The Dreaded Move to St Louis

[The Seeker]

Well, I will be AWOL most of next week moving my Son to St Louis. :tongue:

I've dreaded this day for a couple years.

We've got to move his entire apartment which happens to be three stories up in an old converted house and in once of the worst areas of Pittsburgh to be able to park a truck in front of. It's supposed to be a two lane street, but it's more like 1.25 lanes with the parked cars on one side. And the whole area is pretty crowded with vehicles. We pick up the 16 ft rental truck on Monday and leave early Tuesday for St Louis.

I've driven through St Louis before on my way to Kansas City......... and I know it is THE most boring ride ever.

We are debating if it's best for me to drive the truck while my Son drives his Subaru, or if we ought to rent one of those car carriers and tow the Subaru? It's a bit over $100 for the car carrier, but you save having to gas-up two vehicles the whole way. Then again, towing the car decreases the truck's MPG.

It would also mean that we'd each have company instead of each of us riding alone in separate vehicles.


PS: Will be flying back home on Friday.

 

[gumpt1oo]

Hope the move goes well, it sounds like a fun trip! h:

 

[DaveM]

Sounds like it is a fun trip you can do without :y114: I say tow the Subaru at least then you will have company while driving :y18:

 

[CarlS]

I also suggest towing the Subaru. It is good to have company on the trip and it is less stress training to stay together in traffic. Assuming the Subaru is all wheel drive, make sure everything is disengaged for towing that distance. Check the owner's manual. Drive safely and have a good trip.

 

[The Seeker]

When my son drove out there in his Subaru to locate an apartment, it took him roughly $100 in fuel. So the car carrier will be about the same.

With the type of car carrier Penske rents, all 4 wheels will be off the road, so I won't have to worry about the AWD (I hope).

 

[CarlS]

That is a good car carrier. With the price being roughly the same for fuel and the carrier, I'd tow - less wear and tear on the car.

 

[The Seeker]

Well, I'm back and I somehow survived the dreaded move to St Louis!

The rental truck I got turned out to be a brand spanking new Ford and the car carrier was also brand new. It hauled my Son's Subaru Forester and the contents of his apartment with ease. We drove 11 hours between 75-80 MPH the entire way.

Temperatures were hovering around 100 F the whole time with over 90% humidity. They had heat advisories in St Louis because the "heat index" was 118 F (heat plus humidity feels like 118 F). The front entrance to his building would have been impossible to haul furniture up so we had to use the rear fire escape. It was a KILLER!!!

His new school (Washington University) was simply awesome. Beautiful architecture. On top of that, we went to see his office in the Constitutional Law Building and got to meet US Supreme Court Chief Justice Alito who was there to preside over the school's Moot Court.

I flew out of St Louis yesterday afternoon, first to Detroit for a 1 hour lay-over and then took a commuter plane from Detroit to Pittsburgh.

I'll try to post a couple photos after I get them downloaded off of the camera and re-sized.

 

[DaveM]

Great news seem it did not turn out that bad after all. Looking forward to the photos :y115:

 

[The Seeker]

This first photo is of the main "entrance" to Washington University campus. The central section seems to me to be a design meant to give the feel of the Tower of London. I don't know if that's what the architect had in mind, but that's what I get from it. To really do justice to the building, see it full-sized in the gallery:

My Son standing in front of the above building:

This is the law building where my Son's office is located. As you can see, all the buildings on campus carry on the same theme. This building is only 1 year old. Even though there's a recession, Washington University has the funds to build new buildings! They were in the process of building about three more new ones with the same style of architecture. It's a pretty darn impressive place to say the least:

 

[CarlS]

Glad you are back safely, AJ; and that you had a good trip without incident. That appears to be a lovely campus. I wish your son the best and much success. Thanks for posting the photos.

 

[The Seeker]

Thanks!

The rental truck even had an MP3 / CD player with a LINE IN so my Son could plug in his iPod, but we ended up talking the entire trip. Since St Louis will be his home for the next 5 years, it was great to spend some quality time in deep discussion before I have to lose him again for a while.

Here's a few of my cellphone pics.....

This is my Son again in front of his future home:

This is the inner atria inside his building:

And last but not least, this is the monstrous fire escape we had to lug all his furniture and belongings up. I don't even want to think about how many trips I made up and down those damned things!!! :angry:

 

[The Seeker]

The drop-off point for the one-way truck and trailer rental happened to also be the St Louis Car Museum ????

Anyhow....we walked inside to drop off the vehicle and behind us is this beautiful car museum! I wished I could have spent more time there, but we were dropping off the truck on my way to the airport so I had a plane to catch.

Click the link above and check out some of their cars for sale.

I did snap this pic of a Triumph TR4 though.

 

[The Seeker]

One night, my Son took me to this tremendous club called Blueberry Hill

Check out the website for details on the club. It's named Blueberry Hill after the famous song. Chuck Berry (yeah, he;s still alive!?) plays there all the time. Inside, there's a hallway that is absolutely COVERED with photos of the club owner with famous names in the Rock-n-Roll industry! You name it, and there's a photo of him, her, or them. It's like a rock museum inside!!

The night we were there, a band called Paramore was playing:

Paramore: crushcrushcrush [OFFICIAL VIDEO]

 

[CarlS]

You had a neat time in spite of the agony of moving. That fire escape does not look like fun to haul things up and down. It's a good thing you had young help! :ya2:

That car museum looks very inviting. I think I could spend a day there. Nice looking Triumph. And I would definitely like to visit Blueberry Hill. :y115:

Sure glad you had some quality time together and that you towed the Subaru making that possible.