Well, things did not go as planned, to say the least. After getting the hitch put on the Jeep on Monday and picking up the U-haul trailer, Joe helped Garrett and I move everything out of our old house. We stopped back by Joe’s to pick up Gaga and headed out for DC around 7:00 p.m. The trailer hitch of the Jeep was sitting about 2-3″ off the road. We failed to consider that the suspension probably should have been replaced.
We made it to Pearl River, LA. A mere 40 miles from New Orleans. It was here we realized the transmission was heating the floor boards and pedals so badly they were quite hot. At this point we decided to wait for the transmission to cool and turn around and drive home. We were confident there was no way the Jeep was going to make it all the way to DC, especially once we reached the Appalachians. Here’s a picture of the Jeep with the trailer:
Derp. So that night and the next morning were very stressful on both of us as we considered our options. With our flight back from DC to New Orleans already scheduled for Wednesday afternoon we knew we would never make it in time and went ahead and cancelled it. Luckily we got all of our points / gift card money we used to purchase the tickets (minus five bucks) back so we didn’t lose out on that. Next we had to decide whether to rent a truck and haul the trailer to DC, rent a moving van and a car trailer and move everything from the trailer to the van and load the Jeep onto the car trailer, or to get a storage unit. In the end, we chose the storage unit.
We ended up getting the storage unit for $21 for the first month and $60 for the second so it wasn’t a bad deal. We also got about $110 back for the trailer rental since we didn’t drive it across the country, and returned it early. After several VERY exhausting days, Garrett and I said our good-byes one final time on Tuesday night, and headed out for Houston on Wednesday morning, ahead of schedule.
Bye New Orleans!
We arrived without incident early Wednesday evening! Gaga is staying at Stephen and Banks’ old apartment (they just bought a house!) and then we are driving her up to Dallas to stay with my Mom. We leave for Dallas tomorrow morning, so I’ll update again with a Houston post soon. xoxo Garrett & Steph
Garrett & Stephanie 