As promised in the Hangout minutes ago, this thread chronicles my adventures in a U-Haul over the last few days.

The last time we (my mom and I) moved, we borrowed a truck and trailer from a friend. That ended up being a horrible idea. Between the weather, and the open air of the pickup's bed, things were ruined by rain, and other things were lost on the highway. So, it was decided this time we'd rent a U-Haul. We figured that we should be able to get everything in the biggest one they had, so the 26 foot truck was rented.

First stop was the storage garage where we had put the stuff that wouldn't fit or wasn't needed in the last house. A washer and dryer, stove, an entertainment center, several large boxes, two lawnmowers, a chest freezer, a "hope chest", an antique steamer trunk full of family photos, and various other crap. The 26 footer was going to come in handy, alright. We filled it halfway at the garage. That's 800 cubic feet of stuff in the first trip. Now it was a matter of getting out of the garage area, and getting to the old house to load the other half of the truck. Easier said than done. Here's a small diagram of the garage buildings...

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Links are hidden from guests. Please register to be able to view these links. Two buildings, about 20 feet apart, surrounded by a fence, with one gate, and maybe 10 feet of paved area at the end of the second building. We were in building 2, garage A, and we'd pulled straight in to start. The plan was to drive around to the back, and try to go between the buildings. Twenty minutes later, and after taking out the downpipe on the corner of the second building, we called my uncle, who takes his 27 foot RV to the Mid-Ohio Motorsports Complex (NASCAR minor leagues) every summer. He got us unstuck within two minutes. Unfotunately, he scraped the side of the gate on the way out, tearing part of the U-Haul wheelwell off. Oh well. Good thing we got that extra insurance.

So, we were out of the garage, and at the old house. We loaded up the rest of the truck, leaving probably half a load behind, as it wouldn't fit. Pulling out of the driveway was a circus, as we had to take the turn tigheter than we should have, due to the people across the street forgetting that they have a driveway, and parking in the road. The Air Ride suspension on the U-Haul compressed on the driver's side, and my mom started yelling "WE'RE TIPPING OVER, WE'RE TIPPING OVER!" We didn't tip over, but the soft suspension was a problem for her on the entire drive to the new house. She kept worrying about us tipping, when we were nowhere close.

Of course, we couldn't even get out of town without an incident. Two blocks from the old house, we were coming up to a stop sign. Out of nowhere, a kid on a sled flies out in front of us, and narrowly missed getting a U-Haul bumper embedded in his face. As we pulled away, I saw his mom come out and give him a good one to the dome from my side mirror. Excellent.

We finally got to the new house, but there was another problem. We live on a closed alley which the city stopped maintaining, so now we were looking at four inches of snow, and the front entrance was blocked by a low-hanging tree limb. So, we took it around back. After a bit of shoveling to clear a path for the wheels, we gunned it and plowed our own road, barrelling through the powder, and sliding to a stop next to the house.

After another $47 to gas the truck up back to the half a tank it had when we rented it, it was returned to the rental place without incident. They didn't even notice the wheel well. Of course, they will once they do a full walk-around, but we'll deal with that later.

We're renting a fourteen foot U-Haul today to finish the job, so I'll likely be bak to this topic to update on that. Who knows.