I'm finally posting the trip journal. It's going to take some time because I'm going through all of my pictures & video to include them as well.
I didn't take any pictures the 1st day, so here is that map I showed earlier so you can follow the trip.
Friday May 20th
We're going to start our new life in Hawaii today! Well, not exactly. Our move out there is becoming a mini-vacation in and of itself. We're going from PA to Virginia, to Tennessee, to Arkansas, to Texas, to New Mexico, to Utah, to Nevada for the last two stops in California. I"ve always wanted to drive across the country, and today I finally get the chance. This morning, I mailed most of our belongings to a hotel in Hawaii. It cost $957, but we're taking fewer things with us on the trip. We've decided to empty Manami's truck at every stop, just to make it less of theft target. Unfortunately, it's still a little too much to fit in Manami's truck, so we're going over to U-Haul and pick up the small trailer they have available for 1-way travel. I'll update this list tonight to talk about the trip.
UPDATE: That was a bust. The trip isn't happening today at all. I went to U-Haul, but there wasn't anybody at that location. The trailer was there, but that's it. I called the local representative so he drove over himself. The "small trailer" is actually pretty big. 4x8, and we don't have that much to put in there. I asked about the much smaller pod trailer that I saw on the website, and he said the Horsham location had one in stock that is also a 1-way trailer. so I swapped my reservation to the smaller trailer and headed over to pick it up. It's 12:45 at this point, so we're already really behind schedule.
Oh well, it's not the end of the world. When I got to the Horsham location, I quickly set everything up. Then when we were connecting the trailer onto my new hitch... where are the wires to plug in the brake lights? Fuck, I forgot to order the wiring harness in addition to the hitch. My tools are all gone now, so there's no "easy" way to get this done. I have to schedule an install from the U-Haul guy itself. only problem is the wiring installer doesn't work again until Tuesday. No problem, I bought the cables anyway and went over to Keebles to see if he could install it. Nope, not until next Friday. Last stop, A to Z. He can, but his install guy is out until around 4pm today. I ended up driving home without a trailer around 2pm. Almost everything fits into the truck without crowding us too much. I just need to send my computer out there as well, so I can't take it on the ride. Oh well, I only wanted that with me to keep it from getting banged up too much by the post office. So I box up my computer, speakers and monitor and send take it over to the post office as well. Another $260 to send that stuff. At least it's a LOT less expensive than UPS.
We've also been batting our heads against the wall trying to get a permission letter from Wells Fargo to send Manami's truck out there. The last few days have been full of calling them over and over, doing additional steps they require. Did you fax us this yet? Ok, so let's fax this instead. You have marine insurance, but it isn't through your normal insurance provider, even though they don't offer that as a service? Oh, well, we can't accept that either. Assholes. I called up Matson (the shipping company) to find out a fax number, so that Wells Fargo can fax them an acceptance letter, and found out this hassle has been all for nothing. An acceptance letter is only needed to transport vehicles from Hawaii to the continental US. Not the other way around. Crisis averted at least. It's now around 4pm and we still haven't left. Plus, today is a 6 hour drive, so we decided to delay our trip by 1 day. We went out to Guisseppi's for our last meal in Pennsylvania, and went to sleep in our mostly empty house.