We've moved lots of times, but this particular move proved to be the most complicated of them all thanks to COVID. All the things we thought we knew went out the window in these strange times and what we thought would be the usual 30 day turnaround on a relocation turned into nearly half a year before we finally found a place to call home.
The first issue concerned packing. Normally we would have a definitive time line on when our belongings would reach us on the other end. Due to slowed ocean freight movements and rigorous inspection and sanitation processes, they were not able to give us an estimation on when we might have possession of our things back in the US. So, we packed our suitcases as best we could. What we didn't know at time is that the contents of these suitcases would be all we would have for nearly 5 months. That information would have most definitely caused adjustments to my selection process, but hindsight is 20/20.
Next, the normal journey home would have looked similar to our arrival, with a non-stop international flight directly from Edinburgh to New York. Due to COVID, nearly all commercial travel across the Atlantic was suspended and flights were very limited and constantly getting canceled! Since it does take some time to coordinator moving companies and freight carriers, we had two planned flight itineraries canceled prior to our actual departure. Within the final week we were able to coordinate a plan that resulted in an extra-long return journey where we flew from Edinburgh to London, with an overnight stay at the hotel inside Hearthrow for an early morning departure.
