Newcomer Derek Joseph's Relocation to Nashville A Wild Ride

Moving to a new place in the same town can be a tedius task yet it pales in comparison to interstate moves.  Rising newcomer Derek Joseph recently moved from Upstate New York to Nashville and here is his wild story, in his own words, about his move.

Still in New York, we go on Thursday to pick up our 24-foot rental truck for the move. When we get there, the place hasn't opened yet, even though it's 20 minutes past when they were supposed to open. Sitting outside the place is a kid who works there who asks me, "Are you here for the 16-foot truck?” I respond, "No, I'm here for the 24-foot truck." He proceeds to tell me that particular truck came in damaged last Monday, so they couldn’t rent it to me. The owner finally rolls into the parking lot 25 minutes after they were supposed to open, lets us in, and we discover they had our reservation down on the wrong day! They don't have a truck available because my reservation was for the next day, and they told me they didn't even know if they could get a truck! I tried to gently explain the situation, especially pointing out the fact that the truck came in damaged on Monday and today is Thursday... and I'm pretty sure they got my point!
 
FRIDAY, MAY 29:
 
Friday morning we go to pick up the truck, but we don't see it on the lot. It's 10am. We figured we'd give the owner enough time to arrive late and get opened before we try to come get our truck! We go inside, and the owner proceeds to tell me this long story about how he lives in one town and the truck was in the next town, so he had to send one of his employees to get it. The kid said he knew how to get back but didn't really and got lost! On top of getting lost, he now needs to go re-fill the truck up! The owner couldn't do the paperwork without the truck because he needed a number off it. So, we wait...and wait....and wait, until 11:20 when the kid finally shows up with the truck! We NOW start the paperwork, and finally pull out from our 9am reservation at 11:45am, which has already put us behind for the day, on top of the full day we lost because our reservation was wrong! We get to my house and load the truck all day.
 
SATURDAY, MAY 30:
 
Already behind schedule, we can't leave at 6am on Saturday like originally planned. I have to be at my record label’s office first thing Monday morning to rehearse for our Wednesday session! We resume loading on Saturday, and looks as though we'll pull out of town at 10am. Then, my wife calls to inform me that her 2007 like-new car won't start and she's at the store with some supplies she went to get us! So, I head into town. Sure enough, her car won't run, and I could tell it's something to do with the fuel pump. I call my mechanic, who is also a very good friend. He and his wife were on the way to their camp, so they turn around to meet me at their shop to get me the keys to their spare car to let my wife borrow until hers gets towed to them and they can fix it. I get to their shop, but he has to inspect the vehicle. In New York, your car has to be inspected every year and run through the Department Of Motor Vehicles computer system. They had hardly used that vehicle, so it had passed time for the new inspection. Luckily, him being a mechanic, the car is in perfect running condition and passes the inspection, so it's now back to where my wife is broken down to hand off keys to the borrowed vehicle and get back to my place to finish packing and get on the road!
 
It's 1pm by the time I get back to my house. We finish loading and finally leave at 2pm but we have to head to my guitarist’s place to get him loaded since he was moving down also. We get to his place, get him loaded with just barely enough room, and finally get on the road at 4pm – a long stretch later than the 6am original plan! The drive down is great! We only hit bad weather in a couple spots, but overall, it was an easy 15 hour drive down the road.
 
SUNDAY, MAY 31:
 
We pull into my buddy Shelby’s home in Nashville at 7am on Sunday, and finally get to relax for a little while, maybe grab a quick nap. We decide we should start thinking about getting unloaded into our new place, which conveniently is located directly across the street from Shelby’s house. We go over to look at it and get our game plan only to walk in and find that the house is a disaster! It is absolutely full of junk and items from the last inhabitant and in no way, shape, or form ready for a new tenant. As if the insane amount of junk in the house wasn't enough, the horrid stench on top of it all was enough to send us running! So, we get a newspaper and start calling around to try and find another place. In our travels from place to place, we had run across a sign on a back road in front of a nice, newer duplex that was for rent! We give the landlord a call and he says we can move in on Monday. This is GREAT news!
 
MONDAY, JUNE 1:
 
We spend Sunday night at Shelby’s, and I go to my label’s office Monday morning for my rehearsal. Then it's over to the new place to begin unloading the moving truck. We start unloading, the landlord shows up, we get everything signed, and it’s official – we have a place to live! We continue unpacking, my buddy calls to get the electric turned on, and I go online and submit to get the water turned on. We keep unloading until we have to leave for my band rehearsal at 7pm. The electric has now been turned on. We turn the air conditioner on and head to practice, excited to come home to a nice cool place! We have a great practice then get home about 11:30pm to find we still haven't had our water turned on, and the air conditioning unit is NOT working! And, it's still 82 degrees out at 11:30 at night!  So we go to bed. It is hot inside but we sweat it out until morning.
 
TUESDAY, June 2:
 
We call the landlord Tuesday morning before heading off to rehearsal. The landlord calls and says he'll have a guy there by noon with a new motor for the air conditioning unit. The guy finally shows up at 1:30, and proceeds to check the unit and tell us it needs a new motor... which we already knew! He now has to run into Nashville and get a new motor, but told us should make it back by end of day. In the meantime, my publicist scheduled me an interview for 3:30pm, so I got ready to head downtown to do that interview. Now, I'm generally an optimist, but by now, there seemed to be a pattern to the chaos. So I figure I already know what will happen – the guy will get back to Nashville for the part, but the warehouse will be out, and he'll have to order it, and it will be coming on a slow boat from China! Lo and behold, he proves me wrong, shows up that afternoon, gets it fixed, and we now have air conditioning. In the meantime, the water company showed up to turn on our water!
 
So finally, after a six-day adventure, we're moved in, we have utilities, and life is getting back to normal!

Derek's debut single "No Cool Way" is now out at country radio.  You can support Derek by purchasing this single at iTunes icon| Amazon.

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