The Big Tow...

[legion]

...Didn't happen.

The plan was to pick up the Uhaul at 7:00, load it, and try to hit the road by 9:00-10:00. This would get me home at reduced speeds by 6:00-7:00.

Uhaul called me on Saturday night. After haggling with the guy about the time (7:00 was too early for him), I asked him which location he was at as there are something like 30 locations in Nashville. He said "1619 Mallory". I hop on to MapQuest and get my directions...

The next morning I was up at 6:00, drive over to the appointed spot in Nashville, and it is a residential street that runs for one block...the addresses go from 400 to 500. If you understand the roads in Nashville, you will understand why I called Uhaul right away and didn't dick around with trying to find it on my own.

Me: "Hello, I'm at 450 Mallory and there is no Uhaul. How do I get to your location?"

Uhaul: "Where are you?"

Me: "I'm in Nashville."

Uhaul: "We're in Brentwood."

25 minutes later, I'm in Brentwood at the Uhaul.

I pull up, the guy is outside waiting for me. He hooks up the trailer, and he asks me to turn on my headlights. The trailer lights don't work. He gets his test light and determines that my 4-flat connector is dead. He send me back to the cab of my truck to try the turn signals (not sure why). He calls me back to the back of my truck. As I hop out, my elbow hits the door and I hear a familiar "click". I think nothing of it until I shut the door, and realize that I have locked my keys in the truck.

I call a locksmith.

30 minutes, 10 seconds later, and $40 later, my truck is unlocked. I say 30 minutes and 10 seconds because it took the locksmith 30 minutes to get there, and 10 seconds to unlock my truck.

So now...we are back to testing my lights. The one thing I did not have checked out prior to this trip. (I was too concerned with going and stopping.) The Uhaul guy determines that my factory towing wiring harness is dead, and he will not touch factory harnesses. Uhaul will not let me pull a trailer.

So...we decide to rent a truck instead. Otherwise, the whole trip would have been a waste. We opt for the 17' because it is brand new. We get to the storage space at 10:30. It takes us 2½ hours to load the truck, mostly because much of the furniture is over 150 years old and we move at an intentional, measured pace when moving it.

On the road at 1:00, we pull into Bloomington at 9:00. I unloaded the van today. We got 95% of the stuff out of the storage space, but there is just enough left that it is too much to fit in my F150 on my next trip. I'm going to call tomorrow to get estimates on re-wiring my towing harness.

My 951 is now trapped in my garage as it is in the 3rd back bay and furniture/boxes occupy the front two bays. We've got to have an estate sale soon.