Moving Day a/k/a Disasters Day

May 7, 2012

Well.  That didn’t go well at all.    Here’s a timeline of our 2 hour trip to Taos.   We started hooking up the fitty at 11:30, and we got to Taos at 4:30 pm.   Here’s our timeline.

7:30        Wake up, coffee, TV.   So far, so good.

8:30        I leave for Walmart for an oil change.   Being the only customer at this time, I get right in.  I’m told it will be 20-30 minutes.  I exchange a sewer hose and then settle in with my crossword.   After waiting seemingly forever (I left my phone with Missy so she could have internet to map our trip, so I had no clock), I’m finally told it’s ready.    It’s been ready for a long time, but due to a faulty intercom system, the tech worker didn’t know the front desk worker did not get the page about it being ready.   No biggie…as far as snafoos go, this is minor.  (Guess how much the recycle oil fee is?   $9!!!!!!!    Good thing I did the oil change and not Jeremiah when he was here, because I know he wouldn’t have been able to stomach the fee and would have insisted on taking the used oil with him). 

                Meanwhile, back at camp.   Missy compiles data from a couple of sites to map our journey.  She also packs up the rig for moving, and uses the campground shower.   No snafoos for her at all.  (Unless you count, as she does, getting sandblasted while packing up the outside).

9:20        I go to the gas company and get the propane tank filled.  $13, vs. $20 if I’d done the tank swamp like Missy wanted.   Score!   She looks at the savings in terms of absolute dollars, whereas I look at it in terms of the percentage.   I’m like Dad in that regard.   (Hi Dad!)  

9:30        We finish getting ready.   We get nervous by the weather reports.   We don’t usually get normal TV reception, so we haven’t seen a proper weather repor since we left.   Forecasts are for VERY strong winds, steady at 20-30 with gusts up to 50.   Missy gets nervous and wonders if we should delay travel.   We call Jeremiah for his advice.  He thinks it should be fine.   Assures us we won’t topple on the freeway, and to take it slow and steady.  I’m apprehensive, but willing to drive, so we get ready to go.

11:30     After surveying the exit from our spot, we decide to go for just backing up.   Going forward is complicated by a ton of posts placed (maliciously, I believe) alongside the driveways and road.   And since someone occupies the site opposite us, we can’t cheat by going into their site.   However, before we can even move at all, we have to hook up.   Which we can’t do.  The slider-bar-arm-thingy for the hitch won’t pull out.    We both pull with all our might, but it won’t budge.   So Missy went to get the WD40 and after an application, the arm slid reluctantly.   Then we had issues getting the truck hooked up.   At first, I had trouble sighting in the hitch pin on the fitty.   The new lower profile truck really gives you a different perspective.  After several attempts, I finally had to remove the bag of kindling that had partially blocked my sight.    That helped a lot.    However, once we got connected,  the slider-bar-arm-thingy wouldn’t go back in.   Arrrrgh!   We had to back up and try again.   During all this, Missy had to deal with a nosy old man who desperately wanted to help and seemed unable to accept Missy’s assurances that we wanted to try doing it on our own.  (He asked Missy if we were “life partners”.   Missy said, um no.   To which he answered, you can’t tell; his daughter has a life partner.     Later in the day, when Missy told me this, we discussed it.   And we agreed that perhaps we do fit the most literal definition of “life partners”).

12:00     We backed up a little, and that gave us clearance to pull forward.    We didn’t disconnect from the fitty, so our hookup was deemed a success!     We dumped our tanks, had lunch, and were on our way!   First solo trip here we come!

1:00        (Scene: 10 miles on the freeway)  I noticed that the siding on the rig was flapping out pretty far.    I was sure I hadn’t noticed this before, so it must be a new problem.    I asked Missy if we should stop and look at it.  I was worried that waiting to deal with it would make the problem worse.   We agreed to stop.   I pulled off at an exit in a valley.   Smart move on my part picking a spot that already has a permanent sign warning of strong winds.   We were in jet plane wash type winds.   If you dropped a screwdriver, it would go flying across the parking lot.  Sigh.   We put the slide out and discovered that a brace had lost its lower connection to the fitty.   This allowed some give in the siding, and that coupled with the strong wind was tearing the siding away from the screws.    Good thing we stopped, because if we’d let it progress, it probably would have torn a section right off.    We replaced the screw in the brace, and duct taped the hell out of the torn bits.     After we got back on the freeway, it was immediately apparent that the fix worked.    Hooray!    We were feeling quite proud of our self-sufficiency.

2:00        The gods tried to mess with us by closing our exit.   But we thwarted them with our eagle-eyed attention to detail.   We only just figured out that the advertised upcoming exit closure was ours, and got off at the prescribed earlier exit.

2:45        (Scene:Only  6 miles from our campsite).   *Kabooom* *Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump-Thump, etc*.    A tire has blown.    The same goddamn problem tire from all previous escapades.  Missy shouts, rather helpfully, STOP, STOP, STOP!    (As if I needed to be told to stop).     Goddamn.  We are on a narrow, 2 lane mountain road with no shoulders.   Behind us, we have a line of about 20-30 cars because we just came through a construction site with 1 lane closed (where they have workers use stop signs to wave one side through at a time).    At least we are on a rare straight part, so people can see around us for oncoming traffic, which was light enough to allow most people to pass without problem.    I had previously had the foresight to purchase a roadside accident kit,  but I couldn’t put down the triangles because the wind was so fierce.

2:46        Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuck

2:47        Missy hops into gear and starts to get ready to change the tire herself.   I ask her if she’s sure.  (I’m sure my readers remember from just a short time ago when this same FRICKIN thing happened that we have USAA roadside assistance).    She said she wants to try.    Ok.   She gets out the jack and the special tool thingy for lowering the spare.    An SUV passes us slowly, pulls in front of us slowly, and the eventually drives off.    After a few minutes, it comes back.   The driver, hereinafter referred to as GS (Good Samaritan), asks if we need help.    Missy actually starts to say no, we’ll try on our own.  I quickly interject and say, wait, we’d take the help.    So GS pulled back around and parked in front of us.   Missy tried and tried and tried to get the tire lowered.   GS tried and tried and tried.   I called Jeremiah to see if there was some advice he could give.  Nope.   Frickinfrack.    So I went to the truck to call USAA.     Hah…wonder if any nearby business even has the necessary truck to tow our truck whilst it’s hooked to the fitty.    While I was on the phone, Missy FINALLY remembered that you needed a special small part hooked to the pipe.   Once that was taken care of, the spare lowered nicely.   I told USAA we’d call back if we needed them.

G.S. worked very hard getting the jack in place and removing the busted tire and putting on the new one.  As it happens, he once lived in Maple Grove, so he of course knew where we were from when we said Brooklyn Park.    It was so nice of him to help us out.    I’m not sure if we would have managed on our own.   And PRAY TO THE GODS AND ALL THAT IS HOLY, I hope to NEVER, EVER, EVER, EVER, EVER be in a position to find out.   (Come on….this has got to be it for tire problems for us.   Missy said we need to start a separate blog just to document our tire issues).    We gave GS $20 and went on our way.   

4:20        6 miles down the road.     So close.   We pulled up to the Orilla Verde campground,  a series of small campgrounds off the dirt road.   Some are on the Rio Grande, some across the road.    We pulled into the first one, which we knew had large pull-thrus.   After our stressful ordeal getting to Taos, we wanted an easy park.    $15/night for 50amp and water.   A great deal!   We had problems disengaging the slider arm again.    I guess we’ll have to get that look at.   Maybe it got warped somehow.

5:30        We finished dinner, and didn’t feel like reading.   So we hopped in the truck and drove on down the road to look at the other campsites.   The scenery here is breathtaking!    Long range mountain views with tabletop ridges.    We stopped at a trailhead parking spot up the mountain partway.   We were enjoying the desert hike along the great trail, and then popped up on a stunning view.    I’m looking forward to trying out any of the 100s of trails here in the river gorge.    They’ve got developed trails both riverside and up through the mountains.   Cassie, as you might expect, is in heaven to be able to go on hikes again.

So, there you have it.    This simple 2 hour starter trip for our first solo certainly turned out to be harder than we expected.    But we are both strangely proud to have met each problem and work out a solution.    Tomorrow we get to spend our time getting a new tire.   Yippee.