costs of hauling across the country

[http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert (Robert)]

You're looking to pay between $4000 - $6000 to move across the country.
This includes meals (eating out), plane trips/driving across, hotels,
tips, etc.

U-Haul is about on-par with having your stuff hauled by humans, given the
high cost of gasoline.  In fact, I would suspect that pack-your-own is the
cheapest, where they plant a trailer in your driveway and you fill it up
for a few days and then they come by and drive it across the country.
Sometimes, there's a variant where you fill a bunch of wooden crates and
then they stuff those into trailers/cargo containers.

I suggest getting a number of quotes.  It's tedious because they need to
make an estimate, which takes about 30-45 mins each.  Also, (this is
crucial) look up the company on the Better Business Bureau web site before
contacting them.  It could save you time and trouble.

Monster.com has some advice articles about moving:

http://www.moving.com/Moving_and_Planning/MAP_Article/

On another subject, here's a tool to compare living costs between two
places:

http://www.moving.com/Find_a_Place/Compare2Cities/