We-Haul

Moving sucks, right?  Well, yeah it does.  BUT I have to admit that our experience was pretty flawless. Well, that is if we forget about the fact that I packed on and a half trucks.  How does one pack more than one truck you may ask?  Well, by following the ultimate wisdom and charts of U-Haul we rented a 14 foot truck (suggested for an apartment up to 2 bedrooms).  We had a 2 bedroom condo.  So that should work we figured.  Got that thing about half full and with each trip into the condo to pick something up else the reality started setting in... this wasn't going to work.  Annie being as amazing as she is called up to see if there were larger trucks available.  They had a 17' so we headed over and unloaded one truck into the other.  Sucks right?  Well, we can't be certain that it was the fact that the AC was out in the store or what, but they didn't charge us more for switching to a larger truck - SWEET!!  So yeah it was extra moving of boxes and whatnot it didn't cost anything more so that's a win in my book.

Spent the night at my parents, had a great dinner out, and got a little help from my cousin packing up some of the the stuff we had stored at my parents.  Traffic on the way down to NC was not bad at all.  Sure getting in/through Hartford sucked since it was Tuesday AM - right dab in the middle of rush hour, but once we passed the city things opened up pretty much for the entire ride.  Seriously, no real traffic, everything was flowing, got to play leap-frog with some 18-wheelers... generally not a bad drive (if you forget the fact that is was 14 hours +/-).

U-Haul has this little meter in the dash to help you drive "efficiently."  

So, how what's the trick to driving will all the bars??  Well I'll tell you, and this trick you can carry with you to your own vehicle even though it doesn't have the sweet fuel efficiency gauge the rental truck do.  Ready for it??  The trick is to take your foot off the gas.  Yup.  Apparently your vehicle has the highest fuel efficiency when you aren't using gas... Brilliant!  Apparently neutchin* it is a good thing.  Conversely, accelerating from a stop was the worst on gas mileage... I know, breaking news.  U-Haul, not only are you paying to move yourself, but you get some free knowledge dropped right on your head for free.

I was disappointed to find that the truck had neither a cd player or a tape deck (a connection for an MP3 player, wouldn't have dreamt of it!).  But again, I lucked out on radio selection.  It wasn't until I hit the NC boarder that country took over the air waves leaving me with slim pickins.  It was a toss up between dance/pop ad country.  All throughout the ride I had my copilot holding steady.

Professor Second-Guess
(I procured him while working at Pac-Sun back in the day during their "redesign" phase)

I got to practice my radio announcer voice with him for a while as I mocked a DJ talking about upcoming thunderstorms.  I had about 6 different variations going, maybe guiding our nations youth isn't my calling...  

Yesterday Annie and I drove over to the storage place and unloaded the truck.  Our friends, who we are staying with, are on vacation this week so we have the run of the place to ourselves - which also means no help with the unloading.  But we didn't need it, Annie kicked ass.  Humanity better hope she doesn't realize how much ass she kicks because she might just take over if she did!

Today we have to head back over to the storage place to sign contacts and officially return the truck - they were nice enough to give us the code to the front gate so we could move in even though it was a holiday.  Actually, the owner offered to meet us but we in no way wanted to take him away from family or fireworks (or whatever else he had planned for the 4th) - I was just happy to be able to get everything over with!!

After that, who knows?  Maybe I'll ride/explore the "trails" in the neighborhood here.  Probably get back on the job search, and maybe tour more neighborhoods of Charlotte.  There is a new house on the market that looks sweet ass!!  So maybe we'll cruise by there.  I don't know, I don't know if we'll have enough time!

This weekend I'll be riding.  That much I've been assured of.  Both Saturday and Sunday.  Where, I don't know yet.  But with so few facts it already sounds good to me!!  Speaking of riding, I got one last ride in up in Boston on the day of the move.  Wasn't really exciting to be honest, but I got the HiFi a little last New England action - the mean streets of Southie.  Then the HiFi got a nice little ride in the (initial) U-Haul truck back to the condo.  

Sorry this was minimally bike related - but in effect it is, since future blogs will be centered in NC and not Mass... so there.  Welcome to We don't just bike you. We bike-bike you dirty south edition.

* "neutchin" was something my friends who drove manuel cars did back in high school.  The challenge was to throw it in neutral on the downhill and see if momentum would carry your car back up the following uphill (or the lamer version would be to just see how far you could coast following a downhill if there was no subsequent uphill)