Moving during a pandemic

Moving during a Pandemic

There’s no time better than now….. Chelsea and I have been talking about moving for a few years. To break the feeling of monotony, to see something new, and to meet new people. We have traveled to quite a few beach towns and every time we are there we think to ourselves… “We could live here.”

So after doing some research and talking to a few friends we decided on St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Not only did we know a couple of people here, but we also had heard how gorgeous it was, and because it is U.S territory we are able to work here very easily.

Once we decided on St. John it made everything a little clearer. Or did it??? We both quit our jobs, loaded everything in storage, and sold Chelsea’s Jeep. This was at the beginning of October. The plan was to pack everything into our storage unit, go on a three week road trip to the West Coast, then travel back through to Kansas where our parents live for some R & R. From there we would go to Florida for a wedding the first week of November and down to St. John after that!

We thought we had it all figured it out but the day before we left Vail our friend in St. John informed us our housing fell through. This plus already being nervous about moving during a pandemic put a little hesitation in both of our minds. Unsure of what we were actually going to do come November we set out on a 4,000 mile road trip through the west.

We visited Fruita, Colorado; Park City, Utah; Ketchum, Idaho; Boise, Idaho; Sonoma, California; Joshua Tree National Park; and Las Vegas, Nevada. With all of our stuff in storage and no lease signed on the island we treated every town we visited as a potential home. We camped in some gorgeous sites, met some really kind people, and ate A LOT of good food. I even applied to a local brewery in Ketchum (we will talk more about that later). As our trip was coming to an end in Las Vegas we were confused as ever. Sitting at the pool we were talking about that past few weeks and the nearing future, going back and forth trying to figure out what we wanted and what would be best for us. Just as we had come to the conclusion that we should stick with the plan and try and make St. John work I checked my phone and saw an email saying our flight to St. John was canceled and we would need to rebook. WHAT WAS THE UNIVERSE SAYING TO US?!?! Now really not sure what our future would look like we drove back to Vail to get our things (and our bags for St. John) and went home to Kansas.

In Kansas we decided that just because it hadn’t been easy, and it seemed that there was one hurdle after the another, we should rebook a ticket from Tampa to St. John and give it a go. So after a fun couple of weeks in Kansas we flew to Tampa. Want to hear something really funny? That brewery I applied to in Ketchum called to offer me a position the day we arrived in Florida. We loved Ketchum, and could really see a future there and since we still didn’t have housing ironed out on St. John and we knew it was going to be hard to find, this became an option again.

Maybe our tickets to St. John would become round trip tickets and we’d just go there to vacation for a couple weeks? Ahhhhh….

Our flight landed in St Thomas (you have to fly into St. Thomas and take the boat over to St. John). This is the point that I should probably let you know that neither of us had ever been to the Virgin Islands. We were going to stay on St. Thomas for the first few nights because it seemed to be a little cheaper. Our Airbnb recommended Hartley, a local cab driver, who took us from the airport to our rental in Red Hook which was about a 30 minute drive. Along the way he convinced us were doing the right thing and we were going to make it here. He also slid into a curb attempting to go up a steep hill because of the torrential downpour we were currently in. : |

Our Airbnb was small (which was made very clear to us on the site) and after taxes it was $130 a night, looking back I feel like it was a little overpriced for time of year but you live and learn. The Red Hook area was about a 15 minute walk down the road with no side walks, a pretty good amount of traffic, and huge puddles from all the rain we got those three days. We took a ferry over St. John everyday which was $18/person round trip. If we would have just stayed on St. John from the get go it would have been more convenient and cost about the same.

What we learned

Moving anytime is not easy. No matter how much research you’ve done there’s always more to learn.

If you want to live on St. John set up camp on St. John, this way you’ll save time and money. Plus you’ll be able to talk to the locals which are your greatest asset when it comes to finding housing, jobs, etc.

Key points

Learn from what we’ve been through. Hopefully it will make everything a little easier for you.

Moving during a pandemic