Our drive from Boston to Dallas covered 1,934 miles and took about 38 hours. That’s just over four days on the road. And while I managed to find a few creative ways to entertain us (Googling cool sights along our route, like the Ohio State Reformatory, that we didn’t have time to stop and visit; repeating “Loo-vull” ad infinitum as we drove through Louisville) this particular road trip was made possible by these essentials:
An extra 13-foot U-Haul trailer
Did you know that if you can't tow your own trailer, U-Haul will find someone to do it for you? Someone like Sean and Sarah! In exchange for hitching a random stranger’s 13-foot trailer to the back of our 24-foot truck and driving it from New York State to Cincinnati, U-Haul knocked $650 off our rental. Sure, we had to go a few hours out of our way and spend a little more on gas, but we avoided the sky-high tolls on the eastern seaboard, and we got to drive through a part of the country we’d never been to before. (I see you, Ohio, and I’m very fond of your friendly locals.) And oh, did I mention the $650?
Assorted podcasts
Sean and I are total podcast junkies. Our old standbys—Stuff You Should Know and Planet Money—were key to passing the time, and we also indulged in a little Travel with Rick Steves. But the real shining star was The Dropout, a six-part deep dive into Theranos fraudster Elizabeth Holmes. How did a 19-year-old female Stanford dropout manage to dupe so many Silicon Valley VCs? (I still don’t know!) Did she ever actually intend to create something revolutionary, or was her goal simply to become tech-famous? (I think I know.) What does her voice actually sound like? (I GOTS TO KNOW!)
Abundant snacks
Dining options are pretty limited when you’re driving cross-country in U-Haul with a cat. Sit-down restaurants take too long, and drive-thrus are difficult to navigate. So we did what any rational relocators would: mined our pantry for snacks as we were packing. Trail mix made from half-empty bags of raw almonds, chopped pecans, raisins, and craisins? Check. Peanut butter on saltine crackers? Check. Spray cheese on gherkins? Check (but we’re not recommending it). And when we just couldn’t take the same old same old anymore, there were always gas station stops for jerky, Slurpees, Big Red and peanuts, and $7 chicken fried steak (we’re definitely recommending that).
Cat carrier, cat food, cat toys, cat treats, catnip, cat tranquilizers, cat litter box, cat water fountain
Layla is a high-maintenance traveler. As soon as we arrived at our hotel each night, I had to set up her litter box, food dish, and water fountain (she won’t drink still water, you see). And because she’d been depressed since we started packing up the apartment in July, I also had to keep her treats, tranquilizers, favorite toys, and catnip handy to make sure she didn’t totally lose it. (Spoiler alert: She totally lost it. The tranquilizers came in very handy around Columbus.) Luckily, she regained her sense of adventure when we got to Sean’s mom’s house, and she’s been her normal spunky self ever since.
After a long (long!) weekend of unpacking, I’m pleased to report that Sean and I are also back to our normal spunky selves in the warm embrace of my parents’ house. For the first time since we turned in our notice and set this plan in motion, we have literally nothing to do but count down to Portugal. T-minus 13 days.
What’s the first thing you think of when I say Colombia? Cocaine? Pablo Escobar? Narcos? FARC? Terrorism? That’s fair. But what if I told you everything you thought you knew about the country is wrong?