After I had surgery to implant a medical device, my ear infection was clear for a few weeks I got back to calling apartments all over the Las Vegas Valley to find an apartment. I had to hesitate before because I was holding for the medical procedures. I got a last set of MRIs. Now I could make plans.
So far with College Villas, I'd emailed my application back to Charlie Augustus who didn't open the email until I called a month later asking if everything on the application was OK. oops I had a background check run. In November I filled out paperwork for another background check. No problem.
Great news because my friend who invited me to move to Henderson wasn't truthful or just plain didn't know the answers to the questions I asked her. I couldn't find affordable housing in Henderson and any other place I found was a death trap according to her. I wasn't successful looking from Minnesota.
Then my friend, Cookie, called me to tell me she had a friend who rented out condos and he'd rent one he had that was empty. The owner, Neil Shuda, an I spoke on the phone. I wanted to be close to shopping, close to public transportation in a safe neighborhood. He had just the place for me! When would I get there?
Within 10 days I'd rented a UHaul and got help to pack my apartment. I couldn't bring the UHaul into the neighborhood because vehicle robbery was so serious. The people who were to pack my apartment came 2 days and didn't finish. I had the Uhaul ready to load, but if it wasn't guarded while it was being loaded, it could be stolen and I had to get out that night.
I found some brothers who had been advertising on NextDoor came at 11p and loaded the moving truck for $100 cash each. Around 2am I left with the moving truck terrified I was going to be car jacked and I was frantic to get out of the city. I drove about 2 hours when I decided to stop at a hotel. I forgot how tall the truck was and hit their awning. The called the police to make a formal complaint. I had to be out of my room 5 hours later. I didn't sleep much.
I decided to drive the rest of the way to Las Vegas straight through and I did. I saw beautiful places in the dark. I went through a lot of gas. The truck was running less than 10mpg. I'd made a list of all of the towns that I would stop to stretch and get gas and I was sticking to it, until, in the middle of the Utah desert, I ran out of gas. I was lucky enough to be on a high spot with cell phone service and for $140, he brought me 5 gallons of gas and lead me to his gas station 15 miles away.
I had my money all worked out before I left but already I had spent more on gas than I planned then I had to pay the two guys to load the truck, the guy to bring me gas, the wasted stop at the hotel. I was close to trouble.
I'd stay at this condo until the place at College Villas opened up and then the owner, Cornelius (Neil) Shuda, would rent it to someone else.
Even though I called when I was 2 hours away, Cookie forgot to tell Neil how close I was and no one met me. Eventually Neil met me, and helped me get some blankets and pillows in from the truck. It was 52F in the unit. There was not a functioning light anywhere in the unit - not even the kitchen ceiling. There were cockroaches. Lots of cockroaches. I started to cry.
The whole point of leaving Minneapolis was to go to someplace to rest and recover not this.
I slept in the bathtub piled with blankets, pillows, my winter coat, spare clothes and the occasional cockroach on me with others climbing the walls all around. The heat didn't work, or the stove, the washing machine, dryer, dishwasher, disposal and the plumbing was so caked with corrosion they creaked.
I was in despair.
