Introducing Trudy the Truck
I’ll just say what you are thinking — why/how the heck did you get a new truck when you just bought a trailer? Oh boy, I am so glad you asked.
You read all about the U-Haul situation. TL;DR — I rented a U-Haul pickup truck to tow Tiny the Trailer from Montana to California, but U-Haul told me the truck had to stay in Kalispell so I had to leave Tiny in storage and try again another time.
Sooooo, the following weekend was the “try again another time” time. I already had a pickup truck rental reservation in Seattle for a surprise 40th birthday party later in the month, so I figured I’d just adjust the dates of the rental to reflect new travel dates.
I know you’re confused.
Here was the original plan:
Leave Tiny in storage in Kalispell until later in July when I could plan a weekend to pick her up (NOT with a U-Haul) and take her back to San Francisco where she’d stay for the remainder of my time in SF — likely until the end of August.
Friday, June 24th (SFO —> ANC): Fly home to AK to begin my stint of remote work.
Thursday, June 30th - Sunday, July 2nd (ANC —> SEA —> ANC): Fly to Seattle, pick up rental truck, be-bop around SeaTown seeing friends and of course attend the surprise party, then fly back to AK.
Sunday, July 10th (ANC —> SFO): Fly to SF to begin on-site work rotation.
Since I already had the truck rental and Seattle and Montana are kinda close to each other (no they are not), I came up with the following plan:
New plan:
Friday, June 24th (SFO —> SEA): Fly to Seattle and pick up rental truck.
Saturday, June 25th & Sunday, June 26th: Drive rental truck from Seattle to Kalispell, pick up Tiny, then head to Lake Chelan to be with my very best friend in the whole wide world and her family for a few days.
Monday, June 27th - Friday, July 1st: Work remotely during the day and play during the evenings in Chelan.
Also Friday, July 1st: Drive to Seattle for the surprise party.
Saturday, July 2nd - Sunday, July 3rd: Drive rental truck with Tiny attached from Seattle to SF. Put Tiny in storage. Return rental truck.
Monday, July 4th (SFO —> ANC): Fly home to AK for a week.
Sunday, July 10th (ANC —>SFO): Fly to SF to begin on-site work rotation.
The new plan makes perfect sense, right?? But of course, there was one snafu — I’ll give you one guess where. Right. The rental pickup truck.
All packed and ready to get started on my big adventure, on the afternoon of Thursday, June 23rd, Enterprise (not U-Haul) called to give me the standard line — “oh no we had a glitch in the computer system and we overbooked rentals and you’ll be on a waitlist but it likely won’t be a truck and you’re not allowed to tow with our trucks anyway so NBD we’re so sorry”. Well, poop.
Obvy, I wasn’t going back to U-Haul and there weren’t any available rentals in the entire PNW or the whole stinking west coast, so I thought I would have to go back to the OG plan.
But then that sneaky lightbulb lit up in my brain. It might actually be more cost effective AND certainly more convenient to buy a truck and sell my beloved Escape when I get home. The price to rent the truck for 9ish days was going to be $1,600+. That’s a couple car payments. Hmmm…this might not be such a bad idea.
I thought there’d be no way I could find a truck that met my immediate needs and criteria: new, black leather seats (thank you Mozzy), four-wheel drive, affordable, and available to be driven off the lot that night. That’s some tough criteria.
With a few key strokes and a mouse clicks, I found this gorgeous, brand new, top trim model + off-road edition, affordable, and it said it was on the lot. Too good to be true, for sure. So I called the dealership expecting some song and dance about how it’s listed on the site, but not actually on the lot blah blah blah.
But… [super suspenseful build up]
The sales dude said it was on the lot. Yes, that was the price. Yes, it was ready to roll.
Where’s the catch? There was no catch. It was the easiest car buying experience of my life. The whole process took about two hours — including a trip to the airport to drop off the rental car and an Uber back to the dealership.
That’s it! I drove her home!
In the morning, Trudy and I set out on our big 3,150 mile adventure circumnavigating the majority of the west coast and PNW. That’s a whole different post (or like ten posts) for sure.
