for me...but who had not as yet given me his address from whence to pick it up from
3:00- Arrive at my new apartment; meet the leasing agent at the apartment to pay initial rent and get the keys, movers arrive and unload the truck
5:00- Return the U-Haul

I very much like my time schedules, I like when they go according to plan...BUT I am flexible and can deal with it when things blow up...and did things blow up....

So when my parents got to my apartment, my dad and I headed to the U-Haul place to pick up the truck.  I've used this particular location before and they are really helpful, so that was nice.  Little did I know that I would be standing in the gas-station-converted-to-U-Haul-outpost for an hour....turns out that ALL of U-Haul was having difficulties...their entire site was down.  As the time was drawing near to 9:00, I started to panic a little bit because my movers were supposed to be arriving at my apartment any moment...and I wasn't even there!  Then I received a phone call...

From the moving company.  Apparently the batch of movers I was getting had been out late the night before, and were having a bit of a slow morning, so they were going to be late.  How late? I asked.  The lady projected that they would be there around 10 or 10:30.  I managed to inform her that that was a little unacceptable due to the fact that I needed to be loaded and heading out of the state by noon (I didn't feel the need to inform her that I was still without a truck for them to load into).  She promised that they would be there soon and that they could have everything done by noon.

Meanwhile, things remained slow at U-Haul.  Finally we made some headway, but it required me to pay in cash (which luckily I had on hand....but for other areas of the move).  We got the truck back to my apartment and waited for the movers...who surprisingly showed up at 9:30.  The movers were pretty frustrating to work with initially, I'll be honest...I was not terribly pleased.  On top of the fact that I had to keep some of the electronics connected (wireless printer, laptop, router) until the washer/dryer guy got back to me with his address...which he was taking his sweet time with).

I won't get into all the details of the runs to the store for rope, runs to the bank for additional cash, my belongings being dropped (and nearly dropped...as was the case with my TV), and the movers incessantly asking me why I didn't want to use furniture pads on all my precious furniture, or how the moving company in Idaho called to ask if they could come early to get us unloaded (they didn't realize I was coming from out of state...and that I gave a time-frame for a reason).  The washer/dryer guy sent me a text in the final hour with his address, and I was able to print out some new maps for us to follow since I did not know the area AT ALL.  Finally, we managed to get everything loaded into the U-Haul and the 2 cars we were taking up with us.  We also managed to locate the tiny piece of paper containing my payment confirmation codes for the movers that had inconveniently been placed in one of the vehicles.

Miraculously, we left Layton right at noon, and after gassing up the cars, we headed toward Idaho...and a couple more problems...