Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Giant update.

I intended to update you all about how the move went as soon as we got here. But my Mom and Dad had a dial-up connection and I didn't want to tie up their line for long, and it kept having problems with dropping the connection. All that changed yesterday when I finally got the DSL hooked up and working.

So, we made it to Hood River on May 9th. Everyone and everything survived the trip, although I was not all together sure that it would end up that way during the trip. I tried to keep some notes in my day planner on the things that happened on our epic trip home to Oregon, so here are some of them.

May 4th

We still haven't left! One delay after another, including delays in loading the trailer. I almost worked myself into heat exhaustion trying to get everything packed, loaded, and cleaning up. In the end I left the place in a big mess. The truck was too heavy in the front so that the tongue almost touched the ground, we moved it anyway to a location were we could work on it without being in the street. The guys worked on it until 10 PM yesterday, they got it to work and then we decided to go to the Quality Inn n Merced for the night. I don't think I could have slept on the floor at Jimmy's, every part of my body hurt too much. It's a nice place to stay, but I was too stressed and tired to enjoy it much.

Today everything went along fine, they had the truck and trailer working together fine, but then the discovered a wiring problem so they spent a couple of hours tracking down the problem, and several more fixing it. By then it was 9PM so we went back to the Quality Inn for another night, tomorrow by noon we should be able to finally get out of here!

May 5th 7:23 PM

Well, some progress was made today. We WERE able to leave around noon. The truck is very slow because the trailer is very heavy, we can only go about 45 to 50 mph, but it goes! We stopped at Cody's, one of my brothers, and had a wonderful visit with Cody and the kids. Kelly, his wife, was sick and in bed when we were there. Then we stopped to get something to eat.

About 50 miles or so from Cody's the rear right tire on the truck BLEW OUT! I've never had a blow out before and it sacred me so much it took me almost a half an hour to stop shaking. Everything was fine, I guess I did a good job of keeping control of everything. So now we are waiting for Jimmy to come and help us. He is bring two tires so that we can change both of the rear tires. We have been here for about an hour, and will probably be here for a couple more.

12:30 AM

Well, it took longer than we expected, Jimmy sent his sister and brother down with the tires. Howard had to change them himself without power. But it's finally done. Aidan was wonderful while waiting, he talked and playing in his carseat without giving us much trouble. We moved the truck when it got dark, because I was worried about Howard changing the tires on the shoulder of the Highway. So we were able to let Aidan walk around some. After everything was done we decided to stay at a Motel 6 for the night, it might be the best financial decision, but Howard needs to relax.

May 6th

We wanted to go the coast route to Oregon, we thought it would be easier on the truck. But ... We got lost on highway 16, took a wrong turn, and ended up back on I-5. We got as far as Red Bluff before we decided to stop for the night. It was a beautiful drive, but turned into a big waste of time and gas.

May 7th

We made it to Kalamath Falls. We stopped and looked at a train they have at the veterans park there. When we got back to the truck we discovered that we had a flat on the trailer. We unhooked the truck and I tried to get a tire at Wal-Mart. They didn't have the one we needed and the next closet thing, which would have worked okay, cost a lot more than I had. So I called my Dad to see what we could do. He sent us $100, which I waited around to get at Wal-Mart, and arranged for us to get a tired at Les Schwab on his account. So we are going to spend the night at a Motel, because we are not parked in a place I feel comfortable sleeping in the truck, and because I want to sleep more tonight than I did last night.

May 8th

We had some more trouble with the truck, it died not long after we left Chunult (I'm not sure of the spelling). A nice man stopped and let Howard use his cell phone and we called my Dad. He talked to Howard and had him check the fuel line. It had a clog in it. We did okay but used a lot of gas. We finally discovered a leak, and then later another one. In Redmond we called my Mom and Dad again, the gas leaks had left us with no money and very little gas, so they sent another $50. We are almost there!

May 9th

We spent the night in front of a little store, in a little town whose name I forget. We ran out of gas right there, the store, which had a gas station in front of it, didn't open until 8 AM. It was cold and we were very tired of the truck but we did get some sleep. After that was taken care of, and a really nice guy helped us get it started again, I guess there was an other clog in the fuel line, and then the battery was low from all the attempts to start it. We got here with almost no gas left, and had some trouble getting up the steep hill to my Parents house, but we made it! We are so happy to be home!


So, Aidan and I have been settling in here. Howard is down in Salem, looking for a job. He plans to come up for the week-end. It's been really nice to be back home. Mom and Dad are bonding with Aidan, and he loves them. Pepper, mom's dog, enjoys having Aidan around, but he gets tired of it sometimes. So Aidan is learning to leave Pepper alone when he gives him that little growl. They are doing great.

That's my story, and I'm sticking to it. LOL I hope I'll be able to post more now that we have DSL here. Take Care All.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

This is it.

Today we will be leaving for Oregon. We have a couple of people coming to help finish up all the moving. Yesterday we had another delay, the truck and trailer had to be wired for lights. That took almost all day to get done. At 8PM we loaded some boxes and the two dressers, by 10 we just couldn't do any more so we called it quits. The people who said they would help never showed up. This morning I'm packing up the day to day stuff I had to leave out just so we could be somewhat normal through this. Howard and Jimmy went to do a tire so we can have some extra money. The guys who are going to help with stuff today are supposed to be here at 9. I'm hoping that we can be finished by about noon. I have to take the cable box in and pay that bill, and then go to the insurance office and get the truck put on the insurance.

Well, I guess I'd better go get things done. I'm not sure when I'll be in Hood River, but I'll try to get on line in with an update as soon as I can. Take Care all.