We are only one week from loading the truck for our move to Alberta. It makes us think back a few years. Our last move was a bit of an adventure… Trip the time machine back to July 2002 to when Naomi and I first moved to Ontario from New Brunswick.
Naomi and I had been married all of two months. We had taken a few belongings from Alberta to New Brunswick and were making final preparations to move all my stuff from my home town to Owen Sound. I had arranged for a U-Haul truck and a full size trailer to put our car on. The local rental office had suggested a 14 foot truck based on their estimation of our stuff we needed to move. The day I showed up to get the truck they only had a 17 footer which they let me use for no extra charge. This wasn’t the only change of plans.. The trailer I had requested was stolen from their lot the night before. Perhaps I should have seen this as an omen of the rest of our trip. They assured me that they would track down another trailer for us to use by the end of the day.
It turned out that the 17 foot truck was the right size as we had it packed right to the door, from floor to ceiling. I don’t know what we would have done had we started with the 14 footer.. About the time we were finishing loading the truck they showed up with a trailer that they managed to get from about an hour’s drive away. We hooked the trailer up to the truck and I drove my little sports car up onto the trailer. I closed up the windows, and opened the car door.. or tried to.
A Honda Prelude is a low riding car. The car trailer has rather high wheel wells. I could only get the door open a few inches before they hit the trailer wheel wells. I had to roll down the window and climb out Dukes of Hazard style. The Prelude had a small access hatch going from the two rear “seats” (roughly toddler-shaped depressions behind the front seats) that went to the trunk. I think they were designed to put a pair of skies through and not much more. There was no way I could get more than my head and one arm through this small portal. Thankfully, Naomi was able to squeeze through the opening, put up the window and lock the door. With these ordeals behind us we went to bed to prepare for an early departure.
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The next morning we awoke to a heat wave that was affecting the the Maritimes, Quebec and Ontario. The moving truck had air conditioning, but every time we stopped somewhere it felt like an oven outside.
We were headed for Sherbrooke, Quebec to spend the night with friends. After 13 hours driving it was just starting to get dark and we were almost there when we heard a loud pop, crack and the speedometer suddenly said we were going 110 mph when we were actually doing 50. We had lost all power and the truck was slowing down fast. We pulled over to the side of the road.. right next to a family nudist beach sign.
I tried to move the truck again, but it was just more screeching and grinding. The truck was dead.
We had a cell phone with us, but its batteries didn’t hold a charge very well. I only had enough time to quickly tell the U-Haul company our vehicle number and where we were before it turned off.
We waited just over an hour in the dark alongside the busy highway, watching a thunderstorm come in the distance.
Finally, a tow truck driver arrived. He had a large tow truck with a flat-bed on the back. Unfortunately, he spoke only French and what little French I had learned 12 years before in high-school was more rusty than your average Ford. Anyway, he hooked up to the front of our truck and we got under way. We didn’t get very far before another truck pulled up beside us and the passenger was pointing excitedly behind us. We looked in our mirrors to discover that the there was big plumes of smoke coming from the back end of our moving truck!!
Apparently, something had seized up pretty good, and now that we were towing the truck it had built up enough heat in the rear axle that it caught fire. Thankfully we got the fire out without any fire or smoke getting into the back of the truck where all our stuff was.
Since the truck couldn’t be towed, he loaded the truck on the flatbed. But first we had to get the car off the trailer, and the trailer disconnected from the truck. So Naomi had to do the squeeze-through-the-hole thing to move the car. To get our moving truck on the back of the tow-truck, he had to lower the ramp and drag it up onto the ramp. So we watched as our truck was dragged at this crazy angle up the ramp.. I couldn’t help but think of the piano crushing something..
We dropped the truck off at a maintenance shop and finally got to a hotel room around 3:00 AM. After a few hours sleep we discovered that the truck wouldn’t get fixed for a couple of weeks, so we were going to need to have the load put on a new truck. U-Haul said that they were going to send us a new truck, but just a few days before was the somewhat crazy Moving Day in Quebec, the day when all leases expire and a good percent of the population of Montreal moves. Weird. Anyway.. they didn’t know if they would have a good truck for us or not, given the high demand. After another hour we were told a truck had been found and was being towed to us.
As we waited for the truck and prepared to move all our appliances, furniture, piano, and lots of boxes we listened to the news saying that due to the heat wave everyone should stay inside and not do any strenuous exercise. Hmm..
Of course a truck has to be loaded with all the heavy stuff at the front, so everything had to be off-loaded onto the ground, then the heavy stuff taken from one truck to the other, and light stuff back onto the truck.
Once the loading was done we watched the old truck get loaded up on the tow truck.
By this time the rear wheels were almost coming off. You can barely see it in this picture, but the wheels are at a sharp angle compared to the side of the truck. We then had to load the trailer on, so again with the squeeze thing to get the car on the trailer.
With the larger truck and a trailer on the back, it was now almost as long as a transport truck. I was sure that I should need a different license to drive something that big. We had to drive this monster through Montreal and along the 401 to Owen Sound. Other than guessing if we could make it under some overpasses, we managed to get to our new home at Word of Life.
So after all that, when it was decided that we would be moving again, we were somewhat full of dread of renting another truck. This time, we won’t be having another U-Haul adventure. A friend from church works for a trucking company and has arranged for some space in a truck going to Alberta for our stuff!
And for that, we are very thankful.
