Travel Log -- DAY 0

For your hard work…you get a big fat nothing

I strongly dislike moving. It’s such a pain to pack up everything you own. And I get easily distracted by old letters, pictures, random books, shoes and generally anything to hinder my packing progress. Plus, moving across country=serious packing.

Somehow we managed. But less than 24 hours before our cleaning check, the apartment was in shambles. With most of our belongings in the moving truck, we were left bed-less, light-less, food-less and in disarray. At 9 p.m. we made the inspired decision to rent a hotel room. I admit it was weird to stay in a hotel around the corner from our apartment, but it provided a place to rest our heads in preparation for days and days of driving.

I think we are paranoid when it comes to getting rental deposits back. Armed with a pizza, caffeine, a few hours of sleep at the hotel (2 to be exact) and a militia of cleaning products, we tackled every square inch of the apartment. I even scrubbed the walls and every base board in the 700 square feet of our living quarters.

By 11 a.m. the next day we were finished. We called the leasing office for a walk-through and bit our nails as the guy checked our place.

The funniest thing he said: “Wow, you even filled the holes. That would have cost you $30.”

When he had seen enough, he congratulated us, saying in all of his cleaning inspections, he'd never seen a cleaner apartment. He said it looked better than it ever had.

All I could think was, “We stayed up ALL night for a gold star? Great.”

We loaded into the truck, bid adieu to Utah and were off.