I know my cats would not like the driving part. I was sort of picturing loading it up here, but somewhat liveable and letting the cats be free in one room instead of small kennels during travel, then driving to where my sister lives near the Rocky Mountains, parking it somewhat permanently on a campground while I lived there, and then if I needed to move back to the northern Midwest next year, somehow keeping my university gig through it all, I could just drive it back across the country and park it permanently in a campground like spot here too, so that it would be conceptualized more like a mobile home that is moved and parked, than traveling the U.S. with sight-seeing. I don't think I can pull that off though, but on the surface can you see how it sounds simpler than hiring movers, finding apartments and signing leases and then doing it all again next summer. It's going to cost $5k each time i try to move as a bare minimum, so just hiring movers and paying deposits and then a year of rent or a couple of years could easily be $27 and I'd have nothing to show for it. That's how my reasoning goes, but I stress out driving anyway, so would be anxious driving an intergalactic ship at interstate speeds alone across the U.S. with sad, stressed out cats on board.
Edit: Unfortunately my cats are going to be subjected to the same amount of road time regardless. It's just a matter of how they are packaged in and what vehicle it is. Right now it looks like they will be in dog sized kennels with small litterboxes in my van with tons of mother cat calming pheromone spray for all of us.
I wish you luck regardless, but it's not really something one should do with indecision...
