<ol>
<li> DD has way too much crap!!!</li>
<li> I should have read CC before move out for great advice!<br></li>
<li> Don’t wait until noon Friday to get a cart.</li>
<li> Don’t glare at the well groomed mom & princess daughter that hired a moving company When they look down their nose as you struggle to get cart through the doors at Ridgecrest South.<br></li>
<li> Except for Princess & Mom, Alabama kids and parents are the best! Everyone was so friendly and in good spirits even though move out wasn’t much fun! Can’t wait to do it again in the fall! Roll Tide!</li>
</ol>
<p>MemphisGuy- Yes - it is best to take the cautionary route when confronted by Class2012Mom’s bedazzling skills. I recommend reacting just as Indiana Jones did when the Ark of the Covenant was revealed.</p>
<p>I think C2012 has a little bit of Liberace in her…</p>
<p>I also learned quite a bit during my final move out of UA and first move out with my family in town.</p>
<ol>
<li>Even as a minimalist, I have too much stuff.</li>
<li>The cost of shipping an extra box is money well spent.</li>
<li>The package area of the local FedEx Office (Kinko’s) has about two trucks’ worth of packages sitting around before the Monday ground delivery pickup.</li>
<li>One just needs their FedEx account number to ship a box with post-pay billing and 30% discount.</li>
<li>FedEx and USPS offer free package pickup. UPS does not unless one is a frequent shipper.</li>
<li>It’s nice to be the last one to move out as one can move everything to the living room and pack it there.</li>
<li>Leave those who are not good at packing boxes in the hotel room or reading a book in the car. :)</li>
<li>It rains ~40% more each year in Tuscaloosa than it does in Seattle.</li>
<li>UA Groundskeeping thinks that it’s a good idea to do landscaping and fertilizing during move out.</li>
<li>Students leave a lot of useful items.</li>
<li>Hotel Capstone has a very central location which makes graduation and move out very easy. It is even better when one is paying the low season rate from 2011. :)</li>
</ol>
<p>Most importantly,
12. I missed not being able to meet other CC posters.
13. People in Alabama are very surprised to see a Washington state ID.
14. Guntersville, Alabama has a beautiful state park lodge which is extremely reasonably priced. Getting 40% off those rates makes it even better. I was tempted to pay the $25 for the unlimited golfing and golf cart from 2:00 pm-dusk and just drive around in the golf cart. 
16. There is actually a limit on how many transactions one can have on their credit card each day.
17. I own too much stuff and should probably spend much of that money on philanthropy, education and travel instead.</p>
<p>Does C2012 wear a lot of rings on a daily basis to go with the bedazzled Liberace theme?</p>
<p>On the same vein as #9, the Country Inn and Suites thinks it’s a good idea to paint the hotel room doors and trim on move-out weekend.</p>
<p>We missed meeting you, too, SEA_tide!</p>
<p>Oh, and rings, fur-lined capes and a wavy poof hair style!</p>
<p>“8. It rains ~40% more each year in Tuscaloosa than it does in Seattle.
9. UA Groundskeeping thinks that it’s a good idea to do landscaping and fertilizing during move out.”</p>
<p>Actually, part of the UA Athletic Grounds Staff was helping students with move out activities throughout the week and weekend. Those whom you may have seen landscaping and fertilizing may have been making up for lost time due to rain. The grass keeps growing, but it cannot be cut in the rain. These workers begin their day before 6:00 a.m. each day in the rain, cold, heat, and sun. They perform many duties other than cutting grass and putting out mulch. I’ve always found them to be extremely helpful and courteous of visitors and students. While moving a few heavy items for my daughter, the cart overturned. Two men drove across the lawn and righted the cart before carrying the bulky items up for me. Several other people passed right by me as I attempted to retrieve the scattered items. The Grounds Maintenance staff really didn’t have to do that. My hat is off to those dedicated staff members who keep the grounds of the UA so attractive and clean. They do an excellent job!:)</p>
<p>Forgot an important one! If, after waiting 8 minutes from the time you place your order of one Filet-of-Fish and one large fry at the McDonald’s drive through window to the time you get to the pick up window, and then wait another 3 minutes at pick up window, you are then told to please pull forward and wait beyond the pick up window, do NOT reply “Seriously?”. That reply apparently is the equivalent of joking about bringing a bomb through airport security.</p>
<p>What I learned is that I always manage to find a mixture of both helpful, courteous people and a few conceited, self-absorbed people from all walks of life no matter where I go or what I’m doing.</p>
<p>C2012M, I’d imagine you’d end up with more in that Filet sandwich than you bargained for.</p>
<p>Ever see an episode of Cops where the officer is aggressively confronting the perp?</p>
<p>Like that. </p>
<p>(Class2012 was the perp, naturally.)</p>
<p>I just couldn’t understand what sense it made to pull forward to wait for fries. Fries? Doesn’t everyone in the drive though line order fries?</p>
<p>C2012M, head a little bit south to the McD’s in my town and you will find that at least 20% of the time you have to park and wait for them to deliver your fries. I don’t get it.</p>
<p>Those must be some special fries.</p>
<p>That McDonald’s must have been pretty busy as fries don’t take very long to fry.</p>
<p>UA Groundskeeping does keep UA very nice looking.</p>
<p>I should add a #18: Despite the many signs prohibiting fishing in campus lakes, people will still go fishing in those lakes. The UA PD/Security dispatcher didn’t know if this was actually considered theft and didn’t act like it was an urgent matter.</p>
<p>Wow, there are fish in those lakes? Would love to find out what species.</p>
<p>In my campus lake at Miami, wow, we had such awesome fish. One day, a school of huge tarpon came through. Amazing!</p>
<p>I would imagine there is some great fishing on the Black Warrior River.</p>
<p>We met a man with an awesome bass boat while filling up the gas tank when leaving the storage unit. He said he was going to catch bass at Lake Tuscaloosa. We’ve never been there.</p>
<p>That is one thing we are taking away from move out weekend. There is so much to do, and you are so tired, you will not be able to stop at those neat places on the drive up, like Moundville or Dunn’s Falls or the Locks or even the Mercedes Plant. We are hoping, in this last year, to try to fit those in on weekends if we can. </p>
<p>Son is heading back to campus next week, and I haven’t even unpacked the suitcases he and H threw everything in. Just grateful I got his coat cleaned as soon as we got home, and watched all the plastic stuff: toilet brushes and plungers, shower caddy dish rack and utensil holder, and even the laundry basket. I didn’t even get to see the storage unit, so I imagine things will be unloaded as haphazardly as they were loaded in there.</p>
<p>Okay, DD and I took the Dunn’s Falls exit on the way home from Preview. We drove and drove back there and NEVER FOUND ANYTHING. I googled while she drove, and NEVER FOUND ANYTHING ON THE NET.</p>
<p>IS this a snipe hunt or something???</p>
<p>Where is that??? I’d like to know more about that one.</p>
<p>I swear one trip we are going to stop at the Simmons-Wright General Store in Mississippi just over the line. Just for grins since one of those is our name. I also swear I’m going to take a week long visit sometime to T-Town and do some genealogy research as I have 3 dead ends in Alabama up in the Sulligent area. Let’s see if I ever get to do such in the next 4 years.</p>
<p>I know Dunn’s Falls exists because H’s family had a family reunion there and the pictures were beautiful. There is a nice visitor center right over the state line between Alabama and Mississippi, heading back to Mississippi, that has brochures. I picked one up but lost it in the rain. Darn it! I too want to go to the General Store. Last summer we went up to the Bessemer Flea Market while visiting son during his summer job. We went to Birmingham Barons games during move in three years ago and I think they have a new stadium now. The Lego Store is in Riverchase Galleria, which I could spend hours in. Very nice mall.</p>
<p>I keep intending to stop on I-20 on the way back to TX and get a photo of the bear crossing sign. But I keep forgetting where it is and then when I pass it I’m either on the phone or in the left lane in some traffic. We haven’t seen a corresponding one when we are eastbound. D definitely wants to instagram it. :)</p>
<p>Montegut, Regions Field is the new home of the Birmingham Barons, opened just last month. Our DD, class of 2008 (Interior Design), along with several of her UA classmates, work for the company that won that contract. It is on the Southside, and one of the neatest things about it (imho) is that the hospitalized little ones at Children’s of Alabama can see the fireworks shows!!</p>
<p>Back to the move out topic, DS called last minute on Tuesday to say he wouldn’t be able to get everything in his car on Friday, so DH and I headed down. I swear what he brought down in August had tripled, even with his bringing stuff home at Spring Break. Thankfully, he was totally packed when we arrived and all we did was load. His room here at home has a long way to go for recovery, as does our garage… but we are just glad to have him home.</p>
<p>Looking for bamagirl’s awesome hints on move-out, found this instead, bumping up anyway. </p>