Leaving California

7/22/04 - U-Haul Saga Pt 2
Today we rented another U-Haul truck to drive back to California in order to pick up the rest of our stuff, including our hot tub. I have contacted a local hot tub dealer to help me unload it and set it up, but I have no idea how big a task it will be to load it in Redwood Valley (Map) and who I can get to help.

We we got to the U-Haul dealer we discovered that the truck had wheel wells within the cargo area, so we had to switch trucks at the last moment. They were able to give us a pretty good deal on the truck and an auto transport to drive to Ukiah and back. It cost less than renting just a truck in California and driving it one way to Carlton. We decided to take the car so that we had transportation while we were in Mendocino County and so we had a place for our biggest dog and four puppies.

7/23/04 - Back to California
Today we loaded a few things into the truck and the Toyota on the car carrier and headed for Redwood Valley. A few days ago we got our first offer on our house in CA and so this will be our last trip to our beautiful four acre ranch. Rather than drive all the way there in one day, we took our time, stopped by the RV Corral to see the 2005 Newmar Dutch Star which is the coach we plan to order as soon as our house in California sells. We spent the night at a very quaint little motel in Grant's Pass. The dogs had to spend the night in the car but we got a good night's sleep and were ready to go in the morning.

Our Home in Redwood Valley, CA

7/24/04 - Goodbye Redwood Valley
When we got to Redwood Valley we were very pleasantly surprised to see the place looking so good. The lawns were well watered and mowed and the load of junk had been taken to the dump thanks to our great neighbors Gene and Susie. While we waited for Gene to get home from work, I loaded up the few remaining boxes from the garage and my toolbox into the truck, while our good friend Isa helped my wife pack what was left in the refrigerator and do some last minute cleaning.

Another good friend came up from Santa Rosa to say goodbye and wound up helping with some last minute packing too. We also were visited by another couple from Santa Rosa who came up to pick up their new daughter, one of our six week old puppies. They were thrilled to say the least. This was the second dog that they had adopted from us. The other was a brother to the mother of the new puppy.

After making a few more calls to Hot tub dealers, I decided to go and rent a couple of furniture dollies to help move out hot tub. I had already purchased a heavy duty hand truck which turned out to be not quite the right tool for the job. On my way home from the rental place I stopped at the local gas station and talked one of the young men there into helping us load the hot tub when Gene got home.

At some point I realized that the refrigerator wasn't really going to fit in the truck so we decided to give Gene and Susie not only the refrigerator but our washer and gas dryer as well. The refrigerator was over ten years old and theirs was much older than that. The dryer we had no use for because we will not have natural gas in Carlton.

Well it turned out that Gene and I were able to get the hot tub on the dollies with Susie's help, wheel it over to the truck and slide it relatively easily into the back. By the time the guy from the gas station showed up, we were all done. After throwing the last few things into the truck on top of the hot tub we went out to dinner.

7/25/04 U-Haul Saga Continues
After saying goodbye to our great neighbor's and friends Gene and Susie we headed north again. It was a fairly hot day and the first hour or two is over fairly hilly terrain so it was not completely surprising that the truck decided to overheat. So I pulled over at a convenient rest area and let it cool off for awhile. We unloaded the car and my wife followed me up the hill. Within a few miles the truck overheated again and I pulled into a California Department of Forestry station in search of water.

It just so happened that there was already a tow truck there who was helping someone else who was a U-Haul mechanic. He very kindly helped us fill up the radiator and get going again. When we got to a gas station at the bottom of the hill we called U-Haul who was of no help in helping us determine what our next best step was to be. So we decided to load the car up again and drive up the relatively flat San joaquin Valley together. When we got to the mountains surrounding Lake Shasta we again unloaded the Forerunner and drove in tandem.

Mt Shasta from Weed, CA

We had stopped in the town of Weed on the way south for lunch and when we got back to the truck we noticed a fair amount of radiator fluid on the ground. After making a phone call we found that the dealer that was supposed to be right across the street was no longer a U-Haul dealer and the nearest one was about 7 miles away. So we filled up the radiator and drove up to this very out of the way place who informed us that they too were no longer U-Haul dealers (even though they had many units on their lot). So we called the 800 number and waited for a service man to call us. Forty minutes later, someone did call, from about 150 miles away, who said it sounded to him like the truck was driveable. So drive it we did and it really didn't;t give us any trouble for the rest of that trip due to cooler temperatures and fewer mountains.

So when it started acting up again it was not a great surprise. I had considered swapping trucks in Ukiah, but I did not listen closely enough to my intuition about this and we paid for it in worry and lost time in getting back to Oregon. Instead of a leisurely drive mostly during daylight hours we pushed on until about two in the morning to get over as many of the hills in Southern Oregon as possible before the heat of the next day.

When we got to Salem I decided I wanted to get rid of the car carrier, so I didn't have to back it into our drive at home and because we were basically done with it. We called a local dealer who said she would take the trailer if we also brought her the truck when we were finished with it in a couple of days. So we dropped off the trailer and found out that our rental agreement was for the wrong truck. That seemed to be fairly easily rectified but she couldn't figure out why the agreement was written up the way it was and why I wasn't;t in Ukiah.

Anyway, we finally made it home and were very glad to be there.

7/27/04 - Back in Carlton
A local spa store operator was due to come this morning with his two sons and help me unload my hot tub. Unfortunately he had problems with his truck and never made it. He agreed to show up tomorrow morning.

I called another spa expert and hot tub deck builder today. Steve lives up in Portland but has a daughter in nearby Yamhill, so he agreed to drive out and see what he could do to help us out. I contacted Steve on a great internet bulletin board called CraigsList.

We got some of the stuff unloaded from the truck today, but mainly we recovered from our long trip to California.

Beautiful Carlton Sunset

7/28/04 - Unloading More Boxes
This morning two of the kids that helped us unload our first truck in Carlton (Map) helped us unload this last load from Redwood Valley. Together we used the hand truck I had, to unload the hot tub and move it into a temporary location beside where the hot tub deck will be.

We then emptied the rest of the truck in fairly short order and headed out to our storage locker in McMinnville. We would up making two trips that afternoon, but got everything packed into our garage and house from the storage unit after a very tiring day.

Now we really are up to our eyeballs in boxes!

7/29/04 - The U-Haul Saga Concludes
Today we returned the U-Haul truck to Salem. unfortunately the woman who had waited on us the previous day was not there and the elderly lady was behind the counter was completely unraveled by our rental agreement. We left some time later very dissatisfied and swearing that we would never use U-Haul again.