Exodus to Las Vegas

Well, like Moses leading the children of Israel to the Promised Land, my Mr. Nielson led our little family on the long trail to our new life and his new job in Las Vegas...it wasn't always and easy journey- in fact, its not completely over...but we're here now, learning how to navigate the big city and trying to find a few minutes outside of when we fall into bed at night to relax.

Day 1 of our journey took us to the Budget truck rental place in Idaho Falls. After researching the issue thoroughly (and by thoroughly I mean we took a facebook poll) we decided to go with the cheaper service at Budget as opposed to getting a UHaul. Budget was going to be half the cost...well, we soon found out why. After 45 minutes at the Budget and Jeff getting the run-around, we finally were told that they didn't have a working towing dolly (that we had ordered)...to make matters worse, they didn't have a 16 foot truck with 3 seatbelts- a necessity as there were three passengers partaking in our little adventure, and we were going to have to drive a massive 24 foot truck and would likely have to stop at all ports of entry....there were a few problems with this:
A) We needed the towing dolly, there was NO WAY I was driving through Salt Lake....NONE! (Oh...if I had only known what lay ahead...)
B) This 24 foot monstrosity was way way WAY too big...let's be honest...Jeff and I are still technically poor college students, its not like we have enough stuff to fill it...
C) Jeff was really, really nervous to have to tow our car behind the 24 foot beast, it would have made us longer ...that's right LONGER...than a semi!

Well, after getting the run around for 45 minutes and hearing their lame excuses about why they didn't have a towing dolly that worked even though they knew the day before that we were coming, Jeff came back to the car and said, "Take me to UHaul...we're just going to go to UHaul.."

I didn't complain. I put the car into gear and we called my dad to find out where the nearest UHaul station was. The guy at UHaul was super helpful...of course we knew it was going to be twice the cost, but they had the perfect 14 foot truck for our needs AND a towing dolly plus we could get a free month of storage if we needed it for making the one way move... well, my Mr. Nielson made the call to Budget to let them know we were dumping them (I think we thought about using the "Its not you, its me." line but we decided to be honest and say..."Its you...its definitely your fault...") and they magically had someone there fixing the flat tire on one of their towing dollies and they did their best to assure us that they would be ready for us by the time we made it back....well, by that point I didn't even care about saving the money (to be honest, Jeff's employer is going to reimburse us anyway) we were tired, we were ready to be on the road and UHaul had what we wanted and needed right now....We left UHaul with the truck, towing dolly and the urgent need to pack our stuff that was in I.F. with us ASAP!

We loaded as fast as we possibly could, hooked the car up to the dolly and made our way to Preston and the rest of the Nielson clan. It was our family Christmas party, and Jeff's brothers were kind enough to come help us load up (thanks guys!) Matriarch Nielson (aka MOM) was a little displeased when she found out we weren't staying the night...in our defense Jeff had called her to tell her, I guess she thought we would change our minds once the party got started...We stayed at the party until 7:30 and loaded up again to head for Nephi, UT.

To be honest...we were a little miffed...we had wanted to be out of Preston sooner, but mom was insistent that we stay to open presents and wanted everyone to guess what was in our niece Sidney's present before she opened it...we didn't have TIME for games...we wished we did, but we had to go...oh well, all was forgotten once we were on the road. We of course thanked mom for a good time, because, all things considered, it really was a good time...and booked it as fast as we could.

We met with some interesting construction through Provo...there were some concerned "Whoa"s heard from both sides of the moving truck as we rode over medians to follow where the construction detours took us...all the while our little diva in training slept like an angel (would that we had that ability...)

We made really good time to Nephi and instead of making it there at 1 AM as we had feared we would, we made it at a surprising 11:30 PM. Of course, our sleeping angel woke up as we made our way to our luxurious digs for the evening in the local Econo Lodge...she was less than thrilled with her accomodations...

Let's just say that my dear Mr. Nielson was able to go to sleep at around midnight and the little diva insisted that we have a private party until 2:30 in the morning, when I finally brought her into the bed to sleep with us (I know...bad mommy, but what else could I do? She didn't have her cozy leopard print blanket to sleep on in her play yard and refused to sleep in it for longer than about 10 minutes.) Of course, since our princess was sleeping in the bed with us, I was a little nervous to fall asleep myself (understandably so...). I finally managed to sleep for an hour or so around 3, then my dear husband woke up around 5 and took care of the princess for me since she desired an early breakfast in bed.... He was worried about our stuff in the UHaul outside (not that we really have anything worth stealing... but its worth something to us I suppose) and decided to go out and check on it around 5:30. He was kind enough to bring in our bags of clothes so we could find a fresh outfit for the next leg of our journey and said, "Well, I know we were planning on leaving at 8, but do you just want to get up and go now?"

"No...I need to sleeeeeeeep..." I replied. We put the princess into her play yard (she magically decided to sleep in it when she was dead to the world in a food coma...go figure) and managed to sleep until 6:30. We woke up and decided we would try to be out of Nephi by 7, but we dragged our feet a bit and didn't leave until about a quarter to 8. We ended up stopping for breakfast, so we left Nephi by 8, as originally planned.

We made a stop in St.George to gas up and see my Aunt Jann and her family. They were kind and offered us an opportunity to get out of the UHaul for about an hour. My cousins Katie and Cassie sufficiently doted on our little diva, giving her the affection befitting someone of her status (that status being cute baby) Thanks again guys for letting us stop. We needed the break.

The break was longer than anticipated, but we hadn't realized there would be a time change once we crossed the border (a fact that Uncle Mike graciously divulged to us) This put us at ease that we would pull into Vegas on schedule in spite of our hour long stop.

We pulled into Vegas and found, to our surprise, that the hotel that Jeff's employer arranged our temporary housing in was right on the strip...needless to say driving our giant UHaul with car attached to the back was soooooo easy and pleasant *note sarcasm*

We were exhausted, but we had to go apartment hunting. Our realtor had some problems with her printer in her home office and we ended up leaving later to look at apartments than we had originally planned...this ended up being a blessing/curse...a curse because after viewing the first apartment, Jeff turned on our headlights only to find that they wouldn't turn on...a blessing because we found out about it when we had help around. Our sweet realtor first escorted us to a Sears Auto Center to see if they could help and then back to our hotel to make sure we got there safely since our headlights wouldn't work.

The next day (yesterday for those of you trying to keep track of where we are on our exodus) Jeff pulled the bulbs out of the front, without tools mind you (still don't know how he did it) to find that the glass had completely shattered leaving only the exposed filament. We knew that the bumps on the trip had been pretty bad, but apparently they were worse than we'd thought because they succeeded in busting not only our headlights, but also the break light in the rear window (which still needs to be fixed...) We also found out that our first choice apartment was still available with no pending applications. We rushed over to fill out the application and pay the necessary fees...once we were there we were basically told that because the firm that manages the property does everything by the book and to the letter, we wouldn't be allowed to move in (provided there were no surprises in the credit check) until the 3rd at the earliest...(BOO!!!) but things were looking pretty good that everything would go through. We followed our realtor to look at some other properties so we could decide what our plan B would be if this place ended up not working out (we don't want to put all our eggs in one basket just yet...and can I just say how DIFFERENT it is here...in Idaho Falls they can do a credit check in one day at most apartment complexes and you can move in the next, provided the apartment is ready....Geesh...but I digress...)

We decided that we would take the UHaul back today and take them up on their generous offer of a month of free storage (even though it will only, hopefully, be a couple of days)...and I got the joy of driving the car since Jeff didn't want to put it on the tow dolly...

Let's just say that I did it! However, I will admit that once we reached our first destination I was in tears...driving in town isn't too bad because people will let you in the lane you need to be in but driving on the freeway...well, that is a different story...

Well, that is where a new adventure began...the UHaul place that the guy in I.F. had set as our return place was supposedly supposed to have storage...and they didn't...the guy in I.F. also said that there was no UHaul return place with storage in Henderson...well...there WAS...the people at this particular UHaul place were very kind about it and allowed us to turn in the towing dolly and set us up to return the UHaul at return place in Henderson so that the storage would be closer to where our new place will (hopefully) be. Then began the next leg of our journey (after more tears when Jeff came and broke the news that we would have to drive there next...Did I mention that we were clear in Northwest Vegas and needed to drive all the way to Henderson which is on the Southeast corner????)

My dear Mr. Nielson thought it would be easier if he took our GPS and I followed him...well, he hadn't had much experience with a GPS and our particular GPS warns you well in advance if you have to make a turn so that you can be in the correct lane...well when it would say something like "Take the exit Right, ahead." He would assume it was the very next exit...needless to say I got LOTS of practice getting on and off the freeway here (My heart was in my throat the whole time, especially because I had a cranky little diva in training in the backseat...)

We made it to the storage place and found that its actually pretty near to our new apartment, which makes me a little more at ease with the idea of possibly having to drive behind Jeff...but I did come up with the nifty idea of emptying our storage and instead of turning in our keys right away leaving the car, since we have to return the new truck anyway and then turning in our keys after we have our car again...and it saves us gas! I love it when I come up with devious genius plans that prevent me from having to drive on the freeway...

I guess we will just have to hope that Faith's new pediatrician, our family doctor, dentist, optometrist etc. are all in Henderson...LOL

After our adventure today, we were a little cranky. We went and got some legit Mexican food...and we're talking LEGIT!.. and then we came back to our temporary home...our plan was to go right back out and do a little grocery shopping, but Jeff decided he wanted a break...which led to another adventure...we accidentally ended up driving down Las Vegas Boulevard...we're talking the strip strip...we're on Tropicana which is one road over...and when we were trying to head to Walmart, which is on the other end of Tropicana from where we are, Jeff didn't turn right where he was supposed to and we ended up not in the right place...after sitting in bumper to bumper traffic and only making it a few blocks, Jeff managed to make it over to the left turn lane. We backtracked using our GPS to go back to the hotel (since I haven't updated it at all since I bought it and it doesn't recognize that there is a Walmart on Tropicana). Once we were back on Tropicana we were okay and made it to Walmart- unfortunately we were so tired and rushed that we forgot something very important...celery...we have no fruits or veggies and I am going crazy without them. Oh well, I guess we will have to make the trek tomorrow before all the New Year's Eve craziness starts.

On the way back Jeff got a little antsy to get into the turn lane to go back to our hotel and accidentally ended up in the U turn lane that is right before it...needless to say we got to go on another adventure...my poor sweet Mr. Nielson...I am glad he puts up with me, especially when I freak out while driving at night because my depth perception is horrible in the dark...a few white knuckle moments later (for me) we were back at our hotel with our wholesome dinner of various types of Lunchables (because that is how we roll)...

Well, that is the rundown on the Exodus thus far. If you made it to this point of the blog- bless you! Any of you praying types out there, please pray for us. Pray that we are able to move into our new apartment before our temporary housing runs out (we have to be out of here on the afternoon of the 3rd, if we have to stay anywhere else, its on our dime...we don't have many dimes left to spend since we have to wait for a reimbursement check for the move...)...and if you're not the praying type, we can always use good vibes and positive thoughts!

We are adjusting. Jeff says he already hates this town...but its definitely so different from what we're used to, I can't say I blame him. Here's hoping that he loves his new job so much that it makes all of this seem more worth it to him! Here's hoping that I stop being such a wuss and learn how to drive...

Hugs and loves until next time darlings!