SOS!! Serious problem, Need help Please!

Not sure which forum to put this in...

For those who may not know, my partner and I may have to make an emergency move to Seattle (Bonney Lake) at the end of September due to having no jobs and no money past that month. My father and step-mother have graciously offered to take us in and help us find jobs and an apartment.

The problem: We learned that the drive up in a Penske truck will take 3-4 days! My BTS can handle that...but I don't think the snakes could! We have only a little over $1200 for the move costs AND a few months in WA, so we can't afford to have a truck co. move our things or anything like that.

I am sending out an SOS - I need help figuring this out! Is there a way to take the snakes on a 3-4 day trip in a moving truck? If not, I will need someone to take the snakes for me for a while. Either someone here in Denver who could keep them in tubs then ship them up to us once we're settled (we would pay of course), or someone up in the Seattle area who could receive them and their cages and foster them for a while until we get a place. Even then, we may not be able to handle all the costs. :(

It is not fully known that we will have to be moving yet. The deadline for that is Sept. 12th. I have to give the 30 day notice for our apartment on Sept 1st, but we could still keep our apartment if we heard something before the 12th. However, I have to start making plans and figuring things out now just in case we DO have to leave.
This is a huge mess that has me on the verge of breaking down. I don't know how to do any of this, and I don't know if we can afford any of it either. I'm scared and really need some help.

Any advice or help in this matter would be eternally appreciated! We're running out of time and money...and sanity. :)

Oh, and just for the record - the snakes are 4 young Ball Pythons and 4 corns. The corns cage system would have to come up to WA with us and couldn't be shipped, but the BPs are in a rack w/ 2 tubs and tanks while their cages are being built. The rack and extra tubs could be handed over for the BPs to stay in, and I may have tubs for the corns but I'm not sure. They would come with their thermostats and UTHs and hides and such, of course.

I think everything will turn out fine. I am wondering though, why would it take so long to drive the truck up there? I'm confused. I've used Uhals before and other than me sticking to 55 instead of my normal speed it didn't take any longer to get to the new house.... Don't let it worry you though! Everyone here at BP.net is here for you!!!

i dont see it taking that long, but you could just put them in a cooler in their tubs with water?

Argentra,
I assume you are driving the truck or it will be with you. Snakes travel over multiple days for shows all the time. Just transport in such a manner that they are safe and warm. Take them out each night and put them in a lockable tote with water and heat, like a human hot pad placed under the tub with a towel inbetween it and the pad. Put water in the tub then hit the sack, and do it all over again the next day. When you arrive set them up and you are good to go.

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Originally Posted by tonkatoyman

Argentra,
I assume you are driving the truck or it will be with you. Snakes travel over multiple days for shows all the time. Just transport in such a manner that they are safe and warm. Take them out each night and put them in a lockable tote with water and heat, like a human hot pad placed under the tub with a towel inbetween it and the pad. Put water in the tub then hit the sack, and do it all over again the next day. When you arrive set them up and you are good to go.

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Wow, thats a really good idea!

:) Thanks.

Neither I nor my partner can drive. That's part of the issue. No, the driver of the truck would either be my father (getting here by plane) or my ex-trucker neighbor (only if her classes schedule would allow it). Both of them were the ones that told me the trip would take that long.
I am also confused as to the amount of time, since the 700+ mile drive from El Paso to Denver only took 10 hours (drove through the night by my ex-husband). And we did make some stops for food and stretching.

The snakes each have holding tubs that are small rubbermaids that they could be placed in with a dish of water. I would just have to bungee the lids on. I have spare UTHs I could tape on, and I could just make sure the tubs and thermostats where all near the truck door... that could work.

At any rate...I also have the problem that I wouldn't be able to afford stopping at motels every night. SIGH! This just keeps getting harder and harder. I wish someone here would hire us and end this nightmare.

Any other help, offers, or advice will be pounced upon with much gratitude!

Please remember do not put the tubs directly on the floor. It gets extreemely hot and can kill the animals:gj:

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Originally Posted by Argentra

:) Thanks.

Neither I nor my partner can drive. That's part of the issue. No, the driver of the truck would either be my father (getting here by plane) or my ex-trucker neighbor (only if her classes schedule would allow it). Both of them were the ones that told me the trip would take that long.
I am also confused as to the amount of time, since the 700+ mile drive from El Paso to Denver only took 10 hours (drove through the night by my ex-husband). And we did make some stops for food and stretching.

The snakes each have holding tubs that are small rubbermaids that they could be placed in with a dish of water. I would just have to bungee the lids on. I have spare UTHs I could tape on, and I could just make sure the tubs and thermostats where all near the truck door... that could work.

At any rate...I also have the problem that I wouldn't be able to afford stopping at motels every night. SIGH! This just keeps getting harder and harder. I wish someone here would hire us and end this nightmare.

Any other help, offers, or advice will be pounced upon with much gratitude!

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you dont really have to stop you could just get a power inverter and run off of that

heres a link http://www.walmart.com/search/search...power+inverter

I agree with the inverter . We used them on long trips to power our laptop and cell phone chargers with no problem .:)

Oh WE wouldn't need to stop... but it seems the drivers (either of them) would. We wouldn't mind traveling all the way through with only a few stops for restroom, stretching, and food. But we aren't driving.

During driving, I would have the snakes in their bags in a cooler up front with me. During overnight or long stops, I would take them out of the bags and place them in their holding tubs with heat and water.
I know better than to try placing live animals in the back of one of those trucks. :D But thanks for the notice.

Now it's looking like the biggest issue would be affording to stop. (That, and doing 3 months of planning and packing and such in only one month.) We're already going to have to defer our credit card payments and go to Prepaid service on our cell phones just to get through a few months while looking for work. Money and time are two things we don't have...that's what's scaring me.

This is just my opinion but if I were in this situation I'd probably consider selling off my collection before the move.

Oh I did consider it, even though I would really miss them. The thing that keeps me from doing so is the time limits. Snakes can sell in days if you're lucky, but more often in weeks or months...and we don't have that time. It's actually easier to just plan on taking them along.

And regardless of whether the snakes are with us or not...stopping at motels is still currently out of our budget. :) But we'll be trying to sell quite a bit of stuff to make up for it.

Personally, I think they'll be fine for 3-4 days. Mine were!

When we moved from Texas to Arizona, my fiance's company paid for a moving service to move all of our stuff. So I packed most of the critters tupperware containers and had a spray bottle to mist everyone down. The animals that came with us included a Shih Tzu, a Green Cheek Conure, 5 bearded dragons (most of these guys were in small dog carriers), 3 chameleons, 2 leopard geckos, and 12 snakes. We drove to Arizona in one straight shot in 15 hours. The plan was to stay in a hotel one night until our stuff arrived the next day. Well our landlords-to-be decided they couldn't afford to have renters, so they backed out on the deal. So we were now homeless in a brand new state with our stuff on a truck somewhere. Very scary! Took us 3 days to find a new house and finalize all of the paperwork. I ended up buying some worms at a Petco nearby to feed the lizards. But every day I would open up each animal mist it down lightly. I also had spare paper towels with me in case anyone needed a cleaning. Only 2 did.

But everyone made it! Just make sure everyone is getting air and they'll be fine. During stops, I would just open up each one quickly (most big truck stops have places to the side to park to let your dogs out) and mist as needed. You'll be fine. :)

Mapquest shows this as about a 20 hour drive. If you aren't stopping for very long or very often (since you stated that you can't afford it), I don't see too much of a problem. Good luck with the potential move.

I suppose if you are only driving for 8 hours a day..... But even then, max 2.5 days...

Yep, I saw 20hrs on Mapquest as well, and compared to a 700+ mile trip that took 10 hours... that sounds about right. But still, they both said 3-4 days. I don't get it.

I wish one of you guys could drive the truck with us! :oops::D

We drove a penske truck from CA to WI. We took two dogs, and two birds.. before I was totally into snakes and such!!
My advise is to talk to your dad, or the neighbor to see what they would like to do.
Would they like to make it a two day/three day trip?
Can you all find a place to camp?? OR there are cheap hotels.. such as motel 6.
And they take pets. We mapped out our route and found pet friendly hotels/motels along the way.
Are you sure no one can afford 39.99 for a nights stay??
I would NOT pack the snakes on top of each other too deep up front with you.
I am sure if you emailed OR called a major breeder/seller such as 8 ball or bryan at snake bytes and ask them how they transport for long trips, they would be very helpful.

Just thought I would share.

Carol

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Originally Posted by Argentra

I wish one of you guys could drive the truck with us! :oops::D

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no you dont im a sleepy driver:rofl:

Thanks for the info, Carol. :D I'm not really sure why they say it would take so long, but I do intend to go over it with them both. The neighbor was a trucker for many years, and the company was based up near Seattle...so she should know. But still...

Cheaper motels, such as the '6', wouldn't be bad as long as we can raise some more money for the stays. As it stands right now, we don't have enough for more than one night.

I would be putting cardboard partitions in the cooler to keep the snakes off each other, as was suggested earlier. :) Since I only have 8 snakes, it shouldn't be too hard to work with them on a longer trip. And I will email Adam and the others, thanks for the suggestion.

Oh, and thanks for the thought anyway, Nixer. ;):D