Moving Advice Needed - U-haul trailer or moving company?

Ah, here - http://bitten.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/22/what-i-ate-last-week/

some foo foo, but watch what he eats between .. not that you would care, just a conjunction of interest to me.

Yep, same premise I use when I drive long distances. I just buy groceries and make my own meals rather than wasting time in diners or drive thrus and paying twice as much for not so good food plus tips.

It is what helps me live on a budget of about $120 a month for food; cheap fruit and veggies, cheese and crackers, rice and beans, eggs, lots of oatmeal, popcorn, flour, and an occasional pork chop and chicken.

I have to defend interest in place, and the sense of place that coffee shops, the old fashioned kind, can fulfill. But the whole thing about place interests me and I shouldn't put that onto anyone else. Especially when moving fast.

But, moving along, to streamline, your choices seem smart.

I'm not saying I don't like to sightsee and enjoy the local atmosphere of places. If I had the luxury of financial comfort and security at the moment, I'd take two weeks to make the drive and stop off at a lot of places I would love to see again. That isn't in the cards for this trip. I can't afford very many motel nights nor the extra gas or expense from restaurant meals and window shopping. I just need to get there the quickest, safest and cheapest way I can so I can get my computer set up and get some income coming in from the transcription work while I look for work.

Yes, understand.

We speak from different places - I don't figure I can ever see those roads again, and I miss them - which infuses my commentary. Not to put it on you. (Planning to be quiet).

When I moved from the San Francisco Bay Area to Albuquerque in the fall (no snow) of 2002, I printed out the route (mainly I40) provided by Yahoo and followed it precisely. I drove south to Las Vegas in one day, slept in motel. Drove from Las Vegas to Albuqueque in one day arriving at about 7:30 pm. I must admit I drove higher than the speed limit when I could get away with it and I wasn't towing anything. I had to beat the moving van's arrival and have time to decide where all the furniture went before it arrived.

BBB

According to the AAA trip planner, that route is about 330 miles less (Two tanks of gas and about 5 hours of driving.) I'll look closer at the topography maps later tonight to check on the possibility of snow closures.

What I'll probably do is take both routes with me and make the route choice the day I start driving since current weather conditions will be the deciding factor. I know, it will take me a minimum of 3 days though. I don't plan to push my luck or my car by doing much speeding. The last thing I need right now is a speeding ticket and financially strapped police and highway patrols will be looking for speeders.

MysteryMan,

If you check in here again, can you tell me what resource truckers use to get weather and road condition reports on long distance, multi-state trips?

Also, are you familiar with the Hwy 40 route? Is it all mountainous and likely to have a lot of snowy conditions/road closures the first week of March?

Here's the map of the alternate route on Hwy 40 with possible overnight/check points along the way.

Here's one, BFN.

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/index.php?roadNumber1=i-40&roadcode=i-40&product=ushwyfx

Also, doesn't AAA have a Highway phone line?

Although there's always a chance for a storm, I don't think that an interstate would present much of a problem. The trick to winter driving is to point the vehicle instead of steering it.

I took I-40 east-bound a few years ago because I-80 was socked in with a huge winter storm. There was a dusting of snow around Flagstaff, but not enough to really slow things down. My recommendation would be to plan for both routes, and make the decision on the day of departure based on the weather forecast. The shorter route will save you time and gas $$.

I don't recall any of the grades being to steep, and I think the worst was east of Albuquerque, which wouldn't affect you.

Hwy 40 is looking like the better route and I will take both route trip maps with me in case weather conditions force a change.

I have another situation in which I need some advice.

The registration tags on my car expired in December. I paid the registration on time but the state would not issue tags without the car passing a smog test. My car needs an oil change before it has a chance to pass the smog test. It is very likely that it will not pass the smog test and a tag will still not be issued. In the meantime, my car is going to require a tune-up and brake adjustments and possibly a new battery in preparation for the trip. It seems a complete waste of money to pay for a smog test for the remaining 4 weeks I'll be living in California.

My plan is to just attempt to drive the trip to NM with the expired tags and a copy of the paid receipt and hope any police people are understanding that I'm making an out of state move and will reregister the car at my destination.

I've got a call into the DMV requesting a telephone appointment to ask if there is anyway I can get some kind of 4-week exemption to show to police if I'm stopped. Am waiting for someone to return the call.


Any thoughts on the plan and the chances of getting stopped/ticketed if I can't get some kind of short-term exemption?

I've got to head out to run some errands, will check back in about an hour.

Well, now that you've divulged this I will be forced to contact the CHP.

Do what you gotta do, lady. I don't remember a big trooper presence in AZ or NM when I was going through, and there are some pretty fast movers on those roads that I think will probably occupy their attention if they're around...

Topo re 40 and 10 in Arizona - big size so not posting the image here -
http://www.antor.org/images/arizona-map3.jpg
Arizona topo and town map, very big, useful, need to zone in -
http://www.arizona-map.org/arizona-map.jpg
Arizona town map -
http://www.citytowninfo.com/images/state-maps/arizona-reference.gif
New Mexico town and topo map - very big, have to zone in, but quite useful -
http://www.new-mexico-map.org/new-mexico-map.jpg

same deal for california -
http://www.california-map.org/california-map.jpg

Hah, on there it shows 10 going through Indio. Must be a turnoff.. I swear I've never been to Indio, though to Palm Springs/Palm Desert a bunch of times, but that's also a turnoff. Maybe I have selective memory. I guess that's called Desert Center now. Ack, sounds like a mall.

Thanks for the links, Osso, I'll take a look at them later this evening. I'm still waiting for a response from MysteryMan about the two routes. I emailed him, but I think he's on the road.

I ended up having to have the car battery replaced two days ago when I went out to attempt running errands. It was the third time I've had to have road service to jump the battery and the last time the guy told me I had only one free service left on my AAA card and should consider replacing the battery. So this time I had them bring out a replacement battery and the call did not go on the record. He ran tests on the battery and it was holding less than half capacity, so it was definitely time to replace it. This means I'll still have at least one free road service call available for the trip to NM if needed.

The DMV has no sympathy regarding the smog test and car tags so I'm just going to take my chances on the road and hope that if I get stopped, the cop will understand.

Been sorting stuff this morning but need to give my body a rest break for the rest of the day. I think I made 10 continuous round trips up and down my stairs yesterday carrying boxes of junk to the dumpster and today my back and calf muscles are so sore I can barely walk.

I talked with two of my neighbors yesterday and I think between the two of them, I will be able to find good homes for all my plants, plant stands, and a lot of my house and patio furniture.

I found a consignment store that will take most of my clothes once I've got them all sorted through and I'll get some money out of the deal.

I'd take Hwy 40 - I've driven that route and it's pretty easy and there are
some great truck stops along the way. Wherever you see a lot of trucks,
that's a good place to eat, dto. for sleeping, there are plenty of motels along
the way.

I wouldn't, with an old car, re the fairly extensive mountainous area. But, I'm not mysteryman, and am cautionary.. Whatever, go well.

DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT go thru Death Valley.
If you breakdown you could be sitting there for 2 days.
Also, it will be close to 100 degrees there when you go thru there.
Avoid it at all costs.

Also, check your e-mail.

On the smog thing, remember that Bernallio County (Albuquerque) is the only part of NM subject to emissions testing. The standards are lower, but you are going to have to pass, anyway.