How do you decide where to stay each night on a cross country move with everything you own in a moving truck? (Uhaul, Budget)
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Hi all, my wife and I will be moving from Tucson, AZ to Milwaukee, WI this fall. We will use a rental truck with an auto transport.
The biggest question is how to decide where to stay each night.
We plan to break the trip into four 8 hour days.
In Tucson the areas around the freeway are not so great for the most part and I would not sleep well knowing that everything we own is in a truck in the parking lot.
Any tips on picking a place for the night, small town middle of nowhere v. larger cities?
We just did a 2K move that was 6 nights. We stayed at BestWesterns the whole way. The ones that offered the hot breakfast and the nice new comfy beds. I'd highly recommend them, you can call and ask about parking etc
when we moved from WI to SC, we knew it was going to require a one night stay on the way down here. So as noted above we used AAA to help plan the route and come up with some areas that made sense for potential stops. We looked for hotels that could take a dog, had truck parking (we had a 26' uhaul plus our boat behind our suv), and was close to the interstate. Then we just had that list of hotels that could fit our needs and their contact info handy, so in our case as we got into the Louisville/Lexington areas we would have a good idea where to end up. Another advantage to hotels by the hiways would be more possible options to grab a bite to eat close by in walking distance.
Then just put a padlock on the back door & park under the lights. Nothing will ever be 100% theftproof; we just brought into the hotel our laptops, and had no problem with the stuff in the truck (or boat or suv).
I carried my laptop with me and planned out our route beforehand. We did a 'gradual' move, with frequent stops (once when DH became too tired, we stopped at a lrge rest area and he slept in the truck while I took the dogs for a long walk and roll in the grass). Each night, I Mapquested towns outside of cities to find motels in the middle of nowhere or on the far outskirts of cities that had the amenities we needed for the next stop.
I moved recently with everything including two cats in a carrier loaded into a 24' Budget Truck. I stopped overnight in a more rural location with easy view of the truck from the room, in an "old-school/well kept up" Quality Inn. I would recommend the motels with exterior room access versus interior access type due to the fact you avoid large parking lots with little oversight during the overnight hours.
Location: ๏̯͡๏﴿ Gwinnett-That's a Civil Matter-County
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I know the feeling. It sucks having to bed up for the night in a hotel when you're moving.
If you're going to have two cars with you, I would suggest parking one directly in front of the moving van and one directly in back. That way, they'll have to steal one of the cars before they can drive off with the van. If you only have one car then try to park the van where it is blocked in on one side by something and take the car off the trailer and park it in the back. I wouldn't worry a whole lot about someone breaking in as usually there is so much crap packed in there that it would come tumbling down on anyone who opens the door. Definitely use a padlock though.
We have never bothered taking our vehicle off the tow trailer- too much bother when all we want is get the pets out, food, shower, & relax in our room.
We have moved all over, long distances & choose hotels where we can park our rig somewhere outside a room. Never any problems.
When I have my dog, I must find a pet friendly place. Any other time, I use MY Onstar services to get me to a hotel that I get frequent rewards with like Marriot or Holiday Inn. I've earned a few nights stay that way.
I pretty much guessed, and picked places right off the off ramp on the freeway. Start early, stop early, that way it is not a hassle to park, and you don't need reservations. So, start at 6 am each day, by about 2-3pm, you are done for the day, start looking for hotels off the ramps. You really don't want to be driving around an unfamiliar city with a big truck and a car trailer. There are nice places to stay, well lit.
#1 Have a GPS
#2 Look on Yelp or some other site for reviews *googling is your friend*
If I was doing a long trip like yours, I'd just have a list of places to stay with their ratings and number and if one was full, I would try another.
Yes, a laptop is also good to keep with you, not only for where to stay but also where to eat.
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Everyone here has good advice.
