Prepping for the Big Move

Well, this first post is going to be a behemoth of a post since we have a lot to share and haven't had time to share it :) Let's start back from the beginning:

May 31st - James and I were able to have our friends and family join us for a weenie roast at Reston's campfire ring. Paparazzi Po supplied us with plenty of good shots. Apparently some are being used for Datran recruiting. Who wouldn't want to work for a company with weenie roasts and s'mores. You can check them all out on Po's picture page.

June 1-6th
Packing, chaos and more packing ensued. The most interesting thing we learned was that if you own a Ford Explorer, don't expect to rent a trailer. U-haul, who seems to have the market on one-way trailer rentals, won't rent a trailer to attach to a Ford Explorer. According to U-haul it's the excessive costs in defending lawsuits involving Ford Explorer and is not related to safety issues. Riiiiiight, lawsuits that aren't safety issues.

It was also reaffirmed that one should never trust a national office to book, schedule or plan anything. Somehow, they have no idea what goes on at their own stores.

Uhaul phone agent: "Sure, you can take your car into Chantilly on Wednesday and they'll install a trailer hitch"
Please remember, we are now thinking to install a trailer hitch on a Ford Taurus as the trailer hitch we already own on an Explorer is for all practical purposes, useless.

Chantilly agent: "We don't have any hitches for Tauruses. We could get one in two weeks. I can put a rush order on it and you may have it by Friday but I can't promise anything"

This was very reminiscent of my dealings with Dell Computer when in Ouzinkie, AK.

Dell: "Sure. A technician will be at your house tomorrow to look at the computer"

Me: "Really? It's fogged over here and we haven't had planes fly for 2 days"

Dell: " Your service entitles you to 24 hour repair. A technician will be there tomorrow"

Me: "Are you certain? I know everyone on this island and no one is capable of fixing my computer. Planes fly at 9:30am and 4pm, I won't hold my breath waiting for a technician."

This conversation was repeated 3 times more with different agents. Good times.