The Big Move

Moving day is almost here! My last day at work is Tuesday, we're officially vacating our duplex on Wednesday, and we're hitting the road early Thursday.

Ellie hiding in the backseat.

The drive: Brandt and I will each be driving our own cars and have decided to make 8-hour drives each day.  in his car. We'll need to make frequent stops fr potty breaklotlots and to stretch so we thought 8-hours would be more than enough driving each day (and night driving didn't sound appealing). We'll be on the road for four days and arrive at our temporary place in Portland on Sunday, June 1.

Preparing for the drive: Brandt is cooking food for the road so we don't have to buy any along the way. We've had our cars inspected and made necessary fixes to make them road trip ready (new tires, new timing belt, new air filters, etc). We've got our first aid kit ready, jumper cables on hand, more flashlights than we need, and even a set of walkie talkies so we can communicate. If it's not obvious by now, we're both planners!

The boy is clean and ready to go!

What about all of our stuff?: We are storing all of our furniture and most of our things in two Pods while we're searching for a permanent residence. It's great because they'll show up and load it then store it until we're ready to have it shipped. We don't have to worry about a huge truck and towing a car either. Brandt has done all of the math and it's actually going to be cheaper than renting a truck and paying for gas. Plus we don't have to figure out what to do with our stuff while we're subleasing.

The girls in their makeshift thunder shirts.

Getting the dogs ready: All three dogs have had their rabies and bordetella boosters, have their flea and tick prevention on, have up-to-date heart worm prevention, and got baths this week. Sparrow is terrified of car rides so we also got anti-anxiety pills for her. The vet was concerned about having her drugged for four days so she suggested we try Benadryl. I'm hesitant to take that route because I heard dogs have a not so pleasant bowel reaction the first time and I'm not too keen on dealing with that while on the road. I also have makeshift thunder shirts for the girls and may use one of those. (FYI: I refused to spend $50+ each on a shirt for the girls to wear when it storms. So I bought them those stretchy baby swimsuit shirts and they work wonderfully. I got them on sale last fall and paid about $5!)