LONG Drive x2 vs. Flight and Drive Back Home?

[easypeasy]

If you HAD to go somewhere - 24+ hour drive away... could be anywhere from next week through middle of June...

Would you:

1) fly (shorter distance, less exhausting, fewer random hotels, cleaner restroom options than what would likely be found on the road during this time)

or

2) drive (who in their right minds would get on a plane right now?!?)

We WILL have to drive back (picking up kid's stuff from college dorm), but will rent a car that I wipe down furiously.

We have hand sanitizer, gloves, masks, Clorox wipes, etc. And we will likely reserve an Air BnB for a few days to relax for a bit so we aren't on the road for a straight 6+ days. Whole family would likely go.

We will be traveling from a state with relatively few cases, through states with more cases, to a state with a lot of cases. So, that's fun.

😷

Edited May 18, 2020 by easypeasy

[Laura Corin]

Compared to the cost and possible risk of doing all that, could the college kid ship the stuff and make their own way back? If you are putting the stuff in the car boot, it can't be that much.

[Ottakee]

Depending on how much stuff and the nature of it, could it be replaced/purchased at home cheaper than the cost of taking several people on a road trip with hotels and meals and gas and air B&B, etc?

In some areas there are people you can hire to pack up and ship home certain items and then just donate the rest and rebuy.

If you drive, could you do the trip with only one overnight stay?  Like drive 12-14 hours, sleep and repeat the next day?  With 2 drivers it is much more doable than with only one driver.

[JustEm]

I would fly.  I'm not overly concerned about the virus.  I'd take all the precautions I needed to, wash my hands endlessly, and guaranteeing I could quarantine myself afterwards.   I actually wouldn't do the trip at all if any of the people on it weren't willing/able to quarantine 100% when they got back.

[MEmama]

When dorms were closing in March, a lot of people hired someone local to pack them up and ship the stuff. I would contact the school—it is likely they have companies they are working with. Otherwise I’d probably just leave everything. Not an elegant solution, but to me the trip wouldn’t be worth the risk for so little right now.
Honestly I just wouldn’t go, certainly wouldn’t take the whole fam and stay even longer. 

[Andromeda]

Agreeing with the others so far. I would not go at all, and if I absolutely had to go - such as to retrieve an item so priceless, fragile, and unique that it could not be replaced, I would only go alone or with one other driver. I would definitely under no circumstances take the family or rent an AirBnB. I would drive without stopping as much as possible, as in with our own non-perishable food and sleep in the car or at the most stay one night in a hotel. Retrieve the item(s), drive back ASAP. I would not fly, and definitely not with the family. I would not rent a vehicle, I would just drive my own there and back with all the safety precautions.

Otherwise, I would either be contacting the school for shipping options or just calling it all a loss and buy brand new stuff when the time came.

[Lanny]

4 hours ago, Laura Corin said:

Compared to the cost and possible risk of doing all that, could the college kid ship the stuff and make their own way back? If you are putting the stuff in the car boot, it can't be that much.

 

This...  I had recently explored several options for DD, when she was planning to come home to Colombia from the USA. No airline flights are permitted to/from/within Colombia at this time, so her trip was cancelled and she is SIP (Sheltering in Place) at Carolina.

These are 2 links I found and bookmarked about 4 to 6 weeks ago. Looking at the 2 web sites, the one by U-Haul, CollegeBoxes seems better to me.

https://www.collegeboxes.com/

https://www.collegetruckers.com/

NOTE: We have no experience with either of the above companies or with any other company. DD ended up borrowing a Cart and moving her stuff from her First Year dorm to another dorm, where the students who are "SIP" are staying.

[MEmama]

Also consider that many states require a 14 day quarantine. Is your entire family willing to adhere?

[Scarlett]

I voted before I read your post. I would not go for that reason and certainly not take the whole family.  And not stay for several days.  
 

Hire it done. 

[ktgrok]

The more people that go, the more potential one of them gets the virus. The more potential it then later spreads in your family. Nope. At most college kid plus one parents. 

[easypeasy]

It's a lot of stuff. We would be renting a van to get it all home. Almost everything she owns - personal/sentimental stuff as well as the rest of it. 

She came home fairly early in all of this thinking it would be for a couple of weeks ... obvs that didn't work out. 

Her school has been LESS than helpful (except that they've given her a wide window in which to pick up her stuff). They haven't worked out anything with moving companies and, as of last week, weren't letting kids send other people/companies into the dorm rooms to pack for them. 

ideally, we'd send someone to pack up her stuff and move it into storage. Then go in the fall sometime to pick it all up. But, as of last week when we checked, that was a no-go with the school.

Quarantining upon return is easy. DH is working from home and the kids' entire summers were canceled. 😭

[Pen]

Drive with just the one kid whose dorm is involved . Or the person most able to move things. If it is a van, sleep in the van as needed. Or rent a small travel Rv and stop only for gas.  Drive as much straight through as possible.  Take all food etc.   And a luggable Loo if rental has no toilet.   

Just a get it done as quickly as possible trip if it ***must*** be gotten and cannot be abandoned. 

Not a vacation with whole family.

(I think going from place with few cases to place with many and back again is risky even without making it a family vacation. Making it a family vacation is an absolute No Way.) 

Edited May 18, 2020 by Pen

[Scarlett]

I would probably be ok stopping for gas and to use the potty and get take out  on the trip.  I also think I would rent a room at least one night each way......I would probably take my own sheets and towels though....and wipes to sterile every surface I needed to touch.  
 

Even though I see some risk with that I think it is less risky than flying.  I would not fly right now except for emergency...like Dawns situation.  

[City Mouse]

It sounds a bit like you want to turn this into a family vacation. That I would not do. I would have the kid and one other person go. I would look at costs determine which method of travel.

[Corraleno]

I'd send the college kid with 2 large empty suitcases (no charge for checked bags on Southwest), have her fill the suitcases with the most important stuff, throw the rest away, and fly home. Send her with masks, lots of hand sanitizer (preferably as wipes, since those aren't subject to TSA limits), and plenty of snacks (nuts, dried fruit, protein bars, etc.). Fly in day 1, pack day 2, fly home early morning on day 3, quarantine at home for 14 days.

Edited May 18, 2020 by Corraleno

[katilac]

I voted "fly" before reading, based only on the information in the voting section. I don't think flying is any more dangerous than driving, stopping for gas, staying at hotels, and so on. 

The most practical solution is for dd to fly up by herself to pack and ship the most sentimental and important items, then fly home. In a perfect scenario, there would be very early flights going there and very late flights returning home, and she would do it all in a day. I'm sure you could call the UPS store or whatever and pre-order shipping supplies to be ready for pickup. Doing it this way does mean throwing a lot of things away, but sometimes that cant' be helped. She could message any friends who live locally and ask if they want this or that. 

She might have to stay overnight, and ideally she would stay in her dorm room - even if they aren't 'allowing' it, can she check in with friends to see what the situation really is? I mean, if she goes in to pack up, is someone going to come round at night and make sure she left? I've heard of very different scenarios at different colleges, so it's worth checking on. She can always try this and get a hotel room that night if they do kick her out. 

If she does it alone,  there's one person making a roundtrip flight, gone for two days, zero or one night in a hotel room. She would have to take a few Uber rides - to the UPS store if they can't deliver supplies curbside, to the dorm, to and from airport. It's still much less exposure than five people driving, stopping at gas stations, staying in hotels, and going in the dorm. It is a lot of work for one person (assuming they are making her clean the room as well), but why not hire someone to help her pack and be her Uber? Surely she knows someone local-ish who would like to make good money in cash? Or you can go through a staffing service. Heck, you could post the city her college is in and you might luck into having one of us who lives nearby and is able to help. 

If you are absolutely against her flying up alone, then one person goes with her. 2 people gone for 2 days, zero or one night in a hotel room, a few Ubers, is still a huge improvement over 5 people gone for a minimum of 7 days, making multiple gas stops, and staying at multiple hotels. 

In your driving scenario, why would you be driving for 6+ days? A 24-hour drive equals two days, with two drivers making it even easier, so both ways is four days, not six. 

You said: We will be traveling from a state with relatively few cases, through states with more cases, to a state with a lot of cases. That's a git-r-done situation, as little time and as few people as possible. 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by katilac

[katilac]

4 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

I'd send the college kid with 2 large empty suitcases (no charge for checked bags on Southwest), have her fill the suitcases with the most important stuff, throw the rest away, and fly home. Send her with masks, lots of hand sanitizer (preferably as wipes, since those aren't subject to TSA limits), and plenty of snacks (nuts, dried fruit, protein bars, etc.). Fly in day 1, pack day 2, fly home early morning on day 3, quarantine at home for 14 days.

TSA is allowing up to 12 ounces of hand sanitizer right now. 

[Janeway]

I voted for fly, but I am not worried about Covid. But I also like the idea of sending the child boxes or suitcases and have the child just fly home.

[Beth S]

I wouldn't go.  In addition to offering to ship stuff, most colleges ALSO will offer a self-storage unit solution, so the stuff stays in the college town.    Our ds joined 3 other friends to jointly rent a self-storage unit over the summer.  Renting an entire self-storage unit just for the son is far cheaper than taking a trip for the stuff.   

[Pen]

27 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

I'd send the college kid with 2 large empty suitcases (no charge for checked bags on Southwest), have her fill the suitcases with the most important stuff, throw the rest away, and fly home. Send her with masks, lots of hand sanitizer (preferably as wipes, since those aren't subject to TSA limits), and plenty of snacks (nuts, dried fruit, protein bars, etc.). Fly in day 1, pack day 2, fly home early morning on day 3, quarantine at home for 14 days.

 

I like this.

instead of empty suitcases for trip to the college, have them filled with packing supplies for as much to go by UPS as possible.  

Maybe Also ID tags for belongings that get left behind in case College won’t actually get rid of it, any personal stuff like furniture or cooking supplies might actually still be there when in person classes start again. 

Dump actual trash and perishables, but leave stuff she would wish she could keep. But can’t take in suitcases or send by ups, In case it does get kept. 

Or, if there are really valuable things that can’t be done this way have a moving company meet her there and move the stuff (to home or a storage unit there) while she is there to allow them in. 

 

 

Edited May 18, 2020 by Pen

[katilac]

4 minutes ago, Beth S said:

I wouldn't go.  In addition to offering to ship stuff, most colleges ALSO will offer a self-storage unit solution, so the stuff stays in the college town.    Our ds joined 3 other friends to jointly rent a self-storage unit over the summer.  Renting an entire self-storage unit just for the son is far cheaper than taking a trip for the stuff.   

This is even better than just one person going. I think OP said the college wasn't offering anything or being very accomodating, but I would call a packing and storage service anyway. Or packing and shipping and haul away, for the stuff you don't ship. Then I'd be on the phone with the college saying that this is what is going to happen, so what do we need to do? Send written permission, whatever. And if the college says absolutely not, I'd start bringing up the magic words "liability" and "social media." 

Why, Mr. Housing Officer, surely your college does not want to take on the liability of requiring a student to travel from a state with few cases to a hotspot? That's a liability I wouldn't want, for sure! Lots of our friends are posting on SOCIAL MEDIA about the way their colleges are helping out students, so I know it can be done. Perhaps you should take a look at SOCIAL MEDIA yourself to see? Or we could post on SOCIAL MEDIA and get opinions on whether your requirements are reasonable. 

[KungFuPanda]

I think movers and a flight home for college kid would be cheaper and A LOT easier than dragging the whole family on that trip.

[Pen]

22 minutes ago, katilac said:

This is even better than just one person going. I think OP said the college wasn't offering anything or being very accomodating, but I would call a packing and storage service anyway. Or packing and shipping and haul away, for the stuff you don't ship. Then I'd be on the phone with the college saying that this is what is going to happen, so what do we need to do? Send written permission, whatever. And if the college says absolutely not, I'd start bringing up the magic words "liability" and "social media." 

Why, Mr. Housing Officer, surely your college does not want to take on the liability of requiring a student to travel from a state with few cases to a hotspot? That's a liability I wouldn't want, for sure! Lots of our friends are posting on SOCIAL MEDIA about the way their colleges are helping out students, so I know it can be done. Perhaps you should take a look at SOCIAL MEDIA yourself to see? Or we could post on SOCIAL MEDIA and get opinions on whether your requirements are reasonable. 

 

Yeah.  Could post here on Wtm what colleges are helpful and which are unhelpful. 

[amyx4]

No, just really, really, no.  I'm not "afraid" of the virus.  I would find someway to hire someone to pack and ship her stuff. 

I live in one of the top five states. It is hugely inconvenient right now to get anything done. Everything is taking so much longer to accomplish.

[Scarlett]

1 hour ago, katilac said:

I voted "fly" before reading, based only on the information in the voting section. I don't think flying is any more dangerous than driving, stopping for gas, staying at hotels, and so on. 

 

 

I don’t think the bolded is true.  If one person on a flight is infected the prolonged exposure to a plane full of passengers is certainly more risky than popping in and out of a restroom or driving through a drive through for take out.  

[katilac]

11 minutes ago, amyx4 said:

No, just really, really, no.  I'm not "afraid" of the virus.  I would find someway to hire someone to pack and ship her stuff. 

Yeah, virus aside, that just seems like a whole lot of time, money, and trouble for the contents of a dorm room. 

OP, I always wanted to address what you said about it being easy to quarantine once at home: that's assuming you make it home! If someone gets symptoms on this fairly long trip, you will all be quarantined wherever you happen to be until results come in. That's only a couple of days, but if they have it? You're quarantined wherever for the duration. Which I think is two weeks, but possibly varies by location? 

It doesn't even need to be someone in your family. If the desk person at the dorm tests positive, you may all be in quarantine. 

[ktgrok]

I'd send one person if I had to, and have them ship most home, put the rest in storage. 

[Pen]

15 minutes ago, katilac said:

Yeah, virus aside, that just seems like a whole lot of time, money, and trouble for the contents of a dorm room. 

OP, I always wanted to address what you said about it being easy to quarantine once at home: that's assuming you make it home! If someone gets symptoms on this fairly long trip, you will all be quarantined wherever you happen to be until results come in. That's only a couple of days, but if they have it? You're quarantined wherever for the duration. Which I think is two weeks, but possibly varies by location? 

It doesn't even need to be someone in your family. If the desk person at the dorm tests positive, you may all be in quarantine. 

 

This is also a good point for talking to the university.  If people trying to clean out dorm rooms get sick, how are they going to deal with quarantine and caring for the sick?  It’s much of the same issues as why they would have had people go home in first place. 

[katilac]

2 minutes ago, Scarlett said:

I don’t think the bolded is true.  If one person on a flight is infected the prolonged exposure to a plane full of passengers is certainly more risky than popping in and out of a restroom or driving through a drive through for take out.  

Well, I guess you are balancing potential exposure on a plane for a longer time versus the potential short but repeated exposures of a very long drive with hotel stays and numerous stops. I consider either way a risk that I probably wouldn't be willing to take for the contents of a dorm room. I'd probably do whatever I could to try and get the most sentimental items for dd in a way that doesn't involve travel to a state with much higher risk than my own. 

OP, I think you might be underestimating the bathroom issue. I'm in a hotspot, and it is really hard to find bathrooms. Really hard. All the usual options like fast food, coffee shop, gas station - the bathrooms are closed. Some rest area bathrooms are open, some are closed. For that long of a drive, through multiple affected states, I'm thinking a camp toilet is a necessity. And a pop-up pod to use it in, lol.

[Bootsie]

1 hour ago, katilac said:

This is even better than just one person going. I think OP said the college wasn't offering anything or being very accomodating, but I would call a packing and storage service anyway. Or packing and shipping and haul away, for the stuff you don't ship. Then I'd be on the phone with the college saying that this is what is going to happen, so what do we need to do? Send written permission, whatever. And if the college says absolutely not, I'd start bringing up the magic words "liability" and "social media." 

Why, Mr. Housing Officer, surely your college does not want to take on the liability of requiring a student to travel from a state with few cases to a hotspot? That's a liability I wouldn't want, for sure! Lots of our friends are posting on SOCIAL MEDIA about the way their colleges are helping out students, so I know it can be done. Perhaps you should take a look at SOCIAL MEDIA yourself to see? Or we could post on SOCIAL MEDIA and get opinions on whether your requirements are reasonable. 

The problem is the university housing is dealing with liability issues from a number of angles.  If an uninsured movers come in and get hurt on the property there are liability issues.  If the university lets Moving Company A in the room and a roommate's items get damaged or taken, then they have liability issues.  Every person I know who works in university housing is going crazy with a myriad of issues.  This is all an unintended consequence of moving universities online, which is leading some families having to travel more rather than less.  

Much of my answer would depend on the particular parts of the country that are involved and whether the student is returning to school in that part of the country in the future.  Also it would depend upon the flights and airports that would be taken.  I wouldn't pack up the entire family.  I would consider having student fly, pack up items, move them to storage, and then fly back home.    

[Pen]

Just now, katilac said:

Well, I guess you are balancing potential exposure on a plane for a longer time versus the potential short but repeated exposures of a very long drive with hotel stays and numerous stops. I consider either way a risk that I probably wouldn't be willing to take for the contents of a dorm room. I'd probably do whatever I could to try and get the most sentimental items for dd in a way that doesn't involve travel to a state with much higher risk than my own. 

OP, I think you might be underestimating the bathroom issue. I'm in a hotspot, and it is really hard to find bathrooms. Really hard. All the usual options like fast food, coffee shop, gas station - the bathrooms are closed. Some rest area bathrooms are open, some are closed. For that long of a drive, through multiple affected states, I'm thinking a camp toilet is a necessity. And a pop-up pod to use it in, lol.

 

I think if driving, if going at all as I think not going would be better than any form of going, there should be no hotel use (unless some Emergency situation like a break down).  

 

Drive through with minimum rest stops sleeping in the van (or whatever is used).  Take all necessary food and water.   Take a camping toilet if not using an RV with toilet built in. 

Go, rest in dorm, pack up, go home.  

 

 

[MEmama]

31 minutes ago, katilac said:

Yeah, virus aside, that just seems like a whole lot of time, money, and trouble for the contents of a dorm room. 

OP, I always wanted to address what you said about it being easy to quarantine once at home: that's assuming you make it home! If someone gets symptoms on this fairly long trip, you will all be quarantined wherever you happen to be until results come in. That's only a couple of days, but if they have it? You're quarantined wherever for the duration. Which I think is two weeks, but possibly varies by location? 

It doesn't even need to be someone in your family. If the desk person at the dorm tests positive, you may all be in quarantine. 

Agree and adding that quarantine doesn’t begin from the day you test positive (which is usually days after you feel really bad, assuming you can get tested at all), but *after* you don’t have symptoms. So assuming Family Member starts to feel lousy, add a few days for testing. Now Second Family Member feels bad, rinse and repeat. Both are sick for a couple weeks, then Third Family Member comes down with symptoms. They recover quickly but now Fourth Family Member has a cough, ends up in bed for several weeks. Family has now been out of commission and sheltering in place (in OP'S case, the air B&B) for six weeks or more. Add two more weeks quarantine after final family member fully recovers before you can head home. It’s been two months. How do you procure food the entire time? Can you afford to stay in lodging that long? Who is taking care of your pets/garden/stuff back home? 
Does the stuff in the dorm room seem worth the risk? 

Edited May 18, 2020 by MEmama

[katilac]

15 minutes ago, Bootsie said:

The problem is the university housing is dealing with liability issues from a number of angles.  If an uninsured movers come in and get hurt on the property there are liability issues.  If the university lets Moving Company A in the room and a roommate's items get damaged or taken, then they have liability issues.  Every person I know who works in university housing is going crazy with a myriad of issues.  This is all an unintended consequence of moving universities online, which is leading some families having to travel more rather than less.  

I recognize that they are dealing with various issues of liability, but I'd say it's crazy for a university to not pick property issues over 'we forced students to return and they got Covid-19' issues. 

And numerous schools allow moving companies into the dorms, even when they are no extenuating circumstances. My friend's dd attends a university where a company routinely goes into the dorm at the end of the spring semester, packs everything up, stores it, and returns it in the fall. Not a covid thing, they do this all the time. It can clearly be done with a manageable level of liability. I don't buy that there is no possible way for the school to handles this other than having students travel from low risk areas to a high risk area. It shows a lack of imagination, inventiveness, and problem solving. The model for third-party packing already exists, get on the damn phone and ask some questions.  

[Lanny]

4 hours ago, easypeasy said:

It's a lot of stuff. We would be renting a van to get it all home. Almost everything she owns - personal/sentimental stuff as well as the rest of it. 

<snip>

😭

 

If there is a lot of stuff and you need to get it all home, there are also Pod things. I think U-Haul, among other companies, has those. Whether or not she has that much stuff is another thing.

I am assuming, which I try not to do, that if she is going to return to campus that having it picked up and placed into storage near the campus and then having it delivered to her new dorm/apartment, would be a lot less money and would eliminate some of your family going on that horrible trip.

This is not the time to be going on a vacation and what you described would not be a vacation. It would be an ordeal. 

Hire professionals to do this for you and it will probably cost you about 10% of what the trip would cost you.

[Corraleno]

According to the OP's signature, this DD has graduated and presumably won't be returning to college in the fall. If she's like most college seniors, pretty much everything she owns would be in that dorm, since she only brought a few things home for what was expected to be a short break. I think it would be unfair to expect her to just throw out all her possessions rather than make a quick trip, and it also doesn't make sense to put things into storage, since that just postpones the trip to a later date (and there's no reason to believe that things will be better in a few months when everything is open again, planes may be even more crowded, etc.).

I flew to visit DS in early March, and we drove back (36 hours over 3 days, w/2 nights in hotels), and if I had to do it again, unless I really needed to drive for some reason (in my case, we needed to bring DS's car home), I would definitely fly both ways. The bathrooms that were open were some of the grossest I have ever had to use (and I have traveled in 3rd world countries), and a car that's big enough to haul a lot of boxes is likely to use a lot of gas, so that's a lot of stops and potential exposure. Plus at least one night in a hotel unless you want to sleep in a car.  I'd choose flights at the least popular times and/or try to choose a flight that did not require changing planes.

[katilac]

11 minutes ago, Corraleno said:

 I think it would be unfair to expect her to just throw out all her possessions rather than make a quick trip,  

I would try to have a third-party ship her sentimental items. For the cost of this trip, all of her other possessions could be replaced. 

[easypeasy]

At this time, her school is NOT allowing anyone than the cardKey-carrying student herself to enter and/or touch anything in her room. 

We *can't* hire a company to pack it up. 

We already tried to see if her friends could pack up her stuff and stick it in storage. Got a hard NO. 

To get her stuff we have to physically be there, half a country away, and sign in at an appointed time and load the stuff ourselves. We are just trying to find a way to make that suck less than it already does  🙂

Leaving it all is not an option. Sorry. lol She didn't have typical throw-away, cheap dorm stuff in her room & she literally left everything sentimentally important in her room when she left and only brought necessities home with her back in early March. 

[Corraleno]

3 minutes ago, easypeasy said:

At this time, her school is NOT allowing anyone than the cardKey-carrying student herself to enter and/or touch anything in her room. 

We *can't* hire a company to pack it up. 

We already tried to see if her friends could pack up her stuff and stick it in storage. Got a hard NO. 

To get her stuff we have to physically be there, half a country away, and sign in at an appointed time and load the stuff ourselves. We are just trying to find a way to make that suck less than it already does  🙂

Leaving it all is not an option. Sorry. lol She didn't have typical throw-away, cheap dorm stuff in her room & she literally left everything sentimentally important in her room when she left and only brought necessities home with her back in early March. 

That's how it was at DS's uni as well — they do not allow services like Dorm Movers or ZippyU to just go into students' rooms and pack up and move things without the student there. They did allow roommates to pack up for each other, but did not allow others to enter the rooms without at least one roommate there.

Do you have flight options that don't require changing planes? When I flew in March, I chose a flight that was a little longer than usual, but the one stop was in a less busy airport and I didn't have to get off the plane. The quicker options required changing planes in places like Denver and Chicago. If she doesn't want to go alone, you could fly SW and take 4 empty suitcases and choose seats with an empty middle seat. Pay the small extra fee for Early Bird to improve seat selection (or if you can afford it pay for business so you can guarantee seats in the front). I would take reasonable precautions and just go and get it over with as quickly as possible.

[Pen]

20 minutes ago, easypeasy said:

At this time, her school is NOT allowing anyone than the cardKey-carrying student herself to enter and/or touch anything in her room. 

We *can't* hire a company to pack it up. 

We already tried to see if her friends could pack up her stuff and stick it in storage. Got a hard NO. 

To get her stuff we have to physically be there, half a country away, and sign in at an appointed time and load the stuff ourselves. We are just trying to find a way to make that suck less than it already does  🙂

Leaving it all is not an option. Sorry. lol She didn't have typical throw-away, cheap dorm stuff in her room & she literally left everything sentimentally important in her room when she left and only brought necessities home with her back in early March. 

 

Then I’d have her go with one family member best suited to help drive, pack, carry—and perhaps try to meet up with a similar group of friends at college end to all help with any lifting etc. 

Use a vehicle that can be slept in, take camping potty etc.   Sleeping bags all needed food water etc.  Keep stops limited to gasoline and emergency stops.

use masks etc whole time with other people 

Go, pack dorm room up, head home.  

No dawdling.  

It is not a suitable time or situation for vacation. 

Picture it as a war zone.  Like heading into Sarajevo during war or something like that.  

Sensible people do not go on a vacation into a war zone. 

The deadly munitions are invisible.  But any moment might be the moment you are hit.

 

[easypeasy]

10 minutes ago, Dreamergal said:

As for the typical, cheap dorm throw away stuff how expensive are we talking here ? When I was in school, I came to America with two suitcases that held clothes mostly. Within a few months of me landing here I had everything from utensils to pots and pans, plates, sheets, pillowcases even a music system, television because people who left gave me things or other students who had basically scavenged when people left gave them to me as they had excess. So even if you have what you have expensive stuff I will  say from my experience many will not cart things especially cross country. 

The rub comes in sentimental things. So I would recommend a parent going with DD, pack a few UPS boxes, drop them off and fly. It seems the safest option if you cannot do the movers thing. In any case, hard no on family road trip.

She has a hefty amount of LeCreuset cookware. Pottery Barn, etc furnishings that she bought specifically to use in her first apartment when she moved out. An uber expensive coffee maker, a brand-new TV and PlayStation, all bought with the intentions of using them in the very near future in her own place. Obvs that plan is sidelined, but I'm sure not leaving it to rot in a dorm.

Tons of sentimental stuff. Jewelry from great grandma. A chair from different great-grandma that was built by Great-grandpa... Grandma made quilts... lots of stuff along those lines. 😅 

Was no problem whatsoever when we were going to be able to easily drive or fly down for her graduation. we were going to drive a van back with all her stuff and she was going on a two-week vacation with her best college friends to NYC. Again, obvs not happening  😞

NOW, though? Yeah. Problem. 😖 lol

And, again, she had a single and the school is adamantly not allowing anyone in to her room without her physical presence. No budging so far on that requirement. We can't hire someone to pack it and shop/store it, or we would.

Will definitely give consideration to packing Ourselves and sending it home via UPS. 👍

We'll be given approx 2 hours to move everything out.

[MEmama]

3 hours ago, katilac said:

This is even better than just one person going. I think OP said the college wasn't offering anything or being very accomodating, but I would call a packing and storage service anyway. Or packing and shipping and haul away, for the stuff you don't ship. Then I'd be on the phone with the college saying that this is what is going to happen, so what do we need to do? Send written permission, whatever. And if the college says absolutely not, I'd start bringing up the magic words "liability" and "social media." 

Why, Mr. Housing Officer, surely your college does not want to take on the liability of requiring a student to travel from a state with few cases to a hotspot? That's a liability I wouldn't want, for sure! Lots of our friends are posting on SOCIAL MEDIA about the way their colleges are helping out students, so I know it can be done. Perhaps you should take a look at SOCIAL MEDIA yourself to see? Or we could post on SOCIAL MEDIA and get opinions on whether your requirements are reasonable. 

This. Absolutely this.

Assuming you have already raised holy hell with the Person In Charge, taking it to social media is your next logical step. Post on Twitter, on Insta, on College Confidential...but first tell them you are going to do it, then follow up by tagging the on college every.single.post. 

They are being unreasonable by putting students and families at risk. Their policy is wholly unacceptable and they need to be called out. 
It is a rare business indeed who wants this kind of behavior spread far and wide, particularly to their customers and potential customers.

I am a non-confrontational person and fully aware how uncomfortable this might make you feel,  but they are behaving so abhorrently they simply must be called out. Social media is the surest way to effect fast change. 

 

[easypeasy]

20 minutes ago, Medicmom2.0 said:

Personally I would fly and drive back.  I have a coworker who’s wife had a traveling nurse contract in Florida that wasn’t cancelled and he’s been flying back and forth every other week to see her. He says the flights are the cleanest they’ve ever been as are the hotels he’s been staying in(her travel company puts her up in hotels but it changes every week or two).  My husband just spent two weeks in a hot spot and stayed in two different hotels and reported the same thing.  I personally would have no issue flying or staying in a hotel right now(in fact I’m checking out flights for next month).  I absolutely believe Covid-19 is here to stay and the fall is going to be worse than now as far as contagion goes, though hopefully we have some better treatments. 
She’s graduated and needs her things.  The easiest way to get it is to fly out and drive back, and ultimately it’s whatever you feel comfortable with.
I didn’t realize there was an issue with public restrooms. I’m guessing they’re cleaner than usual.  My local hospital is back to sending out lots of patients to hospitals 2-6 hours away via ambulance, so I’ve used a bunch of public restrooms the last week and a half including in NYC.  They seemed much more clean than normal, which I appreciated.

Edited: we cross posted. There’s no way in heck that I would trust a shipping company like UPS or USPS to send my Le Creuset cookware, pottery barn furniture, and sentimental things like grandpa’s chair and grandma’s handmade quilts across country. YMMV, but I’d transport those things myself.

That's what I suspected as far as airplane and hotel cleanliness. Good to hear reports supporting that. 
 

As far as the bathroom concerns... we will be driving through several long stretches of very rural areas. That bathrooms on many of those treks I don't think CAN be cleaned enough. 😅

If we fly down then everything should be super sanitary and then we only drive back and could manage one stopover. That sounds manageable and not utterly exhausting. 
 

Thanks for all the input! We've had these same discussions on repeat in our household but it's good to hear other POVs to see what we're not weighing enough. Appreciate the feedback!

[Tap]

nevermind read an update that made this not make sense

Edited May 18, 2020 by Tap

[Selkie]

1 hour ago, easypeasy said:

At this time, her school is NOT allowing anyone than the cardKey-carrying student herself to enter and/or touch anything in her room. 

We *can't* hire a company to pack it up. 

We already tried to see if her friends could pack up her stuff and stick it in storage. Got a hard NO. 

To get her stuff we have to physically be there, half a country away, and sign in at an appointed time and load the stuff ourselves. We are just trying to find a way to make that suck less than it already does  🙂

Leaving it all is not an option. Sorry. lol She didn't have typical throw-away, cheap dorm stuff in her room & she literally left everything sentimentally important in her room when she left and only brought necessities home with her back in early March. 

This is how it went at the university my boys attend, too. No movers allowed. They couldn't leave anything in their rooms over the summer, even though they both will be in the same rooms this fall (if fall semester is on campus, that is...). They had to physically be there and had a two hour time slot to move everything out.

[Pen]

Knowing the objects:

With only 2 hours available for move out, I would rent the van (or better, RV to make sleep and toilet along way easier) on your end, get everything as prepared as possible— boxes and bubble wrap, tape, bungee cords, tie downs, or whatever all is needed, for breakable items.  Give enough time to get it clean and well prepared,  then a good sleep and rest for traveling people.  Then the trip. Then home and quarantine/ rest / unpack time.  

Maybe have DD, plus two family members go instead of just one other — one fully adult driver and one whoever is strongest. (Teen son?) 

Especially if an RV with space to maneuver inside, I might get everything out of dorm to the RV in the two hours, then take some time to carefully wrap and box the delicate items for the journey home.

 

 

[Lanny]

Insurance on the items in the shipment is a must. I have now read a list of some of the things in the shipment. Are her things covered by off-premises coverage from the Personal Effects part of your Homeowners Insurance coverage? I tend to doubt that, because obviously she is in a different part of the USA from where your home is.

Possibly she has enough stuff to fill a small moving Pod? If so, U-Haul and J.B. Hunt if my memory is correct, have those services. You would fill the Pod and then they move it from Point A to Point B. Point B could be your home.

When I looked into one of the companies I referenced upthread, and their charges for Insurance, I wondered if DD can get a "Renters" or some other kind of Insurance policy from a company like State Farm or GEICO, to cover her personal effects in the dorm room, because the cost of insurance from those companies U-Haul and the other one, were IMO extremely high. 

I understand about the reluctance of the school to have the room emptied without the student being there, however, with Covid-19 there are many unusual things going on at this time and it would be better if she could authorize (Notarized letter) someone she knows and trusts to be there for her, when the movers come. And possibly be doing a Video Chat on WhatsApp or something, to show DD what's going on and for her to try to remember any small and especially valuable things she may have hidden in her room, when the movers are working in her dorm room.

[Corraleno]

58 minutes ago, easypeasy said:

She has a hefty amount of LeCreuset cookware. Pottery Barn, etc furnishings that she bought specifically to use in her first apartment when she moved out. An uber expensive coffee maker, a brand-new TV and PlayStation, all bought with the intentions of using them in the very near future in her own place. Obvs that plan is sidelined, but I'm sure not leaving it to rot in a dorm.

Tons of sentimental stuff. Jewelry from great grandma. A chair from different great-grandma that was built by Great-grandpa... Grandma made quilts... lots of stuff along those lines. 😅 

Was no problem whatsoever when we were going to be able to easily drive or fly down for her graduation. we were going to drive a van back with all her stuff and she was going on a two-week vacation with her best college friends to NYC. Again, obvs not happening  😞

NOW, though? Yeah. Problem. 😖 lol

And, again, she had a single and the school is adamantly not allowing anyone in to her room without her physical presence. No budging so far on that requirement. We can't hire someone to pack it and shop/store it, or we would.

Will definitely give consideration to packing Ourselves and sending it home via UPS. 👍

We'll be given approx 2 hours to move everything out.

With that information, I would fly out and drive back. I would NOT ship those sorts of belongings via UPS, and I would be hesitant to even pack them in a suitcase for a return trip. I think renting a van, with one night in a hotel on the return trip, makes the most sense.

[Pen]

I don’t think the drive would be especially safer all things including possible car accidents taken in to consideration, than plane ride.  However,

 I think trying to rent van, get packing supplies, etc etc, at a less familiar college end in more of a CV19 hotspot, without ability to clean up change clothes, and rest up from all that doing , or to deal with possible closed stores, supplies unavailable etc would be more dangerous and tiring.

And hearing what needs packing, I don’t think all packing supplies for dishes, special furniture, etc — like dish boxes etc — can be reasonably taken on plane. 

[domestic_engineer]

2 hours ago, easypeasy said:

Will definitely give consideration to packing Ourselves and sending it home via UPS. 👍

Be sure to check UPS rules about insurance for the shipping process and who packs it. IIRC, UPS storefronts (with the copy machines and mailboxes) won’t ship things unless THEY pack it themselves. 
 

If she’s present to do the sign in, can she escort movers up to her room and supervise their packing/moving?  So she’s present but doesn’t have to do the hard work all by herself?

[ktgrok]

3 hours ago, easypeasy said:

At this time, her school is NOT allowing anyone than the cardKey-carrying student herself to enter and/or touch anything in her room. 

We *can't* hire a company to pack it up. 

We already tried to see if her friends could pack up her stuff and stick it in storage. Got a hard NO. 

To get her stuff we have to physically be there, half a country away, and sign in at an appointed time and load the stuff ourselves. We are just trying to find a way to make that suck less than it already does  🙂

Leaving it all is not an option. Sorry. lol She didn't have typical throw-away, cheap dorm stuff in her room & she literally left everything sentimentally important in her room when she left and only brought necessities home with her back in early March. 

I think her flying up and having movers meet her there to pack up might be best, then flying home and movers bringing it back.