[Rapunzll]

Originally Posted by MGD

Maybe should have made a whole new thread but...

One thing I think is going to be an issue is...the moving truck.

The moving trucks I've seen all have 1 seat for driver, +1 for one other occupant.

I have 2 kids.

What's the alternative? Sit on the greyhound for days on end...and ship my stuff there how? And what's the expense of that?

Any ideas?

How much are you bringing with you? Any chance of a brother or friend driving a UHaul and you and the kids go in another vehicle, preferably theirs so the driver can get back home?

[MGD]

Originally Posted by tjay

good luck to you!! i haven't read the whole thread but i just wanted to say how brave and strong you are! being a single mom isn't easy.....especially with more than one child. you are superwoman!!
traverse city is beautiful....once you're settled you'll have to check out as much of the area as you can (try to see the sleeping bear dune national forest if you can), great outdoor activities with your kids.
i think if you can get past these upcoming obstacles, you will like it alot. i hope you can sell your car....i hope you're not planning on doing that in michigan though...might not be as easy? and craigslist is your best friend when moving/selling....don't forget!
i hope everything goes your way and best of luck to you:}

Thanks...I hear those words in bold a lot over the years...although to be honest I am tired of being superwoman...a hero's work is never done and I'd rather be doing it the normal way (batman & robin style, two people!)...but such is life, so I'm stuck saving "the world" singlehandedly...as I am in the process of doing yet again. lol. Sorry getting carried away with the analogy.

I don't know if I'll be able to do much of anything without the car aside from if my friend drives up from Detroit to visit in his vehicle, but we'll see. At least the beach is walking distance in summer (which means i need to be a LOT more proactive about treadmill use to get beach ready, huh...another superwoman effort, lol).

Nah a sports car in a place with those levels of snow seems almost like an oxymoron. I have to sell if to afford the move, so it's being sold here. Someone is suppose to come take a look at it and take it to their mechanic today. Hopefully they don't find any major issues but in case the first potential buyer isn't the last, is why i put it up for sale 2 months ahead of when i plan to skip town (and because this is closer to the time people are getting tax returns and I don't want them to waste it elsewhere when they could be spending it on my car, lol).

Yes I am a bit lazy about actually digging through boxes to sell things off instead of simply moving them from place to place with me, but this time, I think I better try to sell of whatever won't be used...I've never done a yard sale before but I might need to set one up and in the meantime just start listing things one by one on craigslist. My car is up on craigslist and I also put a for sale sign on the back of it (although I might need to park it somewhere a little busier than my street to get the full effect...cold as hell yesterday and today though so not today!)

[MGD]

Originally Posted by Rapunzll

How much are you bringing with you? Any chance of a brother or friend driving a UHaul and you and the kids go in another vehicle, preferably theirs so the driver can get back home?

To MICHIGAN? No ma'am! My brothers, coincidentally are already north...one in the DC area, one in New Hampshire for college...I live in a college town and most of my friends have graduated and gone...I don't have the money to even provide anyone's gas there and back, hotel there and back, and food there and back, which is how I would want to be treated ifsomeone asked me to drive thousands of miles for them and then by myself (return trip)...

My detroit friend suggested PODS (Portable On Demand Storage) to ship the stuff and a rental car for me and the kids...the portable moving/storage containers...but they don't service Traverse City, and I am not even seeing on their site where they service Detroit, even though it says SE Michigan is covered...I was thinking if I could get them to deliver the POD to his or his parents' place, I could then just rent a truck in Detroit, shift the stuff into it, and have him drive the truck to traverse...it's close enough to be a one day trip if he can't get off work, and i could continue from detroit on in the rental. It was a brilliant idea except for the remoteness of traverse city. I don't understand why places with good schools are always so out of the way in this country.

[MGD]

Correction, maybe not his parents', because he said they live in the hood...lol...he's getting a place outside detroit itself...

[Rapunzll]

http://www.abfs.com/default.asp?bhcp=1

I hear this is a reputable, moving company. You load the truck and they move it. However you go though, it will not be cheap. I think you will be looking at at least a couple of thousand dollars, even if you were to do Uhaul once you figure in the cost of gas, and hotel.

[MGD]

Originally Posted by Rapunzll

http://www.abfs.com/default.asp?bhcp=1

I hear this is a reputable, moving company. You load the truck and they move it. However you go though, it will not be cheap. I think you will be looking at at least a couple of thousand dollars, even if you were to do Uhaul once you figure in the cost of gas, and hotel.

Actually...your previous post got me thinking...I can't pay someone to do the drive just for me...but I can see if I can just rent an SUV with a hitch on it, attach a Uhaul trailer, and do it like that...and if I'm lucky, get a rideshare through craiglist who's headed to Michigan or somewhere along the way to split gas and the rental of the truck.

Hopefully that would keep the cost around the $1,000 mark, right?

Hotel would be whatever is cheapest at thehalfway point, and only for one night. That should be the smallest part of the expense. I've driven 14 hours straight with my son before (by leaving like 4:30 in the morning when he was still asleep)...I don't play on the road, and I don't stop every two seconds either...gas breaks I make sure do the bathroom run, the stretch, the relax, all that...and we eat and drink both in the car and during gas stops. So if this trip is about 19 hours (and I add an hour or 2 for travel with kids)....i'd plan to get up and out early enough to do half of it one day, sleep overnight, and half the next day.

I am going to look into this, but I don't have a credit card and I'm wondering if for rentals of suv-size vehicles it will be mandatory...otherwise people rent things specifically to haul something their own vehicle can't all the time, right?

I think this is going to be the only solution though...rent an suv and attach the Uhaul to it. Moving companies are going to charge an arm and a leg (or maybe the pair) to go to an out of the way place like TC. I need as much of the money left over as possible for the planned and unplanned expenses (and moves ALWAYS have something that pops up and costs you money you didn't have, it's like a natural law!).

But thanks for the idea on someone else along for the ride...it may not work going so far away, but craigslist is good for that...I've done rideshares 4 hours away before (of course making sure to meet the person ahead of time so i knew it was someone i'd be comfortable with and not a weirdo). They would have to get their own hotel room though.

[Rapunzll]

I helped my youngest move from TC to Billings MT in 2007 and we found a Uhaul was going to be too pricey, in the end, we put a hitch on my SUV, rented a medium sized trailer from UH and did the move that way. I had my car checked over before we went and had recommended maintenance done on the car, but we ended up having car problems (the mechanic screwed up on one item) and I tried to find another vehicle to rent with a hitch so we could continue on as I only had the one week to help him. We couldn't find anyone who rented vehicles with hitches. I think that is not going to be as simple as you think.

Sheesh, am I the bearer of bad news or what?

[MGD]

Originally Posted by Rapunzll

I helped my youngest move from TC to Billings MT in 2007 and we found a Uhaul was going to be too pricey, in the end, we put a hitch on my SUV, rented a medium sized trailer from UH and did the move that way. I had my car checked over before we went and had recommended maintenance done on the car, but we ended up having car problems (the mechanic screwed up on one item) and I tried to find another vehicle to rent with a hitch so we could continue on as I only had the one week to help him. We couldn't find anyone who rented vehicles with hitches. I think that is not going to be as simple as you think.

Sheesh, am I the bearer of bad news or what?

Yeah you are, but what if I just have a hitch put on a rented SUV? Weekly rentals usually cheaper than some weekdays + some weekends.

SUVs are made for hitches, if they get mad about one getting put on...hey, couldn't I just have it taken back off?

It's seeming so much the answer...$100 for hitch but that's a much smaller price to pay.
***********
Still thinking of alternatives though.

[Rapunzll]

I understood that they would not allow you to put hitches on, and Uhaul no longer rents them, which I believe they once did. The hitch on my SUV cost close to $300.00 installed.

[MGD]

Originally Posted by Rapunzll

I understood that they would not allow you to put hitches on, and Uhaul no longer rents them, which I believe they once did. The hitch on my SUV cost close to $300.00 installed.

I had a jeep before and it was $100-somethingto install i believe. What kind of truck you had?

Well, Uhaul says their truck have the seat that goes all the way across, so that's the end of that, the little one will just have to go in her car seat and we all go in the truck. I am going to go see if budget trucks have that kind of seat cause they are about 600 for a 5 day unlimited mile rental, whereas Uhaul is over 700 for a 7 day, defined mileage rental (they said it's calculated 10-15% above the actual mileage from a to b).

Unlimited miles and only a few days...or defined miles and 7 days?

Might be a moot point if the Budget trucks don't have the bench seats...