Hurrah, Lauren has arrived in Austin and it is time to begin our new life together in Texas!
It was quite the journey over the last few days. After work Wednesday I flew from Austin to Charlotte, and then arrived in Minneapolis shortly before midnight. We spent one final night at the old apartment (which stays in the family with Matt taking over) and on Thursday morning the real fun began.
We enlisted the help of a Craigslist worker to help us move things down the apartment stairs and load them into a U-Haul U-Box, which measured just 8′ L x 5′ W x 7’6″ H. Not a ton of space to fit all our belongings into. This young chap helped us get the U-Box packed, wriggling in and out of small crevices with only his feet sticking out. We sent him on his way, thinking there would be enough room in the Impala for the rest of the boxes, but soon realized we were way short on space… Okay, truthfully Lauren foresaw the lack of space coming but I kept on trying to cram things. So we were left with a lot of boxes and nowhere to put them. After considering lots of options, we painstakingly unpacked the entire U-Box and re-packed it, leaving behind the loveseats. But we were happy, the hardest part was over. That night we had a farewell BBQ at the Poulters and saw our friends off at Black Forest Inn.
In the morning we hit the road and drove to Kansas City, where we took in the Royals/Red Sox game and later met up with old Valleyfair friend Charlie Ahern, who got us on the VIP list at the packed piano bar in the Power & Light District.
Saturday morning we were back on the road by 8:30, with a full day of driving ahead of us. Rather than take the logical way and take I-35 through Wichita and Oklahoma City, which I had just done in June and found extremely boring, I figured Lauren would really get a kick out of taking some lesser highways and going through Joplin, Missouri and down into Arkansas. I was right! Of course the real reason we went the long way was so I could say I’d been to Arkansas, the 34th state to check off my list. It was much better scenery than Kansas as Arkansas was a lot more hilly and foresty than expected. We stopped for lunch at a Chick-fil-a in Fort Smith, and that kinda changed our day. While we ate, the car roasted in the hot sun and we never were able to get it cool again. Our next 400 miles were spent twisting through rustic county roads in eastern Oklahoma, sweating as the AC struggled to blow out warm air in 111-degree weather. Once the sun went down south of Dallas, we were back to being cool and comfy.
We rolled into Austin around 9:00 and pretty much immediately fell asleep. And then today we went out to Stubb’s BBQ Gospel Brunch and came home and fell back asleep for many more hours. Moving is tiring.
Ryan Glanzer Blog 
that picture of all the boxes in your apartment stresses me out. glad you made it to austin safely!
Liz – you have no idea…..I was a stressed-out wreck for the last week I was in MN! Ryan is way understating how much I was freaking out over everything not fitting into the U-Box. It was a major relief when we pulled out the couches and the rest of our boxes finally fit in. Moving is the WORST.
I don’t envy you at all, Lauren! That picture with all the boxes is really one of my worst nightmares. I can’t imagine how panicked I would be if it didn’t fit after all that work!! I am so, so glad that part of your move is over and now you just have to unpack and settle in. Good luck with the job search!