Commentary on long-distance moving

I recently moved from Houston, Texas to Denver, Colorado and then, 7 months later, moved back from Denver, Colorado to Houston, Texas. The move back to Houston was really no big deal because I had already spent many years in Houston and knew what was what, where to go and who to talk to.

However, moving to Denver was much more of a challenge than I expected it to be. I was fortunate that within a couple weeks of my arrival, I found a nice house within a five-minute drive of my new job. However, what I didn't count on was how difficult it might be to handle all of the little moving details.

In Houston, I can find nearly everything I ever need on-line by using a simple keyword search and poof, I have the information that I need to do anything that I need to do. I never gave the level of appreciation that was owed to such magic though, until I moved to Denver, Colorado.

I found it to be an interesting place, with quite a variety of people who had moved there for the amazing scenery from all over the world. It is also quite a hi-tech town in a lot of ways. It seemed that majority of coffee shops all had free wi-fi, and almost anything you wanted to purchase was extremely easy to find on Denver.Craigslist.org. It was amazing.

However, try to find a garbage disposal service that will come to your house in the suburbs by looking online.... Trust me, it is not an easy task. I looked up every keyword I could imagine only to be hit with one brick wall after another.

When I finally found my neighbor at home, they were able to go rummage through their bills to get me the name of the company that they used and finally the struggles were over in that arena, but I was living there for over a month before that miracle occurred.

Had I not been able to get my neighbors to speak to me, I would have either been SOL or I would have had to stay home from work and stalk the garbage man, standing in the middle of the street and preventing him from moving forward without threatening my life in order to get this little, simple piece of information.

I (NOT exagerrating!) called about 20 different places before receiving my neighbor's help and of course, I couldn't do this all in one day, as I had to work during the working hours that the other businesses were open. Ironically, none of them "serviced my area!"

Then there was the water company, the cable company, the electric company AND the gas company all to deal with. I have moved many times around Houston area, but never found it to be so amazingly complicated as it was there.

This was also not my first rodeo where cross-country moving was concerned. I have moved from Minnesota to Nevada. I have moved from Minnesota to Texas. Both of those experiences were relatively smooth and simple. There were usually moving packs that came in the mail or simple web or phone book searches always provided me with a few minutes of work and suddenly, I was moved and could focus on the important part.....unpacking!

Basically, this experience taught me that you never know what you will expect when you move somewhere very new. One lesson is to NEVER assume a house that you are moving into has air conditioning. It may not.

Wow, how spoiled we are down here in Houston. The house I rented in Colorado only had a swamp cooler, which, I've been advised, isn't worth much. Not to mention that it was only located upstairs!

I never ended up getting water put in the swamp cooler and seeing how well it would do though, but don't take my laziness in that regard to mean that it doesn't get hot in Colorado during the summertime, because that would be another sad mistake to make. I was told that it didn't get all that hot in Colorado, but it was all lies.

I've found that there are certain, favorite places that many people visit and overly romanticize. When you choose to move somewhere new, just expect that there will most likely be problems you may experience that you never even imagined having to deal with until you have moved across the country and into "unfamiliar territory."

No matter what anyone tells you. No matter how nice a place may have seemed when you visited. You still may be hit with any number of little complications or very strange, peculiar little scenarios when you move across the country.

By Alicia Crowder