On your marks, get set….don’t go!
After a huge build-up of goodbyes and mad packing, we rushed our truck to Southampton to get it loaded on the ship that would take it to New York. The member of staff checking the vehicle, gave us the frustrating news that we weren’t allowed to keep anything loose inside so we had to do squeeze as much as possible into the rooftop tent and hope the locks wouldn’t break on the voyage.
Both novices at shipping vehicles between counties, we thought it might be a little more arduous however it was fairly easy. Perhaps the difficult part is getting it through customs in the US.
After a bite to eat in Southampton marina, we headed home, jubilant in the fact that we’d ticked off another big milestone. Later that evening though, we found out the ship had been delayed again. This time by a couple of weeks. Bugger!!
We were due to fly 3 days later. It would have left us around 3 or 4 weeks in the US paying for hotels and using a chunk of our 3 month ESTA (USA visa waiver) that we really needed for the road trip. We had already adjusted our plans when the truck was originally delayed and had come up with a Plan B. We made a few phone calls, battled with insurance companies, researched alternative flights and destinations to explore whilst we waited for the truck as well as finding cheap accommodation which felt hard to come by in the big US cities! All this led us to Plan C…we moved our flights back by a couple of weeks and would spend a bit of down time in the UK. New flight on the 18th August and we are hoping to tick off a few of the cities on our list before welcoming the truck onto US shores at the end of the month.
Luckily, Laura’s aunt is away for the summer so we’ve set up home there for a few weeks as James’ house is now rented out. We are a stones throw away from all our favourite swim and wakesurf spots so enjoying the summer days relaxing there and seeing our friends and family one more time (goodbyes take 2?)
Needless to say, we have mixed emotions by the delay. Whilst we were so ready to get going and hit the road, we are also grateful for some downtime. We’ve been working at 100mph to finish our jobs, complete the truck build, see all our nearest and dearest and pack up a whole house for storage. So its a golden opportunity for some rest and recharge before we go.
More to come when we finally hit the US 😁
Fingers crossed that customs is smooth