Yesterday morning I awoke on the floor of my house in Montague to the gurgling of the coffee pot. I crawled out of my sleeping bag and drank coffee in front of the woodstove. I ate breakfast and then finished loading up the last of my stuff. I unplugged the fridge and opened the doors to air it out, winterized the house and then Jen and I were on the road.
Not too far down the freeway, Jen, who was driving behind me, called to let me know the turn signals on the trailer were not working. We pulled over at a rest stop to check it out. All cables seemed fine, so we headed to the Uhaul in Redding to get it looked at.
In Redding, the Uhaul guy told us the electrician didn't come in until 11am so we'd have to wait. I was supposed to be in San Jose by 2pm to sign my rental agreement and get the keys. This was not going to work. So I decided to risk it and hoped I didn't get pulled over. We continued on.
Since it was Saturday, traffic wasn't too bad. As we pulled into the tight cul-de-sac at my complex I stopped the truck and got out to walk around the little alley that I would have to pull the Uhaul and trailer through (I was driving a 14 foot Uhaul truck pulling my jeep on a 16 foot flatbed trailer). It looked a little tight but I figured I could make it. We should've just dropped the trailer off at the nearest Uhaul before attempting to go to the apartment complex, but we were running short on time.
I made it around the first tight corner, but not the second. Feeling more than a little frazzled, we attempted to back the trailer back out the way I came in. After about a half hour of trying to maneuver it back, we decided it just wasn't going to work. At the same time, Jen and I both thought of unhooking the trailer, off loading the jeep and manually maneuvering it back out the alley.
Oh that just went splendid. Mind you, this was a 16 foot flat-bed tow trailer.
Jen and I couldn't manage to move it more than a few inches at a time and we had about 20 feet to move it. There was a nice young lady moving in on the same day and offered to help. We gladly accepted. So the three of us women would lift and move the trailer, 4-6 inches at a time, trying to steer it so the tongue pointed out. That way I could pull the truck around, back it up to the trailer and just pull it out.
Jen and I switched off at the tongue, which for whatever reason seemed to be the hardest part. During my turn at the tongue, we were attempting to swing the tongue around to point back out the alley way. We pulled it towards me and smashed my knee between the tongue of the trailer and a concrete post next to the building. I started yelling and we backed it off and dropped it. We had to take a break while I hobbled around for awhile.
We picked it up again and worked at getting it turned. A guy in a car pulled up, apparently wanting to pull into the alley way and sat for awhile and watched us. The three of us girls mumbled obscenities at the guy for sitting there watching all of this and not getting out and offering assistance. Finally as we got it almost in place, he got out and asked where we were trying to take it. Right here buddy, right here. Thanks. What a jerk.
I backed the truck up to the trailer, having to collapse my side mirrors and had about an inch between the truck and a metal fence. We struggled to get the trailer hooked back up and after about 15 minutes of swearing and jumping on it, moving the truck inch by inch and tugging and pulling on the trailer, we got it. However, we may have failed to tighten the hitch.
By this point, Jen, who had quit chewing tobacco for her New Years Resolution, was screaming for a chew. I told her it was perfectly acceptable for her to take up chewing again, this 4th day of the New Year and that I was about ready to take a chew myself. We hopped into the truck to go get gas, chew, and drop off the trailer. We found a gas station but it didn't have chew. Jen walked down the road a ways to find some but to no avail.
As I went to pull out of the gas station on a busy street, a lady in an SUV was not paying attention and was sitting in the road digging through something. I considered going but figured she would notice traffic had moved and then drive off just as I decided to enter the road. So I waited, but then saw more cars starting to come up the street behind her. This was my only chance. She looked up and saw everyone had moved and slowly started moving herself. As she drove past me, I pulled this cowboy maneuver with the truck, squealing across a two lanes of traffic to make it on to the freeway. Not a good thing to do while hauling a trailer. Especially one that you have inadvertently forgotten to tighten the hitch on.
While Jen howled, I sped onto the freeway. We drove on for a couple miles before I noticed the trailer fish tailing like crazy behind me. I tried to make it off the freeway, but alas, that was not to be. The tongue of the trailer started to bounce off the highway, held on by only a couple of chains. I managed to pull the truck and trailer into the triangle divide between the off ramp and the highway. Cars whizzed by us on both sides at 75 miles per hour. I looked over at Jen, ready to cry. "Is this all because I moved into apartment 13?"
We got out to survey the damage. The tongue of the trailer sat beneath the truck and still held on by one chain. I tried to release the chain so we could try to re-attach the trailer, but it was too tight. With all the cars zipping by us so close, we decided to get back into the vehicle where it was safer and just call roadside assistance.
After talking with the lady (who was probably in Alabama) for 15 minutes, she hung up the phone to call a service provider and Jen got out to set up warning triangles.
We sat in the truck waiting for the lady to call me back. Jen looked out the window and said she was going to run across the off-ramp, hop the fence and go find some chew. "Don't leave me!" I yelled.
"I'm not going to leave you." she said. "I'm gonna try to hook that thing up again." And out she went.
The phone rang and it was the lady from across the US with a service provider on the line trying to figure out what was wrong with the vehicle. How hard is it to understand that we just dropped the trailer on the freeway? How can that phrase mean anything other than the trailer came off the truck while driving? Apparently it's very difficult. I got a little terse with them. I was pretty done by this point. And adding to the complexity of the situation, the lady could not figure out where I was located.
"I'm on I-280 southbound in San Jose, on the Bird Ave off-ramp."
"I just don't see that on my map here. I'm going to text you a link that will get us a GPS hit of your location. Just click on the link and it'll tell us where you are."
"Ma'am, my phone doesn't have that capability (go ahead and laugh people, at least my battery doesn't die every day)."
"Oh, you just click on the link in the text message, I'm sending it right now."
"Ma'am, no. My phone doesn't have that technology."
"Your phone what? You don't have internet on your phone?"
"No ma'am. Look, I can pull up a Lat and Long on my GPS. Can I just give you a Lat and Long?"
"Well we can give it a try."
What did she expect to get when she got a GPS hit from my phone? A legal description? Lady please. I gave her the coordinates.
"That didn't work. I'm sorry, I just can't seem to figure out where you are."
"I'm on the I-280 south on the Bird Avenue off-ramp. Just before the 87 off-ramp."
"Ok, I don't see that here. I see the 87, so you're on the 87?"
"No ma'am, I'm on the Bird Ave off-ramp."
"Ok, I just don't know where you are. I see the 87 and the only thing I see before that is the Bird Ave exit."
OMG. "Ma'am, I am on the Bird Ave exit."
"You're on the Bird Ave exit?"
"Yes!"
"Bird as in "ir" or "yr"?"
Are you kidding me right now? "IR. BIRD Bird. Bird Ave."
"Ok, thank you ma'am." Mother of God.
Jen hops back in. "What's up?"
"It's gonna take them 45 to 50 min."
"Ok, I think we can get this back on. I got the chain off, so you'll have to pull the truck forward, over and back. Can you see me in the mirror?"
So the lady said she'd call back in 5 minutes to see if we were able to get it hooked back up. Jen managed to get the trailer hooked back up again (my hero!) and we drove back onto the freeway.
"Can we just get some chew please?!" Jen yelled.
"Can we please just drop this trailer off first? Please?"
"Ok, yeah, but if opportunity presents itself on the way..."
"Yeah, ok. Of course."
We dropped the trailer off and went to find food. We scored some pasta, a sandwich, bean soup and chips at the nearest Panera Bread. (Jen also got chew at 7-Eleven.)
We decided to only unload what we felt like that night. Namely just the frozen food. And sleep on the floor and deal with the rest in the morning. By the way, this was all after a 6 plus hour drive down to San Jose in the first place.
We unloaded a few things and realized it was still fairly early. It was 5:30pm, just 13 hours after our day had started. We could do this! Plus, we had to at least get access to my dresser as I had forgotten to pack clean underwear in an overnight bag.
"However" Jen said, "As soon as we find the box with the rum in it, we have to take a shot."
"Deal".
We found the bottle not too far into the unloading phase and each took a swig out of the bottle. We managed to haul some fairly heavy things up the flight of stairs into my apartment and pretty much just dropped things where we could fit it. The chaise lounge fit perfectly in the kitchen and I came back upstairs to find Jen curled up on it.
I thought about how that would be the perfect place to sit and have my coffee in the morning.
We finished hauling everything upstairs and realized there were 20 minutes before the Uhaul place closed and we could be completely rid of it if we hurried. Off we went. We returned the Uhaul and then headed home to clear a place for us to sleep. The bed was out of the question being as my bedroom had transformed into something out of "Hoarders".
We managed to move stuff around enough to set up the futon and get the chaise lounge into the living room. This is definitely the smallest apartment I've ever lived in and by far the most I have ever paid in rent (even more than the mortgage on my 3 bed/3 bath house). Today I decided to forgo my 6 mi run and do it tomorrow. I am far too sore and exhausted to make much at all happen today. I have unpacked a few boxes, Jen and I set up the bedroom and living room, so it's all fairly functional now. I just have to put more stuff away and sell some of my belongings. I'll post more pictures as rooms get into place.
By the way, it was about 70 here today. In January.
Jen also put a good luck charm above my door to even out the whole "13" business, but gave me explicit instructions to promptly remove it if things start to go bad.
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