This is how we moved coast-to-coast with all of our stuff, two cars and a dog.

Rent a Zippy Shell

First, we held two garage sales. A major purge of our books and DVDs came soon after and we sold some of those items to Amazon.

We then estimated how much stuff we were keeping and decided to go with Zippy Shell to transport it all to our new apartment. The company provides great customer service and affordable options — I can’t recommend this moving service enough. The shell also includes a license plate, so you can legally park it on the street while you’re loading/unloading.

Walkie-talkies

Since we decided to keep our two cars, the best option for us was to drive both of them out to California. We used walkie-talkies to communicate instead of cell phones, which was safer and pretty easy to manage.

Pet-friendly hotels

Other plans included finding pet-friendly hotels since we were also traveling with our dog, Boots. We made a list of a few hotels in each town where we planned to stay and made reservations within a few hours of arriving there.

OUR STOPS

The trip totaled about 2,850 miles. It took us five days to travel from Long Island to Los Angeles. In hindsight, we should have planned two additional overnight stays.

Shawn documented the trip on his Instagram @shawnnuzzo using the #CannonballRun hashtag.

From Long Island, we stayed overnight in Columbus, Ohio; Springfield, Missouri; Amarillo, Texas; and Flagstaff, Arizona; before arriving in Los Angeles.

Here are some highlights from our travels.

Long Island, New York

We left our home at twilight. Our last breakfast in New York was Dunkin’ Donuts. Even though we left very early, we still hit tons of traffic through the city.

It became a very enjoyable ride after we hit Pennsylvania. We also did some sight-seeing at SteelStacks in Bethlehem, PA. Very cool and unique tourist attraction.

Columbus, Ohio

#bootsthedog (Credit: Jen Nuzzo / Sept. 19, 2017)

For our first overnight stay, we booked a room at Hyatt Place in Columbus, Ohio. Great hotel and the restaurant next door, Eddie George’s Grille 27, served amazing veggie burgers. Cool college town, too.

Springfield, Missouri

Another sight-seeing stop we made was at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis, Missouri.

(Credit: Shawn Nuzzo / Sept. 19, 2017)

We were trapped there for about a half hour because a train had equipment issues at the crossing.

The most difficult night-time driving route was between St. Louis and Springfield. We got lost a couple of times and, eventually, made it to the La Quinta hotel.

Amarillo, Texas

(Credit: Shawn Nuzzo / Sept. 20, 2017)

It was such a thrill crossing the border into Texas. Boots was rescue from a kill shelter in Mission, Texas, so it was cool that he got to see his home state again.

The windmills were magical at dusk. This portion of our trip was the most memorable for me.

Once we arrived at the Hampton Inn, we had an amazing dinner at The Big Texan Steak Ranch & Brewery. From Shawn’s Instagram post:

I’m a pescatarian and even I have to admit this place was great. The shrimp was perfect and the atmosphere was wild carnival Texas.
And the bar was packed with drunk South Africans and New Zealanders for reasons that were unexplainable. #CannonballRun

The Big Texan Steak Ranch & Brewery. (Credit: Shawn Nuzzo / Sept. 20, 2017)

The next morning, we had the best waffle-bar breakfast.

Texas waffle at Hampton Inn. (Credit: Jen Nuzzo / Sept. 20, 2017)

Flagstaff, Arizona

(Credit: Shawn Nuzzo / Sept. 22, 2017)

I wish we stopped to take a photo of the night sky as soon as we entered Arizona. It was the most beautiful sight — the crescent moon and Venus at the horizon.

We stayed at a much nicer La Quinta hotel in Flagstaff, Arizona.

Los Angeles, California

The house from ‘Pee-wee’s Big Adventure’ in South Pasadena, CA. (Credit: Shawn Nuzzo / April 22, 2018)

We arrived in Los Angeles on a Friday night and the traffic on the 101 was a parking lot. Once we reached our new apartment, we were exhausted from the long trip through the desert. We fell in love with our new place, crashed on the floor and slept in sleeping bags. For the first few weeks, we spent more time at Ikea than anywhere else.

Now that we’re settled, we’re looking forward to starting this new chapter of our lives.