Driving NYC to Dallas: 4 Days of Ups and Downs (and Fire!)
Also see:
Come in Houston, er, Dallas: Buying a House and a Move Toward FIRE
Goodbye to All That: In a Month, Dallas Here I Come!
I set the date, said my goodbyes, and cut the ties.
The move to Dallas has been a long time coming. I picked Memorial Day weekend to drive from Brooklyn to my new place in Dallas.
Now I’m here and it’s been about 4 weeks. Everyone kept talking about “getting settled.” Pssh, I don’t need to get settled. I’ll just pick right up.
It’s been a crazy few weeks:
2 new Airbnbs
Buying investment property #2
Unpacking boxes
Werkin’
Getting acquainted with a new city
Visits from friends (already!)
In short, I guess, yeah, I did need time to “settle.”
The drive down took 4 days. I thought it would take 3. Here’s how it went down and why it took longer.
Day 1 – Brooklyn, NY to Winchester, VA
By far the longest day.
I swept the apartment and wiped everything down one last time.
The movers took everything 2 days before. I slept on a pallet of comforters and quilts that last night.
At 3am, I woke up, packed the last items in the already packed-to-the-gills car, and set the keys on the counter. Took one last look and shut the door.
That moment, that feeling – I won’t soon forget how it felt to leave New York.
Closing the New York chapter with the close of a door.
Loaded up the dog and drove in the dark across Staten Island with a plan to fuel up at the first gas station in New Jersey where gas prices are much cheaper than in the city.
They’re all full-service, so I told the attendant to fill ‘er up. It was before 4am and I wanted to get as much driving done as I could before the city traffic roared to life.
But then, the car wouldn’t start.
I swear my heart skipped a beat. The car full of everything important to me and with the dog inside.
The attendant jumped the car and we drove to the nearest Subaru dealership in Morristown, NJ. We got there around 5am and they opened at 7am. For 2 hours, we sat there, waiting. I tried to sleep sitting up while I could.
Ughhh
Fast forward 4 hours and ~$800. I have a new alternator. And they tell me the car is good to go – all the way to Texas. I’m grateful for the quick turnaround and ready to get back on the road.
It’s afternoon by this time and all I’ve eaten is a gas station breakfast sandwich. So when we saw some restaurants off the highway in Hamburg, PA, we pull over to grab a bite.
As we headed inside, I turned around and noticed smoke coming out of the hood of the car.
So I pop the hood, and not only is the car smoking – the engine is ON FIRE.
Yes. Actual fire.
My burned-up, white-hot, still-smoking engine
Not like a roaring, out-of-control blaze, but lit up like a freaking birthday cake.
At this point, I feel so physically ill from the car trouble I think I’m going to collapse. So I call USAA (my car insurance company) and get a tow to the nearest Subaru dealership in Allentown, PA.
Getting towed in Pennsylvania
I’ve never had trouble with the car since I bought it in February. I even drove it to Philadelphia and back the weekend before with no problems whatsoever. And had it looked at ~2 weeks before setting out and was given the all-clear.
Fixing the damage
At the next Subaru dealership, they said the alternator wasn’t correctly attached and the cables had burned out – literally.
Another few hours of waiting.
Luckily, they agreed to bill the first dealership for the repair. And I called Amex (I used my Amex SPG card to pay for the previous repair) to dispute the alternator charge. That’s still pending.
EFF YEW
After all of this, I’ve been up since 3am and it’s about 5pm. I make up my mind to drive as far as I can without breaking down. At this point, I just want to be as physically far away from New York City as possible.
I drive until dark and make it to Virginia. It’s so dark I can barely see the road and I’ve been up for hours dealing with car repairs. At this point, there are no more problems and the car drives perfectly.
I pull over and see what my options are. All the Hiltons are booked up. There are no Hyatts. But there’s an Aloft hotel ~30 miles south in Winchester, VA. I book it on the mobile app and head there. It’s so cheap I just pay for it. So ready to sleep.
Fenwick at the Aloft hotel in Winchester, VA – he loves to look out the window!
At this point, there isn’t a lot left of me.
Earning SPG points for Uber now
On the plus side, this was my first paid SPG stay this year, so I can earn SPG points with Uber (even though I prefer Lyft now). And I got 500 SPG points for booking via the app.
We check-in and sleep so hard.
Day 2 – Winchester, VA to Murfreesboro, TN
Thank gods this is a fairly uneventful day. Great weather, hot. Car drives great. We scoot into Nashville shortly before sunset.
My mom lives in the Memphis area, which is about ~3 hours from Nashville. I decide I can’t go another 3 hours – the day before still has me exhausted.
Days of this
But, we avoid Nashville Memorial Day traffic by staying at the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Murfreesboro, which turned out to be fantastic (review soon).
We have a few drinks in the hotel restaurant, shoot the shit with the server (she was excellent), and enjoyed a big, free breakfast the next morning. Just what the doctor ordered.
Day 3 –
Murfreesboro, TN to Horn Lake, MS
I toyed with the idea of driving the ~10 hours straight through to Dallas and stopping to grab lunch with my mom.
But when I got there, she convinced me to stay. I ended up spending the afternoon with my grandmother in Memphis and then spending the night at my Mom’s house.
Lots of elite status perks, including:
Southern cooking that only moms can do
Free freshly cooked breakfast
Check in and out any time
Unlimited free shuttle rides to anywhere in town
