PCS move from Massachusetts to Florida

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Our 5th move in 6 years is upon us. Once again we will hit the open road and move our family across the country. Join us on our journey for our PCS move from Massachusetts to Florida.

This move feels very different. Our country is in the midst of a pandemic, the coronavirus. So my goal is to get my family from point A to point B safely and healthy.

The company assigned to our move has estimated 3 days to pack and load our belongings. Some may think that because we aren’t moving ourselves, that means I have nothing to do 🙂 When in fact, I have plenty to do!

I hope you find some tips in this post helpful for your next move.

Two weeks to move checklist

1. I’m getting rid of anything I don’t want to take with us. Clothes that no longer fit the kids, toys they no longer play with among miscellaneous items throughout the house. I have been dropping things off at the thrift store or leaving items curbside.
2. I’ve refilled all prescriptions and had the clinic print off copies of my kid’s last school physical and immunization records.
3. Make any necessary appointments for your car such as tire rotation or oil change.
4. Call to cancel all of your utilities, subscriptions and forward your mailing address with the post office online.
5. I’m also thinking about meals for the rest of the week and offering useful pantry items that I won’t be using to my neighbors.
6. I bought my 2 year old a couple small “surprise” toys for those moments when he’s tired of being in his car seat. Here are some of our favorites.

Another must buy is a window shade to block the sun!

Lastly, what I’m really focused on is putting aside anything I don’t want the moving company to pack.

Things we will need for the week ahead of us:

• cooler & snacks for the drive
• downloaded ebooks and movies
• cleaning supplies
• air mattress/pack n play, blankets & pillows
• clothes/shoes
• toiletry items/diapers & wipes
• pet carrier, food and litter

Moving Day

Sterling moving company was assigned to our PCS. The packers took 2 days to pack up our house and 1 day to load the truck. We spent the last night in our empty home to finish cleaning and planned to wake up and hit the road the next day.

Curious what base housing looks like? Check it out here.

Our first day on the road was a huge success. Traffic was nowhere near what it could have been if it hadn’t been for the coronavirus. We made it from Massachusetts to North Carolina in 11 hours, stopping only once to eat and get gas!

Atlas did surprisingly well in the car all day! He loved his new toys and being in the car (after being in quarantine so long at home). I don’t think we even turned on cartoons for him until the last couple hours of the drive!

Hotel stay

I do not recommend staying at the Hilton Garden Inn in Roanoke Rapids, NC. I’ll leave my review of that for google.

Based on our first day of travel, we could have made it to our house in Florida the next evening, but decided to break up the driving. So on day 2 we drove from North Carolina to Brunswick, Georgia. We stayed at Embassy Suites by Hilton and I highly recommend this hotel stay.

Embassy Suites was very clean and they took covid precautions that made me feel very comfortable staying there. They also have a robot that will deliver anything to your room for touch-less delivery!

Home Sweet Home

I was surprised to see a covid checkpoint as we entered Florida. A woman without a mask (the irony) asked us which state we were coming from. I said Massachusetts and she let us on our way. Seemed like smoke and mirrors.

We arrived to our new home 48 hours after leaving Massachusetts. This next week would be grueling prepping the house for the arrival of our household goods and settling into our home.

The movers took a full day to unload our belongings and a few days later, our 2nd shipment arrived. We had goods in temporary storage that we didn’t have space for in our last house.

We are not far from MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa and are loving the area so far. I was excited to come back to Florida, but I didn’t expect to feel this good about being back in the sunshine state. It just feels like we are where we should be.

My parents are only a few hours away and they visited this weekend. We celebrated my 40th birthday yesterday which had it not been for covid I would have been with family and friends. But I had everything I needed at home with my boys.

Traveling amidst Covid-19

To be honest, I worried about traveling through the east coast amidst covid ever since we got our PCS orders. One of us is immune compromised but in addition to that, no one really knows how exactly you will react to covid. I personally, don’t want to find out.

We took precautions when stopping for gas, food & hotel stay and that’s really all we could do. It was interesting to see how the further south we got, the less people were wearing masks.

Now that we’re in Florida, I see many people acting as if we are not in the middle of a pandemic. To each his own, but it’s a stark contrast to Massachusetts. So, I’m getting used to our new normal.

We personally, took quarantine & precautions seriously, however the past couple weeks I’ve been exposed to so many people. Just typing that sentence sounds so bizarre to even say. Just how much reality has shifted this year is unreal.

As always, thanks for reading! I hope you found this post helpful in some way!?

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