We finally did it. We moved back to Florida. It's been a crazy couple months that's been both exciting as well as a complete shit show.
We decided to use PackRat shipping containers to move and what a mess it's been. The first two containers showed up on scheduled without a problem. The third was a no show and just two days before we had to be out of the house. I called PackRat and they said they ran out of containers. How the hell do you overbook and run out of containers? They told me they couldn't get me a container for 2 weeks, even though I had to be out of the house in 2 days. Then they pushed that up to maybe a week. I started calling around for other options but PODS had nothing and U-haul had no trucks. Then a couple hours later U-Haul calls and tells me they have a 16 footer that just came in. I picked up the truck, cancelled the PackRat container and drove home. No joke, literally as I'm backing the U-Haul up into the driveway PackRat calls and tells me they have a container and it's on the way to my house. At this point I'm like WTF, I already cancelled, don't bring it. But Natalie didn't want to drive both vehicles so I called back and told them never mind, bring the container. I then had to bring back the U-Haul. FYI in case you're wondering, PackRat is partered with Lowes so I'll never shop at Lowes again.
That night my buddy George and my neighbor Dave came over to help me pack up the furniture. We got the third container full and ran out of room. So Natalie had to call U-Haul for another shipping container. I was originally going to go with U-Haul for all my containers but they are soft-sided. U-Haul is extremely reliable but the soft-sided was a turn off when it comes to safes, guns, etc. We'll when I returned the container I learned that it cost something like $450 to build a soft-sided container and $350 to put the waterproof covering over it. They just stated building the steel containers at just $100 more and the don't fall apart like the soft-sided containers. So U-haul is the future in container shipping. But anyways, the next morning U-haul calls and says they don't have any drivers. So I had to drive over, just a mile, and pick up the container. We got that loaded and still had all kinds of stuff that didn't fit.
Sunday was our last day in Arizona. This is when you learn who your real friends are, and aren't! My buddy George's wife came over, bought everyone coffee and breakfast, helped us pack up, took pictures of what was left, posted on Anthem Stuff Facebook page to get rid of it, and got a trash guy to pick up whatever was left. It was a very stressful morning and we were getting really behind getting out of there but we finally got out just after noon. Alicia was a huge help.
On the road and reality finally sets it. I am so excited to go back to Florida which has always felt like the perfect place for me. But I'm thinking about being further from my family, and my adopted family, the Shankools. The Shankools are the best friends we've had and their kids are my kids age and get along well. They are family and lived just a half mile away. It was a lot to take in while driving. We booked our first hotel on the road, which lead to the next round of anxiety. More after the pictures below.
Our third PackRat container loaded with our furniture. I forgot to take one of my guns, my HKVP9 out of my underwear drawer and didn't realize it until it was fully packed. More on that one later.
Our first night we went to Tombstone. We booked through booking.com. When we got there the lobby was full and the lady said that booking.com overbooked people. I had to wait 20 minutes to find out if we made the cut. We were the last ones that made it. Had I not held my ground and decided no stops on the way we would not have made it.
Dean was looking at the picture on the wall in The Longhorn and was talking about how they "Are Naked".
Zach living his best life.
In case you're wondering the shirt says Ferk Jer Berdin.
Took this dune upside down.
The best ride right there, the Master Blaster. The raft gets shot uphill.
We had to take a tram between the two parks. Dean was loving it.
By one of the tube shoots.
I got a lot of laughs over this shirt. One lady asked where I'm going so she could avoid that area.
The next morning drive to Mobile Alabama. This is in MissiSyphilis
USS Alabama.
That shell weighs as much as my Honda.
AA gun.
And people think modern day computers are complicated.
One of the ramps to load the guns.
Downtown Mobile.
USS Drum.
Torpedo tubes
I-10 in Florida.
We got a beach tent. I'm liking this a lot more than the umbrellas.
One of the jellyfish that got us.
Back on the road headed to Gainesville.
Ten years ago when moving to Arizona I sopped at this rest stop with my dad. It was late at night and dark but it looked really cool. So we stopped again, this time in the day.
In Tallahassee at Sonnys for dinner.
Dean decided to try and chase the sandhill cranes. I yelled for him to stop and he figured out it was a bad idea.
Unlike the Great Blue Herons we got in Coral Springs these Sandhill Cranes have no fear of humans.
Early afternoon.
Mid-afternoon. Gotta love Florida.
Looking for toads and frogs one night. I was telling everyone about the invasive Cuban Frogs and they didn't know what I was talking about. I told them give me five minutes and I'll get one. I left the patio and returned 30 seconds later with a huge Cuban Frog (not in the picture below).
I took a walk with Zach that night and we thought there were bats flying around. Turned out they were nighthawks. This was probably the second worst hotel we stayed at on this trip.
The next morning at Boothill Cemetary.
The Birdcage.
Back on the road before noon. I do regret pushing out of Tombstone so fast. I really like Tombstone but I though we could make it to White Sands that evening (a surprise for the kids).
This a-hole in a Honda Civic was tail gating me all the way to Florida. A couple times I looked up at the mirror like WTF. Oh it's just me.
We made it to this crap hole town called Alamogordo around 7 or so that night. I asked if they have any problems with car burglaries in the parking lot and they had one just a couple weeks ago. So this is when my anxiety kicks in because I feel like out of state tags and towing I have a target on my back. we tried to put all the good stuff down on the floor and then put just a bunch of toys and toilet paper rolls and trash and stuff by the windows to make people think the car isn't worth their time. Some of the stuff I had to decide if it's safer in my car or in the hotel room while we're out.
In all the chaos of getting gout of the house we lost bear. Anyone that knows about Dean and Bear knows that is a big problem. So the morning after we got to the crap hole known as Alamogordo I went on a mission to find bear and I found him buried in a bag in my Honda.
I kept this a surprise for the kids until we got there. I believe this was now Tuesday night, and I surprised them with White Sands National Park. I waited until late afternoon to drive there due to the heat. It was still 92ish degrees when we got there but it cooled pretty quick and was comfortable when we left. Most sand dunes are made of sand from quartz, this sand is from gypsum so it's very unique. The sand doesn't get hot and even in 92 degree heat we could walk on it bearfoot.
I can understand why our military decided to try and nuke New Mexico out of existence. Most of it is beyond ugly. White Sands and the Rockys are the exceptions.
My fun continued this day. My realtor called telling me the new owners of the house were pissed off about the container still being there. PackRat was supposed to pick it up Sunday but they didn't. I had already talked to the home owners and told them what was going on then spent hours on the phone with PackRat. PackRat tells me that it's going to be two weeks for pickup. So I get as far as the regional manager who then tells me he moved me up to that weekend but couldn't do it any sooner. I tell him I have guns and all my furniture in this container on property that is not mine. All I get are excuses. They don't have enough drivers, a truck is down, a load of crap. So I pushed and pushed and got nowhere. These people are pissed at me about something I can't control. Well that night as we get to White Sands I get a call from PackRat. Again they ran out of containers so their drivers were bored and they were on their way to pickup my container. I texted the new homeowners to let them know and haven't hear from them since. I think they are complete assholes after this. I get it they're frustrated but my anxiety had to be worse than their's with all my stuff being there and there was nothing I could do about it. I let them know it's about to be gone and they can't even acknowledge they got the text.
Wednesday June first was nothing but driving through Texas. A month prior I was watching a show on the Schlitterbahn and Zach had it figured out that my surprise on this trip was the Schlitterbahn. I kept telling him it wasn't so he believed me, because Dad won't lie. Well that night I got really nervous driving into New Braunfels when there was a sign the kids didn't see that said Schlitterbahn Expressway. To add to it Natalie slipped up a couple times and said stuff like waterpark. That night while unloading the truck it was a little on the humid side. It felt so refreshing to be out of the desert.
The next morning we got up, had our breakfast, and told the kids we were going for a river float. We drove by a sign that said Schlitterbahn and Zach got all excited. Natalie tried to convince the kid that he's seeing things until we pulled up to the waterpark of the fatherland. Zach kept asking me why I said we weren't going to the Schlitterbahn if we really were.
I have to say the park was pretty amazing but a couple of the rides were sketchy. On the first tube float I fell off my tube. There are lifeguards at every drop to check on people so the lifeguard asks if I'm ok. I tell her I'm fine but here comes my 4 year old. Well Dean never fell out of his kiddy tube all day and he laughed like crazy on each waterfall. I was lifting my butt up because, like I said, it's a little sketchy and my butt would drag on the drops. My neck was feeling it at the end of the day. We did the slides where Zach, Adri and I all raced and we did these slides where we go face first on mats with handle bars. I flew off the slide like superman on that one and came down kinda hard. At the end I fell off and slide on a surface like sandpaper. I survived though and the kids had a blast. Really, I could spend a week at that place. It was just as awesome as I imagined it would be.
Side note. Most of the water is recirculated through the park but some comes out of the river and at the end of the slide it goes back into the river. You can tell what rides use river water because it's way colder than the rest of the rides.
After The Schlitterbahn we went to Cypress Texas for a couple days to spend with Natalie's friend from work at UM. Everywhere we ate in Texas had killer Mexican food.
After Texas we drove to Baton Rogue. The plan was to park downtown and see the Old Governor's Mansion and the Destroyer Museum. I read about the crime in Baton Rogue before we got there so I put all our expensive stuff in hard to get places on the passenger's floor of the Honda. Well we get there and there's maybe 30-40 cars in the parking lot, all on the south side. There's no guard or anything. Halfway through the parking lot is a single empty car with a car next to it with four really sketchy looking guys just sitting there smoking cigars. They are facing south, where all the other cars are parked and I had a really bad feeling about it. No doubt they were up to no good. A drug deal or looking for a target to steal. I decided to skip Baton Rogue. Zach was really upset but I told him the Destroyer was nothing compared to the Battleship we would see in Mobile. We ended up pushing through to Slidell, LA.
Driving over Henderson Swamp.
We stopped in Mobile Alabama at the USS Alabama Battleship Museum. It was awesome . They had a bunch of planes, the battleship, and a WWII era attack sub called the USS Drum. We didn't get to see the entire destroyer because the smell kept Natalie and Adri from going below deck for long and Dean was getting bored but I saw enough to have a good time. We got to see where they loaded the shells and powder.
I believe these are powder containers.
After Mobile we headed for Crestview Florida. We made it to DeSantis Land!
We spent the night in Crestview and then early in the morning headed to Henderson State Beach. Yes, same name as the swamp in LA. We headed out really early anticipating the lot to get full really early. Even when we left it was pretty empty. Definitely better staying at a State Park. Of course it was a Thursday, not the weekend but I was told either way it was going to fill up early.
Gainesville was the worst Hampton Inn I've ever stayed at. The entire floor was non-smoking yet our room smelled like a smoker lived in it for months. The hotel was full so we couldn't get a different room. I woke up in the middle of the night with my throat burning and the AC was just making it worse.
The next morning we were going to stop at Juniper Springs on the way to Natalie's cousin's house but just as we got to the springs the sky opened up and it wasn't go to stop for hours. So we had to skip that stop and move onto Winter Garden.
It felt so great to get all the crap out of both vehicles and not have to worry about it for a while. The next day I returned the auto transport and we stayed a couple days with the Briones' before going to Miami for a week.
A toad.
We stayed at an Airbnb in Miami Beach. I have to say, Miami gives me anxiety. Too many people, too many ghetto rude people, having to hold onto my kid constantly so he doesn't disappear or get hit by a car. This Airbnb was valet only and the cart couldn't leave the hotel. So Adri had to stay with the cart while I take all my crap up to the cart and Natalie helps at the truck and watches the kids. It was insane. Then we get the truck back and they were messing with my stereo. They have one job, to park the truck, not listen to the stereo. Never again.
Sunday June 12th we drove down to Miami and had a small party for Adri's birthday.
This was my office for a week.
A pina colada in a pineapple on the beach.
My favorite part of the gardens, the bamboo. I love hearing the wind go through the bamboo.
This is the first iguana I've ever had run at me instead of away from me.
We were all standing around talking and then 100+ yards away I saw this tortoise come out of the trees. It was going pretty fast for a tortoise.
Friday June 17th we went to one of our favorite parks up in Delray Beach, The Morikami Japanese Gardens.
Our last full day in Miami Beach. We had our friends from Coral Springs come down for a visit. We were at the beach from 11 AM until almost 9PM and had some Cuban food for dinner on the beach with some nice cold beer.
After this we went back up to Winter Garden and spent another week with the Briones' until our rental house was ready to move it. The fun hasn't stopped.
I picked up the U-Haul container the day we moved it and returned it a couple hours later. When I returned it the check engine light came on. Only 47,000 miles and my cam phasers went out. I'm never buying a Ford again. Had it not been under the drive train warranty that would be a $2,800 repair. My gas mileage has been crap since I bought my new tires so I though they were to blame. It got better after the fixed the cam phasers so I suspect they have been malfunctioning for a year. Who knows what damage they have done to the truck since then but we had to go a week without the truck just after getting here.
The day we moved in we didn't have furniture so we slept on the floor. We already had to go out to get a new couch because we didn't bring ours with us. We get to the rental which we call "The Loaner" (the beater car from The Mask), and find out that they don't even provide a washer/dryer. So we head over to Home Depot to get a washer/dryer and I thought it was all electric. We then bought some a recliner, pull out couch, and love seat before having some awful Mexican Food. The next week the washer/dryer arrive and the guy tells me that it won't work because I got gas and the electric hookups are both 120 and the one for the dryer is just to ignite it. So we had to send it back and reorder electric/gas. I was avoiding the gas dryer because only half the houses here have gas and we don't plan on being here for long so we'll see what happens when we buy our next house.
We had to pick up the recliner but the truck was at Ford getting serviced so we had to put it in Natalie's cousin's minivan. It was a new floor model and it had arrived that day so they gave us a couple hundred bucks off but they don't deliver from the showroom.
But the best disaster of all has been PackRat. We got two of our three containers on June 25th. Luckily they were the two I needed most. The one with my furniture, safe, and the gun I left in my underwear drawer, and all my tools and stuff. The third one never arrived and I've spent hours on the phone with these people. They claim the fork lift broke in Orlando so they could only send out empty containers and pick up empty containers but they couldn't get anything full because it's too heavy. A big facility like this and they have no redundancy. So now it's June 11th, they still haven't fixed the forklift, and I'm told maybe next week.
PackRat Effin Sucks!!!!
Update on July 11th. I called PackRat and they said they sent an e-mail to the facility and they'll call me back. told them not acceptable. I've called five times in the last two weeks and keep getting the same response. I want to know when my crap is getting here. So it gets escalated. Allegedly I'm on the schedule for next week, July 20th. Almost a month after it was supposed to be delivered.
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