This time we got the 26 foot truck as we were taking an extra couch with us. My friend was along with us to help us load up (and hopefully my Aunt and Uncle would be able to help as well), and my brother and another friend would help unload at the apartment. My friend showed up at 8:30 and our plan was to get breakfast then head to CT to pick up our truck around 11. Now let me explain what the plan was on Friday. I had called U-Haul and requested to pickup our truck at 9am, since online it defaults everything to 12pm for some stupid reason. They said OK but later called and said it wouldn't be available until 11. Then as we were eating breakfast I check our reservation and it said 3pm. So I called and they said that 3 would be the latest it would be ready but that they would let us know. Well there was not much else we could do so we headed down to my Grandma's house to wait for them to call. There was a few things to pack up and load into Joyful's car so we did that but still no call. Around 11am we took a walk for a little bit, but still no call. We decided to drive down to the place, get some lunch, then check in with them again. It was about a thirty minute ride to the U-Haul place. The truck was still not ready, so we ate lunch at Wendy's. While eating lunch they called and said the truck wouldn't be ready until 5! I was frustrated, but there was nothing we could do, so we headed back to the house to watch Netflix and wait some more.
Let me tell you a bit about U-Haul as I understand it. First let me just say that there was no way to cancel and get another truck somewhere else. You can't just get a 26 foot moving truck on an hour, day, or a few days notice. There are not many of them, thus they are in high demand. When you drive by a U-Haul place you will see ton of the smaller 14 foot trucks, but not many big ones. So, if you order a big one, you are probably going to have to pick it up at a place not of your choosing. This place will probably be where the last person dropped it off. Which also means you are at the mercy of the person returning it, as we were. Our trouble was not U-Haul per say, but the person returning it. If they had returned it on time, we would have had our truck a lot sooner. Furthermore, you only get so many miles and you have to pay for the gas you use, so having to pick up the truck at a place not of your choosing really cuts into your mileage and gas. At least you get to drop it off wherever you like. This has been my experience with U-Haul, I have no idea if other moving companies are better or worse, so please let me know.
Back to our story, I finally got a call at 5pm that our truck was ready, as we were thirty minutes into Food, Inc (a very interesting movie), so we drove back and finally got our truck. They knocked $20 off, which was decent considering it was $180 altogether or something like that. Now the real fun was to begin. The first battle was going to be getting around to the back of my Grandma's house for easy loading. It was dark out so my Grandma said to drive around the other side, which was clear but had the septic tank, so we could only do it with an empty truck. Ok, thats good, better than backing the truck through some brush in the dark. Or at least I thought! I had a very narrow space to navigate around and the ground in the back of my Grandma's house slopes down into brush and wetlands. Not the kind of place to get a truck stuck in, and boy was I close to getting it stuck! I made as sharp a turn around the corner as I could, but came too close to the house so I had to back up and try it again. Well this time I was extremely close to the edge of the yard and on a dangerous slope. The wheel was cut all the way and if I continued to take the turn the front right wheel might end up in the brush, the truck stuck, or even worse, tipped over. I decided to try and and back the truck up to get a better turn but I couldn't! The tires were just spinning, caught in mud. Well, just one course of action now! Forward we went and the truck made it! We were perhaps a foot from the brush. Phew!
It was 6:30 by the time we started loading up. The relatives were all away, so it was just me and Diesel. After about 2.5 hours we sent Joyful to get pizza and Mt. Dew. She came back in thirty minutes so we could fuel our tired bodies and after that it was only another 30 more minutes to finish the loading. Not bad for only two people and I think the fact that the truck was right outside the door really helped. It was something like 10:30pm so there would be no unpacking tonight but I at least decided to get the truck back to our apartment. This time we got to drive through the passageway (as I keep calling it) and after the first section of scraping branches, it was actually pretty easy to get it around to the front of the house and off to RI. The drive home was life as usual in a giant truck. It takes forever to accelerate and stop, going up hills takes more than forever, every bump makes you feel like the whole back of the truck will be jumbled up, and going around a right handed corner is a pain. Not to mention that the truck will not fit in a park space so even parking crooked at the apartment I was on the grass and took up 5 spots.
As we slept in our sleeping bags on the floor, we were really not sure who was going to be able to help tomorrow. Our help was for today. My friend was available, but he didn't say what time he was coming and he shut his phone off. My brother couldn't come until later and my other friend was busy during the morning. To top it off, the truck had to be back by 5.
I was a little stressed going to bed and waking up that morning. I haven't been stressed about anything in a long time, but after showering I resolved that everything happens for a reason and that God would take care of it. I resigned myself to start unloading the truck and hopefully my friend would get there soon. My awesome wife had my back though and while I was in the shower called a friend, who graciously offered to skip church and have herself and her husband help us out. That was a Godsend and they brought breakfast! My gracious thanks to them and another friend who also came after a while to help us out! My other friend also showed up after church to help with the last few things, including helping me drop off the truck. The apartment is filled up with boxes now and it will take a while to get everything all situated and unpacked. We finished unloading close to 1pm and I still got to watch most of the Patriots game so everything turned out great! I wish I could have moved the truck closer to the door of our apartment as I think it would have made unloading easier and much quicker, like at my Grandmas. As it was, I had to park a short walk away from the door because the truck was so long and maneuvering around all the cars would be nigh impossible. This caused to have a slightly longer unload time. I thought it would be quicker then loading up the truck because you have to worry about "Tetrising" everything in the truck and here we were just putting stuff anywhere.
At one point, we tried to move what would be later known as the heaviest couch in the world, when it was just the two of us, and we got it stuck at our doorstep. Somehow my friend and I had moved it no problem the other night but now we could barely lift it. Luckily our other friend showed up so the three of us managed to strong arm it around the back of the building and through the sliding glass door. The only other snafu was that we forgot the cross braces for our bed at my Grandma's. So after all was said and done, we had to drive the hour back to CT to pick those up, so we could get our bed put together. And what a wondrous sleep that was! I have not slept on a bed that soft since the last time I slept on that bed, 8 or 9 months earlier! Well this has been a long post and there is still much unpacking to do!
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| The 26 foot beast |
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