Reflections on Moving Chaos

Mission Accomplished! In the past two days we've managed to clear out our apartment, move into our temporary place, and transport most of our belongings back to Ohio. Probably one of the worst moving experiences I've ever had. In fact, it was generally a week defined by superlatives. So, I present to you our moving nightmare in the form of a superlative list.

1) Greatest truck rental ever. One of the few good things about our trip. Penske is amazing. Cheap trucks that aren't crappy and falling apart. U-Haul is lame.

2) Most Gatorade consumed in one sitting. Man, I don't think I have ever sweat that much. After we loaded up the van with all our stuff, I proceeded to drink around 4 quarts of Artic Blast Gatorade.

3) Longest travel time from Illinois to Ohio. A trip that would normally take around 7 hours was lengthened to a torturous 10.5 hour journey. See numbers 4 and 5.

4) Most rest stops visited in one trip. A grand total of 6 travel plazas. We managed to visit every travel oasis along the I-294 toll road around Chicago. We also notched up two crappy service plazas in Ohio.

5) Worst traffic jam ever! Around 2:30 we hit traffic on the southwest side of the city on I-294. Traffic was gridlocked from 95th Street all the way to the Bishop Ford Freeway. For all you non-Chicagoans out there, that's roughly 30 miles of bumper-to-bumper hell.

6) Most violations committed while operating a motor vehicle. At one point I cut someone off while merging without a turn signal and speeding at the same time. This is all topped off by the fact that I was wearing ear phones listening to my mp3 player, preventing me from hearing the guy hunking and cursing at me. All of this in our mighty Penske moving van.

Anyway, it's over now, and for that we are thankful. We hope to enjoy a few restful days here in Ohio before we have to go home. Thank you everyone who helped out with the move: Neal, Meryl, Eric, Kathy, and Betsy. You guys are awesome!