Detour - an Unexpected Road Trip!

Oh, boy, you guys... okay...

So, around the winter of 2019 and into the beginning of 2020 (remember that time? Nothing was crazy? People were dying from regular stuff, not from the WuFlu? Good times...), The Kiddo and her friends were planning on finding an apartment to rent together here in town. The friends (lets call them Jo and Mimi) had already been living on their own with other roommates, but due to some heavy drama surrounding the main leaseholder, they wanted out as soon as possible (they eventually even moved back into Jo's parents house to get away from this psycho!).

However, we live in a college town, and our apartments cater to a college crowd. This generally means that either you pay per room for a shared apartment (even if all the people are renting together), or you pay per room to share an apartment with strangers, or you pay a huge amount of money to rent an apartment on your own. Here's just a few of the typical apartment complexes in town:

The Enclave ($2,816 for a 4-Bedroom)

Integra 24 ($2,275 for a 3-Bedroom)

Campus Lodge ($2,100 for a 4-Bedroom)

The Niche ($1,796 for a 4-Bedroom)

They were hoping to rent a house, in a similar neighborhood to the house they recently rented. All of the Kiddos worked in the same area of town, so it made sense to stay where they were, geographically speaking. Plus, Jo wanted to stay where she was because her cats were used to the area, she said. 

So, for months, they looked for houses. They looked for apartments. They widened their search area. They upped their monthly rent budget. It was slim pickins out here for places to live. No sooner would they find something than it would slip from their grasp. Once, because the property owner took it off the market. Once, because someone offered to buy the property outright. 

Then Covid hit in earnest. Students left in droves, which should mean that they could find a place to live, right? Nope. Many apartment complexes just kind of shut down for a few months, waiting to see what the university would do for the next semester. And, many of the private home renters stopped any new rentals as well, because cooties. 

Around April, Jo and Mimi went up to Wisconsin to visit a friend who was having some personal issues, and after a few weeks, they told The Kiddo that they planned on staying there! What a kick in the balls for The Kiddo, I was heartbroken for her. Not only did she lose the option to move into her first place with her best friends, she lost her best friends altogether! She was in a funk for quite a while, though she never really said anything out loud. I could see it though. She was going through motions and nothing brought her joy. 

Close to Labor Day, she casually asked me my thoughts on her moving to Wisconsin. She and the friends had been talking and the friends would be coming down to visit their family here, and invited her to just pack up and leave with them! Uh, no... We had a long discussion about thinking things through, rather than acting impulsively, but a spark had lit up her eyes. 

Fast forward to Thanksgiving, and she was again talking about moving. Things were sounding more concrete this time, and the Mommy in me began to worry that I would actually be losing my daughter for real this time. Many nights we had discussions over dinner about what that type of move would entail, details she had to think about, actions that would need to be taken. In the end, though, by New Year's, we knew that she'd set her heart on The Badger State. 

As we went through January and into February, she and the girls made plans, tried to figure out the best way to do this... The girls were going to come down to visit family "at some point" and when they did, they'd load up Jo's HHR with all of The Kiddo's stuff and they'd just drive all the way back to Wisconsin. I listened to the plans, knowing full well that they had no real idea what they were doing, but attempted to keep my mouth shut. They seemed to think they had everything under control, and when I'd point something out, The Kiddo would say, "oh... we didn't think about that..."

Sigh....

And while I didn't say a lot to her, Hubby and I would often have discussions in bed, and more than once we joked (half-joked really) that, in the end, we should be prepared to drive a moving van to Wisconsin.

Fast forward to the end of February. I'm driving the Kiddo to work, and we're talking about the slowly-forming moving plans, and she was hemming and hawing about how it will be difficult for them to drive the HHR and a U-Haul, with only two drivers. They'd have to pay for hotels, pay more for gas, blah blah blah. So, I looked at her and said, as "mom sweetly" as possible, "do you want us to drive the van to Wisconsin?"

She was so thankful she almost cried! The three of them were thinking of ways to ask me to drive, while at the same time not wanting to inconvenience me. I told her that I'd already prepared for the task, and that, as long as she was going to pay me back for all expenses, I had no problem doing some driving. 

Oh, and right about the time we were having this discussion was around the same time that Winter Hell had been unleashed upon the nation (remember Texas!)

(Typo aside...) I am not built for single-digit negative temperatures!

Oh, finally! Wind chills above zero!

Oh come on! How is this Florida Girl supposed to drive in snow-covered roads?

Well, me being me... or more specifically, we being us, Hubby and I turned this into a whole thing. He was originally open to the idea of flying home, which was amazing (he's afraid of heights), but after a few days of discussion, we nixed the flying and opted to drive home. Kind of a trial run for whether or not we like doing road trips. 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have about 2 weeks to plan a 10-day road trip vacation!