Last post was way back on Feb 20th. Guess you could say we've been pretty busy!
Most interesting thing that's happened just happened last weekend-------
Last Friday(3/7) to Saturday(3/8) we helped by transporting the belongings of a friend of Stacy's move from this area to the Seattle area. I'd drive the 28 foot U-Haul, Stacy would follow in our truck for the return trip. I went with the friend on Thursday to pick the truck up about an hour away, got it to her place and then helped load with her other friends until I had to leave to go drive that afternoon.
I was surprised with U-Haul. While the truck itself was in good shape, as I was checking it over before leaving the U-Haul facility, I checked the engine to find it had no coolant in the overflow tank and was at least a quart low on oil. I went back to the office and asked for coolant and oil only to be told that they aren't serviced there so they don't keep anything like that there. I'd have to get them myself and if I kept the receipts they 'should' reimburse me on turn in of the truck. Hmmmm.. Okay. Well since I kinda know what I'm doing that wasn't a problem for me. But with all the paperwork that the renter had to sign, and me too since I was the driver, indicating all the ways of YOU break it YOU bought it. I would have thought because these things are apparently geared for the guy or gal that doesn't know how to do anything except maybe be able to drive it, a little more care would be stressed at the renting level!
Okay, enough ranting about that, now back to the trip.
Well Stacy and I had pretty much planned a kinda nice weekend working around this trip. As planned we'd leave around noon on Friday get the truck there Saturday morning, the friend was supposed to have many people there for unloading it. We'd bid our goodbyes and good lucks with the new job etc., then head up and meet Mike kinda in between his place and Seattle for a lunch and visit since we were in his neck of the woods. EXCEPT, Friday we get there at 11 am , their still finishing loading. Then Stacy says that the friend doesn't want her oldest daughter to stay by herself. So she'd be riding out with Stacy and back with both of us in our truck.
Okay, side story here. The daughter didn't want to move at this time because she wanted to finish her schooling in this area. Her father, friends ex-husband, was going to be moving into the house that the mom and her two sisters had been living in to continue trying to sell the place. Also turned out that the apartment in the Seattle suburb wasn't big enough anyway for all of them. She be riding with us was because the small car they have was also loaded.
Back to the story!
Daughter didn't want to go. And we hadn't expected a passenger, let alone someone we didn't know, to make this trip with us! And now we're expected to be there Friday night as everybody will meet there to unload. Well............. go with the flow right?? We aren't doing this for US anyway! We're just trying to piggyback some fun with a job! We're all on our way by 12:30 pm. The truck is loaded too much on the passenger side so the truck leans and pulls to the right all the way. First fuel up at a Flying J truck stop in Post Falls. Fuel tank is also on the right side. So its really leaning with a full tank and 51 gallons of more fuel added! We drive on through Spokane and out the I-90. GPS indicates arrival time around 7 pm which stretches to become the 8:30 with stops we arrive. The fuel gage stuck on full after the fill up at Post falls so at just under 200 miles and since I've got no idea what the economy is loaded, we stop for fuel again. Turned out the truck got an impressive (to me anyway) 8 miles a gallon. Luckily none of the strong winds going over the plains of Washington we've had before on other drives. But going through the mountains was at times white knuckling it! Especially all those LEFT turns!
Stacy and I each had our Garmin GPS units with us and each unit indicated a different way to go to get to the destination. Since we'd never been where we were heading towards we went with my GPS and it's way of getting there. Now, you can already guess that that turned out to be the wrong way to go! Stacy's GPS would have kept us on the freeway. I should have reset mine to truck instead of car/motorcycle. Live and learn right? Looking at the maps it looked like it would be a good way to go! It became a narrow up hill and down hill back road with limited turn around if we hit any problems. Stacy said there were two times I came within inches of taking out street signs that came into the road a little too much! Well, we finally get there, find the apartment and the truck gets unloaded in about 2 1/2 hours. We decide to leave the truck at a Safeway parking lot over night and take it over. Its late, we're tired, Stacy checks the GPS for places to sleep and it leads us to a very comfortable bed. On the trip in Mike had called and said he wouldn't be able to make it with us for lunch do to time constraints. I tell him not to worry as all plans have been changing since just before we'd left! We'll be seeing each other soon with the better weather. Saturday we get back over and take the truck for drop off. Get back to the apartment, now say our goodbyes and good luck with the new job, get the daughter and head on home. At least we had a nice uneventful drive home and got back at 6:30 pm. Dropped off the daughter and decided to stop at 3-Mile and have dinner. A quick 847 miles and we're done! They'll be other weekends!
Next weekend Stacy leaves for her two weeks at Idaho POST Academy. It wouldn't be so bad if it was closer than the Boise area! About 500 miles away so she can't come home for the weekend that she'll have to be there. She's stressing about it quite a bit. Stacy's already done two
pre- tests via CD and Internet she was sent from the Academy, got 100% on both!
Sandy, Laura and Sean are all doing well. Sean and Brandy will be coming up for a week next month, we're looking forward to that. Sean hasn't been here in several years and his wife has never been out of California before!
Well this became a long story didn't it! So I guess that will do it for now. Type later, Tad
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