Look Out Norman, Here We Come ~ The BS Report

I know my blog followers have been dying to know what's going on with us, so hopefully I haven't waited long enough for any of you to actually die, because that would decrease my followers by like fifty percent. I could give lot of excuses for not blogging (just ask Brandon because he usually gets them but they are used as my excuses for not emailing him). Basically, they fall into one of two categories: (1) Nothing noteworthy (or blog worthy) has happened, or (2) I haven't had the time. One of the reasons I haven't had time lately is because we were preparing for and then actually moving to Norman, Oklahoma, where I am beginning my PhD program in Accounting at the University of Oklahoma.

The day that we loaded up our rental truck and cleaned our apartment (thanks to a lot of help) was a day full of waiting for me. Sarah dropped me off at the Home Depot to pick up our Penske truck at 9:00am. I told the Home Depot employee that I was there to pick up a truck. He told me that it wasn't there yet and he called Penske to see when it would be there. They told him "20-30 minutes". He told me that "20-30 minutes" in the past has usually meant more than twenty or thirty minutes. I knew it was bad when another Home Depot employee walked in and said "Let me guess, another Penske truck isn't here?" which received an affirmative response.

At around 9:40, I decided to call Penske to see if I could work out some sort of discount for having to wait for so long (since they had told me that what sets them apart from UHaul and Budget is that they actually guarantee that the truck you reserved will be there rather than simply a truck). The lady at Penske told me there was nothing she could do, called the local Penske store in West Valley, and told me they would be there in ten minutes. I was a little disappointed in my bargaining skills, but anxious to finally get the truck. At 10:30, the Penske guy shows up, hands the keys to a Home Depot employee and leaves. No "sorry your truck was late", no "here's the keys", nothing. The Home Depot guys on the other hand, were really nice and gave me an additional discount that saved me $80 on my rental. I think that wait was worth my time.

I finally got back to our apartment, where my family was hard at work helping Sarah clean. Sarah's sister Jennie and my Aunt Elizabeth showed up later to help with the cleaning, for which we are very grateful.

Brad, my dad and I meanwhile were getting ourselves into a real life game of tetris. I don't know if everyone feels this way when they are moving, but it made me realize that we have a ton of stuff. Then I was looking at our stuff and at the size of the truck and I was worried that we wouldn't have enough room. As we packed layer after layer in the truck, my dad would ask "Is that about it?" to which I would respond, "No, we've still got more." I'm sure my dad could hear the worry in my voice because he would follow up by asking, "Do you think it's all going to fit?"

I thought What do you mean, 'Do you think it's all going to fit?' You're supposed to be the moving guru. You're supposed to tell me if it's all going to fit. If you think this is helping with my stress level, it is. Just in the wrong direction.

I'm sure you can understand my relief when we had multiple feet to spare at the back of the truck. Thanks again dad for your incredible tetris skills and Brad for your man power!

After a good night's rest at my parent's house, it was time to hit the road. At the advice of a current Accounting PhD student, we took I-80 to Cheyenne then south to Denver rather than taking the steep slopes of I-70 or the heat of New Mexico on I-40. Brad was kind enough to come along as a one-man moving crew and he kept Sarah company by weaving belts, reading The Hobbit, sleeping and listening to The Hunger Games while Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (minus CD 9) kept me company.

Our first day covered roughly 616 miles where we slept in Limon, Colorado. If you've never heard of it, that's probably because the only people who stop there to stay are truckers (hence the overpriced hotels and multiple gas stations with a few restaurants and not much else). So, we got ourselves one of the cheaper overpriced hotels and had dinner at Denny's before heading to bed.

Since I'm kind of a nerd (I'm getting a PhD in accounting) and I like to save money (I'm getting a PhD in accounting) and I'm curious (I'm getting a PhD in accounting) as well as weird (I'm getting a PhD in accounting), I calculated our miles per gallon throughout the trip and seemed to find that we got the best gas mileage when I was going about 60 mph. Because I figured it would be worth it to drive a little slower and save the money, we drove about that speed for the majority of the trip. And because calculating my own mpg on the receipt wasn't enough, I created a spreadsheet after we got here to analyze our fuel efficiency.

The highlights from the spreadsheet:

Total miles: 1,220.8

Total gallons of gas: 141.524

(25.442* for Sarah's car and 116.082 for the truck)

*We didn't fill Sarah's car up before taking back the truck so her mpg numbers don't include the last 34 miles.

Average MPG: 10.5 (Truck), 46.6 (Sarah's car)

Max MPG: 48.2 (Sarah's car)

Min MPG: 9.2 (Truck)

Truck Rental: $770.91

Gas cost: $539.85

($121.91 for Sarah's car and $417.94 for the truck)

Hotel cost: $185.73 (One night in Limon, Colorado and one night in Moore, Oklahoma)

Total Cost: $1,496.49

I'm sure that's more than any of you cared to know.

Anyway, we made it to Norman in just over two days and with Brad's help got unloaded quickly. To see the inside of the apartment, you'll have to check back soon.