experience counts

Just the car, mind you, not me. I didn't want to drive out for a few reasons. First of all, it's March and the Rockies and the Sierras are between here and San Francisco. Bad weather in the mountains is entirely possible, and I wouldn't enjoy it. Second, and perhaps more important, is that Shindy REALLY doesn't like being in a carrier in the car. She expresses this vocally, and loudly. On a scale of one to ten, her cries are about an eleven. They hurt your ears. 2-3 days of this, plus the in and out of motels/hotels that allow pets in which the litter box needs to be crammed in the room ... not fun. I was thinking of having a cat experienced friend drive out with me and letting Shindy roam free in the car (the friend ensures she doesn't interfere with the driver), but with the weather and hotel rooms ... nah.

You can have the movers move your car, but what they do is load it on the truck, and you pay by the pound by the mile. Not economical.

If you can find a driver, then you can have them drive your car for you. I asked one of the students that works for my department at CSU, and he thought about it, but decided against it. He is an older, non-traditional student. I wasn't comfortable asking random people.

The other way to move a car is with a "car carrier." There are a bunch of options. "Open" means your car is one one of those trucks you see on the highways with about 10 cars on them ... I always worry that a car is going to fall off and hate driving behind them. This is the cheapest. You can also opt for "Closed", but no need for special treatment for my car.

The way it works is there are companies that act as intermediaries between you and the drivers. The companies post the requests on the "national board" and drivers or other companies choose requests that make sense for a route. Price the request too low, and it will sit on the board for a long time. So if you want your vehicle to get picked up within a narrow window, it has to be priced right. When I shipped my car from Ithaca (4 days of driving at the beginning of March), I took the lowest priced quote. The car was picked up a week later than they told me, and the driver was a ditz. This time, I got quotes and used the company that sent a long email explaining how it worked and why you needed to call them to get the quote. When I talked to them on the phone, the guy looked up something and was able to say 'the going rate from where you are to San Francisco is $500. right now. I told him I wanted the car picked up before I left Fort Collins, and he said he thought the request would get snapped up quickly, as Fort Collins is off of I-25, a major north/south highway, and very close to I-80, the main way to get to San Francisco from around here. He talked about how far ahead to post the request "just in case" and posted it about a week after I was talking to him, as agreed. The request was snatched up the first day.

The company that took it gave me a two day window for pickup. When I called for more information, the woman explained that the driver needed to be further along before they could get more specific. When I asked for a pickup "no later than" she was accommodating. Then I got a much smaller pick up window, and the driver arrived here about an hour early. Really nice guy, Polish. I feel VERY comfortable with this driver. What a difference.

I also was smart enough this time to take advantage of the allowed "100 pounds" of stuff in the car. Moving liquids is always dicey, as movers toss your boxes around, often turning them upside down or whatever. So I put a box of liquids in the trunk. Also a box of the jars I like to use for storing grains and such ... they're not worth the effort of packing, but I'd like to keep them. And they'll be fine in a box in my trunk. I also sent out a bunch of cat stuff so it would be there when I arrived. Litter, litterbox (cleaned), cat food, cat toys ... stuff to make it easy to be in the apartment before my stuff arrives. I probably should have sent along a bathroom kit, too: towel, washcloth, soap, shampoo, pillow, sheets, etc. I did remember toilet paper and paper towels ... the rest will be in my carryon, or borrowed from a friend who lives out there. He's already loaning me a nice air mattress so I don't have to stay in a hotel, and so I can be there with the cats to ease their transition.

Packing is coming along very nicely. As last time, I am having the movers pack the kitchen. Let them deal with all the breakables.