Trailer is a four letter word
Posted by Christina | | Posted On Saturday, June 12, 2010 at 3:20 PM
We survived leg one of our big adventure – the move from Seattle to Spokane. After 15 hour days spent lovingly bubble wrapping every knick knack, dish, and piece of furniture, and scrubbing every square inch of our very lived in townhouse, we are finally moved out. But certainly not without a few bumps and bruises along the way.
Thursday – load up day – started off fairly harmless. We picked up our monster sized 24-foot moving truck and trailer early in the morning, hauled it home, parked and continued on our merry little way packing. But of course, it wouldn’t be a legit move unless something went wrong.
About mid-afternoon we took a break from the nightmare of boxes piling up and decided to get the car loaded up onto the trailer. Despite Matt having little experience with big rigs or maneuvering a trailer and me having absolutely zero experience with either, it seemed rather harmless at the time. Back up the truck, turn the wheel, trailer will turn - not rocket science. But apparently our 9 years of combined college education did not prepare us for the physics of driving a semi-length vehicle, nor did our common sense recall that we live on a dead end street so narrow that two cars can barely pass comfortably, even without the idiots who insist on parking their cars on it too. So for 20 minutes it was back up, turn, fail, start over. Reconvene on a new plan. Back up, turn, fail, start over.
After a good 30 attempts, we finally got the truck all lined up for our final move – the hairpin turn. Matt backed up the truck and got the hairpin just perfect…and then the horrifying screeching sound of metal. In our bold hairpin attempt we managed to completely bend the tongue of the trailer mid-turn. Awesome. Of course I, having directed Matt right into breaking the trailer, had a full blown panic attack right there in the middle of our street. With hair askew, no makeup, and scrubby work clothes, I totally fit the part of mental institution. Thank goodness Matt is so calm. He took one look at the trailer, said “well, we broke it,” and finished backing it up.
Decidedly out of our league, we ended up trading in the 24-footer for a more manageable 16-footer, had the trailer towed, and got a new, un-destroyed-by-trailer-virgins trailer in the morning. Every square inch of the 16-footer, Matt’s SUV and my pickup were packed with our stuff, but we made it to Spokane unscathed and relieved to be done with this leg.
And for our next big feat, we will attempt the 24-footer again from Spokane to Nashville. Here’s to wide roads, throughways, and lots of insurance.
Thursday – load up day – started off fairly harmless. We picked up our monster sized 24-foot moving truck and trailer early in the morning, hauled it home, parked and continued on our merry little way packing. But of course, it wouldn’t be a legit move unless something went wrong.
About mid-afternoon we took a break from the nightmare of boxes piling up and decided to get the car loaded up onto the trailer. Despite Matt having little experience with big rigs or maneuvering a trailer and me having absolutely zero experience with either, it seemed rather harmless at the time. Back up the truck, turn the wheel, trailer will turn - not rocket science. But apparently our 9 years of combined college education did not prepare us for the physics of driving a semi-length vehicle, nor did our common sense recall that we live on a dead end street so narrow that two cars can barely pass comfortably, even without the idiots who insist on parking their cars on it too. So for 20 minutes it was back up, turn, fail, start over. Reconvene on a new plan. Back up, turn, fail, start over.
After a good 30 attempts, we finally got the truck all lined up for our final move – the hairpin turn. Matt backed up the truck and got the hairpin just perfect…and then the horrifying screeching sound of metal. In our bold hairpin attempt we managed to completely bend the tongue of the trailer mid-turn. Awesome. Of course I, having directed Matt right into breaking the trailer, had a full blown panic attack right there in the middle of our street. With hair askew, no makeup, and scrubby work clothes, I totally fit the part of mental institution. Thank goodness Matt is so calm. He took one look at the trailer, said “well, we broke it,” and finished backing it up.
Decidedly out of our league, we ended up trading in the 24-footer for a more manageable 16-footer, had the trailer towed, and got a new, un-destroyed-by-trailer-virgins trailer in the morning. Every square inch of the 16-footer, Matt’s SUV and my pickup were packed with our stuff, but we made it to Spokane unscathed and relieved to be done with this leg.
And for our next big feat, we will attempt the 24-footer again from Spokane to Nashville. Here’s to wide roads, throughways, and lots of insurance.
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