I got here driving a 27-foot rental truck with a car carrier on the back. This is an endeavor not for the faint of heart. I was “up” for 36 hours straight to get here. I pulled over for four hours trying to nap but that was a fool’s errand under the circumstances. The truck itself was a “pig”…8-9 miles per gallon, so I pulled over anywhere I thought might be “easy off easy on” to keep the tank filled because I went through so much gas and had no idea when the next opportunity to “gas up” might present itself and that worked…mostly.To make matters worse the truck itself was in Paso Robles and the trailer was in Grover Beach. So I had to go “fetch” the trailer before I could do any loading, and speaking of loading I want to Thank Lisa H for helping me pack the truck. Everything arrived safely- except one salad tong which I’ve since repaired.I got here and a friend who is/was a “beta reader” for my writing enlisted a bunch of her friends to help me unload the enormous truck.I told them all “Thank you very much”, but that seemed woefully inadequate, so after about a month, waiting until I could get “my feet under me”, I invited them all to a five course dinner! That felt better than just saying thank you to a bunch of strangers who helped me out. Plus, I always get my best attaboys when I’m cooking! So I got a little “goose” of joy feeding all these generous folks!While the trip (technically) was flawless, there were a few “moments”.Not knowing the terrain and having missed a turn, you have no way of knowing without stopping and consulting an iPhone that clearly was experiencing frequent moments involving some sort of teck related seizure, so you consider a u-turn.I want to point out: This is a bad idea; a very bad idea.Contemplating a u-turn with a 27 foot bobtail is not easy- nor without “danger”; turning a 27 foot bobtail with a 15 foot trailer on it borders on the insane…Certainly it is “contra indicated” without at least an acre within which to do it. I did this no less than three times with nowhere near an acre…and I’m not very good at steering a trailer backwards using the attitude of the truck pulling it to “steer” the trailer the direction I needed it to go.As I said: “Insane”.Okay…substitute in this instance: ”Desperate”.Not in possession of the subtlety to encourage the trailer to go the way I wanted it to if I tried backing up, I began looking for place big enough to turn around….And even buying gas at the “wrong” place can spell disaster, if you can’t pull that train out readily, you might be in trouble. I drove through trees, jumped curbs and fretted that I’d take out a gas pump- which almost happened. A 27 foot truck is a behemoth, forget the trailer!…As I said: “Not for the faint of heart”.I arrived in Clinton, WA having been up for 36 hours straight- and a goodly part of it was spent in gridlock on the main freeway in Seattle. I don’t care to ever be there again driving any sort of vehicle. …I did all this driving and frankly, I was ready willing and able to drive at least ten more hours on an open road- not in gridlock (Don’t ask me why I am able and even find this sort of marathon driving fun-or easy- but it is something well within my skillsets).Since I had arrived at my destination ten more hours of driving was not called for and I slowly calmed down enough to sleep.But that was only the start of my “adjustment” to the PNW.
2Anne R. Allen and Abe Perlstein5 CommentsLikeCommentShare