if any are like me, you like to hear real life storys and the troubles everyone runs into. it reminds me that im not the only one that has troubles all the time!
know this is long as hell. but you might enjoy it.. might not..???
please exuces my gamar and lack of writing skill, but i think the story comes thru allright
i was cleaning out some computer files and ran into it. i had forgot i wrote it! its about the move from montana to texas i did in 2001. hope you all like it
We left at about 1:30 in the after noon. me driving the big uhaul truck with a trailer carrying the 71 chevy truck. Jo driving the 71 longhorn, towing her mazda on a car dolly. Both rigs were very wide and it took several hours to become comfortabile driving. We had a set of walkie talkies so jo and I could talk to each other, and they turned out to be a very valuable thing.
The uhaul was very heavy, having all our worldly possessions and my Harley in the back, not to mention the heavy 71 truck loaded to the hilt. It didn’t help matters much that the uhaul was a gas powered truck. Apparently uhaul feels the people are too stupid to drive diesels. So they are phasing out their diesels fleet. Its 55 or 60 mph at 6 mpg.. at best for the rest of the trip.
After driving over 2 mountain passes, and though some heavy winds we arrived in billings lace>Montanalace> with little trouble. I was quick in thinking the traveling gods were smiling apon us, but that was to be short lived. The radio was broadcasting a sever wind warning, and sure enough the wind came. From our hotel room we could hear what sounded like a train rolling by (im a rail roader I know!). I pealed back the blind to see a road sign about to be blown over and the trees around the hotel were doing what looked to be a game of limbo. I ran outside to make sure the tarp wasn’t blowing off the truck. It was fine. But the flag at the perkins restaurant was being ripped apart. The pole bending to the point I thought it would break. Oh well, I thought and then went to bed..
The next day we got up, fueled the endless gas tank on the uhall, and filled the longhorn. $82 ! gasp! This was going to be expensive. We left billings heading for lace>Sheridanlace>, it was about 10 minuets out that the weight to power problem became apparent. The slightest of hill the uhaul truck was down to 40 mph. after cresting the hill and starting down it would hit 65 again, only to slow to 35 a few seconds later. This stated to grind apon my patience, and after 2 1/2 hours I was ready to scream.>>
> >
We had finaly reached lace>Sheridanlace>. The trucks were hard to park because of their length so we parked in the kmart parking lot. Jo had noticed that my left trailer light wasn’t working. Leaving the key in the ignition, turning on the lights and the left turn signal I jumped out of the truck and inspected the trailer light. Performing the complicated technical technique called wiggling the wires, I managed to get the lights to work! Vulva!>>
> >
We were hungry; right next to kmart is pizza hut, lunch buffet! Cool, I thought. I climbed in the truck turned off the lights, hit the door lock and shut the door. After about 4 steps it hit me….. The keys are still in the truck. And the door is now locked. My mind drifted back to when I picked up the uhal. The guy handed me the single key. I said “only one key huh? Hope I don’t loose it!” the good news is I didn’t , the bad was we were now stranded at kmart.>>
> >
We called for the uhaul guy from pizza hut and ate while we waited. The guy could not get the door open, and gave me a number to a tow truck place. I called him, in the mean time I noticed the lights on jos trailer were not working ( are you seeing the pattern here?). So while I waited for the locksmith, she went to the uhaul place to get it repaired. After about 2 hours I was back in the truck, and all the lights were working. We were off to hopefully make it to lace>Cheyennelace>..
The weather had been bad the whole time sense billings, rain, and a stiff wind. Couple that with the constant up and down of the road, it was slow going at best. We needed gas and a break so we stopped at weatland wy. Opening the door, the wind about tore the door off the truck. Enough for one day I thought. We found a cheap (nice word for dumpy) and went to sleep.
In the morning I took the dog out to let him run around, and to put a few things in the truck. Had to take a double take, dam, the tire on the trailer was flat! Laughing to myself I walked back to the room to call uhaul.
There was a uhaul place close but it didn’t open for 3 hours. Great. There was a gas station just across the way. It was probably a slow leak in the tire so id fill it up and make it to lace>Cheyennelace> easy.. We drove over, slowly, but about 10 feet from the air hose.. The tire cam off the rim. Shoot!! So I went in the gas station noticing all the uhal trailers and equipment, hey! A uhaul dealer. What luck! I said hi to the guy and I thought I asked if he could fix the tire on the uhaul. But from the look on his face and the way he acted I must have asked if I could kick him in the teeth and burn down his shop. He Scowled and said it would be 3 or 4 hours before he could get to it. I called uhaul again and told them what was going on and they wanted to talk to the guy.
Jo had gone across the street to see if they could help. They were far more friendly and headed right over with a jack to help. We got the wheel off to discover the rim was broke (probably from me driving on it flat, doh!) Shoot! Now what I thought, looking at the uhaul trailer setting right beside us. I called the uhaul place back again. He asked us where we were. I told him across the street from the uhaul place, and told him the guy was really being jerk. Apparently he wasn’t nice to the uhaul place either because he chuckled a bit and said they were taking care of the guy.he told us to go take the wheel off the other trailer and put it on ours.
> >
I hung up and told the people at the place I was calling from what the plan was. >>
I knew something was up when I saw the look on their faces. They said that the guy is well known by the police in town. His temper has gotten him in trouble countless times. Apparently he has a pension for violence. Great, I thought…now im going to get in a fight with this ass.>>
> >
So we walked over and started to swap the tires. The guy from the station came out while we were doing this and I thought, oh boy, here we go. The guy was very friendly now and even helped up. Strange I thought. He asked what the name of the uhaul guy on the phone was. I told him Arnold. He shook his head and said well I have his ass. He said they are coming to get all the uhaul stuff. I asked, “you lost your dealer ship?” He answered “yep!” Hot dam! I thought. But said, “oh, that’s too bad, sorry it worked out that way.” Then we got in our trucks and gladly left Weatland lace>Wyominglace>.
After about and hour, the snow started to fall, with the wind blowing. I was following jo and noticed the other trailer light wasn’t working. There was no laughing this time; I was really getting tired off this stuff.
We found yet another uhaul place, this one in cheynne. In the blowing snow and cold they fixed the one light. As we tested the lights, the other one stopped working. He fixed that one too. Then told us that we really should have some lights on the rear of the car, it was a law in all states. Somehow the dealer in Missoula failed to inform us on that fact. $29,95 +tax and about 15 minutes (in the snow and cold) to install. But now we were set. So off we went.
We arrived in Longmont Colorado and found a hotel. I have some family in Longmont, so we thought we would take t he trailer off the longhorn to make it easier to get around. We found place in the parking lot of the hotel. It was dirt and grass, a bit wet but didn’t seam to be a problem. So we dropped the trailer (in the blowing snow) thinking, I hope we don’t get stuck. We spent the day visiting people. I had the long horn serviced at a quick lube. Then had a very pleasant dinner with family I had not seen in over 12 years. Maybe our luck had changed I thought as we went to the hotel and turned on the TV. Winter storm watch for the next few days the weatherman said. I shook my head, turned the TV off and went to sleep.
In the morning I got up and went to hook up the trailer (in the still blowing snow). The place we parked the trailer was now about ankle deep mud. Great, I thought. I got the trailer on the ball with no problem. Then I proceeded to get stuck in the mud. With a sigh I set out to find a towrope. I knew were one was, it was right next to the portable air compressor I needed back in weatleand. Both were deep in the uhaul (im a master at packing). Luckily the lady at the front desk had her husbands truck with a towrope in the back. With the uhaul, I yanked the truck out of the mud. All the while, waiting for something to brake. After about an hour the truck was out and I was covered with mud, fingers froze and rather annoyed. But we were off!(through the blowing snow).
The snow turned to rain. And the wind let up a bit. The road was flatter and we were finally making better time. Every few hours stopping for gas(costs from $1.40 to $1.99 a gallon) and a pepsi. Every now a then pointing out to each other over the walkie-talkies all the various strange stuff on the roadside and doing the normal road trip things. We made it from Longmont Colorado to dumas Texas that day. That’s a long haul!
Getting up in the morning I turned on the TV and they had a weather warning on. Seams that that constant rain we had all this time had caused a bit of flooding. So there was a severe weather and flash flood watch. That figures, I thought, turning off the TV. We loaded up and headed out though the heavy rain. The rain kept coming. And there were flooded parking lots every place. Even the wallmart next to a place we stopped for lunch. Jo wanted to go to walmart but the torrent of water prevented it. Besides my Moses water parting stick was in the uhaul next to the tow rope and air compressor.
As the hours when buy the warnings for flash floods and sever weather continued but the had add the tornado watch to that list. Hum, that would be interesting I thought. At that point I was waiting to be hit by a meteor or maybe a big bolt of lightning. We covered lots of ground that day too. The flat ground made it easy for the gutless uhaul as well as my sanity.
For the next 2 days we made our way through Texas. The radio telling us off all the flooding, tornado watches, dangerous lightning, and power outages, monsters, meteors and the boogie man. With the windshield wipers on sense billings we finally made it to corpus.
All that was left now was to unload the truck! No problem! So I started. I was then introduced to humidity. I sweated for a few hours and all was going well until it came time to unload the Harley and sidecar. I spent an hour driving around trying to find a loading dock. No luck. >>
> >
I had to take the sidecar off the bike. Now all I had to do was back the bike down the ramp. Not a big deal I thought, I had done this a few times. So I lined it up and started to back down slowly. All of a sudden my break rear pedal jolted forward, break fluid was spraying all over the ramp. The front break was holding but the tire was sliding on the metal floor of the uhaul.. with eyes wide I saw a guy walking by and asked in a shaken voice for some help…quick.. I just wanted someone there in case it started to tip. But I kept it upright and rolled off the ramp. With hands shaking and heart beating fast I thanked the guy. That was the last problem…so far. Here is hoping we don’t have to go through that again for a while.>>
> >
What a fun trip. Ha! Interesting, but I wouldn’t call it fun. I hope my move out of Texas is far better!
know this is long as hell. but you might enjoy it.. might not..???
please exuces my gamar and lack of writing skill, but i think the story comes thru allright
i was cleaning out some computer files and ran into it. i had forgot i wrote it! its about the move from montana to texas i did in 2001. hope you all like it
We left at about 1:30 in the after noon. me driving the big uhaul truck with a trailer carrying the 71 chevy truck. Jo driving the 71 longhorn, towing her mazda on a car dolly. Both rigs were very wide and it took several hours to become comfortabile driving. We had a set of walkie talkies so jo and I could talk to each other, and they turned out to be a very valuable thing.
The uhaul was very heavy, having all our worldly possessions and my Harley in the back, not to mention the heavy 71 truck loaded to the hilt. It didn’t help matters much that the uhaul was a gas powered truck. Apparently uhaul feels the people are too stupid to drive diesels. So they are phasing out their diesels fleet. Its 55 or 60 mph at 6 mpg.. at best for the rest of the trip.
After driving over 2 mountain passes, and though some heavy winds we arrived in billings lace>Montanalace> with little trouble. I was quick in thinking the traveling gods were smiling apon us, but that was to be short lived. The radio was broadcasting a sever wind warning, and sure enough the wind came. From our hotel room we could hear what sounded like a train rolling by (im a rail roader I know!). I pealed back the blind to see a road sign about to be blown over and the trees around the hotel were doing what looked to be a game of limbo. I ran outside to make sure the tarp wasn’t blowing off the truck. It was fine. But the flag at the perkins restaurant was being ripped apart. The pole bending to the point I thought it would break. Oh well, I thought and then went to bed..
The next day we got up, fueled the endless gas tank on the uhall, and filled the longhorn. $82 ! gasp! This was going to be expensive. We left billings heading for lace>Sheridanlace>, it was about 10 minuets out that the weight to power problem became apparent. The slightest of hill the uhaul truck was down to 40 mph. after cresting the hill and starting down it would hit 65 again, only to slow to 35 a few seconds later. This stated to grind apon my patience, and after 2 1/2 hours I was ready to scream.>>
> >
We had finaly reached lace>Sheridanlace>. The trucks were hard to park because of their length so we parked in the kmart parking lot. Jo had noticed that my left trailer light wasn’t working. Leaving the key in the ignition, turning on the lights and the left turn signal I jumped out of the truck and inspected the trailer light. Performing the complicated technical technique called wiggling the wires, I managed to get the lights to work! Vulva!>>
> >
We were hungry; right next to kmart is pizza hut, lunch buffet! Cool, I thought. I climbed in the truck turned off the lights, hit the door lock and shut the door. After about 4 steps it hit me….. The keys are still in the truck. And the door is now locked. My mind drifted back to when I picked up the uhal. The guy handed me the single key. I said “only one key huh? Hope I don’t loose it!” the good news is I didn’t , the bad was we were now stranded at kmart.>>
> >
We called for the uhaul guy from pizza hut and ate while we waited. The guy could not get the door open, and gave me a number to a tow truck place. I called him, in the mean time I noticed the lights on jos trailer were not working ( are you seeing the pattern here?). So while I waited for the locksmith, she went to the uhaul place to get it repaired. After about 2 hours I was back in the truck, and all the lights were working. We were off to hopefully make it to lace>Cheyennelace>..
The weather had been bad the whole time sense billings, rain, and a stiff wind. Couple that with the constant up and down of the road, it was slow going at best. We needed gas and a break so we stopped at weatland wy. Opening the door, the wind about tore the door off the truck. Enough for one day I thought. We found a cheap (nice word for dumpy) and went to sleep.
In the morning I took the dog out to let him run around, and to put a few things in the truck. Had to take a double take, dam, the tire on the trailer was flat! Laughing to myself I walked back to the room to call uhaul.
There was a uhaul place close but it didn’t open for 3 hours. Great. There was a gas station just across the way. It was probably a slow leak in the tire so id fill it up and make it to lace>Cheyennelace> easy.. We drove over, slowly, but about 10 feet from the air hose.. The tire cam off the rim. Shoot!! So I went in the gas station noticing all the uhal trailers and equipment, hey! A uhaul dealer. What luck! I said hi to the guy and I thought I asked if he could fix the tire on the uhaul. But from the look on his face and the way he acted I must have asked if I could kick him in the teeth and burn down his shop. He Scowled and said it would be 3 or 4 hours before he could get to it. I called uhaul again and told them what was going on and they wanted to talk to the guy.
Jo had gone across the street to see if they could help. They were far more friendly and headed right over with a jack to help. We got the wheel off to discover the rim was broke (probably from me driving on it flat, doh!) Shoot! Now what I thought, looking at the uhaul trailer setting right beside us. I called the uhaul place back again. He asked us where we were. I told him across the street from the uhaul place, and told him the guy was really being jerk. Apparently he wasn’t nice to the uhaul place either because he chuckled a bit and said they were taking care of the guy.he told us to go take the wheel off the other trailer and put it on ours.
> >
I hung up and told the people at the place I was calling from what the plan was. >>
I knew something was up when I saw the look on their faces. They said that the guy is well known by the police in town. His temper has gotten him in trouble countless times. Apparently he has a pension for violence. Great, I thought…now im going to get in a fight with this ass.>>
> >
So we walked over and started to swap the tires. The guy from the station came out while we were doing this and I thought, oh boy, here we go. The guy was very friendly now and even helped up. Strange I thought. He asked what the name of the uhaul guy on the phone was. I told him Arnold. He shook his head and said well I have his ass. He said they are coming to get all the uhaul stuff. I asked, “you lost your dealer ship?” He answered “yep!” Hot dam! I thought. But said, “oh, that’s too bad, sorry it worked out that way.” Then we got in our trucks and gladly left Weatland lace>Wyominglace>.
After about and hour, the snow started to fall, with the wind blowing. I was following jo and noticed the other trailer light wasn’t working. There was no laughing this time; I was really getting tired off this stuff.
We found yet another uhaul place, this one in cheynne. In the blowing snow and cold they fixed the one light. As we tested the lights, the other one stopped working. He fixed that one too. Then told us that we really should have some lights on the rear of the car, it was a law in all states. Somehow the dealer in Missoula failed to inform us on that fact. $29,95 +tax and about 15 minutes (in the snow and cold) to install. But now we were set. So off we went.
We arrived in Longmont Colorado and found a hotel. I have some family in Longmont, so we thought we would take t he trailer off the longhorn to make it easier to get around. We found place in the parking lot of the hotel. It was dirt and grass, a bit wet but didn’t seam to be a problem. So we dropped the trailer (in the blowing snow) thinking, I hope we don’t get stuck. We spent the day visiting people. I had the long horn serviced at a quick lube. Then had a very pleasant dinner with family I had not seen in over 12 years. Maybe our luck had changed I thought as we went to the hotel and turned on the TV. Winter storm watch for the next few days the weatherman said. I shook my head, turned the TV off and went to sleep.
In the morning I got up and went to hook up the trailer (in the still blowing snow). The place we parked the trailer was now about ankle deep mud. Great, I thought. I got the trailer on the ball with no problem. Then I proceeded to get stuck in the mud. With a sigh I set out to find a towrope. I knew were one was, it was right next to the portable air compressor I needed back in weatleand. Both were deep in the uhaul (im a master at packing). Luckily the lady at the front desk had her husbands truck with a towrope in the back. With the uhaul, I yanked the truck out of the mud. All the while, waiting for something to brake. After about an hour the truck was out and I was covered with mud, fingers froze and rather annoyed. But we were off!(through the blowing snow).
The snow turned to rain. And the wind let up a bit. The road was flatter and we were finally making better time. Every few hours stopping for gas(costs from $1.40 to $1.99 a gallon) and a pepsi. Every now a then pointing out to each other over the walkie-talkies all the various strange stuff on the roadside and doing the normal road trip things. We made it from Longmont Colorado to dumas Texas that day. That’s a long haul!
Getting up in the morning I turned on the TV and they had a weather warning on. Seams that that constant rain we had all this time had caused a bit of flooding. So there was a severe weather and flash flood watch. That figures, I thought, turning off the TV. We loaded up and headed out though the heavy rain. The rain kept coming. And there were flooded parking lots every place. Even the wallmart next to a place we stopped for lunch. Jo wanted to go to walmart but the torrent of water prevented it. Besides my Moses water parting stick was in the uhaul next to the tow rope and air compressor.
As the hours when buy the warnings for flash floods and sever weather continued but the had add the tornado watch to that list. Hum, that would be interesting I thought. At that point I was waiting to be hit by a meteor or maybe a big bolt of lightning. We covered lots of ground that day too. The flat ground made it easy for the gutless uhaul as well as my sanity.
For the next 2 days we made our way through Texas. The radio telling us off all the flooding, tornado watches, dangerous lightning, and power outages, monsters, meteors and the boogie man. With the windshield wipers on sense billings we finally made it to corpus.
All that was left now was to unload the truck! No problem! So I started. I was then introduced to humidity. I sweated for a few hours and all was going well until it came time to unload the Harley and sidecar. I spent an hour driving around trying to find a loading dock. No luck. >>
> >
I had to take the sidecar off the bike. Now all I had to do was back the bike down the ramp. Not a big deal I thought, I had done this a few times. So I lined it up and started to back down slowly. All of a sudden my break rear pedal jolted forward, break fluid was spraying all over the ramp. The front break was holding but the tire was sliding on the metal floor of the uhaul.. with eyes wide I saw a guy walking by and asked in a shaken voice for some help…quick.. I just wanted someone there in case it started to tip. But I kept it upright and rolled off the ramp. With hands shaking and heart beating fast I thanked the guy. That was the last problem…so far. Here is hoping we don’t have to go through that again for a while.>>
> >
What a fun trip. Ha! Interesting, but I wouldn’t call it fun. I hope my move out of Texas is far better!